QUACK OPTICIANS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 330, 16 April 1928, Page 12

QUACK OPTICIANS

RUINING ENGLAND’S SIGHT There are at least thirty men in this country who are aiming to amass large fortunes from the ruined eyesight of their clients. This is the estimate of the British Optical Association, which is waging war on those who profess to be qualified opticians, but have only the scantiest knowledge of their subject. At present the police are powerless unless they bring a charge of obtaining money under false pretences. In this connection two men have just been fined £lO and £5 respectively for selling glasses at £1 17s 6d, the cost of lenses being proved less than 4s. The trump card of the association is the Optical Practitioners (Registration) Bill. If the Bill is made law it will place the “quack” optician on a level with the unqualified doctor, and serious penalties will be imposed, says a London journal. At present the public is at the mercy of rogues, who accept large sums for shoddy, and often harmful, instruments which they describe as "curealls” for every ailment. One such firm spends over £3,000 on pushing its dangerous wares. Scotland Yard has on its books over 120 names of “quack” opticians on whom it is keeping a watchful eye. It has recently been found, however, that those 120 names represent no more than 25 people, each adopting at least four aliases! One of the most successful describes himself as “the celebrated eye specialist.” He does not announce that a year ago he left prison after a term of six months’ hard labour for fraud, and has just returned to England after a year in Paris. A number of his type proudly support their names with various degrees, especially that of Bachelor of Science. They are careful to omit mention of which University they attended, and not without reason. “The Professor” Perhaps the most opulent is the man who calls himself the Professor. He runs an expensive limousine, complete with a prosperous-looking chauffeur. He has just completed a tour of villages in the North of England, and is now on his way South. His practice is to drive up to a small country cottage or farmhouse, show his lavishlyworded card and “credentials,” and inspect the eyesight of the inmates. Nearly all the dangerous “quacks” known to the authorities are aliens; Russians, Poles or Greeks, though mostly Russians. And although their criminal work is closely followed, and full details known, it is, except in rare cases, almost impossible to bring such men to court. Whenever a client threatens to be troublesome, these wily gentry blandly hand over what money has been paid and take back their spectacles; but they cannot repair tfie sometimes fatal damage which their unskilled efforts have effected in the sight of their clients. Another menace to the nation's eyesight is the sixpenny pair of spectacles sold, without testing, at the rate of over a million a year. Until the Bill is passed there is no method by which the ordinary man can tell the fraud from the genuine optician. His only safe plan, therefore, is either to apply to his doctor for a recommendation, or write direct to the British Optical Association, who will refer him to an optician of standing.