Colour-blindness and other defects of sight in some of their medico-legal aspects / by James T. Tudall.

  • Rudall, James T.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Colour-blindness and other defects of sight in some of their medico-legal aspects / by James T. Tudall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    directors and officials allowed the fastest trains to be driven by men whose defects of vision precluded them from distin- guishing any form of signal. . . . Two dangers needed to be avoided—i. The obvious one of permitting the admission of candidates with such visual defects as might be overlooked by not specially trained (or expert) examiners ; 2. The more cruel and less obvious danger of candidates with perfectly normal acuity of vision and colour perception being finally rejected because of a temporary failure to respond to a routine test applied by any but an expert examiner. Dr. M'Keown (Belfast) thought that the testing of vision was a matter of so much importance that it should not be entrusted to any person but a competent oculist. Some other conditions and affections of the eyes besides colour-blindness or defects of refraction were attended with great danger. For example, in cases of double vision occurring in seamen or railway drivers it was quite obvious there was no little risk of collision. He instanced cases of diplopia, retinitis pigmentosa, and colour-blindness which had come before him. Mr. Shadford Walker (Liverpool) mentioned some cases. One was that of a Welsh captain (who had been in one or two collisions), who was so myopic that he could not see a load of hay 250 yards off, and would not admit that he was short-sighted. There was no system of testing sight on board the training ships. This was illustrated by a boy who was disqualified from being a seaman, after being on the Comvay two years, on account of his myopia. Boys tested imperfectly, after education in the nautical school, were often rejected when they wished to join the Royal Navy. Hence there was a necessity for proper examination by competent persons. The discussion terminated with the adoption of the following resolutions :— I. That in the opinion of this section (Section H, ' Ophthalmology,' fifty-first meeting of the British Medical Association, held at Liverpool, 1883), it is of international importance that a proper system of testing the sight of seamen be adopted. 2. That the system comprise an examination, by com- petent persons, of the sharpness of sight of both officers and able seamen ; this being at present entirely neglected. 3. That the imperfect examination for colour-blindness to which the Board of Trade at present submits candidates for