Slip Negro ttt
Hytrin?
By
John A. Kenney, M. D.
Medical Director, Tuskegee Institute Hospital
and Nurse Training School
General Secretary, National Medical
Association
Managing Editor,'Journal of the National
Medical Association
Copyright, 1912
By John A. Kenney
DEDICATION
To my esteemed predecessors in the art of healing, who have braved
the prejudices and difficulties, and laid the foundation so sure and so true;
and to my worthy contemporaries who are building upon this foundation
bulwarks which shall stand for all time to come, this little booklet is
dedicated.
3
THE NEGRO IN MEDICINE
FROM the hoodooism of the African jungles and the "root-docterin"
of the benighted Southern slave plantations to the modern treat¬
ment of typhoid fever, the administration of salvarsan and the
abdominal section, has been a long stride for the Negro physician. But this
stride he has taken—sometimes by plodding, sometimes by leaps and bounds
till he now occupies a position in the medical world that is recognized and
respected.
In this article we shall make no attempt to describe the doings of the
root doctors and conjurers, but our purpose is to give some account of the
accomplishments of the Negro in scientific medicine, and by a few individu¬
al examples, to illustrate specifically what is being done.
We sincerely hope that the idea will not prevail that the subjects here
used are the only ones thought by the writer to be of merit. Far from it!
There are hundreds not mentioned here who are just as worthy and
whose accomplishments are as brilliant as those of many we have selected
for our subjects.
The author further hopes that the idea will not gain prevalence that
he intends this little collaboration as a history of the Negro medical profes¬
sion, nor that he lays claim to any originality in this production. His only
object is, to bring to the attention of the public the fact that the Negro is
proving his ability, his worth, and his right to American citizenship in the
field of scientific medicine as well as in other directions. At the same time
it is hoped that the presentation of a few successful examples may serve as
a stimulus to the youth of the race, not only to emulate them, but to sur¬
pass them.
About 300 years ago the ancestors of the present American Negro
were practically hidden and unknown within the wilderness of darkest
Africa. Emerging thence, not into the light of a free civilization, but with
bonds and fetters, in the dark hold of the slaveship, they were transported
as mere chattel, condemned to a life of servitude, ignorance, and supersti¬
tion.
For 250 years they existed beneath this galling yoke of slavery. That
[5]
they could survive this and emerge* fiftyyears ago a new people, with anima¬
tion and hope, and meet the apparently insurmountable difficulties to their
intellectual advancement seems prodigious and should characterize them as
a race with more than the usual potency.
From amidst this p'eople have sprung leaders and illustrious examples
along all lines. Their achievements in the field of medicine have been no
less phenomenal than in other directions. They have overcome by earnest
effort the many obstacles which confronted them in their struggle for
knowledge, and in numerous instances have acquitted themselves with honor.
In the following list we mention a few of those who have gained dis¬
tinction.
James Derham
The first Negro physician in this country as far as can be traced was
James Derham of Philadelphia, who settled in New Orleans before the
period of Washington's administration, and successfully practiced his pro¬
fession until his death.
Mott's sketches in 1837 has the following:
"He learned French and Spanish, and was received a member of the
English Church in 1778, at the age of 21; and later became one of the most
distinguished physicians and surgeons in Louisiana."
Dr. Benjamin Rush, who with Dr. Phineas Bond, were the fathers of
American medicine, said, "I conversed with him on medicine, and found
him very learned. I thought I could give him information concerning the
treatment of diseases, but I learned more from him than he could expect
from me."
James McCune Smith, a native of New York, and born more than a
century ago, went to Scotland, and got an academic basis, followed by a
complete course in medicine at the University of Glasgow. This was in
the early thirties, and he then settled in New Ifork City and continued his
practice until his death nearly fifty years ago. He was a man of vast learn¬
ing apart from his profession, especially in a scientific way, and was one of
the editors of the Anglo-African Magazine and a frequent contributor to
serials and newspapers published by white men.
Dr. John Vancerlle DeGrasse was a native of New York and a
graduate of Hampton Medical College, New York, over sixty-five years
[6]
ago. He took a post course in the medical schools of Paris and followed
his calling in the city of New York.
Dr. Charles B. Dunbar graduated from Dartmouth more than sixty
years ago and was in active practise in New York until 1859, when he
went to Liberia, pursuing his profession until his death.
Dr. James H. Wilson studied privately and was admitted to practice
under the laws of Pennsylvania over sixty-five years ago. He was in active
practice in his native city, Philadelphia, until his death just after the Civil War.
Dr. David Rosell was born in Brooklyn, New York, and after a solid
preliminary preparation, went to Gottengen, Germany, graduating there¬
from in 1864. He practised in Philadelphia until his death thirty-five years
ago.
Dr. Alexander T. Augusta, of Virginia, started to study medicine in
Philadelphia, and pursued this work to a successful graduation from McGill
College, Canada. He was appointed surgeon in 1864 by President Lincoln,
with the rank of Major, and stationed in Savannah, Georgia, as head of a
hospital for colored soldiers.
When the Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, District of Columbia,
was started, Dr. Augusta was made surgeon-in-chief. Later on he engaged
in an extensive private practice at the capitol. Assisting him in this were
Drs. Rapier, Tucker, Abbott, and Purvis; all regular graduates of first-class
medical schools.
Dr. Peter A. Johnson graduated from Long Island College Hospital,
June 15, 1882; being the fifth Negro graduate of the school up to that
time. He began the practice of medicine in New York City the same year,
associated with the late Dr. David K. McDonough who had made in this
city an enviable reputation for skill. Dr. Johnson studied medicine under
Drs. E. I. and Coroner Messemer who made him their assistant in the
medical out department of the Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York for seven
years. He was one of the staff of the People's Dispensary for four years
during his early practice.
He was a charter member of the McDonough Memorial Hospital, and
its surgeon in charge during the first five years of its activities. He was a
member of the staff of the New York Milk Committee for the prevention
[7]
and cure of infant diseases. He was appointed a member of the staff or¬
ganized by the Board of Health and Charities Organization of New York
for the prevention and control of tuberculosis, and served at the tuberculosis
department of the Board of Health.
Dr. Johnson is a member of the National Medical Association, and was
its tenth president, and a member of the Tuberculosis Commission. He is
also a member of the Medico-Chirurgical Society, the New York County
Medical Society, its second Negro member, and New York State Medical
Society.
He owns a farm of about eighty acres in the famous Lakewood belt,
New jersey, where is located his summer home.
Dr. Peter Williams Ray was born in the city of New York about
eighty-nine years ago. He graduated from Bowdoin College, Maine, and
was an interne at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
His father, Peter Ray, is noted as having served seventy-six consecutive
years in one firm. When he died he was the most trusted and important super¬
intendent of the Lorrilard Tobacco Factory, and originated and perfected
many of their famous tobacco combinations, and the only one who knew
the secret or the way to prepare their famous snuff.
The subject of our sketch inherited many of the sterling qualities of
his father—dogged determination, persistency, coupled with thrift for
saving in domestic affairs. When he finished the public school course in
New York City he prepared for college, a Negro physician, Dr. Mc-
Cune Smith, being one of his tutors. He entered Bowdoin College not
only because it was one of the most reputable in the country, but because
there was no color prejudice. After graduating he served as interne in
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. In the meantime his parents
had bought a home in what was then a suburb of Brooklyn, Williamsburg.
He established a drug store there and put up his shingle. His practice
soon became large and lucrative. The success of two Negro physicians in
his neighborhood who preceded and were contemporary prepared his own
race to receive him with great confidence, and the Germans from all parts
of Long Island soon became his devoted patients. He spoke that language
fluently. He was especially successful in the diseases of children and in
obstetrics. His practice covered so long a period (over fifty years) that he
had frequently delivered children of the third generation.
[8]
He was public spirited. He was a charter member of the Brooklyn
Pharmaceutical Association, in fact, suggested its organization and was for
many years its treasurer and only colored member.
He was generous to young men of his race who aspired to be medical
doctors, assisting with money and instruction and influencing others
in their favor. He gave them wise counsel. Only a few months ago two
physicians who survive him were boasting that he had given them some of
his formulae, and they had conquered certain diseases by following his
course of treatment. He was a member of the Medical Association of the
State of New York.
He was very active in masonry. It was stated in one of the white
journals after his death that he had taken the highest degrees in that order,
and was the oldest man in America in point of membership. He was also
charter member of the Brooklyn Association of Art and Science.
From professional emolument and inheritance he was the most wealthy
Negro physician. Estimated wealth about $300,000. He was from
childhood a member of the Episcopal Church, St. Phillips, New York City,
and for a number of years a vestry-man. At one time he was elected by
the Medical Association, State of New York, as one of their delegates to a
convention held in Canada. His paper created a great furore, and when
he returned he was banqueted by the Association, and the newspapers
were full of the credit he had reflected upon his profession in the Empire
State of America; and not once was it noted that he was a colored man
representing white men. He left one child, a daughter, who is the wife of
Rev. Owen M. Waller, M. D., of Brooklyn, New York.
Dr. Joseph Ferguson, a native of Richmond, Virginia, with a family
to provide for, moved to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where he attended Avery
College. Afterward he received his medical education in Cleveland, Ohio.
He practised medicine in Detroit, Michigan, for a number of years, and also
had a good practice across the Detroit River in Windsor, Canada. For some
time he was one of the city physicians of Detroit. He died about 1878.
Dr. John C. Ferguson, who is a son of the above-named physician, was
educated in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated in medicine from the De¬
troit Medical College; a short time afterward he went to Richmond, Vir¬
ginia, where he established himself in the practice of medicine. He was
[9]
assistant superintendent of the Central Asylum for the insane in 1882 and
1883. He built up a large practice and overcame the prejudice with which
he had to encounter. He had the good will of the physicians among whom
he practised. During an epidemic in the city of Richmond he was ap¬
pointed one of the city's vaccinators.
That a colored physician in the city of Richmond, the "Cradle of the
Confederacy," had so deported himself as early as 1882 as to merit and re¬
ceive such commendatory endorsements as came to Dr. J. C. Ferguson when
he sought and obtained the appointment of assistant medical superintendent
of the Central Lunatic Asylum of Richmond, Virginia, under the manage¬
ment of his own political party, and after two years of creditable service
to be again endorsed even though political changes had occurred, is indeed
gratifying to us and to the lasting credit of the subject of this sketch.
A few extracts from these endorsements seem timely and follow:
Dr. Geo. Benj. Johnston, one of the most noted surgeons of the South,
on the date of March 8, 1882, wrote as follows:
"I cordially endorse Dr. John C. Ferguson for a position on the new
staff. I have known Dr. Ferguson for some years and can testify to his
skill as a medical man. His appointment would give satisfaction to the
profession in the state."
Dr. C. A. Bryce, editor and proprietor of the Southern Clinic which
claimed to be the leading medical journal of the South and Southwest,
among other things, on March 5, 1882, said:
"I know Dr. Jno. C. Ferguson personally and professionally, and take
the greatest pleasure in saying for him that he is a thoroughly educated,
competent and practical physician. Holding as he does a diploma from
one of the best regular medical colleges in the United States and being en¬
gaged in extensive practice for years, his qualifications are unquestioned."
