Hindsight_55_1_FINAL.pdf


HINDSIGHT: Journal of Optometry History 37

Optometry in Mississippi 1920-2020. 
William E. Cochran. Madison, Mississippi: 
Mississippi Optometric Association, 
2021. ISBN 978-0-578-98115-4. 115 
pages. Hardcover.

This book gives a brief look at the 
history of the Mississippi Optometric 
Association and the Mississippi State 
Board of Optometry. It started with the 
first meeting of the Mississippi Optical 
Society in May 1906 at which officers were 
elected. At an October 1906 meeting, the 
society passed a regulation that applicants 
would be tested on ocular anatomy, 
refraction, optics, and practical experience. 
At its next meeting in 1907, the society 
approved a version of an optometry 
practice bill, but it wouldn’t be until 
1920 that an optometry practice act was 
passed. In 1909, the name of the society 
was changed to Mississippi Association 
of Optometrists.

In 1947, the Mississippi Optometric 
Association (MOA) was incorporated. 
In 1948, Irvin Mauldin, OD, became 
the second editor and publisher of the 
Mississippi Optometrist, following J. W. 
Rothchild, OD. In 1950, the MOA adopted 
a code of ethics which excluded “nonprofessional” optometrists 
from membership. In 1951, Dr. David W. White became the first 
African American optometrist licensed in Mississippi. Relations 
with ophthalmology were very contentious through much of 
the history of the MOA, an example being the Mississippi State 
Medical Association asking the University of Mississippi in 1958 
to not allow optometrists from having meetings on the university 
campus. In 1964, Mississippi adopted a regulation of 20 hours of 
continuing education for optometry license renewal.

Legislation for diagnostic 
pharmaceutical agent use by optometrists 
was introduced in 1974, and after a long 
struggle was passed in 1982. Therapeutic 
pharmaceutical agent legislation was 
introduced in 1990 and finally passed in 
1994. The book also discusses updates to 
the optometry law in the present century.

Following the passage of the optometry 
practice act in 1920, the Mississippi State 
Board of Optometry issued 147 licenses 
that year. In 1929, the license renewal fee 
was $2. After World War II many military 
veterans attended optometry school on 
the G. I. Bill. Consequently, the state board 
saw an increase in applicants – 91 from 
1947 to 1951. In 1989, the board voted to 
require the National Board of Examiners 
in Optometry (NBEO) examinations and 
the NBEO Treatment and Management of 
Ocular Disease examination. The 2015 year 
ended with 388 optometrists licensed in 
Mississippi. 

The author included a chapter 
describing his personal experiences in 
optometry. His maternal grandfather, 
his mother, and his father were all 
optometrists, and he recalls going with 

them to optometry meetings as a child. After graduating from 
Southern College of Optometry in 1968, he served as an Army 
optometrist for two years, after which he joined his mother in 
practice. He was MOA president in 1977-78. He later served 
as president of Southern College of Optometry for more than 
two decades.

The book has 30 pages of photographs, most in color, and an 
appendix with copies of documents, clippings from periodicals, 
and lists, including a list of MOA presidents.

BOOK REVIEW: OPTOMETRY IN MISSISSIPPI 1920-2020 

Optometry in Mississippi 1920-2020. William 
E. Cochran. Madison, Mississippi: Mississippi 
Optometric Association, 2021. ISBN 978-0-
578-98115-4. 115 pages. Hardcover.

Lynn M. Brandes, O.D.

Sharon, Massachusetts 

lynnbrandes@comcast.net 

10.14434/hindsight.v55i1.40255

BOOK REVIEWS  DAVID A. GOSS, O.D., PHD