It is an indisputable fact that the efficiency of the American troops during the late war was greater than that of any other army. One factor which contributed largely to their success is apt to be overlooked by the casual observer, but excited comment wherever our troops were thickest in the fray: Our men were properly glassed.
You, for whom this monograph is written, well know how thoroughly and systematically your eyes were examined. Perhaps you do not know that the actual testing of your eyes and the adoption of proper glasses whenever necessary to bring vision up to normal was done in a number of camps by optometrists.
What an important part glasses played in the success of our Army and Navy is a chapter yet to be written.
Now that the conflict is over it is fitting to call attention to the opportunity of entering a profession which has contributed so much to the winning of the war. And as optometry is a comparatively strange word to those not personally concerned with the profession, an explanation of its meaning had best preface this monograph.
What is an Optometrist?
An optometrist examines eyes for the detection and correction of visual or muscular defects not requiring medical attention. He uses no drugs; he does not treat diseases of the eye, nor does he practice surgery. To one not familiar with optical sciences it may be difficult to comprehend, then, what the work of the optometrist includes. Comparison of his work with two better known and somewhat related vocations—that of the oculist and that of the optician—will perhaps be the quickest method of explaining the practice of optometry.
First, let it be understood that the human eye may be considered as a refracting and focusing mechanism, similar to a camera, as well as an organ subject to diseases like any other part of our body.
An oculist (a physician who specializes on the eye) deals both with refraction and muscular deficiencies, and with pathological or diseased conditions.
An optometrist, on the other hand, specializes on the functions of the eye as a refracting and focusing apparatus.
An optician grinds the lenses and puts together the necessary fittings to form the eyeglasses prescribed by the oculist or the optometrist.