It has been stated, and quite generally believed, that the slighter degrees of scriveners' palsy are relieved by avoiding contact with the metallic portion of the pen-holder,98 and one of the methods taken to avoid this contact, especially among telegraph operators, is to slip a piece of rubber tubing over the pen-holder; this certainly does relieve the fatigue slightly, but the cause is not the avoidance of contact with metal or the insulation, etc., but simply that the holder is thus made larger and softer for the fingers, and thus takes the place of a cork pen-holder, which for some time has been in use for this purpose.
98 W. Bathurst Woodman, St. Andrews Grad. Ass., 1872-73.
Holding the pen-holder or pencil between the different fingers is another prophylactic measure, and relieves fatigue considerably; for instance, when it is placed between the index and middle fingers there is much less effort at pen-prehension, and the fingers may be temporarily rested without any effort to hold the pen-holder, as the friction between the fingers keeps it in position. This method is frequently adopted by stenographers.
The stylographic and Mackinnon pens, although they destroy much of the originality in handwriting, are easier to write with than a pen, as less pressure is needed and no particular angle is required to be maintained between the point and the paper.
The type-writer is one of the newer inventions destined to come into extended use for the purpose of relieving the fatigue of writing, which it does to a marked degree, besides having other merits; and although one of these is said to be the immunity of its users from writers' cramp, I venture to assert that cases of this class of trouble will ensue from its over-use, exactly as they do in piano-playing.99
99 To print this article by this machine would require nearly one hundred and fifty thousand separate flexions of the fingers.
Thurber's kaligraph, which was invented before the type-writer, has never come into general use: it works upon the principle of a pentagraph, and all finger movements are done away with and the arm movement used exclusively, the motions of writing being much coarser than ordinary. This instrument is not as well adapted for prophylaxis in these troubles as it is for use in some deformities of the hand hindering pen-prehension, as rheumatoid arthritis, contractions after burns, etc.
In regard to the means to be taken to avoid the occurrence of telegraphers' cramp, but little can be said, except that if any of the premonitory symptoms of the neurosis should occur (fatigue, pain, tingling, numbness, flushing, associated movements, etc.) after performing the amount of work which previously caused no discomfort, it should be taken as a warning that the operator is attempting more work than can be done without detriment, and that a curtailment of the work is absolutely necessary if he or she wishes to avoid the disease.
Onimus100 has said that if further investigation proves that the operators upon the Morse instrument are more liable to suffer than those using other systems, it should be the duty of those in authority to abolish that system and adopt some other: he suggests for this object the Hughes, which is a printing instrument. That the operators upon the Morse are more liable to suffer than any others is self-evident after a very slight inquiry, and because of the very general introduction of that machine. This instrument is far more practical, takes up less room, and is less likely to get out of order, than any other yet invented, and no other, it is probable, will be introduced so generally. The telephone has not diminished the amount of work for the telegraph operator, but has given rise to a new industry. In all of the systems the instruments are manipulated at least in part by the fingers, so that all are liable to cause this disease.
100 Loc. cit.