The Hon. John S. Wise, attorney at law, Richmond, Virginia, and
one of the leading politicians in the state during his day, gave the following
endorsement:
"Dr. J. C. Ferguson is very highly recommended by his profession and
by men who certainly stand at its head and are not even in political sym¬
pathy with him. I have on more than one occasion heard of his excellent
qualifications as a physician. There is a peculiar fitness in his selection,
and I have no hesitation in expressing the hope that he may be appointed."
[10]
The following is from Hon. W. C. Carrington, mayor of the city of
Richmond:
"He has resided here many years—has had extensive practice among
his people—has given them satisfaction—has their confidence—and has a
reputation for high moral character. In fact, I believe him the best quali¬
fied and most competent of his race for the place he now seeks, and has
filled for the past two years to the satisfaction of those with whom he
served."
The late United States Senator Jno. W. Daniel of Virginia, on March
30, 1884, gave his endorsement beneath the following statement:
"My personal knowledge of him is slight, but no man could bear such
credentials without merit."
Dr. J. G. Cabell, president of the Board of Health, Richmond, said:
"I made the acquaintance of Dr. Ferguson shortly after he commenced
the practice of medicine in this city. Have held frequent consultations with
him and many conferences in my office. I take great pleasure in endors¬
ing his medical attainments. He is a graduate of the Detroit Medical Col¬
lege. He attended the Oberlin College previous to the study of medicine.
From my knowledge of his character as a citizen, and my observation of his
medical career in this city, I believe that he is fully qualified to discharge
the duties of the office which he asks at your hand."
Dr. H. F. Gamble, of Charleston, West Virginia, was born on the
16th of January, 1862, in Albemarle County, Virginia. His early life was
spent like most of the country lads, but without schooling. His own efforts
and the assistance of a night teacher prepared him for the preparatory de¬
partment of Lincoln University. He graduated from the collegiate de
partment in June, 1888. He also graduated from the Medical Department
of Yale University in 1891. He worked his way through school and gradu¬
ated with honors from both schools. He has been successfully practising
his profession for twenty-one years. The Charleston Gazette, a daily Dem¬
ocratic paper, last August, had the following editorial:
A DESERVED HONOR
"The Gazette desires to extend to Dr. H. F. Gamble its heartiest con¬
gratulations upon his election to the presidency of the National Medical
Association. The National Medical Association is an organization that is
made up of the colored physicians of the United States and numbers among
[11]
its members the most distinguished doctors of the Negro race in the coun¬
try. It counts its members from all over the country, and to be elect¬
ed its President is a signal honor, in the acquisition of which Dr. Gamble is
deserving of congratulations.
"Dr. Gamble alone, however, should not be congratulated. The Med¬
ical Association should come in for its share of felicitations. To the people
of Charleston its choice appears to have been a fitting and a splendid one.
Dr. Gamble is a man who has reflected credit upon his race and his profes¬
sion. He is a splendidly educated man, who, -by his ability and personality,
has earned many friends and much admiration here. It is in men of the
stamp and character of Dr. Gamble that the Negro race will find its real
salvation. Charleston is glad that Dr. Gamble has been honored."
The Pioneer Press, a West Virginia paper, said in its editorial of Octo¬
ber 7, 1911:
"Dr. H. F. Gamble, of Charleston, West Virginia, who was elected
President of the National Medical Association, whose session was held at
Hampton, Virginia, is an old graduate of Yale, and as noted for his scholar¬
ship as he is for his wide knowledge of medicine. The Association could
not have chosen a better man for its President.
"His noble worth and standing at home is second to none there, and
his patients number as many whites as colored, and among the whole of
both races, the best people of Charleston are his patrons. So much for a
manly man, whose wealth of this world's means is far beyond his demands
for the rest of his life. Congratulations and success to you, Doctor."
Dr. John A. Kenney
A word about the author of this little brochure may not be out of
place, as some of the readers may desire such information.
He is a Virginian by birth. Received his preliminary education at
Hampton Institute, Virginia, and Shaw University, North Carolina. He
graduated in medicine at the Leonard Medical College in 1901. Was in¬
terne at Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, District of Columbia, 3901
and 1902. He is Medical Director of Tuskegee Institute Hospital and
Nurse Training School, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, which position he
has held for the last ten years. Is medical adviser to Dr. Booker T.
Washington and his family physician.
The profession will probably know the writer best as Secretary of the
[12]
National Medical Association, to which position he has been consecutively
elected for eight years.
With the simple instruction from the Executive Board of the National
Medical Association in 1908 to begin the publication of a journal, accord¬
ing to plans he had submitted, he assumed the task of Managing Editor,
associating with himself Dr. C. V. Roman of Nashville, Tennessee, as Ed¬
itor, and Dr. W. G. Alexander of Orange, New Jersey, as Associate Editor,
and continues in that relation to the publication at present.
Dr. C. V. Roman, Nashville, Tennessee, was born in Williamsport,
Pennsylvania, July 4, 1864. When he was eight years old, his parents re¬
moved to Ontario, where he was reared and educated. He taught school in
Kentucky and Tennessee. Graduated from Meharry Medical College in
1890. Entered at once upon the practice of medicine in Clarksville, Tennessee.
In 1893, during the panic he took the western fever and located in
Dallas, Texas. After twelve years successful practice in this thriving city
he decided to limit his practice to diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat.
He accepted that chair in Meharry Medical College, and located in Nash¬
ville, Tennessee, 1904, which location and position he still holds.
He received the honorary degrees of Ph. D. (1904) and LL.D. (1911).
Has taken post-graduate studies in his chosen specialty in Chicago, Phila¬
delphia, and London, England. He had the advantage of travel in North
America and Europe. Was elected President of the National Medical
Association in 1903. In 1909, jointly with Dr. J. A. Kenney, he founded
the Journal of the National Medical Association.
He is vice-president and director of the People's Savings Bank and
Trust Company, of Nashville, Tennessee, and is a lay member of some
prominence in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was one of the
five lay representatives of that Church in the great Ecumenical Conference
of Methodism in Toronto, Canada, October 4-17, 1911. He has some
prominence and popularity as a public lecturer and platform speaker. His
New York (1908), Boston (1909), and Toronto (Ecumenical, 1911) ad¬
dresses were widely commented upon in the press.
He has been the recipient of public honors of the local medical socie¬
ties of Philadelphia, New York, Chicago (twice), New Orleans and Dal¬
las, Texas and the honored invited guest of the state societies of Alaba¬
ma, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas.
[13]
Dr. Roman is possibly better known as the Editor of the Journal of the
National Medical Association, to which publication his services are of such
great importance.
Dr. W. G. Alexander, of Orange, New Jersey, is Associate Editor
of the Journal of the National Medical Association. He has been with it
from the beginning and rendered valuable services in the building of this
publication.
He is an active member of the National Medical Association, and a reg¬
ular attendant upon its meetings.
He is quite successful in his practise of medicine, and takes much in¬
terest in the leading racial movements in his city.
Dr. S. C. Fuller, Westborough, Massachusetts, born at Monrovia,
Liberia, 1872; A. B., Livingstone College, 1893; M. D., Boston University,
1897; subsequent special study at the Carnegie Laboratory, New York,
1900; and the university psychiatric clinic, Munich, Germany, 1904-05.
At present, pathologist to Westborough State Hospital, Massachusetts; in¬
structor in normal and pathological anatomy of the nervous system, depart¬
ment of neurology, Boston University. Member of the New England Psy¬
chiatric Society, Association of Neuropathologists, Society of Neurology and
Psychiatry, associate of the American Medico-Psychological Association,
etc.
Among the contributions to medical literature the following have
dealt with psychiatric subjects:
Four Cases of Pernicious Anaemia among Insane Subjects. New
England Medical Gazette, 1901.
The Effects of Belladonna upon Animal Tissue. Chapter VII., Test
Drug-Proving, O. O. and L. Society, edited by Professor H. P. Bellow#,
1906.
A Study of the Neurofibrils in Dementia Paralytica, Dementia Senilis,
Chronic Alcoholism, Cerebral Lues and Microcephalic Idiocy. American
Journal Insanity, 1907.
Report of a Case of Delirium Tremens with Autopsy. Proceedings
Society Neurol, and Psychiatry, 1907.
An Analysis of 109 Cases of Dementia Praecox in Men. (In collabo¬
ration with W. W. Coles, M. D.) Proceedings of Soc. Neurol, and Psy¬
chiatry, 1908.
Cerebral Histology with Special Reference to Histopathology of the
Psychoses. Special Lecture before Dept. Biology, Clark University, Wor¬
cester, Massachusetts, 1909.
[14]
Preliminary Report of Four Cases of Aphasia with Serial Sections
Throughout the Entire Brain in Three. New England Soc. of Psychiatry,
1909.
Neurofibrils in .Manic-Depressive Insanity. Manic-Depressive Sympo¬
sium N. E. Soc. Psychiatry, 1910.
Involution Melancholia. (In collaboration with H. I. Klopp, M. D.)
N. E. Soc. Psychiatry, 1910.
An Analysis of 3,140 Admissions to Westborough State Hospital with
Reference to the Diagnosis of Involution Melancholia. (In collaboration
with H. I. Klopp, M. D.) Proceedings Society Neurol, and Psychiatry,
1911.
A Study of the Milary Plaques Found in Brains of the Aged. (Mon¬
ograph). Proceedings Am. Medico-Psycholog. Asso., 1911.
N. F. Mossell, M. D., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the hero of the
Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School, which he or¬
ganized in 1895, at 1512 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, and served as Medi¬
cal Director.
On April 27, 1909, the new $100,000.00 hospital building was dedi¬
cated, at 1532-36 Lombard Street. This work was accomplished by the
Board of Managers, under the leadership of Dr. Mossell.
He was born in Hamilton, Canada, July 27, 1856, and came to Penn¬
sylvania in 1873.
He graduated from Lincoln University in 1879, receiving the degree of
M. D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1882. He took post-gradu¬
ate studies in Pennsylvania and Europe; and was president of the Nation¬
al Medical Association in 1907 and 1908.
Dr. Mossell's surgical ability is well known. His work for the race
through the Douglass Hospital stamps him as a leader.
In connection with this hospital is a training school for nurses, from
which many bright, talented and promising young women have gradu¬
ated as nurses.
Dr. A. M. Moore is the oldest colored physician in point of service in
the city of Durham, having commenced practice there about twenty-five years
ago when a young man of twenty-four. Whiteville, North Carolina, is his
birthplace and Shaw University his alma mater. His remarkable aptitude
for medicine and the allied sciences is shown by his completion of his four
years' course in three years and also by the high average made when ex¬
amined by the board, standing second among the forty-two admitted to
[15]
practice that year. His success as a physician is notable, enjoying as he
does a large and lucrative practice.
