Man's Superiority.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 15 April 1911, Page 4

Man's Superiority.

— *-— The. Scientific American, after considering recent investigations into ihnman work-capacity, is convinced that nuan is superior to all mechanicians. He recuperates in weight every four and twenty hours—or should do so. for if his weight lessens 'he has worked to excess; or if it increases, he has not expended his maximum effort. "The human machine gives a profit of 25 to 30 per cent .on expenditure; the best artificial machine only 14 per cent." Professor Jules Amar, of Paris, finds that soldiers should , mardh' for twen-ty-one miles a day, at the rate of three and one-third miles per hour, carrying ninety-five pounds. And this exercise may be kept up indefinitely. Man lias not yet devised a means of transport, under varied conditions, so safe and sure as the simple, primary resource of trusting to his own legs. "Suppose to-daw" 7 says the scientific essayist, "a good horse, a good autoim/bile, and a'real man weve to start out from the East to San Francisco. The first two would, no doubt, disappear before the man had passed a mile post; but the man would most likely, somewhere at this side of the Mississippi, come upon the horse laid tip in a boarding stable, and upon tlie motor towed to a repair shop with n wrenched axle." The human machine, itself, however, is subject to moods. For instance, it is constitutionally averse to beginning work. Profee.?or Amar discovered that it always wastes energy during the first five minutes, before recovering its epuilibrium. We have known men quite capable of wasting energy for several hours before they could' decide to begin a job. And the longer the rest beforehand, the more inertia has to be overcome. "Monday's human labour, therefore, is most inferior, and Tuesday's most superior, owing to tlie curious action of Sunday as a rest-day." On the other hand, with no rest, the machine would be ruined by the multiplication of fatigue microbes. Bank clerks make most of their mistakes in late afternoons. Tt is said tliat tlie three o'clock closing hour is due to this. Money matters would be in a chaos is conducted by fatigued clerks in banks open till five! ' Deaths by accident are frequently caused by fatigue microbes, causing one man to neglect liis business, or another to do an unwise thing; and railway men on duty for too many hours together bring down sudden catastrophes upon trains. Wliile it is every man's duty to overcome the. Monday's lassitude, science exhorts him to be firm in giving the machine only an eight hour working ciav.