1764 GRAINGER, James (1721 – 1766)
An essay on the more common West-India diseases and the remedies which that country itself produces: To which are added some hints on the management, &c. of negroes.
Though the title suggests tropical medicine in general, this work mainly concerns the selection and medical care of slaves. Digital facsimile of the second edition (Edinburgh, 1802) expanded "with practical notes and …
GMN 9509 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11694
1776 DAZILLE, Jean Barthélémy (1733 – 1812)
Observations sur les maladies des nègres, leurs causes, leurs traitemens et les moyens de les prévenir.
Study of the health conditions and diseases of black slaves in the Americas. Digital facsimile of the 1776 edition from Google Books at this link. Second edition, expanded to two volumes. Paris: L'Auteur, 1792.
GMN 1601.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/1723
1785 DAZILLE, Jean Barthélémy (1733 – 1812)
Observations générales sur les maladies des climats chauds, leurs causes, leur traitement, et les moyens de les prévenir.
Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.
GMN 13086 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15338
1788 DAZILLE, Jean Barthélémy (1733 – 1812)
Observations sur le tétanos; Ses différences, ses causes, ses symptômes, avec le traitement de cette maladie & les moyens de la prévenir. Précédées d'un discours sur les moyens de perfectionner la médecine-pratique sous la zone torride. Suivies d'observations sur la santé des femmes enceintes dans ces régions; leurs maladies aux différentes époques de la grossesse; l'accouchement & les suites; la conservation des nouveau-nés jusqu'à l'adolescence. Terminées par le rapprochement des vices & des abus des hôpitaux d'entre les tropiques, & les moyens d'y remédier. Par M. Dazille. Pour servir de développement & de suite à ce que cet auteur a écrit du tétanos dans ses ouvrages sur les maladies des nègrse [sic], & sur les maladies des climats chauds.
Primarily concerning the diseases of black slaves. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 8216 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10392
1788 BOURGEOIS, Nicolas-Louis (1710 – 1776)
Voyages intéressans dans différentes colonies françaises, espagnoles, anglaises, &c; contenant des observations importantes relatives à ces contrées; & un mémoire sur les maladies les plus communes à Saint-Domingue, leurs remèdes, & le moyen de s'en préserver moralement & phisiquement: Avec des anecdotes singulières, qui n'avaient jamais été publiés....
The final section addresses maladies affecting the residents of Saint-Domingue. Unlike many of his contemporaries Bourgeois assiduously recorded the medical practices of the enslaved and subjugated African and Indigen…
GMN 13163 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15422
1793 CAREY, Mathew (1760 – 1839)
A short account of the malignant fever, lately prevalent in Philadelphia: With a statement of the proceedings that took place on the subject in different parts of the United States.
Carey was a Philadelphia publisher and economist rather than a physician. In this little book, which passed through four editions in a few months, Carey left a graphic description of the great yellow fever epidemic of…
GMN 5451 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7515
1794 JONES, Absolom (1746 – 1818); ALLEN, Richard (1760 – 1831); CLARKSON, Matthew (1733 – 1800)
A narrative of the proceedings of the black people during the late awful calamity in Philadelphia, in the year 1793: and a refutation of some censures thrown upon them in some late publications.
A refutation of slights by Matthew Carey in his Short account of the malignant fever, lately prevalent in Philadelphia (1793; No. 5451) to the important contributions of black people, many of whom served as nurses and…
GMN 5453.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7530
1803 WINTERBOTTOM, Thomas Masterman (1765 – 1859)
An account of the native Africans in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone; to which is added, an account of the present state of medicine among them. 2 vols.
In his travels in Africa, Winterbottom, physician to the Colony of Sierra Leone (now Republic of Sierra Leone) on the west coast of Africa, saw sleeping sickness, which he described in vol. 2, pp. 29-31, as a species …
GMN 5266 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8561
1803 COLLINS, David
Practical rules for the management and medical treatment of negro slaves in the sugar colonies
Collins, a British doctor and planter, spent fourteen years in the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent. Written from the utilitarian perspective of a master, this handbook on slave medicine was intended to maximize the …
GMN 8025 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10201
1807 EWELL, James (1773 – 1832)
The planter's and mariner's medical companion: treating, according to the most successful practice, I. The diseases common to warm climates and on ship board. II. Common cases in surgery, as fractures, dislocations, &c. &c. III. The complaints peculiar to women and children. To which are subjoined a dispensatory, shewing how to prepare and administer family medicines, and a glossary giving an explanation of technical terms.
Ewell, then practicing in Savannah, Georgia, wrote this self-help book for southern residents, directing his book toward plantation owners. It was "the constant friend of a large number of slave-masters. In emergencie…
GMN 7049 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9216
1820 THOMSON, James
A treatise on the diseases of Negroes, as they occur in the island of Jamaica: with observations on the country remedies.
Digital facsimile from the National Library of Medicine, Internet Archive, at this link.
GMN 7055 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9222
1832 YATES, Christopher C. (1778 – 1848)
Observations on the epidemic now prevailing in the city of New-York; called the Asiatic or spasmodic cholera; with advice to the planters of the South, for the medical treatment of their slaves.
Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 10812 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13008
1835 WILSON, John R. W.
A case of introsussception in which an operation was successfully resorted to…in December, 1831.
First operation for intussusception in the United States, performed in Rutherford County, Tennessee. The patient was a negro slave; the operation was a complete success. Reported by Wilson’s pupil, W.W. Thompson.
GMN 3440.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5440
1854 DOUGLASS, Frederick (1818 – 1895)
The claims of the Negro, ethnologically considered: An address before the literary societies of Western Reserve College, at commencement, July 12, 1854.
Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.
GMN 8383 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10560
1877 STILL, James (1812 – 1882)
Early recollections and life of Dr. James Still.
Still's autobiography is probably the first biography or autobiography of an African American physician. "James Still, medical doctor and herbalist, was born on April 9, 1812 in Burlington County, New Jersey. Still wa…
GMN 8980 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11159
1883 CRUMPLER, Rebecca Lee (1831 – 1895)
A book of medical discourse in two parts. Part first: Creating of the cause, prevention, and cure of infantile bowel complains, from birth to the close of the teething period, or till after the fifth year. Part second: Containing miscellaneous information concerning the life and growth of beings; the beginning of womanhood; also, the cause, prevention, and cure of many of the most distressing compains of women and youth of both sexes.
Crumpler was the first Black woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive.
GMN 14145 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16459
1896 HOFFMAN, Frederick Ludwig (1865 – 1946)
Race traits and tendencies of the American Negro.
Hoffman was statistician for the Prudential Insurance Company of America. This work, "Hoffman's first, characterized African Americans as exceptionally disease-prone. The work was motivated by a concern about issues o…
GMN 11823 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14025
1896 ABEL, John Jacob (1857 – 1938); DAVIS, Walter S.
On the pigment of the negro's skin and hair.
"In the present state of our knowledge we can only say that it seems highly probable that the pigment of the negro's hair is not different from the dark pigment found in the hair of the white races, and we may infer t…
GMN 13072 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15324
1896 MATAS, Rudolph (1860 – 1957)
The surgical peculiarities of the American negro. A statistical inquiry based upon the records of the Charity Hospital of New Orleans, LA., Decennium 1884-'94.
Digital facsimile from wellcomecollection.org at this link.
GMN 13882 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16172
1906 DU BOIS, William Edward Burghardt (1868 – 1964)
The health and physique of the Negro American: report of a social study made under the direction of Atlanta University: together with the Proceedings of the Eleventh Conference for the Study of the Negro Problems, held at Atlanta University, on May the 29th, 1906.
Probably the earliest sociological study of the medical problems of blacks written by a black. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 7051 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9218
1912 KENNEY, John Andrew Sr. (1874 – 1950)
The Negro in medicine.
An early publication on the medical problems of blacks written by a black physician. Kenney served as school physician at Tuskegee University, was the first director of the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital at Tuskegee…
GMN 7050 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9217
1918 PHILLIPS, Ulrich Bonnell (1877 – 1934)
American Negro slavery: A survey of the supply, employment and control of Negro labor as determined by the plantation régime.
Incudes information on health and medicine. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 8821 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10999
1929 THOMS, Adah Belle (1870 – 1943)
Pathfinders: A history of the progress of colored graduate nurses. With biographies of many prominent nurses.
Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.
GMN 13079 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15331
1933 KENNEY, John Andrew Sr. (1874 – 1950)
Some notes on the history of the National Medical Association.
Digital facsimile available from PubMedCental (NLM) at this link.
GMN 7065 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9232
1934 SNOW, William (1898 – ); POWELL, Clilian Bethany (1894 – 1977)
Roentgen visualization of the placenta.
Direct radiography of the placenta. "Clilan (C.B.) Powell, longtime owner of the Amsterdam News, was born in 1894 to former Virginia slaves. Very little is known about his childhood. He received his medical degree in …
GMN 6229 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7856
1934 WOODSON, Carter Godwin (1875 – 1950)
The negro professional man and the community with special emphasis on the physician and lawyer.
An in-depth social statistical and geographical analysis of America's black doctors including their distribution, economic links, and social activism that varied throughout the South, as well as the North and West.
GMN 11663 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13864
1934 ROMAN, Charles Victor (1864 – 1934)
Meharry Medical College: A history.
The first history of an African-American medical school written by an African-American. Meharry Medical College, founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College, was the first medical college fo…
GMN 12990 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15239
1939 COBB, William Montague (1904 – 1990)
The first Negro medical society. A history of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of the District of Columbia.
A detailed history of the “first American Negro medical society formed in America and probably in the world”. Cobb was the first black American medical historian of note.
GMN 6594 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8501
1941 DREW, Charles Richard (1904 – 1950); ET AL
Report of the Blood Transfusion Association concerning the Project for Supplying Blood Plasma to England, which has been carried on jointly with the American Red Cross from August, 1940, to January, 1941. Narrative account of work and medical report.
