[From the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, April 29,1886.] 
PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF CANDIDATES 
FOR THE UNITED STATES NAVAL AND MIL- 
ITARY ACADEMIES. 
Mr. Editor,— Members of Congress when having the 
right of nomination in their districts generally ask some 
physician to examine the young men who apply for the po- 
sition. Such examination includes that of the visual power 
and color sense of the candidate. As only a certain amount 
of hypermetropia or of myopia will be passed by the United 
States medical examining boards and no degree of color- 
blindness by the naval medical board, it is pretty important 
that defective vision for form or color should be detected 
by the doctor certifying to the young man’s physical condi- 
tion. 
It is more than mortifying to young men, who pass an ex- 
cellent examination, to be afterwards thrown out for phy- 
sical defects. Cases have applied to me, and I have heard 
of others, of excessive myopia and color-blindness, when 
months were wasted in preparing for the ordeal. If the 
physician originally applied to cannot be sure of the 
degree of hypermetropia or myopia, it certainly would be 
better to send candidates to the nearest ophthalmic surgeon 
who can decide, than to have the young man rejected by 
the medical board afterwards. 
Defects of the color sense may readily escape detection' 
by methods of testing ordinarily used, as asking the names 
of colors, etc. The surest means is to apply Professor 
Holmgren’s test with the worsteds, as will be done to the 
candidates by the medical board. They, however, will have 
a proper collection of worsteds, but exactly the same can 
be procured of N. D. Whitney & Co., 129 Tremont Street, 
Boston, with whom I arranged to keep on hand type col- 
lections, at the request of the American Ophthalmological 
Society. 
Physicians have written to me from different parts of 
the country complaining of their utter inability to apply 
Holmgren’s test as described in my manual. On investiga- 
tion I have found that they did not have a proper set of 
worsteds, but some of the imitations advertised and sold in 
New York and Philadelphia. An examination of these im- 
itations showed that they could not possibly be used to 
properly carry out Holmgren’s test. I hasten to say that 
I have no pecuniary interest in Mr. Whitney’s sale of 
worsteds. I am desirous that the now necessary applica- 
tion of Holmgren’s brilliant invention should not be inter- 
fered with by tradesmen’s ignorance or cupidity, and that 
physicians should not be imposed on. 
Yours truly, B. Joy Jeffries, M.D. 
15 Chestnut St., Boston, 
April 20, 1886.