526 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



the reduction in wages has been 9 per cent., 

 which has been nearly equaled by a general 

 reduction of prices. The total value of the 

 State industrial products has increased over 8 

 per cent. Of private establishments there are 

 10,395, and of corporations 520. The former 

 turned out $351,000,000 worth of goods, and 

 the latter $180,000,000. The former paid their 

 laborers a yearly average of $474, while that 

 of the corporation employees is $383. The 

 former produce $2.45 for every dollar invested, 

 while the corporations produce little over $1.28 

 on each dollar invested. 



SOLDIERS' MONUMENT, WORCESTER. 



The Committee on Prisons, in their report 

 to the Legislature before its adjournment, stated 

 that none of the prisons were found self-sup- 

 porting under the contract system of disposing 

 of labor. The House of Correction at East 

 Cambridge is the only self-supporting institu- 

 tion in the State, and here the labor of the in- 

 mates is employed, under the superintendence 

 of the officials, in the manufacture of brushes. 

 In touching on the tobacco question, the report 

 states that where no tobacco is used the pris- 

 ons are models of neatness and discipline. The 

 condition of the State Prison at Charlestown 

 in the matter of management and cleanliness 

 was found quite satisfactory. The new State 

 Prison at Concord is spoken of with commen- 

 dation as to the arrangement of the buildings 

 and the character of the work done. 



The report of the State Board of Health was 

 issued at the close of the session. Some of the 

 topics of which it treats are worthy of notice. 



A paper from the surgeon of the Massachusetts 

 Eye and Ear Infirmary, Dr. B. J. Jeffries, treats 

 of color-blindness. He has detected thirty 

 color-blind in testing 611 instructors and stu- 

 dents of different departments of Harvard Uni- 

 versity and the Institute of Technology, being 

 very nearly one in twenty. He shows the im- 

 portance which this subject has assumed with 

 reference to the protection of life on railway 

 trains and steamboats, and the attention which 

 is directed to it in Europe, where, in one coun- 

 try alone (Sweden), by the simple efforts of 

 one scientific man, all the railroad employees 

 of the country were in a few months tested, 

 and laws to govern the future were made and 

 enforced. The writer's conclusions and recom- 

 mendations are as follows : 



Certainly one in fifty, much more probably one in 

 twenty, of the community is color-blind in greater or 

 less degree. Of this defect they may even themselves , 

 be wholly unconscious. This color-blindness may 

 practically be regarded as red-green blindness or Hue- 

 yellpw blindness. Total color-blindness also exists. 

 This defect is congenital. It exists in varying degrees. 

 It is largely hereditary. It may also be temporarily 

 or permanently caused by disease or injury. It is 

 incurable when congenital. Exercising the eyes 

 with colors and the ears with their names helps the 

 color-blind to supplement their eyes, but does not 

 change or increase their color-perception. Experi- 

 ment and experience show that we WCQ forced to use 

 red and green marine lights to designate a vessel's 

 direction of motion and movements, and at least red 

 lights on railways to designate danger. Form in- 

 stead of color can not be used for these purposes. 

 There are many peculiar conditions under which 

 railroad employees and mariners perform their duty, 

 which render colored signals, and especially colored 

 lights, difficult to be correctly seen. These signals 

 can never be correctly seen by the color-blind. 

 There is, therefore, great danger from color- blind- 

 ness. Railway and marine accidents have occurred 

 from it. There is no protection but the elimination 

 from the personnel^ of railways and vessels of all per- 

 sons whose position requires perfect color-percep- 

 tion, and who fail to possess it. This can now be 

 readily and speedily done. 



Therefore, through a law of the Legislature, orders 

 from State Railroad Commissioners, or by the rules 

 and regulations of the railroad corporations them- 

 selves, each and every employee should be carefully 

 tested for color-blindness by an expert competent to 

 detect it. All deficient should be removed from their 

 posts of danger. Every person oifering himself as 

 an employee should be tested for color-blindness, 

 and refused if he has it. Every employee who has 

 had any severe illness, or who has been injured, 

 should be tested again for color-blindness before he 

 is allowed to resume his duties. The same examina- 

 tion should be carried out among pilots and masters 

 of steamers and sailing vessels. These latter should 

 also be especially instructed how to detect color- 

 blindness among the personnel of their command*. 



The following rules are recommended in an- 

 other paper for the prevention of the spread 

 of cont/irrions diseases in Dublin or nrivatfl 



contagious diseases in 

 schools : 



1. Vaccination a certificate to be required of every 

 child entering the public schools, as is the law now 

 in Massachusetts. 



2. Physicians to be required, under penalties, to 

 report to local Boards of Health all cases of dan- 

 gerous infectious diseases observed by them ; the 

 Board to inform principals of schools. 