His life has been one of many sacrifices. This is seen by the kind of
institutions with which he is identified. His interest in Sunday school
work is profound, having been superintendent of White Rock Baptist Sun¬
day School for twenty-three years and has seen it grow under his super¬
vision from a small and unimportant school to one of large and command¬
ing proportions with an average attendance of 450 and is the largest Sunday
school in the city, if not in the state. The State Orphan Asylum has com¬
manded no small portion of his time and energy. He has been a director of
this institution for many years.
Dr. Moore's connection with the North Carolina Mutual & Provi¬
dent Association has been continuous from its beginning, and it may be
said that his personal popularity was a note of telling strength in the early
periods of its history. He, with Messrs. Merrick and Spaulding, has by
united and persevering effort, reared a company which has a large and in¬
creasing business in three states and is without doubt the largest institution
of its kind in the world. Dr. Moore has been Secretary, Treasurer and
Medical Director throughout its history.
Dr. Moore is also the president and founder of the Durham Tex¬
tile Mill, a hosiery mill owned and operated entirely by colored people and
colored capital with a capacity of seventy-five dozen pairs per day. He is a
director of the Mechanics and Farmers Bank and of the Bull City Drug
Company. He was united in marriage in 1889 to Miss Cottie S. Dancy,
Tarboro, North Carolina, and is the father of two children, both girls, who
have had the best educational advantages, and have caught the spirit of
service from their father and are doing much to make Durham boys and
girls better.
His activities have been rewarded by considerable property and the
ability which he brings to its control and development are concluded to be
remarkable.
Dr. F. A. Stewart
A progressive physician and surgeon, who went to Nashville more than
twenty years ago, since which time he has been continuously engaged ia
the practice of his profession in that city.
An Alabamian by birth. A graduate of the Classical Department of
[16]
Fisk University, and the Medical Department of Harvard University, in
Boston, Massachusetts, where he received the degree of M. D. in 1888 with
a class of one hundred, ninety-nine of whom were white.
Dr. Stewart for the past five years has been professor of surgary in
Meharry Medical College. Prior to that time for eighteen years he held
the chair of pathology in that institution.
As professor of surgery in Meharry, he occupies a high place on the
surgical staff of the Hubbard Hospital, where he has successfully performed
a number of difficult and delicate operations.
Dr. Stewart is a successful business man. He owns a large amount
of real estate in the city from which he collects thousands of dollars an¬
nually as rent.
He lives in a well appointed home—a large brick building, which is
adorned by a loving wife, and two interesting little children, a boy and a
girl.
He believes in the future of the Negro, and that the discriminations
and prejudices with which he has to contend are really beneficial, in that
they are teaching him self-reliance, racial pride and economy.
* Edwin Clarence Howard is a native of Boston, the son of Edwin
F. and Joan L. Howard. The birthplace of the former was Boston, and
of the latter New York State. His early school life was in Boston, and
continued at the Liberia College, among the pioneer students, under such
eminent scholars as Rev. Dr. Alexander, Edward W. Blyden, Martin Toll¬
man and J. J. Roberts, who was president of the college as well as of Li¬
beria. After an academic training of four years he began the study of med¬
icine under Dr. Chas. B. Dunbar, a graduate of Dartmouth College. Re¬
turning to America in 1866 he matriculated at Harvard Medical College,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was one of its first colored graduates
in medicine. He served in the Massachusetts State Militia for a term as
surgeon, and entered upon the active practice of his profession in Charles¬
ton, South Carolina. In September, 1869, he came to Philadelphia where
he has carried on his medical work with success until now.
When the State of Pennsylvania organized a brigade of colored militia¬
men in 1870, he was appointed by Governor Glory as surgeon of the 12th
Regiment. There was only one other physician of his race in practice at
'Deceased since the above was written.
[17]
that time, and the death of his colleague made him the only one for a con¬
siderable period.
He is a member of the County Medical Society, the State Medical
Society, the National Medical Association and the American Medical Asso¬
ciation. He was sent as a delegate from the County Medical Society to
the American Convention in Columbus, Ohio.
He was once a member of the Douglass Hospital Staff. Upon the
formation of the Mercy Hospital, he was among its founders as well as
physician-in-chief, and is still actively engaged in the work of the institu¬
tion.
John E. Hunter
Born in Virginia. Studied at Oberlin College and was graduated from
the Medical Department of the Western Reserve University, Cleveland,
Ohio, class of 1889.
Dr. H. J. Herrick, a classmate of President Garfield, and one of the
leading surgeons of Cleveland, Ohio, was his preceptor and friend. Dr.
Hunter acknowledges his indebtedness to Dr. Herrick. He was the only
colored student in his class, but received every possible advantage. Some
of the students who were in the Western Reserve University at the same
time as Dr. Hunter have become noted physicians and surgeons. Among
them may be mentioned Dr. George Cryle and Dr. N. Stone Scott.
Dr. Hunter located in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1889, and has since
taken post-graduate work at Chicago, New York and Cleveland, Ohio.
Dr. Hunter is a noted physician and surgeon. His surgical work is
done in the very best hospitals and training schools for white nurses in the
city of Lexington, and he states that he has never been mistreated by any
of them, but on the contrary has always felt greatly obligated to them.
In his surgical work Dr. Hunter has operated on many of the leading
members of the Negro race in his city, including doctors, their wives and
children.
His family consists of a wife and four children, three of whom attend
Fisk University, Hampton Institute and Knoxville College.
Dr. Hunter owns a beautiful home and much other good property,
some of which is rented to some of the leading merchants as residences.
He was president of the National Medical Association in 1904 and
1905, and was at one time president of his State Association. He was also
[181
for a number of years a member of the Executive Board of the National
Medical Association. He has done and is doing much to lift the Negro
medical profession to a higher plane of usefulness and distinction.
Dr. John S. Outlaw, a native of North Carolina, stands pre-eminent
among Negro physicians on the Pacific coast, «f not in the United States.
His father, who was engaged in the hotel business in his native town,
gave him the advantage of a complete classical education.
While in the preparatory schools of his birthplace he was offered by
the congressman from the second congressional district of North Carolina
the appointment of cadet to the United States Military Academy at West
Point, which honor he declined in order to enter Lincoln University in
Pennsylvania, from which he took his degree of A. B. in 1888.
After graduation he studied medicine at Howard University, Washing¬
ton, District of Columbia, and was awarded the M. D. degree in 1891.
The year before while yet a student in the medical school he received an
appointment in the census bureau and was made special examiner of mor¬
tality statistics and assigned to duty in Boston, Massachusetts, and New
York City. He resigned this appointment to accept the more responsible
one of Medical Examiner of Pensions, and was assigned to duty in Wash¬
ington, District of Columbia. He remained at this post of duty for ten
years when he resigned and came to Los Angeles, California, to take up the
active practice of his profession. Since locating in said place he has
earned the reputation of being one of the most careful and successful physi¬
cians in the city. He has a large and lucrative practice. He is a member
of the Los Angeles County and State Medical Societies and the American
Medical Association, and also of the National Medical Association, of
which he is the State Vice-president, and in these bodies is regarded as a
valuable member.
During the meeting of the American Medical Association in
Los Angeles, California, he served upon many important committees. He
is medical examiner in this city for nearly all of the fraternal orders operated
by the Negro race.
He is the owner of a valuable residence in the exclusive residential dis¬
trict of Los Angeles as well as other real estate there and in Washington,
District of Columbia, and maintains a large touring car for his practice and
family.
[19]
He was married to Miss Nannie Brown of Washington, District of
Columbia, June 28, 1899, and as a result of the union, two bright chil¬
dren, a boy and a girl, adorn their home.
Dr. A. M. Curtis, Washington, District of Columbia, was born in
Raleigh, North Carolina, 1868. He graduated from Lincoln University,
Pennsylvania, 1888, and from the Northwestern University Medical
School, Chicago, Illinois, in 1891.
He practiced his profession in Chicago for seven years, during which
time he served as attending surgeon to Provident Hospital and the Cook
County Hospital.
In 1898 he was appointed surgeon-in-chief of the Freedmen's Hospital,
Washington, D. C. He filled this position for four years when he retired
to take up private practice. He is now attending surgeon to Freedmen's
Hospital, consulting surgeon to Provident Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland,
and Richmond Hospital, Richmond, Virginia.
He is associate professor of surgery and lecturer of surgical pathol¬
ogy, Howard University Medical School, clinical professor of surgery in
Post-Graduate School, Howard Medical School.
He was president of the National Medical Association in 1910 and
1911.
Besides his activities in the medical world he has been very active in
movements looking toward the betterment of the race.
He was chairman of campaign committee which had in charge the
raising of the fund to complete the $100,000 Y. M. C. A. building for the
colored people in Washington, District of Columbia.
He is a member of the Anti-tuberculosis Association.
He is found frequently in the churches giving practical talks on "Sani¬
tation and Hygiene."
Dr. George Cleveland Hall
Born at Ypsilanti, Michigan, in 1864. He attended public school in
the city of Chicago. He attended Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, grad¬
uating in 1886, after which he entered and graduated from Bennett Medi¬
cal College in Chicago.
Dr. Hall is accredited as being one of our foremost surgeons. He has
operated extensively in and out of Chicago. He has held surgical clinics
[20]
before the following State Medical Associations: Alabama, Tennessee,
Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia and Missouri. At these clinics he has per¬
formed many difficult surgical operations, bringing to the local physicians
opportunities denied them in their home town, and has assisted in the es¬
tablishment of several infimaries where none existed before, and increased
efficiency in the work of a number of others already established.
Dr. Hall does not lose sight of civic affairs. He organized the Civic
League of the State of Illinois in 1895. He has been an active member of
the board of trustees and attending surgeon of Provident Hospital for the
past fifteen years. Dr. Hall is a director and treasurer of Frederick
Douglass Center; a member of the Western Economic Society; chairman
of the committee in charge of the erection of the ($150,000) Y. M. C. A.
building; a member of the Chicago Association of Commerce; one of the
organizers of the Local Medical Association, and for a number of years an
active worker in the National Medical Association.
In the financial world Dr. Hall is looked upon as one of Chicago's
substantial citizens.
Dr. L. L. Burwell is a successful practising physician in Selma, and
stands high in the medical profession. He graduated from Selma Univer¬
sity in 1886, and from the Medical Department of Shaw University in 1889.
He conducts a drug store in connection with his practice and has
been very successful with same. The drug business is conducted in a two-
story brick building which he owns. He also owns a beautiful home and in¬
firmary, and several houses and lots in other parts of the city.
Dr. Burwell began his career as a poor boy on a farm. He worked
hard, saved what money he could and borrowed more to attend school;
afterward refunding every cent to those who loaned him.
He married Miss Lavinia Richardson, and has two daughters now at¬
tending school at Oberlin, Ohio, and Spelman Seminary, Atlanta.
Dr. Burwell's achievements, starting as he did in poverty and obscurity,
and reaching the high place which he now holds in the medical profession,
should be an inspiration to young men starting out in life.
Loring B. Palmer, A. M., M. D., was born and reared in Atlanta,
Georgia. Attended school at the Atlanta University, graduating in 1891.
