The amendments to section 48(1) concern the provision of treatment and the prescription and administration of drugs. Under section 48(1) of the Principal Act, optometrists are prohibited from treating diseases of the eye or prescribing or administering drugs. The existing section 48(1)(a) prohibits the treatment of any disease of the eye and this is interpreted to mean that optometrists are precluded from undertaking even very minor procedures which would be otherwise legitimately done by a lay person, such as, for example, removing dust from the eye.