of our system of examination, and it affords me much pleasure to emphatically commend it in all its details; and I feel that we have good reason to be satisfied with this, the first successful attempt to bring the entire body of men engaged in signaling upon a railway in our country under control by the practical application of scientific facts. Having eliminated these dangerous persons from our present force, we propose to keep it free from them in the future by a steady application of our present system. Yours truly,
To this great corporation, extending through six States, operating five thousand miles of track, with nearly if not quite fifty thousand employés, and responsible for the lives of millions of people each year, must be accorded the honor of having been the first to obtain the desired control of the visual defects of their men by a wise and intelligent application of scientific laws. Their example has been extensively followed elsewhere, and their instrument has been obtained by more than thirty other roads from the manufacturers. It has also been ordered by "The Board of Trade of England," by many distinguished medical men abroad, and has recently been, with the entire system, adopted, and will no doubt be put into operation by a director of the Southwestern Railway in England. There is no longer any reason why losses of life and property should occur in railway service from visual defects; and an enlightened public opinion should now insist upon the adoption of some similar plan upon the hundred thousand other miles of railway now being operated in our country.
Having been placed as the American representative on the Committee on Control of Vision at the International Medical Congress in London three years ago, I have urged upon the Naval Committee of our Congress the value of this large experiment, with a view to have a law passed to form an International Commission to establish a uniform system of signals, examinations, etc., both on the land and on the water. There is no doubt that accidents must occur on the sea; and the recent loss of the Tallapoosa has not only been ascribed to a wrong interpretation of the colored signals, but the commission appointed to investigate the accident has been especially directed to examine for color-blindness the lookouts on the two ships.
| CALCULATING-MACHINES. |
By M. EDOUARD LUCAS.
WHEN I was a little boy, I sometimes went for the bread to a short distance from the house. The baker would take my tally-stick, put it alongside of his, and cut a notch in both. Then I would go away with my bread and the baker's account on the tally--
