Fatigue Laboratory Tests Results of New Compulsory Exercise Program

"Will the new back-bending program centered down in Soldiers Field make a human being, physically, out of the Widener worm, and a Charles Atlas out of the squash-court dilettante,?" is one of the questions that will soon be answered by the tests now being conducted by the Fatigue Laboratory at the Business School, according to Dr. Arlie V. Bok, Henry K. Oliver Professor of Hygiene.

With the use of new and simple techniques, the Laboratory staff, under the direction of Dr. William B. Forbes '23, is attempting to determine the fitness of students for military service and their general adaptability to the compulsory athletic program now in force.

Effects of Exercise

Measurements and cheeks on a random group of volunteers are at present being undertaken, in order to discover what improvement they make during the six-week period of the compulsory training program. Coach, Tom Boles' stalwart oarsmen are regarded by the laboratory on the basis of more than 1000 different tests, as the ideal men of brawn at Harvard.

"Practically perfect human beings from the standpoint of physical endurance," is the label place on the members of the Varsity crew by the Fatigue Laboratory. Their rating generally is 100, or even more, and the more normal residue of the undergraduates are graded on a proportionate scale down to zero. But it is doubtful, they say, that even the most non-athletic grind could attain this lowest of scores.

Students Are Cooperative

Dr. Lucien Broutha, Research Associate in the Laboratory who is cooperating in the tests, states that Harvard men have entered into the experiment with a will, their incentive consisting in the desire to be scored on various physical tests, and the spirit of competition urges them to match ratings with their neighbors.

These comparative studies of the effects on the undergraduate body of the new athletic program is only one of the many projects being conducted at the Laboratory across the Charles. A major portion of the work is now devoted to research in nutrition and muscular efficiency under Government contracts for the Army and the Office of Scientific Research and Development.