Mental and Manual Labor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 13, 1869

Mental and Manual Labor

Professor Houghton, of Trinity College, Dublin, has published some curious chemical computations respecting the relative amounts of physical exhaustion produced by mental and manual labor. According to these chemical estimates, two hours of severe mental study abstracts from the human system as much vital strength as is taken from it by an entire day of mere hard work. This fact which seems to rest strictly upon scientific laws, shows that the men who do brain work should be careful, first, not to overtask themselves by too continuous exertion, and, secondly, that they should not omit to take physical exercise each day sufficient to restore the equilibrium between the nervous and muscular system.