Author Title Imprint z o < £ ^ 2 Q Vocket TcLiagOLi^icdl Library, U^o. 2. ESSAY ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WRITING BY / DOCTOR JAVAL Engineer of Mines jMcnibcr of the Academy of Medici >ie '^ice-President of the Paris Circle of the Instruction Leagut Laureate of the Institute {Montyon Prize) Chevalier of the Legion of Honor — Officer of Public, \ y ^ Instruction ^'k WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON 59 FIFTH AVENUE J^EW York City K. CorvKKiHT, i8g4 B\ William Beverley Hakison PREFACE. This slight addition to the bibhography of Vertical Writing will give teachers information as to the movement in France, this being the authorized report of the Commissioners appointed to examine into the subject. John Jackson, in his "Theory and Practice of Hand writing" (a history of the vertical writing movement), has given very clearly the history of the movement in Germany and England ; this pamphlet completes the account, as these countries are the principal ones where the revival has become general. Dr. Javal seems to hold the theory that sloping writing is more rapid ; this has been conclusively proven a fallacy, as notably rapid penmen, Thomas A. Edison and others, use the vertical because of economy in time and space. ESSAY ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF WRITING VERTICAL WRITING AND SLOPING WRITING. Summary: Introduction — I. Historic Review — IL Modern Writing of Adults — III. The Writing of Children — IV. Transforma- tion of Vertical Writing into Running Hand; — Conclusion. INTRODUCTION. A series of articles published in the Revue Scientifiqiie^ having come under his notice, the Minister of Public In- struction, by order of June i, 1881, ap- * Javal, Diseases of the eye and the use of glasses, Sept. 27, iSyg; Public and private lighting^, from the point of view of the hygiene of the eyes, Oct. i8, 1879; Books and myopia, Nov. 22, 1879; Mechanism of writing, May 21, 8 Essay on the pointed a Commission, composed of M. Gariel, Gauthier-Villars, Gavarret, G. Hachette, Javal, G. Masson, de Mont- mahon, Panas and Perrin, " to examine into the causes of the increase of myopia among school children, and to point out the remedies for a condition which is daily growing worse." The Commission set to work at once, and, after examining important docu- ments, a large number of which were taken from the Musde PedagogiquCy after consulting with competent authori- ties, and sending a sub-committee to examine into the mode of life in various schools, intrusted Dr. Gariel, engineer of the Ponts et Chaussees, Professor of Physics in the P'aculty of Medicine of Paris, with preparation of a full report of its work. PJiysiology of Writing. 9 The Commission, without neglecting the questions of lighting, school fur- niture, typography of school books, adopted the formula of George Sand that I had brought to light, and came to this conclusion : t/iat if the Adiiiijiistra- tion adopt vertical zvriting for young 'childreji tJie principal cause of ncarsight- edjiess will have disappeared. The following is the text of the report: "The Commission think that great progress will be made by exacting, ac- cording to Mme. G. Sand's formula, vertical writing on straight paper^ the body erect. " Thus both scoliosis* and myopia will be avoided together. It is not denied that the idea of insisting upon the sub- stitution of vertical writing, in the place * Curvature of the spinal column. 10 Essay on the of sloping writing for children, will ap- pear strange at the first glance ; but search has been made in vain for sound objections which could be opposed to this proposal, which has the further advantage of rendering the characters more legible, a fact of which every one can make sure, as we ourselves have done. It must be mentioned also that when the child becomes an adult and wishes to use the running hand, which allows greater speed and straighter lines on unruled paper, he need only incline the paper to the left. But, in any case, the solution recommended of placing the body perfectly symmetrical, parallel to the edge of the table, the paper in front of the body, should avoid the lateral malformations which are now so fre- quent; making the normal position of Physiology of IVritirig. 1 1 the head natural will prevent its coming continually nearer the paper. Conse- quently, it is thought that should the Administration adopt this conclusion, the principal cause of myopia will have disappeared. " Doubtless a pupil may hold himself badly even while having the paper straight before him and writing without slope; but, at least, he can hold himself well, whereas with the present way of teaching, the perpetual admonitions of the most careful teachers break down in the face of physiological impossibilities." These conclusions, published in 1882, have been adopted in several foreign countries. In France, they remained a dead let- ter. However, a Commission of forty mem- 12 Essay on the bers, appointed by letter of January 24, 1882, was directed to study the hygienic conditions of the primary and infant schools.