Received degree of A. M. from this institution a few years later. After
graduation, taught four years in Georgia State College at Savannah. En-
[21]
tered the University of Pennsylvania in 1895, graduating in medicine in
1899. On graduation was appointed interne at Provident Hospital in
Chicago. Began practice in Atlanta in 1901. Attended clinics abroad in
1907. Is superintendent of Fair Haven Infirmary. Member of State
Medical Society and National Medical Association and president of Tri-
State Medical Association of Florida, Georgia and Alabama.
Dr. John W. Jones, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was born in
Mecklenburg County, Virginia, in 1863.
He graduated from the Leonard Medical School, Shaw University, in
the spring of 1891, and the same year began the practice of medicine in
Winston-Salem, his present home. At that time there was but one colored
physician in Winston, and Dr. Jones soon had a paying practice. Having
applied himself faithfully to his profession, his practice has so increased until
now he is counted among the foremost practitioners in North Carolina.
He has made as many as forty-five calls a day to meet the demands made
upon him. He was at one time the president of the State Medical Asso¬
ciation of North Carolina, also acted as secretary for a time, and is now a
member of the Executive Board of the National Medical Association.
A safe estimate of Dr. Jones' worth even if placed on the market is
said to be about fifty thousand dollars. About ten years after he came to
Winston, together with his brother who is one of the leading pharmacists
of the state, they purchased a lot on the corner of Church and 4th Streets,
and erected a building which we are told is valued at twenty thousand dol¬
lars. Two years ago he erected a very handsome residence in Winston at
a cost of sixteen thousand dollars*.
He is chairman of the board of trustees of the church, the First
Baptist Church of Winston-Salem, and has the esteem of his own race, as
well as many of the white race.
He believes heartily in everything that tends to develop and lift up the
Negro race; has done many deeds of charity, and is ready to contribute,
with his influence and money, to whatever he believes to be helpful to
humanity. .
Dr. U. G. Dailey, Chicago, Illinois, read medicine under Dr. Ernest
L. Stephens of Fort Worth, Texas, 1899-1902. Graduate of Northwestern
University Medical School, 1906. Assistant in Anatomy, N. U. Medical
School, 1906-07, 07-08. Ambulance Surgeon, Department of Health,
[22]
Chicago, 1907-08. (Civil Service). Externe Provident Hospital, 1906-
07. Surgical Assistant to Dr. D. H. Williams, 1907-1911. Gynecologist
to Provident Hospital Dispensary, 1907. "Total Congenital Absence of
the Vermiform Appendix in Man," Surg., Gyn., Obst., October, 1910.
Born August 3, 1885. Literary training High School, Fort Worth,
Texas, Straight University, New Orleans, Louisiana.
Dr. Dailey is one of the coming young medical men. Already he is
making himself felt in medicine and surgery. He is one of the recent ac¬
quisitions to the constructive force of the Journal of the National Medical
Association. He will be heard from favorably from time to time.
Dr. A. W. Dumas, Natchez, Mississippi, was born in Houma, Louis¬
iana, September 9, 1876. He attended the public school and worked on
the farm during vacation. After finishing the high school he attended the
Houma Academy, and at the age of nineteen years completed the scientific
course. Took up the study of medicine at the Illinois Medical College,
Department of Medicine of Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois, and
graduated in the year 1899. Came to Mississippi the latter part of 1899, and
began the practice of medicine at Natchez.
Since entering upon the professional work at Natchez, he has been
eminently successful as a practician, and has succeeded in a financial way,
having accumulated considerable valuable real estate. In connection with
the practice of medicine, he operates a first-class drug store, and a modern
private infirmary for the care of the sick, where many difficult medical and
surgical cases have been treated. He is held in high esteem by both white
and black citizens.
Dr. J. R. Levy was born in Camden, South Carolina, July 28, 1861,
and having finished the course prescribed in the common schools he en¬
tered the freshman class of the South Carolina University, but on account
of the political changes of the memorable year of 1876 the University was
closed to the colored element of the state. He taught school in South
Carolina and Arkansas between the years of 1876 and 1887, which year he
entered Fisk University, and graduated from there in 1891 with the degree
of B. S. In the fall of the same year he entered the College of Physicians
and Surgeons, now the University of Illinois, Medical Department, and
graduated in 1894. The following week he came to Nashville, Tenn., and
married Miss M. O. Harris, and the very next week took the State Board
[23]
of Examination and began the practice of medicine in Florence, S. C. He
has been fairly successful financially. His income from his practice has
been invested in lands and houses, from which fairly good returns are
gathered.
Aside from a practice which pays from $200 to $400 per month, his
rents are now $250 per month, and his holdings in city and country prop¬
erties will amount to forty or forty-five thousand dollars. Fairly well for
seventeen years work, having begun with nothing but a diploma and a de¬
termination to succeed.
He has been a member of every Republican National Convention from
St. Louis to Chicago, and is vice-chairman of the State Executive Conven¬
tion; also a member of the National Medical Association, and the Palmetto
Association.
What he has done in Florence, the physicians of Marion, Bennettsville,
Darlington, and other"towns of the state have done.
He took a course in Surgery and Diseases of Children in Harvard
Medical School, Boston, Mass., in 1894 and 1895.
He is a registered practitioner of the State of California.
With his family he has crossed the continent twice. Has twice visited
Canada, England, and France.
With the busy life outlined above, he has not neglected to prepare for
the future of his family and to lay aside something for the rainy day.
Dr. JOHN W. Darden, Opelika, Alabama, attended the graded schools
of Wilson, North Carolina. Gradutated from Livingstone College, in
Salisbury, North Carolina, in 1895. Entered the Medical Department of
Shaw University in 1897, from which he received the degree of M. D. in
1901. He took up post-graduate work in the Long Island Hospital,
Brooklyn, New York, after having graduated from Shaw.
He located and began the practice of medicine in Opelika, Alabama,
in 1902. The following year he opened a drug store in connection with his
practice, and still continues the business, giving employment to a prescription
clerk and two porters.
In December, 1906, he was married to Miss Maude Logan, of Mont¬
gomery, Ala., who was a teacher in the State Normal School of that city.
She has rendered him valuable service in helping to press forward the work
in which he is engaged.
[24]
Dr. Willis E. Sterrs was born in Montgomery, Ala., in 1868. He
attended the public schools in Montgomery and finished in Lincoln Uni¬
versity, Marion, Alabama, in 1885. He graduated in medicine at.Ann Ar¬
bor, Michigan, in 1888, and at once began to practice in Montgomery. He
moved to Decatur, Alabama, in 1890 where he has practiced continually
since.
He is owner of the Magnolia Drug Store, with a stock valued at about
$3,500. He also owns the brick block in which the store is located, and
other real estate on the main street.
He is sole owner and proprietor of the Cottage Home Infirmary and
Nurse Training School. He also owns some real estate in Montgomery.
He has been United States Pension Examining Surgeon for fifteen years.
Was one of the original organizers of the Alabama Medical, Dental and
Pharmaceutical Association, and one of the prime movers in the organiza¬
tion of the National Medical Association of which he has been Secretary of
the Executive Board for the past three or four years.
Dr. Sterrs has a large and lucrative practice, and his property valuation
is said to be about $50,000.
Dr. Geo. E. Cannon, was born in Carlisle, South Carolina, July 7,
1869. His early education was received in the public schools of his home
and Charlotte, North Carolina. He taught public school in Carlisle for
two years, after which he entered Lincoln University, from which he
graduated in June, 1893. He matriculated at the New York Horn. Col¬
lege and Hospital in New York City in 1896, from which he graduated in
1900. While acquiring his academic and medical education he worked
during the summer vacations to support himself. He began the practice of
medicine in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1900, where he still resides. He is
liberally patronized by both races. Has a practice with sLn income of
$10,000 to $12,000 a year, and besides other investments, owns $25,000
worth of real estate.
Dr. Cannon for the past three years has been President of the Execu¬
tive Board of the National Medical Association, which responsible position
he has filled with credit to himself and the Association.
Dr. Robert Fulton Boyd was born in Giles County, Tennessee. He
worked on the farm until he was thirteen years of age, and began work at
the brick trade. He attended night school for a while and later worked
[25]
half of the day for his board and attended school the other half. He
cleaned up an office at night in order to make money for purchasing his
clothing. Later he opened and taught a night school for both old and
young.
In 1876 he began teaching in the public schools, and continued this
while attending school himself, until he graduated from the Central Tenn¬
essee College, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1887, and from
Meharry Medical College with the degrees of Doctor of Medicine and
Doctor of Dental Surgery.
He began the practice of medicine and dentistry in Nashville on June
11, 1887.
He has taken post-graduate courses in the schools and hospitals of
Chicago and New York.
He has been a professor in the Meharry Medical College since his
graduation, and at present occupies the chair of gynecology and abdominal
surgery. Seventeen years ago he began hospital work in Nashville.
For a number of years he was superintendent and surgeon-in-chief of
the Mercy Hospital. This hospital having been burned some time ago, he
has re-opened in its stead the Boyd Infirmary.
For the past ten years he has served as United States Jail Physician in
Nashville.
He is president of the People's Savings Bank and Trust Co., of Nash¬
ville.
As a fraternity man Dr. Boyd ranks high in the various societies of
which he is a member. He is a public spirited citizen and may always be
found on the firing line in anything which will help the race and the com¬
munity in which he lives.
Dr. H. R. Butler was born on a farm amidst humble surroundings in
Cumberland County, North Carolina, about four miles from Fayetteville.
As a boy he grew up on the farm, doing the duties connected therewith.
He received only three months free schooling at this place. His father hired
him out for a while, when he asked to be allowed to go to Wilmington for
a better position. His father consented, and he went to the city, securing a
job as dish washer in a restaurant, next as a laborer on a lumber yard. He
was a lover of Sunday schools, and with his limited knowledge became *
teacher of a boys' class.
[26]
Prof. E. E. Green who is now the respected Dr. E. E. Green, of Ma¬
con, Georgia, and his wife, took an interest in him, taught him at night,
and prepared him for Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, having inspired
him with the idea of entering that institution, and to save his money for
that purpose.
On January 1, 1882, he left Wilmington for Lincoln University where
he remained five and a half years, and was graduated in June, 1887, with
the degree of A. B.
He worked in the summer and entered Meharry Medical College in
the fall, from which institution he graduated with the degree of M. D., in
March, 1890.
In June of the same year Lincoln University conferred upon him the
honorary degree of A. M.
In March, 1890, he arrived in Atlanta, Georgia with $25, and began
the practice of medicine.
Soon after this, wifh Dr. T. H. Slater, he opened the drug firm of
Butler-Slater & Company. This was the first drug store owned by
colored men in the State of Georgia.
Dr. Butler has been very energetic not only in his practice, but in or¬
ganized efforts of various kinds for the uplift of his race.
December 19, 1893, he organized the Georgia State Medical Associa¬
tion and was its first president.
He was the first treasurer of the National Medical Association which
was organized in Atlanta in 1895.
He was married May 3, 1893, to Miss Selina May Sloan, of Atlanta,
which union has been blessed with one child, a boy.
