Effects of Physics on Development of Optometry in the United States from the Late 19th to the Mid 20th Century / 의사학

In this paper, it was studied how physics affected development of optometry in the United States, from aspects of formation and academization of optometry. It was also revealed that history of optometry was analogous to history of engineering. Optics in the 19th century was divided into electromagnetic study of light and visual optics. Development of the visual optics promoted professionalization of ophthalmology that had already started in the 18th century. The visual optics also stimulated formation of optometry and optometrists body in the late 19th century of the United States. The American optometrists body were originated from opticians who had studied visual optics. Publication of several English academic textbooks on visual optics induced appearance of educated opticians (and jewelers). They acquired a right to do the eye examination in the early 20th century after C. F. Prentice's trial in 1897, evolving into optometrists. The opticians could be considered as craftsmen, and they were divided into (dispensing) opticians and optometrists. Such history of American optometrists body is analogous to that of engineers body in the viewpoints of craftsmen origin and separation from craftsmen. Engineers were also originated from educated craftsmen, but were separated from craftsmen when engineering was built up. Education system and academization of optometry was strongly influenced by physics, too. When college education of optometry started at American universities, it was not belonged to medical school but to physics department. Physics and optics were of great importance in curriculum, and early faculty members were mostly physicists. Optometry was academized in the 1920s by the college education, standardization of curriculum, and formation of the American Academy of Optometry. This is also analogous to history of engineering, which was academized by natural sciences, especially by mathematics and physics. The reason why optometry was academized not by medicine but by physics is because ophthalmologists did not have conciliatory attitudes to optometry education. Optometry became independent of physics from the 1930s to the 1940s. Optometric researches concentrated on binocular vision that is not included to discipline of physics, and faculty members who majored in optometry increased, so that optometry departments and graduate schools were established around 1940. Such independence from natural sciences after academization also resembles history of engineering. On the contrary, history of optometry was different from history of ophthalmology in several aspects. Ophthalmology had already been formed in the 18th century before development of visual optics, and was not academized by visual optics. Ophthalmologists body were not originated from craftsmen, and were not separated from craftsmen. History of optometry in the United States from the late 19th to the mid 20th century is analogous to history of engineering rather than history of medicine, though optometry is a medical discipline.

Jean-Paul Marat: Médico, científico y revolucionario / Jean-Paul Marat: Physician, scientist and revolutionary

Physician, scientist and revolutionary are the biographical aspects that had better summarize the life of Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793). Due to the role that he played during the French Revolution, his work as a physician and scientist, prior to the events of l789, was forgotten. Marat made important contributions in the area of optics and electricity reflected in numerous publications, as well as translating Newton's Opticks (1787). Well known for his radical and aggressive ideas, his political vocation led him to embrace the revolutionary cause after the events of the Bastille. His figure was not indifferent to his contemporaries; although considered a hero by the poorest citizens, aristocrats and bourgeois considered him a cruel extremist. During the last years of his life, he suffered a cutaneous disease, the diagnosis of which is still a matter of controversy. Proposed diagnoses include eczema, seborrheic dermatitis, scabies and dermatitis herpetica, among others. Marat was assassinated by Charlotte Corday in 1793, becoming a martyr for some segments of the society that worshiped his memory. He was a man with a complex and curious personality whose figure and legacy are still a matter of discussion.