* It assigned to a sub-commit- tee the examination of the subject of the hygiene of sight ; this sub-committee adopted the conclusions of the special Commission of 1 881, in full, and pro- posed the following resolution, which was passed in full session : " During the elevicntmy coui'se and the intermediate eonrsey children shall be obliged to eonfonn to the formula of Mine. Sand, VERTICAL writing on straight PAPER, THE BODY ERECT." Some impatient spirits may think, perhaps, that in ten years the Adminis- tration might have been able to con- * Hygieni- of tlie p7-i»ia7-y scJtools. (ieneral report by Dr. Javal. National Printing Establishment and Masson's bookshop, Paris, 1884. Physiology of Writing. 1 3 orm to the advice of the Commissions, md to make obligatory the teaching of j/ertical writing. ! Such is not our opinion. In a country so strongly centralized IS France, the central power should i)nly act with extreme moderation, and * he Direction of Primary Instruction jias done well to limit itself at first to luthorizing vertical writing in the jchools. It is for us to convert the eachers to our opinion. I' The hope of succeeding in this was he cause of our thesis being presented o the Academy of Medicine, in 1892. \fter the state of the question had been ;et forth, the objection raised by routine igainst the adoption of vertical writing n the schools was once more refuted. The following is an extract from the 14 Essay 071 tJie report of the session of January 26, 1892: '' The reason for opposing the adop- tion of vertical writing in France is the greater slowness of writing in this way. And yet, as far back as 1881,* I pointed out the simple means of teaching run- ning hand quickly to children accus- tomed to writing without slope, and, a little later,! I published a physiological analysis of the movements of the hand and fingers in the act of writing. " It follows from these studies that there are two kinds of writing : viz., witJi the finger uioveinent and with the arm or freehand. The fingers alone are used in the former, whereas the wrist plays an important part in the latter. * The mechanism of writing. Revue Scienti/iouc, May 2, 1881, vol. XXVII., p. 647. + Javal. On writing, Societe dc Biologie^ Nov. 24, 1883. PJiysiolcgy of Writing. 15 The slope is useful only in freehand, whether round or angular. Hence, it is unreasonable to teach freehand to young children, since it is not possible to teach them to write from the wrist. They must be taught first to write with the fingers and only advance to the freehand when they begin to write on unruled paper. Then make them incline their paper to the left, and the slope will follow as a matter of course. " Moreover, to be convinced that the ^natural tendency of children is to write vertically, it is enough to give specimens of writing to very young children to copy. If permitted, the majority of them will not imitate the slope of the copy; it is only necessary to say noth- ing to them to have them adopt vertical writing. 1 6 Essay on the " It remains for me to apologize for having brought before the academy a subject of apparently very small impor- tance. I will remark, however, that in case of war, especially in firing at long range, the condition of soldiers' sight is not without importance. " Disraeli said to the English Parlia- ment: Poivcr belongs to the most vigor- ous, the most numerous, and tJie best trained nation. "It is not the province of the acad- emy to consider the subject of popular education ; as for numbers, the recollec-' tion of the discussion on depopulation that I called forth, following the reading of a paper by M. Lagneau, is not yet for- gotten. To-day, I wish to call attention to a question of physical fitness, which will certainly not be unappreciated by Physiology of Writmg. 17 :our associates of the army and espe- cially of the navy." I This communication to the Academy of Medicine made a certain stir, and ! gained a sufficient number of adherents jto warrant the thought that the time 'has come to publish a statement of the 1 mechanism of writing for the use of pro- fessors and directors of schools. Indeed, I it is important that competent men be able to understand for themselves the reasons which have convinced the Com- missions successively appointed by the Minister of Public Instruction. Essay on the HISTORIC REVIEW.