Dr. Butler is a steward of the Registered Bethel A. M. E. Church, a
member of the committee of management of the Y. M. C. A. which owns
its building valued at $10,000, and is laying plans for a $100,000 building.
He was at one time the president of the Association.
For years he was a trustee of the Carrie Steele Orphans' Home, and
was physician to Spelman Seminary for five years. He is now physician
to the Morris Brown College, and is founder of the Nurse Training De¬
partment of that institution.
He was appointed by Governor W. J. Northern as sergeant to the
second Georgia Battalion of Colored State Militia. He was regular cor¬
respondent to the Atlanta Constitution for ten years. He was grand
[27]
medical registrar of the Knights of Pythias, and he is now serving his
twelfth year as grand master of the Masons for the Jurisdiction of
Georgia, and is president of the Mosaic Orphan Home, and Industrial
School at Americus, Georgia.
Dr. J. Seth Hills is a graduate of Long Island College Hospital,
New York. He was interne at Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, District
of Columbia, in 1894 and 1895. He took a post-graduate course abroad.
He has practised in Jacksonville, Florida, for sixteen years, and has received
patronage from one of the largest steamship companies in the South, also
the Jacksonville Street Railway Company, and two other corporations. He
is counted among the prosperous physicians of the South.
Dr. Richard T. Hamilton, the subject of this sketch, was born at
Montgomery, Alabama, March 31, 1869. He was educated in the private
and public schools of that city, graduating in 1890 from the Alabama State
Normal School, as valedictorian of his class. He taught in the elementary
department of his alma mater, but resigned to accept a clerkship in the
Interior Department of the United States Government at Washington,
District of Columbia, under the civil service.
He began the study of medicine under Dr. C. N. Dorsette, one of the
pioneer colored physicians of Montgomery. After going to Washington,
he matriculated in the Medical Department of Howard University, graduat¬
ing in 1893.
In 1898-99 he took a special course at Howard University in Organic
Chemistry, Bacteriology and Pathology. In 1901 he resigned his position
as clerk in the Interior Department, and located in Dallas, Texas, where he
began the general practice of medicine.
He was for a time externe in Freedmen's Hospital.
Dr. Hamilton has built up a large and lucrative practice since locating
in Dallas, and is considered one of the leading and most progressive colored
physicians of the Southwest.
In 1895 he married Miss Hattie A. Dejarnette, of Montgomery, Ala¬
bama, who is a talented pianist.
In 1906 he was appointed by the Dallas Board of Education, medical
inspector of the colored public schools.
For several years he was state vice-president of the National Medical
Association for Texas, and for two terms Secretary of the Lone Star State
[28]
Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Association. In 1910 he was elected
district grand medical examiner of the Endowment Department of the
G. U. O. of O. F. and the Household of Ruth of Texas. In 1911 he was
re-elected without opposition—the reports showing that by careful selection
of new applicants, he had reduced the death-rate of that organization from
11 per thousand to 9.75.
Dr. Simeon L. Carson was born at Marion, McDowell County,
North Carolina, of slave parents; moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1885,
where he secured all of his education, finishing his medical course at that
place, with the class of 1903. On January 19, 1904, as a result of a com¬
petitive examination, he was appointed government physician to Lower
Brule, Indian Reservation, at Lower Brule, South Dakota. On September
2 and 3, 1908, he took a competitive examination for assistant surgeon at
Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, District of Columbia, and was appointed
October 2, 1908 to the position. He resigned his position in South Dakota
on October 8, and took up his duties at Freedmen's Hospital on November
7, 1908.
Dr. Carson is a general surgeon, paying special attention to neck,
stomach, and intestinal surgery. He is among the best of the race in this
field, and while having already made his mark, we feel sure that great
things are in store for him. He was married to Miss Carol Clark, of De¬
troit, Michigan, in June, 1905, and is the proud father of twins: a girl and
boy.
Dr. A. M. Townsend, M. D., Nashville, Tennessee, was born at
Winchester, Tennessee, October 26, 1875. Received his rudimentary edu¬
cation in the public schools of Winchester under the tutorage of his father,
who was a tutor and Baptist minister.
Entered Roger Williams University in 1892, and graduated from its
classical course in 1898.
Received the degree of M. D. from Meharry Medical College in 1902,
and was valedictorian of his class. Has since.that time practised in Nash¬
ville, Tennessee, and is professor of pathology in Meharry Medical College.
He enjoys a large and lucrative practice and controls a well located and
up-to-date drug store.
He has a happy family, and owns property on some of the prominent
streets of the city.
[29]
•He is prominent in medical, social and lodge circles. He is grand
medical registrar for the Knights of Pythias of Tennessee; the treasurer of
the Meharry Alumni Association; secretary of the Executive Board of the
George W. Hubbard Association; member of the Rock City Academy of
Medicine and Surgery of Nashville, and chairman of the commission ap¬
pointed by the National Medical Association for the investigation of the ex¬
istence of Pellagra among Negroes.
To him belongs the credit of recognizing the first case of Pellagra re¬
ported in Nashville or the State of Tennessee. His study of Pellagra has
been commendable, and he has contributed several articles to medical liter¬
ature on the subject.
Dr. Townsend is thoroughly a race man, and is cashier of the People's
Savings Bank and Trust Company of Nashville.
He is actively engaged in church work, and is secretary of the Tenn¬
essee Baptist Missionary and Educational Convention.
Dr. Townsend, when asked upon what his success in life depends, says:
"To my inherent energies, to the domestic training of my early life, to the
ennobling influences of Christian institutions, and to my recognition of God's
relationship to all things."
Dr. C. N. Garland, Boston, Massachusetts, was born in Alabama.
Received early education in the public schools in Tuscaloosa. Graduated from
Livingstone College, Salisbury, North Carolina, in May, 1897. Entered the
Medical Department of Shaw University, October, 1897. Took an active
part in athletics. Was a member of the football squad, and president of the
athletic association.
He received the degree of M. D. from this school in 1901. He then
went to England for a post-graduate course in the London Hospital, where
he had the opportunity of witnessing the work of some of the leading lights
of the profession.
In 1903 he began the practice of medicine in Boston, Massachusetts,
in which he has been very successful.
Dr. Garland has quite a large practice, and uses an automobile in mak¬
ing his daily rounds. He is a member of the National Medical Association,
vice-Dresident of the New England Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical
Society, and also affiliated with a number of other organizations. Aside from
[30]
owning Plymouth Hospital, he is also in possession of his residence on West
Canton Street.
In February, 1908, he purchased a dwelling at 12 E. Springfield Street,
and converted it into a hospital known as the Plymouth Hospital. It was
established to meet the demand for hospital accommodations where colored
physicians might treat their cases. It is chartered by the state, and opened
to all who are in need of treatment.
Dr. Garland and his staff have been very successful in the management
of this hospital and with their cases. Two hundred and thirty-three opera¬
tions are reported performed in this hospital, among them a number of ab¬
dominal operations for various conditions.
The Nurses' Training School connected with the hospital is chartered
under the laws of Massachusetts with power to grant diplomas. Twelve
nurses have graduated.
Roscoe Conkling Brown, D. D. S., Richmond, Virginia, was bom
at Washington, District of Columbia, October 14, 1884. Was educated in
the public schools of Washington, District of Columbia, and Alexandria, Vir¬
ginia, and in the M Street High School of Washington, District of Colum¬
bia. Received scholarship to the Dental College of Howard University,
from which he received the degree of D. D. S. (Doctor of Dental Surgery) in
1906. Licensed to practice dentistry in the District of Columbia and State
of Virginia. Located in Richmond, Virginia, since May, 1907. Member
of the National Medical Association, and at present chairman of the Den¬
tal Section also honorary member of the Robert T. Freeman Dental So¬
ciety of Washington, District of Columbia.
Author of dental manuscripts, including "Dental Materia Medica
and Therapeutics," and "Medical Education of the Dentist." Miscella¬
neous. Lectures on hygiene and sanitation at Richmond Hospital. Visit¬
ing dentist to St. Francis de Sales Institute, Richmond, Virginia.
Dr. Rebecca J. Cole, a native of Philadelphia, a graduateof the Institute
for Colored Youth, and an alumna of the Women's Medical College of
Philadelphia, class of 1866. She practiced in Philadelphia, Columbia,
South Carolina, and Washington, District of Columbia, but is now on the
retired list.
[31]
Dr. B. R. Bluitt has for a number of years successfully practised his
profession in the city of Dallas, Texas. He is proprietor of the Bluitt Sani¬
tarium, which is well equipped with modern implements where many cases
have been successfully treated. He now devotes more of his time to surgery
than to general practice. He has by his faithful work and frugal habits
come into possession of considerable valuable real estate. He is held in
high esteem by his fellow citizens as evidenced by their tendering him a
complimentary banquet, with presentation of a loving cup last fall.
He is a member of his State Medical Association and the National
Medical Association.
Dr. Charles H. Shepard is one of the rising young physicians. A
graduate of the Leonard Medical School, and attending physician and sur¬
geon to the Lincoln Hospital in his home town, Durham, North Carolina.
Dr. Shepard will be heard from in his chosen profession.
"Dr. McCune Smith, a native of this country, having graduated with
unusual distinction at the University of Edinburgh, returned here and
practiced his profession. He was one of the pioneer Negro physicians of
the United States, where his eminent professional services gained for him a
remarkable reputation for skill. He was the first Negro that established
a pharmacy, and it is due to his high character to say that his profes¬
sional work did not prevent him from rendering very material service to the
philanthropic movement for the emancipation of his people."—(Paper by
Dr. P. A. Johnson, minutes of the National Medical Association, 1905).
"Dr. David K. McDonough is a character with a remarkable history.
He came from the very depths of abject poverty and obscurity, having been
born in the midnight of slavery. Gentlemen, he has put us under a lasting
debt to him for the increased value which he caused to be put upon the in¬
tellectual possibilities of the race in this country. He was selected after
some dispute between his master and another slave owner to settle the
question as to whether or not the Negro possesses such innate mental capac¬
ity as makes him susceptible to a degree of mental cultivation, which was
then considered to be a limit within the possibility of white men alone.
"He was sent raw from the South to LaFayette College, Pennsylvania,
where he did such phenomenal work that, at the end of his course, he
graduated third in his class, earning the distinction of Bachelor of Arts, he
[32]
having been the only Negro in the institution. Soon after his college ca¬
reer his master in compliance with his request in the selection of a profes¬
sion, placed him under the preceptorship of Dr. John Carney Rogers, one
of America's most eminent surgeons, then professor of surgery in the Uni¬
versity of Columbia, who, despite the intense antipathy to the Negro then
prevailing, procured for his pupil admission to the lectures at the College
of Physicians and Surgeons.
"After having received his license to practice, he served for a number
of years as one of the physicians and surgeons to New York Hospital. His
preceptor also secured for him an appointment in the New York Eye and
Ear Infirmary where he did much excellent work. His work at that insti¬
tution caused him to be in frequent demand by some of the most eminent
practitioners of the city as a valuable consultant."—(Paper by Dr. P. A.
