PROTECTING THE PUBLIC.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 68, 11 July 1914, Page 4

PROTECTING THE PUBLIC.

In Tasmania recently an Act was passed under which it has become compulsory for all who undertake sighttesting to undergo examination, to consist of three opticians and two medical men. At a recent examination by the hoard, fifteen candidates passed, and presumably these will receive some sort of certificate or di'ploma. In Queensland also the matter has been under consideration in con-' tiection with the drafting of a bill to provide for the registration of medical practitioners, and it is understood that one of its provisions will be the registration of opticians after examination. Medical men hold strongly that no one but a qualified medical man is competent to test the eyes, and no one should wear spectacles which are not so recommended. So long as the certificate granted is to the effect that the holder is qualified to manufacture spectacles and glasses, well and good, but if • sight-testers are to be registered and certificated to the effect that they have a sufficient knowledge of the errors of refraction and defects of vision, the practice will lie fraught with danger to the community. The organ of sight is such a delicate piece of mecbanism that to have it tinkered with by an unqualified man is to run severe risks. By "unqualified man'' is meant a man who cannot give a competent diagnosis of the general health of a person, without which capacity no oculist can he regarded as properly qualified, says the Sydney "Telegraph."