* We will now jmss rapidly in review the material causes, which, independ- ently of fluctuations of taste and syste- matic returns to antiquity, appear to have exercised a marked influence on changes in writing; these causes are va- riations in the price of paper, the trans- formation of the pen, the use of glasses, and the haste which characterizes the present time. The price of paper has played a very important part in changes of writing; so much so that we see, at the same era, * Among- the sources whence the elements of this review have been drawn, should be mentioned a manu- script of Poujade, from lheTaui)ier collection, which is in our possession, and which contains the biojjraphies of a number of |)cnmcn. PJiysiology of Writing. ig the running hand employed on the papy- rus of the manuscripts, while on the parchment of the codices only closely written uncials, crowded together, so to speak, are used ; no tails, that the lines may be brought closer together, abbre- viations of every kind, to save the pre- cious skin ; nothing is neglected to make the most of the space. The invention of rag paper dates only from the XIII century ; hence, with very rare exceptions, the habit of leav- ing wide spaces between words did not make its appearance until much later; for the same reason, long tails are rela- tively recent ; no person being rich enough to allow himself to imitate the luxury of the long letters which charac- terize the writing of the Pontifical Court. The price of paper has been reduced 20 Essay on the more than that of any other article. The result is that now, writing no longer takes account of the space used. But, while in the XIX century the waste of paper does not affect the writer, it is far otherwise with the publisher ; this waste increases with the size of the edition, and this circumstance suffices to explain why, since the invention of printing, while writing has become constantly larger, type has decreased gradually in size, so that any sort of identity between written and printed characters lasted very few years after the invention of Gutenberg. * * The pen has influenced notably the appearance of writing. We see the goose-quill make its appearance towards the middle of the VII century ; this in- Physiology of Writing. 21 novation scarcely changes the character at all. In fact, in imitation of the cala- mjiSy the quill was cut very broad, like those that are still used for gothic or round hand ; its elasticity served some- times to accentuate more strongly the top of the strokes, as may be remarked in certain English manuscripts of the VII century, sometimes to swell the middle of the stroke and to give to the letters a similar appearance to that of the Roman capitals ; but, in the main, the general appearance remained the same as in the manuscripts written with the reed of the ancients. The breadth of the nib of the calamus and of the quill exerted a determining action upon the division of the heavy and fine strokes in the uncials, and this action is reflected in the Roman 22 Essay 07t the capital. In fact, in order to obtain greater speed, the librariiLs of antiquity and the monk of the middle ages endeav- ored to write the characters with a sin- gle stroke. Again, to avoid the un- graceful slope of the running hand, the elbow must be held well out ; in this position, if an M be written, it will be noticed that the fine strokes are made in ascending and the heavy in descending ; if an O be written, making the first heavy stroke lower and the second higher than they should be, for sym- metry, cannot be avoided. Nothing is easier than to multiply these examples. It was the square form of the nib of the quill which gave birth to gothic writing; for proof, it is only necessary to try to make gothic letters with a brush, a pencil, or an ordinary pen ; in spite of Physiology of Writing. 23 all the efforts of the writer, the result will be very inferior to that easily ob- tained by means of a broad-nibbed pen. The use of the broad-nibbed pen, cut obliquely, marked an advance which is shown by the appearance of the free- hand and la bdtai'dc. In round hand, the heavy strokes are exactly vertical ; according to the penman, by taking for the unit the width of the nib of the pen, the letter 7L would be inscribed in a square, of which the side measures five nibs, in such manner that the space between the two uprights measures three nibs. The difference between the letters ii and n is almost insignificant ; the uprights equally square on top are a little more rounded at the base for 7/ than for n. The flowing hand only differs from 24 Essay on the the round by the inclination or slope which, in the most beautiful models, is that where the stroke forms the diagonal of a rectangle, of which the breadth is three nibs, and the height four nibs; whence it follows that the length of the uprights is K3'' -1- 4'= ^25=5. Hence it is seen that the length of the uprights of a flowing hand, written between lines four millimetres apart, is equal to that of the uprights of a round hand between lines five millimetres apart. La butarde differs principally from the flowing hand in the position of the rounded j^arts, which, instead of being entirely at the base of the uprights, is distributed as in small italics or modern P2nglish. Finally, the pointed cutting of the quill gave birth to the English or angu- PJiysiology of Wj'iting. 