Johnson, minutes of the National Medical Association, 1905).
E. P.Roberts, M. D., M. A., 242 West 53rd Street, New York City.
Born, Louisburg, North Carolina, October 5, 1868. Graduate of Lin¬
coln University 1891, New York Homeopathic Medical College and Flower
Hospital 1894, member of National Medical Association, New York
County Medical Society, New York Materia Medica Society, Medico-
Chirurgical Society, Academy Pathological Science, Dunham Medical Club,
Medical Society of Inspectors of Greater New York; inspector of Depart¬
ment of Health, lecturer on Care of Babies in Public Schools of New York
City, physician in charge St. Cyprian's Babies Clinic, chairman of Colored
Men's Branch of Young Men's Christian Association, member of Execu¬
tive Board of National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes,
Committee for Improving the Industrial Condition of Negroes in New
York and the National League for the Protection of Colored Women.
Dr. Roberts is a very competent physician, and is well advised concern¬
ing the diseases of children. Because of his special skill and knowledge
along this, line, three times within the past five or six years he has been hon¬
ored with invitations to address the National Medical Association on this
subject.
He owns valuable real estate in New York City, and his yearly income
from his practice is far above the average.
Dr. W. A. Warfield, the efficient surgeon-in-chief of the Freedmen's
Hospital has held this position for the past ten years. He is a graduate of
[33]
the Howard Medical School, and served as interne under Dr. D. H. Wil¬
liams, and later was assistant to him, while he was surgeon-in-chief of the
Freedmen's Hospital, and was also assistant to Dr. A. M. Curtis during the
four years of his administration of the affairs of the hospital.
Dr. Warfield easily takes rank among our leading surgeons, and is one
of the most clever operators, especially in abdominal work, which the race
affords.
Among the others who should receive special mention may be named
Dr. A. C. McClennon, surgeon-in-charge of the hospital and nurse training
school, Charleston, South Carolina.
Dr. F. S. Hargrave, of Wilson, North Carolina, is now heading
a movement for the establishment of a hospital in the city of Wilson, and a
tuberculosis sanitarium just beyond the city limits.
Dr. Jno. W. Walker, of Asheville, North Carolina, is making good in
that city, both as a successful physician and a leader of his people. Dr.
McBraden of that city, president of the North Carolina Board of Health,
has more than once spoken publicly in the most complimentary terms of
Dr. Walker as a physician and leading citizen.
Dr. A. A. Wyche, of Charlotte, North Carolina, is a type of the
Christian physician. He is successful in his practice and a leader in his
church, Sunday school, and other movements that have to do with the up¬
lift of the people.
Dr. Joseph J. France, of Portsmouth, Virginia, is a scholarly, pains¬
taking, successful practitioner of medicine. Dr. France does not believe in
skimming along the surface, but in going to the depths for real truths.
Dr. Miles B. Jones, surgeon-in-charge of the Richmond city hospital,
Richmond, Virginia, is making a success in his practice.
Dr. W. H. Higgins of Providence, Rhode Island, was born in North
Carolina. He studied at Livingstone College, and later entered the Leonard
Medical School of Shaw University, from which he graduated in medicine.
After a post-graduate course in the North, he located in Providence,
Rhode Island, where he practised his profession, and has been eminently
successful.
[34]
He is well recognized by the white physicians as well as other citizens.
He is a member of the medical societies; has access to the leading hospitals,
and holds active and prominent place in civic movements.
He owns much valuable real estate. Is an active member of the Na¬
tional Medical Association, and state vice-president of the same.
Dr. Higgins has not missed attendance upon a meeting since he joined
the National Medical Association.
Dr. John B. Hall, of Boston, Massachusetts, first saw the light of day
in New Orleans, Louisana, where his education was begun. Finishing as
an A. B. in Yale University, he then took up the study of medicine at the
University of Pennsylania from which he received the degree of M. D.
After spending one year in the Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, Dis¬
trict of Columbia, as an interne, he went to Boston, his present location,
where he began the practise of medicine, and has been very successful.
Dr. Hall is gentlemanly in his bearing, scholarly in his attainments, and
may be found in the vanguard of progressive medicine.
He is a member of the Bay State Medical Society, and an active mem¬
ber in regular attendance of the National Medical Association, and state
vice-president for his state.
Dr. S. E. Courtney, of Boston, is a West Virginian by birth. He
is a graduate of Hampton Institute. He also attended the Westfield Nor¬
mal, at Westfield, Massachusetts, and studied medicine at the Harvard
Medical College. He was interne at the Boston city hospital, and practises
medicine successfully in the city of Boston. Dr. Courtney gives special
attention to obstetrical practise.
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, the subject of this sketch, is known and
acknowledged as the pioneer Negro surgeon. A Pennsylvanian by birth,
but early in life moved to the North, and received his early education in
Wisconsin. His medical education was obtained at the Northwestern
University, from which he received his right to practice in 1883.
His ability was early recognized. In the fall following his graduation he
was appointed demonstrator in anatomy in the school which had conferred
upon him his degree. This position he filled with honor and credit for six
years.
From 1884 to 1891 he served as a surgeo* at th« Chicago South Side
[35]
Dispensary, and as a physician and surgeon in the Chicago Protestant Or¬
phan Asylum.
During the first eight years of his practice he won an enviable position
in surgery—a position upon which he has continually and steadily built, until
today he is recognized among the leaders of the profession without regard
to color.
In 1891, with the aid of several prominent colored citizens, he organized
the Provident Hospital of Chicago. The work and worth of this institu¬
tion are too well known to require detail here.
He was appointed surgeon-in-chief of the Freedmen's Hospital, Wash¬
ington, District of Columbia in 1892. He infused new life into this insti¬
tution, and brought about many reforms, among them being the organiza¬
tion of the first training school for colored nurses in connection with that
institution. He also installed the first corps of colored internes; and the
surgical work has developed by him to so high a standard that the Freed¬
men's Hospital became a centre of interest from every section of the United
States. He remained in this position for five years, during which time
President McKinley offered him an appointment as chief surgeon to one of
the army corps then doing service in the Cuban campaign.
He is a member of the American Medical Association, the Chicago
Medical Society, and the Illinois State Medical Society.
From 1886 to 1889 he was a member of the Illinois State Board of
Health. He was a member of the International Medical Congress of 1889.
In 1907 he was appointed attending physician to St. Luke Hospital, Chi¬
cago, Illinois.
He is professor of clinical surgery at Meharry Medical College, and
each year conducts a surgical clinic of large proportions at this institution.
His operations are not confined to the city of Chicago, but extend to
all sections of the country.
The following tribute was paid to him by Dr. P. A. Johnson of New
York City, in a paper read before the National Medical Association, Rich¬
mond, Virginia, in 1905:
"Dr. Daniel H. Williams, of the Cook County and Provident Hos¬
pitals, Chicago, Illinois, stands out as a most unique example of surgical
skill. He is today one of the most brilliant stars in the galaxy of the
world's surgeons. The surgeons throughout the world owe to him a last¬
ing gratitude for the creation of a method by which the heart could be
[36]
sutured, and for the invention of a peculiarly arranged knot, by which the
delicate tissues of the spleen could be ligated to prevent hemorrhage of that
organ."
A paper read by Dr. Williams before the last Congress of Negro medi¬
cal men at Nashville, Tennessee, entitled, "Penetrating Wounds of the
Thorax," was a masterpiece of surgical knowledge. By that paper it was
most conclusively proved that all penetrating wounds of the chest below the
sixth rib or interspace must go through the diaphragm. The many exhibits
shown to the Congress by him of his remarkable demonstration of this, as
well as by other branches of surgery, convinced that vast array of medical
and surgical men, that before them stood a surgeon whose fame would go
down through the pages of remotest history as a complete refutation of the
many erroneous views and theories indulged in and disseminated by the ad¬
verse critics and detractors of the Negro race.
He is held in the highest esteem by members of his profession, not only
in his home city, but wherever he is known, and that means in every quarter
of the country.
He insists that colored men should aspire to the highest place in the
profession, and should be satisfied with nothing less. His paper, "Crushing
Injuries of the Extremities," read before the National Medical Association
in New York City, 1908, and illustrated by lantern slides, was scholarly and
complete and demonstrated the author's painstaking devotion to his work
through twenty-five years of surgical experience.
He enjoys a large and lucrative practice, which is not confined to one
race or class. He owns a home which is a model of elegance; and his wife,
who was formerly Miss Alice D. Johnson of Washington, Districtof Colum¬
bia, has proved to be an excellent helpmeet for him, is a charming hostess,
as well as a woman of extensive culture.
[37]
HUBBARD HOSPITAL, Nashville, Tenn.
Several years ago the school was made entirely a day school. The at¬
tendance, however, has constantly grown, increasing from 212 to over 400.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching that has been
making a careful examination of the medical schools of the country has
thoroughly endorsed this school and given it rank beyond any medical
school in the District of Columbia. Beginning with the opening of the
last scholastic year, entrance requirements were enforced, including one full
year of college work in chemistry, biology, physics and German. This has
reduced the attendance for the time being, but the rapid advance in en¬
trance requirements during the last several years seems to be
justified by the high grades received by graduates before the state boards.
The physician is the only man of science among the colored people.
In the judgment of leading physicians and careful scientists, the Howard
University School of Medicine offers an opportunity unparalleled in America
for the physical, social and moral betterment of the Negro race. In the
erection of modern buildings, with up-to-date equipment, with research
laboratories and other facilities, an opportunity is given to do work that
will do more to cleanse and elevate a race of millions and safeguard the
twenty millions of white people among whom they live than is offered in
any other single institution of the nation.
SHAW UNIVERSITY
SHAW UNIVERSITY is one of the schools of the American Baptist
Home Mission Society for Negroes. Its founder was Rev. Henry
M. Tupper, who remained the president from its beginning in 1865
until his death in 1893. Anticipating the demand for Negro doctors he
established as a department of the University in 1888 the Leonard Medical
School. In that year there were six graduates. In 1908 the graduating
class in medicine numbered forty-three, and in pharmacy seven. In all, the
school has graduated 323 physicians, and eighty-eight pharmacists.
EQUIPMENT
Four buildings in all are exclusively devoted to the school of medicine
and pharmacy. These are: Leonard Building, three stories of brick, con¬
taining operating room and wards for convalescent surgical patients, lecture
rooms, laboratory, reading room and dissecting rooms. To this building a
three-story addition has been made, which gives a well equipped chemical
[39]
THE LEONARD HOSPITAL AND MEDICAL BUILDING
Shaw University, North Carolina
laboratory where classes of more than 100 can do individual work. There
are also laboratories for classes in histology, biology and pathology. Phar¬
macy building of wood, two stories, containing class rooms, laboratories
and dispensary.
The hospital is modern, spacious, and up-to-date, and can care for eighty
patients. The building itself cost $20,000.00 and the equipment and land,
when everything is completed, will bring the cost up to not less than $35,-
000 or $40,000.
The Medical Dormitory, a four-story brick building.
