Colour blindness and eyesight in the Mercantile Marine : a criticism of the new rules of the Board of Trade / by Thomas H. Bickerton.

  • Bickerton, Thomas H. (Thomas Herbert), 1857-1933.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Colour blindness and eyesight in the Mercantile Marine : a criticism of the new rules of the Board of Trade / by Thomas H. Bickerton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/20 (page 5)
    examiners, and are reported by them to have passed the three tests, will under certain circum¬ stances, be paid by the Board of Trade at a rate which will be notified to the Candidate ; but no payment whatever will be made towards the expenses of Candidates who, upon their own application, are examined by the special exam¬ iners, and are reported by them to have failed. The Special Examinations will be held in London only.” On the face of it, and to a casual reader, there may be nothing special to arrest attention in this regulation : though I am sure most people would consider that, as the ordinary examiners know nothing whatever about colour- vision or colour-blindness, every candidate re¬ jected by them should be given the option of an examination by a specialist free of cost. But when analysed, this regulation is seen to have compressed in it a refinement of cruelty that none but a vitiated and degraded mind could com¬ pass. Is there a parallel throughout the length and breadth of this vast empire to be found, where the future occupation and happiness of an individual, nay, even his very life and reason— Captain J. S., who had been to sea for 20 years and who had never ailed a day up to the date on which he was found colour-blind, died 18 months after of decline, the result of the break up of his hopes and of his home, while Captain X., who had had many years’ sea life, attempted suicide on being told that he was colour-blind—are dependent upon the decision of an examiner who is neither fitted bv educa- J tion nor experience to give an opinion. To the