25 lar hand so universally used in our day; it is distinguished by the length of the looped letters, and by the total absence of heavy ascendants, which cannot be made with our sharp steel pens ; the spread of the English hand is the con- sequence of the invasion of the steel pen. Since the beginning of the century the use of the pencil and more recently that of the American stylograph, which gives neither coarse nor fine strokes, has ''caused us to prefer a handwriting having all strokes of the same size. It is the writing of the future. It results partly from the present nature of the steel pen, 3f which the slit serves only to facilitate :he running of the ink. Inversely, this 5imple type of writing leads manufac- ;urers to furnish us with pens which 2^ Essay 07i the allow of writing, without any pressure, pens midway between the broad-nibbed pen of the round hand, and the elastic and pointed pen of the quartermaster i sergeant. * * The invention of spectacles, or convex lenses, which dates from the end of the XIII century, has contributed power- fully to the decrease of the size of writing, for, before this invention, it was necessary to write large under the pen- alty of being illegible to old people. The great spread of myopia, particularly among educated people, must have acted necessarily in the same direction, so that the nearsightedness of some, by allow- , ing them to write smaller than they should, could promote nearsightedness ! among those forced to read their writing. Physiology of Writing. 2J \ It is possible that this double action if myopia and convex glasses has i early reached its maximum, for the use If convex glasses has become an essential art of everyday life, and myopes begin use for writing concave glasses, i/hich will remove the influence of their *:iyopia. 1 * * ' Finally, haste, which is one of the haracteristics of the XIX century, has j ad the effect of bringing the form of he letters to the greatest simplicity, by oing away with flourishes; people who /rite fast and well do not waste their ime in forming irreproachable heavy nd fine strokes, by means of changes of ressure on the pen, and they write loping for the reason that will be given resently. ^*.^ 28 Essay on the This very incomplete sketch* was, necessary to show through what evolu- tion we have passed to reach the rapid and sloping writing so generally used; in our day. The history of the return to vertical writing for children is much shorter j it begins with Guillaume and Fahrner, in 1863. Notwithstanding the efforts of Gross, Ellinger and many others, the campaign in favor of this writing came to nothing, less from the opposition of routine, than because its promoters ex- ceeded moderation, and favored the adoption of vertical writing without any restriction. They missed the physio- logical explanation of the advantages of * For further details, see our articles on the physiology of reading, in the Annales d'oculistique^ 1880. PJiysiology of Writing. 29 oping writing, for adults, who are under le necessity of writing very fast, and jiey were not wise enough to limit their 'smands to the adoption of vertical riting, for children. Nor did they know iDw to explain the manner in which the jiange from the one to the other can be |isily made. 30 Essay on the MODERN WRITING OF ADULTS, When children are taught to write, it should not be forgotten that they arc destined to grow up ; but at the same time this teaching should not be directec as if all the scholars were intended t(^ become copying clerks. The writin< that is taught them should be legible when they shall have left the primary school, and it is advisable that, in addii tion, it should become, without too greal trouble, rapid and elegant for those whd are to adopt the liberal professions Writing should not be taught in the same way in the primary schools and ir the high schools. Although departing somewhat fronll our object, which is the teaching ojc ^ Physiology of Writing. 31 writing in the primary schools, we are ^oing to explain with some detail the jiechanism of writing among adults. We • ave followed in this study the method ^'/hich should guide all those who ^idsh to formulate rules to be followed )'i the proper execution of the bodily )|xercises. This method consists in ob- serving the mode of working of the most I ifted persons, who, either by natural ptitude or by tradition, possess excep- onal skill. Let us then examine the movements f a skilled writer; for example, those of \ recording secretary of the Chamber of )eputies, who, while looking constantly bout him, writes out on the spot the lalysis of the proceedings in a fine, !