In addition, so great has been the pressure on dormitory accommodations,
that a number of medical students have been accommodated in Shaw Hall,
the men's dormitory of the University.
There are several things about Leonard Medical School that are espe¬
cially noteworthy. One is the character of its faculty. It is made up of
leading white physicians of the city of Raleigh, a city especially fortunate
in the high character and equipment of its medical men. These men are
ex-slave owners, or the sons of former slave owners. They have gone in and
out for years before their classes treating the students with the utmost con¬
sideration, and in return there has always been the warmest feeling of loyalty
and devotion on the part of the students for their professors. Three of
the present staff are young men of exceptional ability and promise, two phy¬
sicians and one pharmacist, and these men have as great interest in their
work and in the students as the older members. It is especially interesting
that at Shaw University, an institution that was viewed in its early days
with suspicion, and whose president met with no little opposition, should
boast a faculty of Southern white physicians in its medical school. This
state of things is creditable alike to the University and to the city of
Raleigh.
DISTRIBUTION OF GRADUATES
The graduates in medicine are widely distributed as shown by the fol¬
lowing figures:
There are in Alabama 14, in Arkansas 6, in California 3, Colorado 1,
E. Delaware 1, District of Columbia 3, Florida 10, Georgia 27, Louisiana 1,
Maryland 41, Massachusetts 5, Mississippi 5, New Jersey 8, New Mexico
1, New York 6, North Carolina 29, Tennessee 1, Texas 1, Virginia 71,
West Virginia 15; in Liberia there are 2, in Jamaica 2, in Trinidad 1.
[40]
The graduates in pharmacy are distributed as follows: Alabama 23,
Georgia 3, Illinois 3, Kentucky 2, Missouri 1, New Jersey 1, North Caro¬
lina 36, Pennsylvania 1, South Carolina 11, Tennessee 2, Texas 2, Virginia
12, West Virginia 3, District of Columbia 1.
Ten of the class of 1907 went before the North Carolina Board of
Medical Examiners and each one was successful in obtaining the much
coveted license to practice medicine.
MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE
THE MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE, Walden University, was
organized as the Medical Department of the Central Tennessee
College in 1876, and was the first medical school in the Southern
States to open its doors for the education of colored physicians.
Since it was first established, 1,842 medical students have been enrolled,
1,126 have graduated in medicine, 211 in dentistry, 174 in pharmacy, and
37 in nurse training.
Of those who graduated in medicine and have been out one year or
more, about 95 per cent, are now practising; their income ranging from
$500 to $5,000 per year; and most of them have comfortable homes of their
own.
A new hospital is now under course of erection, at a cost of about
$40,000.00 for the building and equipment, one wing of which has been
completed and in use for nearly one year. It is planned that the whole
building will be completed and in operation during the next school year.
When completed it will accommodate about seventy-five patients.
The college is a member of the Association of American Colleges.
Dr. George W. Hubbard, who has been with the work from the begin¬
ning is the very efficient Dean.
[41]
HOSPITALS AND NURSE TRAINING
SCHOOLS, ETC.
STATE OF ALABAMA
Bur well's Infirmary - - - ... Selma
Cottage Home Infirmary and Nurse Training School - - Decatur
Hale Infirmary - - - Montgomery
Northcross Sanitarium ... 6 Shepherd St., Montgomery
Tuskegee Institute Hospital - - Tuskegee Institute
Virginia McCormick Hospital A. and M. College, Normal
The Old Folks' Home and Hospital - - Birmingham
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Freedmen's Hospital .... Washington
FLORIDA
Brewster Hospital ..... Jacksonville
Mercy Hospital and Nurse Training School .... Ocala
Hospital Florida A. and M. College ... Tallahassee
GEORGIA
Burrus Sanitarium - - - ... Augusta
Charity Hospital ..... Savannah
Fairhaven Infirmary - Atlanta
Lamar Hospital and Nurse Training School - Augusta
McVicar Hospital ... Spelman Seminary, Atlanta
ILLINOIS
Provident Hospital ..... Chicago
Kenniebrew Sanitarium .... Jacksonville
INDIANA
Colored Hospital ..... Evansville
Lincoln Hospital - ..... Indianapolis
KANSAS
Douglass Hospital and Training School - - Kansas City
Mitchell Hospital ... . . Leavenworth
[42]
KENTUCKY
Citizens National Hospital - Louisville
Red Cross Sanitarium - - Louisville
LOUISIANA
Providence Sanitarium - New Orleans
Sarah Goodridge Hospital and Nurse Training School - New Orleans
MARYLAND
Provident Hospital ..... Baltimore
MASSACHUSETTS
Plymouth Hospital and Training School ... Boston
MISSOURI
Provident Hospital ... . St. Louis
Perry Sanitarium ... - 1214 Vine St., Kansas City
NORTH CAROLINA
Charlotte
Durham
Winston-Salem
Raleigh
- Shaw University, Raleigh
OKLAHOMA
805 N. Main St., Muskogee
OHIO
Cincinnati
PENNSYLVANIA
Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School
- Philadelphia
Mercy Hospital and School for Nurses - - Philadelphia
The Booker T. Washington Hospital and Nurse Training School
------ - Pittsburg
SOUTH CAROLINA
Colored Hospital and Nurse Training School - - Charleston
Taylor Lane Hospital - ... Columbia
Mrs. Dr, Rhodes' Private Hospital - Columbia
TENNESSEE
Dr. J. T. Wilson's Infirmary .... Nashville
Good Samaritan Hospital
Lincoln Hospital
Slater Hospital -
St. Agnes Hospital -
Leonard Hospital
Morrison Hospital
Colley's Hospital
[43]
Hadley's Private Infirmary for wemen only
Hairston Infirmary
George W. Hubbard Hospital
Hospital Training School -
Negro Baptist Hospital
Rock City Sanitarium -
Mercy Hospital -
Nashville
Memphis
Nashville
Knoxville College, Knoxville
Memphis
- 316 Foster St., Nashville
Nashville
TEXAS
Dr. Bluitt's Sanitarium
Feagin Hospital
Tent Colony for Colored People
Dr. J. R. Shepard's Sanitarium
2034 Commerce St., Dallas
Houston
324 W. Commerce St., San Antonio
Marshall
Wright Cuney Memorial Nurse Training School
Hubbard Sanitarium
VIRGINIA
Dixie Hospital
Epps Memorial Hospital
Richmond Hospital
Women's Central League Hospital
WEST VIRGINIA
North Mountain Sanitarium
Mercer Hospital
Harrison Hospital -
Dallas
Galveston
Hampton
Petersburg
Richmond
Richmond
North Mountain
Bluefield
Kimball
MISSISSIPPI
The Dumas Infirmary
Natchez
We cannot give, specific records of all of these, but a few may be men¬
tioned. The great Freedmen's Hospital is too well known to need descrip¬
tion. The Provident Hospital of Chicago has long been in the public eye,
and is one of the institutions to which we look for our head nurses as well
as others. The Douglass Hospital in Philadelphia is also well known.
Some of the small and less known hospitals and infirmaries, etc., are fulfill¬
ing a great need by rendering excellent service. "May their tribe increase."
A few follow:
m
INTERIOR OF PHARMACY OF A. W. DUMAS, M. D., Natchez, Miss.
JOHN C. FERGUSON, M. D.
Richmond, Va.
H. F. GAMBLE, M. D.
Charleston, West Va.
C. V. ROMAN, M. D.
Nashville, Tenn.
- HOSPITAL ^
and
TRAINING-SCHOOL
F. A. STEWART, M. D.
Nashviij,e, Tenn.
JOHN E. HUNTER, M. D.
Lexington, Ky.
RESIDENCE OF JOHN E. HUNTER, M. D.,
Lexington, Ky.
J. S. OUTLAW, M. D.
Los Angeles, Cal.
RESIDENCE OF JOHN S. OUTLAW, M. D.
Los Angeles, Cal
L. L. BURWELL, M. D,
Selma, Ala,
DRUG STORE OF L. L. BURWELL, M. D.
Selma, Ala.
L. B. PALMER, M. D.
Atlanta, Ga.
RESIDENCE OF DR. JOHN W. DARDEN
Opelika, Ala.
RESIDENCE OF GEORGE E. CANNON, M. D., Jersey City, N. J.
C. N. GARLAND, M. D.
Boston, Mass.
A. M. TOWNSEND, M. D.
Nashvili.e, Tenn.
HOSPITALS
The Mercy Hospital of Philadelphia was opened February 12, 1907,
to suffering humanity of every race and creed, within whose walls colored
physicians practice and study for advancement to the higher ranks in their
profession; and young women are trained in the theory and practice of nurs¬
ing. The medical staff is composed of physicians who are graduates of
many of the leading universities and colleges in this country.
St. Agnes Hospital, Raleigh, North Carolina, in connection with
St. Augustine School. Three story stone structure, with five large public
wards, six private rooms, and large airy halls on each floor. Capa¬
city about sixty patients. Dr. Hayden, resident physician, and superintend¬
ent of Nurse Training School.
Average about four operations per week, and great many emergencies.
Colored physicians of the city can treat their own private cases, but white
doctors compose the staff.
Senior class of Leonard Medical School attends clinics, operations and
maternity cases. Cost of plant about $40,000.00. Rates $4.00 per week
in public ward, $7.00 to $10.00 in private ward. Nurse Training School
attached.
LINCOLN HOSPITAL
Lincoln Hospital, Durham, N. C., is the only institution of its kind in
that state controlled exclusively by the colored people, and throughout the
ten or more years of its history has been a blessing to the people of that
city and section. Its record of successful operations has borne an unusually
high percentage. This has been due to the skill of its attending physicians.
The plant consists of all necessary apartments suitable to the proper care of
patients, a nurse training school and a central heating plant representing a
first cost of twenty thousand dollars.
Dr. A. M. Moore may be regarded as its founder because he persuaded
the late Washington Duke to erect it instead of a monument to the colored
people on the campus of Trinity College, which he intended to do. Since
the erection of the hospital Dr. Moore has been the controlling spirit in its
management. It was through his efforts that the nurse training school was
added, together with other features which make it a well equipped modern
institution.
[45]
TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE HOSPITAL
The Tuskegee Institute Hospital and Nurse Training School, soon to
be moved into, and known as the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital, was
founded in 1892, primarily for the care of the sick among the students and
teachers. From year to year the work has grown and patients have been
admitted from the town and surrounding communities, also from other
states.
The present building is composed of two stories, together with an an¬
nex, which allows space for about 45 patients. During the past eight or
ten years a large number of operations, many of them of a very delicate
nature, have been performed, and much good has been done in the relief
of suffering for many persons, both those who entered as pay patients and
those on charity.
The Nurses' Training School has kept pace with the Hospital, and a
number of young women have received training in the care of the sick, and
are out in their different fields of practice rendering effectual service.
Seventy graduates of the school are in practice in the North, East, and
West, but principally in the South. Most of them are succeeding admir¬
ably—credits alike to the race, the school and themselves.
