OCR Text |
Show VISION j DR. A. F. RICH, member. American Cytometric Assn. Last week, we saw how unscrupulous peddlers and other persons made it necessary that the public be protected pro-tected by some sort of optometry legislation. Minnesota was the first state in the country in fact, the first in the world to license and regulate what came to be known as the practice of optometry. This was in 1901, and by 1910 over half the states had succeeded in passing effective optometry laws; by 1924, all the states, including territories and possessions of the United States, had obtained ob-tained optometry laws. ! In most of the states, it was not an easy matter to obtain this legislation in order that the public might be safeguarded. against antiquated and unscrupulous practitioners. practi-tioners. Optometry first had to establish itself as a profession profes-sion and its right to perform the service of visual assistance assist-ance to mankind. With the definite need for protection to the public, legislation thus became the answer. The principal value of such legislation was in the enforced education of those preparing to enter the field of optometry. Schools of optometry op-tometry were formed and courses taught. These first schools were of one year duration; then the courses were lengthened to two years, three years, and today optometry is a five-year course, leading to the doctorate doc-torate degree, and taught in a number of private professional profes-sional schools and state universities. Before a license to practice is granted, each graduate optometrist is required to pass a rigid State Board examination exam-ination in such subjects as general and ocular anatomy, physiology, mathematics, physics, physiological optics, geometrical optics, theoretical and practical optometry, psychology, ocular pathology, etc. The educational training given to optometrists not only prepares them for a thorough knowledge of the correction cor-rection of refractive errors, but it also teaches them to de- tect and recognize general and ocular pathology. It is the duty of the optometrist not only to diagnose and prescribe for errors or refraction and correct imbalances of ocular muscles, but it is also part of his training to determine the presence of symptoms of disease; in which case the patient is promptly referred to the proper authority for further care. |