APPLYING THE RESULTS
43
In the case of one girl, no test but an eye test would have
been necessary. This girl was so short-sighted that she
bad to hold the shells almost to her eyes, and even then
her work was of the very poorest quality. Her presence
at inspection was an eloquent testimony to the need of
e yesight tests.
In another case it was discovered that a girl had one good
e ye and one poor eye, due to the fact that she had had an
ulcer on one eye which had left it permanently weak, with
a tendency to water. In the tests she was fair, and without
an y further handicap should have been a successful worker.
The experimenter, suspecting that the presence of one
poor eye would be likely to interfere with her ability to
pick out shells which had flaws, asked her whether she had
an y trouble with her work. The girl replied that boxes
shells which she had inspected were very often returned
to her for re-inspection and that she “simply couldn’t
understand why, because she was so very careful with
them”. In a case of this kind it would have been much
be tter to put the girl on the inspection of some other work
"’here the defects to be looked for are larger and do not
re quire such fine eyesight.
The individual instances which have been related are
suggestive and typical instances in which the tests could
nave been profitably applied. However, since it is not
Sa fe to base conclusions on a few examples, a graphic
^presentation of all the inspectors involved in the preliminary
experiment will be given. In this way it will
a ho be made clear how the standard for selecting and
f e Jecting applicants is determined. In discussing the
instances given, the reader has been required to assume
that such a standard or maximum time, as it has
ee n called, had already been set. The method by which