| oping regular hand, sufficiently legible d)) be perfectly clear to the printers. 32 Essay oji the First of all a continual oscillation of' the entire hand will be noticed; it is the' wrist joint which makes a movement of' extension for each up stroke, and a' movement of flexion for each down* stroke; furthermore, the three fingers' which hold the pen, make at the same' time movements of extension when the' wrist extends, and of flexion when it draws back; these movements of the' fingers have the effect of diminishing slightly the slope of the up strokes and more that of the down strokes. The fingers make still other little move-' ments to complete the form of certain let- ters and to raise the pen. The most rapid and most regular writing is that which reduces to a minimum the movements' of the fingers and relies to the utmost upon the wrist motions, which by their' PJiysiology of Writing. 33 sochronism and identity are a measure )f celerity; these motions of the wrist orm a kind of vibration, of absoUitely egular quivering, which is produced vithout fatigue and, it might be said, nvokmtarily. It is, so to speak, the oundation of rapid writing; but on this novement must be grafted various other oovements whose use is to shape the '.ifferent letters. The movement in uestion gives sjDced and regularity; the ther movements give legibility. But the motions of the wrist and fin- ers, assisted, with some people, by a lotion of the arm lengthwise to form le long letter, would only allow of writ- Jig in one spot; there must still be a lovement of conveyance of the whole and along the line. How is this con- syance effected? This is a point 34 Essay on the on which special stress must be laid. The skilled writer, if he have forgot- ten the precepts of his writing master, leans his elbow on the edge of the table; so that as long as he writes on a narrow sheet, the elbow rests absolutely im- movable, and the line of the writing is not a straight line, but an arc of a circle having for its radius the length of the forearm, increased by that of the hand! and the part of the pen which extendsui beyond the fingers. To prove this, after being comfortably placed for writing, put the point of the pen on the begin ning of a line and move the forearmjie round the elbow, taken as a centre ; the f pen will trace on the paper an arc of aiiii circle of so great a radius as to coincide iri with a straight line parallel to the uppeilici edge of the sheet. This immobility oj cc Physiology of IVritijig. 35 be elbow is favorable to rapidity of writing, for the rotation of the forearm » made gradually without requiring the iast time, while a stop is caused nec- ssaXily when the arm is wholly dis- laced^ to move the pen along the line. Uiother advantage of this system is hat the straightness of the line is pre- erved automatically, so to speak; with le elbow well supported, nothing is asier than to write perfectly straight 'ith the eyes closed. , The use of the elbow as a pivot brings 30ut other consequences. The first is |ie oblique position of the paper adopted 1^ all rapid writers, the diagonal which ins the upper right to the lower left >rner of the paper being almost perpen- cular to the edge of the table. The i cond is the slope of the writing; when- ^5 Essay on the ever the line that is being written is perpendicular to the forearm, the move- ment of the wrist produces necessarily a slope which should be greater than 45"', if the motions of the fingers and the movements of conveyance of the hand have not reduced it considerably, par- ticularly on the down strokes. The o-raphic method enables us to an-i alyze the motions of writing; put on the wrist and little finger of the writer a bracelet and a ring, to each of which a pencil is attached. While the pen traces| the writing which is the resultant, thesCi pencils trace on the same paper the, movements of the forearm and hand, which are the components. With the position of the arm and of the paper just described, the down strokes take naturally a position nearly perpen- PJiysioIogy of Writing. 