This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
To the Editor:—The following remarks may be of interest in rounding out the instructive article of Dr. Rodin in the October issue of the Archives (16: 609 [Oct.] 1936). The term "optist" has been used at one time or another by some makers of artificial eyes. It was printed on signs and must have been used in some publications, as it is now listed in at least one dictionary.
The term "opticist" was apparently used first by Dr. Swan M. Burnett in an article entitled "Why the Eyes of Animals Shine in the Dark" (Pop. Sc. Monthly24:814 [April] 1884). The term was independently coined anew in 1886 by Mr. Charles F. Prentice, the father of optometry in the United States. Mr. Prentice, although he was the first president of the New York State Optometry Board and held the office for many years, disapproved the term "optometrist"