414 DUANE— SIGHT AND SIGNALLING IN THE NAVY. 



way the efiforts of the medical men of the navy to maintain these 

 usual standards, which too often are assailed by politicians and 

 well-meaning friends of candidates who, we may believe, are ig- 

 norant of the danger to which they would expose our ships. 



2. A man detailed for signal work in the navy should be exam- 

 ined for slight errors of refraction and for muscular anomalies. 

 If these are present, he should be tested from time to time to see 

 what effect these errors are having on his signal capacity, and if 

 they are impairing it he should be relegated to other duty. 



It would be well to collect a considerable mass of data on this 

 point, so as to determine once for all the effect that by and large 

 these errors of refraction do produce on signalling ability and other 

 tasks — gun-pointing and lookout work — which require a high de- 

 gree of sustained visual power. 



3. It would be well if psychological tests of the reaction time 

 could be made to determine the fitness of men for signal work, and, 

 particularly when the tests indicated sluggishness, to repeat them 

 later from time to time as checks on the signalling efficiency. 



From these experiments, too, a good deal of valuable data could 

 in time be accumulated, which would, c. g., show the true relation 

 existing between reaction-time tests and signalling efficiency. 



4. The present deplorable undermanning of the navy should not 

 be permitted to continue. Putting it on no higher plane than simple 

 business prudence and national self-interest, it is vital that the 

 highly specialized work of our navy should be properly done ; and 

 it cannot be done when a ship, as now, carries but two thirds of 

 its minimum complement. 



In conclusion, I should like to put in a plea for the extension of 

 signalling throughout the country. It is healthful stimulating work, 

 that carries one into the open, that becomes fairly fascinating as 

 one pursues it, and that may be extremely valuable in time of need. 

 To be able to talk to a companion or stranger miles away by the 

 motions of the wig- wag or hand semaphore (made with a hand- 

 kerchief and stick), by sound signals, or by extemporized flash 

 lantern or searchlight not only is often a great saving of time and 

 trouble, but in many an instance will be the means of averting some 

 supreme disaster and of saving life itself. 



