328 Report of the Committee on Colour- Vision. 



the green light. Asked if he was colour-blind, he replied that 

 he was not, and that he had never made a mistake in reporting 

 the colour of a light ; and, in answer to the question as to what 

 in his opinion was the cause of the collision, he had no hesitation 

 in stating that it was owing to his own captain porting his 

 helm. In a letter published and commented upon in the leading 

 Liverpool shipping paper, the Journal of Commerce, referring to 

 this case, it is remarked that "the negative evidence of the 

 look-out man that he did not see the red light cannot weigh 

 against the positive evidence of the captain, two officers, and the 

 quartermaster that they did see it, and it has yet to be ascertained 

 why it was not seen by him." But the Court chose to take the 

 look-out man's statement as against that of the officers. The 

 officers of a ship being considered the responsible men navigating 

 a ship are therefore tested for colour-blindness by the Board of 

 Trade, but the Board of Trade do not admit that the look-out 

 men are responsible. They argue in this way : — 



It is not for the look-out men to say what the colour of lights 

 are they see. They merely have to report that there is a light, 

 and it is left to the officers to say what that light is ; but when 

 collision cases come into Court the Judges invariably ask the 

 44 look-out " as to the colour of the light seen, and as often as not 

 take the word of the irresponsible "look-out" against that of 

 the responsible officer, who is supposed to do the best for his 

 Company, and who is also on his trial. 



Mr. Bickerton subsequently communicated the following results 

 of an examination for colour-blindness that he held : — 



"I examined again on Monday and Tuesday last the boys of 

 the Seamen's Orphanage in order to obtain some cases for a 

 lecture. The results of the two days' examination were most 

 curious — 



First day — 91 boys examined . . 1 colour-blind. 

 Second day — 44 „ „ . . 5 typical blind, 



or 6 colour-blind in 135. 



Total number of boys 225 ; but I had no time to examine the 

 remainder. On examining the same institution five years ago 

 there were 8 colour-blind out of 200. All the children are, as 

 the name of the Institution implies, the sons of sailors. That 

 fact, in chief, is of interest when the hereditary quality is taken 

 into consideration." 



Evidence of Mr. E. Nettle ship. 



Prof. Foster : You have kindly consented to put the informa- 

 tion you possess concerning Colour-vision at the disposal of the 

 Committee, and we must leave it to you to decide the points upon 

 which you will give evidence ; but there is one class of cases we 

 should particularly like to know something about, namely, those 

 of scotoma from diseases of the optic nerve ? 



