Spectacles

[Segilla]

In the 1940s, as a youngster having my first pair of glasses I had ointment put in my eyes before they could be used and sight was blurred for a couple of days.
Others had drops put in which made their eyes sting.

Is there a connection and what was the point?.

[york310]

Google atropine and cycloplegic refraction.

[puzzled54]

I was always told it was to dilate the pupils - but now I think about it, why would they need to be dilated?