ACCIDENTS BY KAIL AND SEA. 145 



l^reseut at my lectures on the subject ; and finally the superintendents 

 must send a report of the result of this examination, suggest measures 

 to be taken, Slud in certain cases apply those that circumstances might 

 require. In this way the reform was actually introduced on the rail- 

 ways of the state. The example was soon followed by the private com- 

 panies (we do not know of a single exception), and although all the re- 

 ports have not been returned (February, 1877), and consequently the 

 result is not yet j)erfectly kuowu, we might assert that the examination 

 itself is finished everywhere, in an almost if not entirely thorough man- 

 ner. Every case during the examination pronounced doubtful in the 

 diagnosis, or where doubt existed about the measures to take with re- 

 gard to it, has been reported to me. Sweden is consequently the first 

 and only country, as we see, where the control in question has been gen- 

 erally adopted, and applied according to determined principles. 



We have enlarged to some extent on the manner in which this matter 

 has been successively accomplished in our country, not simply to give 

 our experience on the subject, but rather that such details seem to us to 

 elucidate the question occupying us. This will be clearly evident if we 

 compare other countries with our own with regard to this. Let us recall 

 the following facts: In England, color-blindness has been known for a 

 century, and for more than twenty years a strict control over the sense 

 of color amongst railway employes and sailors has been demanded. In 

 France, a physician attached to a railway has been for a long time inter- 

 ested in color-blindness amongst its employes, and has been eudeavor- 

 ing for at least three years to introduce a general control on railways, in 

 the navy, and in schools. Finally, in Germany, color-blindness has 

 been for a long time a subject of scientific study, where the necessity 

 of a control of the railway of&cials has been urged by a number of 

 people of late years. Well, we have seen that in spite of all this, not one 

 of these countries has yet decreed or introduced a general control on 

 railways and in the navy. In Sweden, on the other hand, where color- 

 blindness had scarcely been mentioned until the last few years, and 

 where a proposition to examine railway officials was only iDublicly made 

 July 14, 1876, and referred to directors of railways September 25, of the 

 same year, this important reform may be already regarded (February, 

 1877) as actually and thoroughly established, in all essential details, on 

 the entire system of railways throughout our country. To complete our 

 data, it may be added that since November 13, 1876, the king has issued 

 orders that, at the time of a general review of the fleet, every man should 

 bo examined u ith reference to color-blindness. This result is so truly 

 remarkable that we cannot refrain from endeavoring to discov^er the 

 probable explau ition of the unexampled rapidity with which it has been 

 reached in our country. The explanation does not seem to us difficult. 

 In our opinion, it is chiefly owing to two circumstances : one is the 

 method employed, which is not only accurate, as well as simple and 



rapid, but eflects so palpable a result that the most skeptical observer 

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