GOOD EYES AT SEA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15825, 25 July 1913, Page 3

GOOD EYES AT SEA.

INQUIRY INTO SIGHT TESTS. LIVELY CONTROVERSY. UNION COMPANY'S METHODS. A problem of the greatest interest to officers of the world's mercantile marine was brought before the notice of the. Houae of Commons by a speech, mentioned in Saturday's cablegrams, by Mr B. E. Peto (Unionist M.P. for Devizes division of Wiltshire) He is reported to have strongly denounced "the drastic colour testa imposed on offioere of the merchant service, particular'? by the Union Steam Ship Company of 2?ew Zealand," and was given a promise ly the president of the Board of Trade thf.i hia oomplaint would be investigated The essential difficulty of the question - vas said by Mr Buxton to be to eccuro rip. right sort of test for colourblindness.

To 't.lio.r who read tho cable message, it may siem strange that tho Union Company should have been specially selected for criticism. But an officer in the merchant 6ervice is probably as much at ease in London dcoks oi3 ho is on tho Queen street wharf, and tha Sight tests of the Union Company have no doubt been discussed with as much freedom "on the wharf at Liverpool" as they have in Lyttelton Harbour. No mora exhaustive tests are made by any other mexhant shipping concern in the world; they are reputed to be more exacting than those of the British Navy, and are certainly more 60 than than those of the United States and German navies, which permit their officers to wear glasses to correct defects in vision. SYSTEMS OF TESTING. Efficiency of vision is obviously essential in the interests of tho public. Tho tests authorised by the Board of Trade havo notoriously _ been inadequate, as recent action <iu its put has proved, and they were abandoned by the Union Company more than eight years ago. A now standard, involving much more exhaustive teste, was adopted in 1905, and has been tho basis on which officers in tho employ of the company have been examined ever since. Tho company a)6o enforces a regulation that its officers must present themselves foT re-examination every five years. During these years the examinations made by the Board of Trade have been in "form vision " and in colour sense. The former is ascertained by _ the uso of the familiar sheet of letters printed in various 6izes, determined by scientific calculation, and the colour sense has been measured by the wool test, a device in which tho candidate is required to select from a largo number of little bundles of variously-shaded wools the samples which he thinks match or approach in colour certain test skeins. Tho tests adopted by tho Union Company comprise a similar, but more exacting, " form " test, the wool tests, a test with coloured lights, to oscertain tho sense of the eye in darkness, and, of still greater importance, a scientific investigation of tho candidate's field of vision.

EFFICIENCY OF THE WOOL TEST. The problem which is being discussed in England is confined to the subject of colour-sense. Some 15 years ago, Mr F. W. Edridge-Grecn first advanced the

view that the wool test was not an efficient one, and though for a long time ho stood alone, and his paper on the subject was refused by the Royal Society, ho has now a following of distinguished ophthalmologists. Ranged against them is another company of equally distinguished men, and, in fact, the whole question is in u state of transition. The Union Company's examiners uso a system of coloured lights. Edridge-Green has a lantern test, and another lantern has been submitted

to the Board of Trade, Thero is no doub

that the wool test will detect cases of colour trat Edridge-Green .declares that in 6om© instances ' men of normal sight Buccumb to it, and there j6 a famous case in which an officer who failed to pass it regained his certificate by a practical demonstration before a committee of the Board of Trade of his ability to name correctly every light on the Thames River.

BOARD OF TRADE INQUIRY. Uhe whole subject has been investigated by a committeo appointed by the Board of Trade, The report by this committee was issued on June 24 Jast year, but it did not bring the controversy to finality, and a vigorous discussion has since been maintained in the London press and scientific oircles. The newspaper correspondence shows that the Board of Trade has revised its regulations, and Mr Peto is not singular in protesting against the new tests. The committee reported that it could not 6ay definitely what degree of oolour defect is compatible with the granting or retention of a certificate, but it made reoommendations which "will make it more difficult in future for a person with dangerous colour defect ever to pass the teste." A standard for the tost was suggested by the finding of the committee that "no poison who is liable to fail to detect the presence, or to confuse the colours of a averago ship' 6 sidelights at a distance of one mile is competent to discharge the duties of an officer of the watch." The committee also recommended the continuance of the wool test, with certain modifications, and also advised supplementing it with a lantern test. It deigned a lantern with two apertures showing light through 12 glasses (reds, greens, and whites), which can be arranged in various combinations. The new standard of form vision which the Board of Trade has decided to enforce from January, 1914, was approved by the committee, as it requires "nearly normal, visual acuteness" and a separate testing of each eye. Anothor important recommendation was

that at an inquiry into a shipping casualty witnesses as to lights and signals should always be tested for colour and form vision. These recommendations propose a system of tests closely resembling those of the Union Company, with the important difference that tho committee advised that an ophthalmic surgeon should be added to the present Board of Examiners in appeal cases, while the examination for the Union Company is always mado by a surgeon. NO DEFINITE CONCLUSION. Dissatisfaction with the tests of the Board of Trade was expressed in a memorial signed by Mr Edridge-Green and 29 other surgeons, on April 24. Of three reasons given the second was that the wool test "is not an efficient test." La 6 t month tho attention of tho Board of Trade was drawn to this memorial by Mr Peto, and he was informed that it was considered that sufficient grounds for re-opening the question had not been disclosed. An indication has also been given that the merchant service proposes to challenge the new tests by refusing to surrender certificates m cases of failure. The British Association for Science has also appointed a committee to investigate tho subject, and this will probably bo published at the association's meeting in Australia early next year. Some modifications of the ipsts seems certain, and the scientific inquiries are being watched with the I greatest interest throughout the world by ophthalmogists and officers of the merchant I service-New Zealand Herald.