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13
WELFARE OF THE BLIND
Circular 1353 of the Ministry of Health on the certification of blindness draws attention
to the following points:—
(1) A person should not be registered as blind until satisfactory medical evidence
of blindness is produced
(2) Local authorities should consider the desirability of the examination and
certifying of a blind person by a medical practitioner with special experience in ophthalmology—ie,
a medical practitioner in charge of the ophthalmic department of a General
Hospital, or one holding a recognised diploma in ophthalmology, or one who, by reason
of special experience in the practice of ophthalmology, is fully competent to secure a correct
and just certification
(3) A form of certification designed to be at once a certificate and a record for
compilation of statistics of scientific value, which should be used in every case of blindness
placed upon the register
The Minister and Board of Education have authorised the Prevention of Blindness
Committee to collate and tabulate the statistics for the use of local authorities
An appendix to the circular gives intimate technical directions for the use of the certifying
ophthalmologist and a definition of blindness for the purposes of the Blind Persons
Act, 1920 For registration the person must be " so blind as to be unable o perform any
work for which eyesight is essential," ie, not his ordinary or any particula work, but any
work It is recognised in this stringency, however, that a person with a recent defect is
less able to adapt himself to his environment than a person whose defect in acuity of vision
is of long standing ; and an old person with recent failure of sight, so readily as a young
person with equal defect
The Metropolitan Society for the Blind, who are the agents for the Valuation Committee,
report for the year 1933-1934 that the City of London blind number only 14, of whom in
6 blindness occurred below the age of 50, in 4 below 30, and in 2 below 20 No one of the
City blind is now below age 30
It seems probable that the services of an ophthalmologist will be but rarely required
The Authorities of St Bartholomew's Hospital were asked and agreed to entertain
an arrangement by which examination and certification on the prescribed form be made
by any one of the specially qualified Hospital Ophthalmolgists at a fee of £2 2s