The Minister when replying said, "Drugs are used in diagnosis to ensure that the best possible examination can be carried out to gain information that might not otherwise be readily obtained." As I said earlier, people will think they have had a full medical examination of the fundus of the eye. If the optometrist dilates the pupil the patient will think that ocular disease has been ruled out because the only reason the pupil is dilated is to do a fundal examination. Optometrists have been managing for years to give extraordinarily good advice regarding spectacles without the use of this drug. The drug to be used in this case is the one I am least concerned about, namely tropicamide. This is used to facilitate examination of the fundus of the eye by paralysing the sphincter and dilator muscles of the iris. It does have a slight effect on the ciliary muscle, but it does not last for long. It is the one I have the least trouble with, but there are side-effects, systemic as well as local, which are listed in Duane's Ophthalmology. They are not common, but they exist.