140 COLOR-BLINDNESS IN ITS RELATION TO 



railway employment, and upon tbose already in service ; exclusion from 

 active service of all who cannot distinguish red ; especial examination of 

 all employes afflicted with contusionsor wounds on the head, orrecovering 

 from a serious illness; examination of drinkers and smokers; and, finally, 

 a i)eriodical examination of the entire personnel in active service; these 

 last measures having reference to acquired color-blindness. These prin- 

 ciples apply equally well to sailors. In behalf of his views on the 

 curability of acquired color-blindness, in which he seems more and more 

 interested, Dr. Favre earnestly urges the introduction of systematic 

 exercise in colors in schools, in the army and navy, and on railways. 



It is readily seen that these views, and the measures based upon them 

 might have very considerable practical consequences; in fact, if they were 

 proved by adecisive test, we would havethebestandmostradicalmeansof 

 preventing all the inconveniences and dangers that colorblindness might 

 occasion. But, on the other hand, if the ideas of our honorable colleague 

 prove to rest on but slight foundation, as is generally admitted so far, 

 and as we ourselves believe, it is to be feared lest through an actual 

 improvement in the chromatic sense, on which these measures depend, 

 we might be led into error as to the ability that the color-blind often 

 acquire by practice in designating the colors of common objects accu- 

 rately by conjecture or the help of other characteristics, and, lulled into 

 a false security, neglect the measures that should and might be taken. 

 We are far from asserting that Dr. Favre's opinion on this point may 

 have already exercised such an influence, but we cannot refrain from 

 mentioning a circumstance, which, at all events, would not contradict 

 such a supposition. In fact, Dr. Favre tells us that in 1875 the Academy 

 of Sciences and Letters at Lyons voted resolutions calling the attention 

 of the ministers, and amongst others that of the navy, to Dr. Favre's 

 publications, and especially his request that sailors should be educated 

 and exercised in colors. We do not know whether this decision has 

 been put into practice, but we have no reason to doubt it. But, on the 

 other hand, we learn, from special information, that up to the present 

 (January, 1877) no examination of the chromatic sense has been exacted 

 of those desiring to enter the French navy. Nevertheless, Dr. Favre's 

 labors aud his practical efforts in the cause of color-blindness have 

 awakened genuine attention in France and Belgium. He tells us him- 

 self, also, that the greater part of the precautionary measures in use on 

 the Lyons railway from 1857 have been since introduced on other lines, 

 and quite recently on the Belgian railways. Moreover, Dr. Favre's 

 example has enlisted the interest of several physicians in this cause. 

 One of the most distinguished. Dr. Feris, surgeon-general of the navy, 

 has written a memoir on the importance of color-blindness to navigation. 

 This memoir describes an examination, by the author, of 501 sailors, 

 amongst whom he discovered 41 cases, more or less affected with this 

 anomaly of the chromatic perception, that is to say, 8.18 per cent. This 

 large proportion is explained by the fact that Dr. Feris finally employed 