37 dicular to the edge of the table. Hence it follows that, in order to write without slope, the skilled writer who holds him- self as indicated, has only to place the sheet straight before him; at once the movements of the wrist of which we have spoken will cease to produce the slope, and without any practice he will write vertically with sufficient speed and quite involuntarily; the only difficulty is that for each word, and even several times in a somewhat long word, it becomes necessary to move the forearm and, in consequence, the arm toward the right; otherwise his lines will rise as do those of very many people who persist in holding their paper straight before them as they were taught in their childhood. In observing the method of skilled writers — it is not that of the penmen — 38 Essay on the we arrive at this conclusion, that it is necessary to incline the paper toward the left at an angle almost equal to the slope of the writing, and that the writ- ing must slant. It is for greater clear- ness that we have supposed the elbow to be supported on the table ; a part only of the forearm can be used without inconvenience ; although having no point of support, the elbow can serve l^erfectly as a fixed pivot for the move- ments of the forearm. It must be admitted at once, with re- gard to the attitude of the body, that the position that we adopt is not entirely without its disadvantages; although it permits of writing with closed eyes, one looks willingly at one's work, and it is even necessary to do so to place the dots and the accents. Now, for very com- PJiysiology of Writing. 39 plex physiological reasons, the eyes are so constructed that it is disagreeable to them to look along oblique lines ; conse- quently, persons who write as we advise, are irresistibly led to lean the head to the left, in order to put the two eyes and the line of the writing as nearly as possible on the same plane; this is a slight inconvenience for adults, with whom deformations of the body are no longer to be feared. A very widespread fault in writing, arises from the use of dots on the is and of accents. Most persons do not wait for the word to be finished to put the dots, the accents, and the crosses to the fs, A series of inconveniences come from this. First, an interruption of the stroke, which should unite in one group without stopping, all the letters of the 40 Essay on the same word. Again, a very considerable delay, for it takes more time to stop, dot an i, and take up again the regular mo- tion of the pen, than to make two or three down strokes. Finally, many per- sons, especially in Germany, do not raise the pen to dot the /, cross the /, or make certain accents, whence come strokes that connect the accents to the letters, and interfere greatly with legi- bility. Others working rapidly, scatter dots and accents hap-hazard, while with the system we advocate, these signs are always put in their proper places. The penmen advise not putting the accents and dotting the ts until the word to which they belong is finished; this is a difficult habit to inculcate in children and one which they do not Physiology of JJ^'rithig. 41 often keep up. It would be better to for- bid entirely the use of dots and accents while writing and insist that they be not placed until subsequently, in reading 3ver — whereas the punctuation should be done with great care in the first olace. By this system one can write /ery rapidly and regularly. If writing :or one's self or for the printers, it is entirely useless to add dots and accents, A^hich are only to render writing legible, n spite of its faults, and to people hav- ng little education. By suppressing lots and accents it is easy to take notes )f a lecture currentc calaiuo, to write )ut the entire proceedings of the most mimated discussion, and all these signs ran be added on reading over leisurely, ir they can be put in by a secretary. rhis system presents also the very great 42 Essay on the advantage that a glance will show whether a page of writing has been re- read or not ; it is written evenly and quickly, and its legibility is increased afterwards, without loss of time, on re- reading, by adding the dots and accents, of which good manners forbid the omis- sion, except in writing reserved exclu- sively for one's own personal use. Speed exacts next that the heavy strokes be produced by a very slight ex- penditure of strength, and rather by the breadth of the pen than by pressure, l^ens with fine and extra fine points should be rejected, and those of medium nibs adopted. Rapidity excludes unnecessarily long tails ; this is no evil, for the caprice of fashion alone hinders them from being | considered as ungraceful as they are in i Physiology of Writing. 43 reality ; in beautiful flowing hands the long strokes have a total dimension which hardly exceeds twice the size of [he body of the letter. Finally, in order to write rapidly, it is important never to need to raise the oen, which causes considerable loss of :ime. Now, if it be desired to write in a :ontinuous stroke, it will be noticed that 5even letters necessitate the lifting of :he pen ; it must leave the paper before :he letters a, c, d, g, 0, q, in the middle of :he letters a, g and