Report of the Committee on Colour-Vision. 



363 



Enclosure. 



" The Great Northern Railway, 



" Locomotive Department, 



" Engineer's Office, Doncaster, 



" February, 4th, 1890. 



u Dear Sir, — Drivers' eyesight. Yours of the 13th ult., and 

 Mr. Clement E. Stretton's inquiry. 



" When Enginemen are first appointed they are subjected to a 

 rigid test, both with respect to distance and colours. 



" For distance, the ordinary signals in the yards are used, and 

 to ascertain their faculty for distinguishing colours a painted 

 board is mostly employed. 



" Men are again examined when age, infirmity, or any other 

 cause leads us to suspect that their eyesight is in any way 

 defective. 



" I may tell you that in my long experience and that of my 

 oldest assistant, no single case of Colour Blindness has occurred, 

 and it should also be borne in mind that there are always two 

 pairs of eyes on the footplate. 



" Tours truly, 

 (Signed) "P. STIRLING. 



" H. Oakley, Esq., 



"King's Cross." 



" Belvedere House, 



" Barnet, 



" June 28th, 1890. 



" Dear Sir, — In reply to your letter of the 25th inst., request- 

 ing me to inform you as to the mode of testing the sight of the 

 men. Each man is placed with his back to the light at a distance 

 of 15 feet, and made to count the dots on a test dot card, first 

 with both eyes and then with each separately. I also made them 

 read the names of stations which are printed on cards at the 

 same distance. If satisfied with the examination on this point, 

 I then test for Colour Blindness by the use of Holmgren's 

 coloured wools. They consist of a collection of small skeins of 

 coloured Berlin wool, each of which is loosely twisted up. In 

 this bundle is included wools of red, orange, yellow, yellow- 

 green, pure green, blue-green, blue, violet-purple, pink, brown, 

 grey, several shades of each colour. These worsteds being 

 placed in a pile on the table, I lay aside a skein of a special colour 

 desired for the examination, I then require the man to select 

 from the wools other skeins which most closely resemble the 

 colour of the sample, and to place them by its side. The Colour 

 Sight is decided by the manner in which he performs his task. 

 I hold up the different colours to him at a distance of 15 feet. 

 Test 3 is a confirmatory test, and specially useful in examining 

 the Colour Sight of those employed in reading signals. Select a 



