The Arizona sentinel., 1889-01-26
FOR sPECTAcLE-wEARERs.
Why Physicians, Not Opticians, Should
Prescribe Eyeglasses.

Why Physicials, Not Opticians, Should
Prescribe Eyeglasses.
In Boston one finds cdriousfy-ad-
vanced ideas on almost every subject.
For instance, the best opticians here
will not make a pair of spectacles for
customer, if they can help it, unless
he brings physicians prescription for
the same. Elsewhere it is usual for
these tradesmen to advertise that they
will themselves fit people with glasses
free of charge. Of course, this COM
mon practice is not only of doubtful
honesty, but great evil as well. For
the Optician, being simply mechanic,
can not be supposed to know any thing
about the eye. 1t is his business to
grind lenses and fit them into frames.
How should he have any acquaintance
with the structure and pathology
of that wonderful human organ,
the treatment of which requires
such skill that men of science
who profess to know about it devote
their lives to the study of that subject
alone? And even they assert that moth
ing tests their dexterity so much as
the task of providing a patient with
proper glasses. Each eye must be
fitted separately, for one is apt to differ
from the other. Examination has also
to be made with a view to discovering
if any peculiarly, such as astigmatism
"a variation in the curvature of the
ball-exists, in order that it may be
provided for. Sometimes it takes the
expert oculist hours to complete the
operation. He can hardly be too care
full, since the slightest error will mean
Just so much continual strain and con-
sequent injury.
But the optician-outside of Boston
will set you down in chair, with all
the confidence of perfect ignorance,
and, after bidding you tell him
what you can see of some letters
in assorted sizes at the other end Of
the shop, with the aid of various lenses
which he offers you from box, will
declare that he has got your measure
and your spectacles will be ready such
and such a day. Shall he send them
home or will you call?
Once in awhile he may strike it cor
rectly, though it would be simply an
accident if he did so. 1t is a pure
guess he makes in every case. And
yet ninety-n persons in every one
hundred will go to an optician to have
glasses prescribed, in many cases to
save the oculist's fee, but more often
because they do not know any better.
1t is like going to an apothecary for a
diagnosis-worse, for the dealer in
drugs not infrequently possesses some
knowledge of medicine. In Boston
this sort of thing is better understood,
and you are requested to bring your
prescription from the eye-doctor before
the spectacle-mal1er will fill your
order.
By the way, did you ever see what is
called an ophthalmoscope-a little in
strument from the invention of which
about fifty years ago ocular science
may almost be said to date? Like
many other great things, it is exceed
ingly simple, being nothing more than
small disk-shaped mirror with lit
tie hole through the center. In using
it the oculist holds this disk before his
own eye between his thumb and fore
finger, so as to look through the little
hole from the back. Facing him at
close range sits the patient, with a
lighted gas-jet over his head, looking
steadily at the doctors nose. The
latter casts with the mirror-disk
ray of reflected gaslight into
the subjects eye through the lit
tie hole called the pupil, by which the
whole interior of the organ is brightly
illuminated. Thus the operator is able
to examine it within through the hole
in the mirror at his leisure, and if
there is any inflammation or other
trouble it is at once apparent. By
such examinations of the living eye
physicians have made themselves thor
oughly acquainted with the nature and
diseases of this marvellous optical in
strument, and at present there is no
part of the human body of which the
structure and pathology ares more
thoroughly comprehended. 1t is a
great advance from the old days, when
all the knowledge concerning eyes
that any body had was obtained by dis