Drew discovered the method for long-term storage of blood plasma, and organized America's first large-scale blood bank. Drew's thesis for his medical degree at Columbia was entitled "Banked Blood: A Study in Blood Pre…
GMN 12823 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15069
1944 MYRDAL, Karl Gunnar (1898 – 1987); STERNER, Richard (1901 – 1978); ROSE, Arnold Marshall (1918 – 1968)
An American dilemma: The Negro problem and modern democracy. By Gunnar Myrdal with the assistance of Richard Sterner and Arnold Rose.
Includes considerable anthropological, biological, and health data. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.
GMN 8385 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10562
1947 COBB, William Montague (1904 – 1990)
Medical care and the plight of the Negro.
GMN 12814 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15060
1949 PAULING, Linus Carl (1901 – 1994); ITANO, Harvey Akio (1920 – 2010); SINGER, Seymour Jonathan (1924 – 2017); WELLS, Ibert C. (1921 – 2011)
Sickle cell anemia, a molecular disease.
First recognition, by Pauling and colleagues, of a structural hemoglobin variant, and the beginning of the molecular approach to disease.
GMN 3154.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4015
1949 WALKER, Helen Edith
The Negro in the medical profession.
Publications of the University of Virginia, Phelps-Stokes fellowship papers, no. 18.
GMN 8084 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10260
1951 POSTELL, William Dosite (1908 – 1982)
The health of slaves on southern plantations.
Chiefly from contemporary MS records.
GMN 6596.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/8504
1951 PAULING, Linus Carl (1901 – 1994); COREY, Robert Brainard (1897 – 1971); BRANSON, Herman Russell (1914 – 1995)
The structure of proteins: Two hydrogen-bonded configurations of the polypeptide chain.
Pauling, his crystallographer R. B. Corey, and African-American physicist and chemist H.R. Branson announced the α-helix, a principal structural feature of proteins. Digital facsimile from the National Academy of Scie…
GMN 6846 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9010
1952 GEY, George Otto (1899 – 1970); COFFMAN, Ward D.; KUBICEK, Mary T.; LACKS, Henrietta (1920 – 1951)
Tissue culture studies of the proliferative capacity of cervical carcinoma and normal epithelium.
A cell biologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Gey propagated the HeLa cell line from Henrietta Lacks' cervical tumor. This cell line, which maintained a continuous growth phase, was the first immortal human cell line to…
GMN 14100 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16411
1955 TAYLOR, Julius Henry (1914 – 2011)
The Negro in science.
In the forward Martin D. Jenkins pointed out that while African Americans made important contributions to the natural sciences the awareness of the public and even other scientists was rather low. In the first chapter…
GMN 14343 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16672
1958 REITZES, Dietrich C. (1917 – 1998)
Negroes and medicine.
GMN 9297 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11479
1961 STAUPERS, Mabel Keaton
No time for prejudice: A story of the integration of negroes in nursing in the United States.
Primarily a history of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses [NACGN], which existed for the express purpose of "promoting unity within the nursing profession and furthering the cause of democracy." Integ…
GMN 12015 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/14223
1967 MORAIS, Herbert Montfort (1905 – 1970)
The history of the Negro in medicine.
International Library of Negro Life and History. Revised edition, 1968.
GMN 7048 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9215
1971 CURTIS, James L.
Blacks, medical schools and society.
A study of the trends in black enrollments in the nation’s medical schools, and various public and higher education factors that limited the supply of black physicians in America through the 1960s.
GMN 11665 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/13866
1973 TUSKEGEE SYPHILIS STUDY AD HOC ADVISORY PANEL
Final report of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Ad Hoc Advisory Panel.
Digital facsimile from http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/ at this link.
GMN 8136 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10312
1975 WILLIAMS, Richard Allen (1936 – )
Textbook of Black-related diseases. Edited by Richard A. Williams.
The first textbook on diseases of African Americans written by African American physicians. The book set the tone for recognizing the importance of race and ethnicity in the evalutation, diagnosis, and treatment of pa…
GMN 7054 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9221
1977 FRANKEL, Barbara
Childbirth in the ghetto: Folk beliefs of negro women in a North Philadelphia hospital ward.
GMN 9288 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11470
1977 STEINER, Paul Eby (1902 – 1978)
Medical history of a Civil War regiment: Disease in the sixty-fifth United States Colored Infantry.
GMN 10803 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12999
1978 SAVITT, Todd L. (1943 – )
Medicine and slavery. The diseases and health care of blacks in antebellum Virginia.
GMN 7047 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9214
1981 JONES, James H. (1943 – )
Bad blood: The Tuskegee syphilis experiment.
"From 1932 to 1972, the United States Public Health Service conducted a non-therapeutic experiment involving over 400 black male sharecroppers infected with syphilis. The Tuskegee Study had nothing to do with treatmen…
GMN 8091 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10267
1983 SUMMERVILLE, James; ELAM, Lloyd Charles (1928 – 2008)
Educating black doctors: A history of Meharry Medical College.
GMN 8082 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/10258
1984 KIPLE, Kenneth F. (1939 – 2016)
The Caribbean slave: A biological history.
GMN 7053 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9220
1984 RAWLS, George H. (1928 – )
History of the black physician in Indianapolis 1870 to 1980.
GMN 10327 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12519