But the Hospital and Training School have outgrown their present
quarters and will soon be located in the new building which will be known
as the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital, which is being constructed of
brick, with two stories, 135 feet in length, and 90 feet in breadth, with
hard wood and tile flooring, also tile wainscoting in hallways, with male
and female medical wards, surgical and isolation wards, and convalescing
rooms, obstetrical ward, diet kitchen on each floor, operating rooms, con¬
structed and equipped in the most modern and aseptic manner, anesthetizing,
sterilizing and recovery rooms, elevator and dumb waiter, a children's
ward, five private rooms, head nurse's and interne's rooms, kitchen, dining
room, and emergency and class rooms.
INFIRMARIES
HOME INFIRMARY, CLARKSVILLE, TENNESSEE
Established 1906. Robert T. Burt, M. D., surgeon-in-chief and
sole owner.
Cost of property including recent additions and repairs, $6,500.00
with no incumbrances whatever.
m
Patients cared for during the year 1911, seventy-five. Fifty of this
number of cases were operatives, without a single death. Twenty-three of
the'se operative cases were major operations, mostly hysterectomies and myo¬
mectomies.
This infirmary is the only hospital of any kind in the city, white or
colored, making it necessary for the white physicians to send their colored
patients there, even the railroad cases.
Aside from what the colored people do, the white people contribute
very liberally of linen, such as sheets, pillow cases, towels, gowns, etc.,
from time to time.
THE PERRY SANITARIUM
The Perry Sanitarium, 1214, Vine St., Kansas City, Mo., was
opened for the purpose of giving to the Negroes of Kansas City and vicinity
the advantage of first-class hospital facilities. At the time it was opened
there was only one hospital in Kansas City, outside of the general
hospital, that would admit Negro patients.
The Sanitarium was the result of fourteen years of strenuous toil and
sacrifice on the part of Dr. J. Edward Perry, but when completed every
professional man of ethics was invited to bring his patients, and administer
to them as the merits of the case required.
Ninety per cent of the cases treated during the first year were surgical
and some (the majority) the most difficult known to surgical science.
Three cases out of 108 have succumbed after operation.
The hospital has a capacity of twenty beds. Six nurses are in attendance.
The institution receives patronage from Missouri, Kansas and
Oklahoma.
FAIR HAVEN INFIRMARY
Established as a private institution in September, 1909, by Doctors T.
H. Slater, H. R. Butler, W. F. Penn, A. D. Jones, L. P. Walton and L.
B. Palmer. Has a capacity of twelve beds, with operating room fully
equipped.
Since its beginning, it has been liberally patronized by the leading
white surgeons of Atlanta for their colored patients.
The only place in Atlanta where colored physicians and surgeons can
put their patients and treat them. All sorts of major operations, abdominal
and otherwise, have been done by colored surgeons in this institution.
[47]
Fair Haven Infirmary is now the official hospital for the Southern
Railway, the Central of Georgia and the Atlanta Street Railway system.
JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
IN 1908, when Dr. H. F. Gamble of Charlestpn, West Virginia was
Chairman of the Executive Board, he suggested to the General Secre¬
tary of the Association, Dr. John A. Kenney, to get up some plans for
presentation to the Board at the New York meeting for the publication of a
Journal under the auspices of the Association. This was done, and the
Board seemed so well pleased with the plans presented by the General Sec¬
retary that they authorized him to proceed with the publication, making
him generally responsible.
After some study of the situation, he offered the Editorship to Dr. C.
V. Roman of Nashville, Tennessee, and himself as Managing Editor, and Dr.
W. G. Alexander of Orange, New Jersey, as Associate Editor, also Dr.
William S. Lofton of Washington, District of Columbia, as Dental Editor;
and for a while Dr. A V. Gray, followed by Mrs. J. P. H. Coleman,
Phar. D., of Washington, District of Columbia, as Pharmaceutical Editor.
The publication has progressed from a seventy-eight page quarterly,
having made its first appearance in March, 1909, to the present time, when
it contains about one hundred and twenty pages, with a circulation of
1,200 copies.
It is especially devoted to the interests of Negro physicians, surgeons,
dentists and pharmacists; but it is so planned and written that it is of gen¬
eral interest to nurses, teachers, ministers, and any intelligent laymen who are
interested in the progress of the race.
It represents a vast amount of careful work; is printed on good sub¬
stantial paper, is well bound, and compares most favorably in all respects
with the leading medical journals.
THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
THE NATIONAL MEDICAL ASSOCIATION is composed of
Negro physicians, dentists and pharmacists; and was organized in
Atlanta, Georgia, in 1895, during the Cotton States and Interna¬
tional Exposition.
The first officers elected were as follows:
148]
RESIDENCE OF J. W. JONES, M. D., Winston-Salem, N. C.
J. R. LEVY, M. D.
Florence, S. C.
RESIDENCE OF A. W. DUMAS, M. D.
Natchez, Miss.
H. R. BUTLER, M. D.
Atlanta, Ga.
E. P. ROBERTS, M. D.
New York City
DANIEL H. WILLIAMS, M. D.
Chicago, III.
RESIDENCE OF B. R. BLUITT, M. D., Dallas, Texas
RESIDENCE OF J. SETH HILLS, M. D.
Jacksonville, Fla.
Dr. R. F. Boyd, Nashville, Tennessee, President; Dr. D. H. Williams,
of Chicago, Illinois, Vice-president; Dr. Daniel L. Martin, of Nashville,
Tennessee, Secretary; Dr. D. H. C. Scott, Montgomery, Alabama,
Treasurer; Dr. H. R. Butler, Atlanta, Georgia, Chairman Executive Board.
During the first eight years the meetings were held more or less irregu¬
larly in Nashville, Tennessee, St. Louis, Missouri, and Louisville, Ken¬
tucky. In the year 1903, the Association held its annual meeting in the
city of Nashville, Tennessee, with Dr. F. A. Stewart of that city as Presi¬
dent. From this time the Association seemed to begin a new life, and
meetings which have grown in interest have been held annually since in the
following cities: Lexington, Kentucky, Richmond, Virginia, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Maryland, New York City, Boston, Massachu¬
setts, Washington, District of Columbia, Hampton, Virginia, and in August
of this year the meeting will be held at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama.
The Association has grown in strength and importance as well as
numerically. In the year 1904 there were less than fifty members regularly
enrolled on the books of the Association. We now have a membership of
five hundred and twenty-one.
The object of the Association is to organize for mutual benefit and
helpfulness the Negro physicians, dentists and pharmacists; and to insure
progressiveness in the profession. It is also the object of the Association to
help improve living conditions among the Negro people by teaching them
the simple rules of health.
Wherever the meetings are held annually, discussions are held for the
benefit of the people; also affiliated state and local organizations, as well
as individual members, give helpful instructions along these l!nes in their re¬
spective communities.
Dr. H. F. Gamble of Charleston, West Virginia, is at present the
President of the Association.
Dr. John A. Kenney, of Tuskegee Institute, is the Secretary as he has
been for the past eight years.
Dr. J. R. Levy, of Florence, South Carolina, is the Treasurer.
Dr. George E. Cannon, of Jersey City, New Jersey, is the Chairman
of the Executive Board.
[493
HEALTH PROBLEMS OF THE NEGROES
*By JOHN A. KENNEY, M. D.
Tuskegee Institute, Alabama
IT IS gratifying to state that the Negroes are becoming very active in the
crusade against preventable diseases. In many places, without quibbling
over such academic questions as whether the Negro is dying as rapidly
as some other people, or whether there is some racial inherency productive
of its high mortality, or whether it is due to environment, the race is realiz¬
ing that its death-rate is high; that certain diseases are taking more than
their fair toll of human life from its ranks, and that many of these diseases
are preventable. With this realization, many Negroes have set to work to
improve their living conditions and reduce the mortality.
As might be expected the medical profession was among the first to
realize this and to seek for improvement. In the year 1895 the National
Medical Association, composed of representative Negroes in the practice of
medicine, dentistry and pharmacy, was organized in the city of Atlanta, with
the object of improving the conditions of Negro professional men, and
through them, helping to educate the masses along the line of better
health and right living. The influence of this organization has been felt in
most of the country east of the Mississippi River, from Boston in the
North to Atlanta in the South.
At its annual sessions one of the chief features has been at least one
public session for the benefit of the people when subjects of popular inter¬
est are discussed in simple language.
Among the topics thus presented are the following: The Cause, Pre¬
vention and Treatment of Tuberculosis, Infant Mortality, The Proper Care
and Feeding of Infants, etc.
That these discussions have been appreciated by the laity is attested by
the fact that they have always been given in crowded halls, and we have
every reason to believe that they have done good.
•Reprinted from the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
March,$1911
[50]
Before the organization of the National Medical Association, there were
in existence few state and local medical societies among the Negroes.
Most of those that were in existence have affiliated with the National, and
a great many others have been organized under its influence. At the pres¬
ent time nearly every state having a sufficient number of Negro physicians
has its medical society, and, aside from this, nearly all of the cities and many
of the large towns also have local societies, and almost without exception,
to a variable degree, they are striving to help the Negro people attain to
higher planes of living and thus improve their health and reduce their
death rate.
Early in the year 1910, the executive board of the National Medical
Association appointed commissions to study tuberculosis, hookworm dis¬
ease and pellagra among the Negroes. These reports, though incomplete,
furnished one of the interesting features of the last meeting of the Associa¬
tion.
A few illustrations may be mentioned. In 1908 the Bay State Medi¬
cal Society of Boston, Massachusetts began a series of public meetings.
The first meeting was held Sunday, February 3, the general subject of
"Hygiene" being discussed under the following heads: "Oral Hygiene,"
"Personal Hygiene" and "Practical Hygiene." In March, the general sub¬
ject of "Water" was discussed as follows: "Contamination of Water,"
"Purification of Water," "Medicinal Uses of Water." In April, "Milk"
was the general subject and was discussed as follows: 'Human Milk and
Its Advantages," "Contamination of Milk," "Infant Feeding." In May
the general subject of "Tuberculosis" was discussed as follows: First,
"Past Present and Future of Tuberculosis;" second, "Channels of Infection
and Early Symptoms;" third, "Efforts Being Made to Control the Disease."
These meetings were all well attended and evinced a surprising
amount of interest on the part of the people in all walks of life. Since that
season the society has held many similar meetings in all the colored churches
of the city. Similar meetings have been held by the North Jersey Medical
Society. It is the policy of this society to hold four of these meetings each
year.
At the last meeting of the Louisiana Medical, Dental and Pharma¬
ceutical Association, $100.00 was appropriated by the society as a nucleus
for the establishment of a tuberculosis hospital for the treatment of Negro
patients. A committee hae beea appointed to formulate plans aad secure a
[51]
location. An Anti-tuberculosis League has been established by Negro
physicians of Louisiana. Lectures on hygiene, sanitation and tuberculosis
are delivered by Negro physicians to schools, associations and summer nor¬
mals. A public health car has been put into service by the Louisiana State
Board of Health, which is admirably equipped for the purpose of traveling
through the state, stopping at various towns and cities, where lectures are
delivered on hygiene and sanitation.
The Alabama Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Association has
for a number of years devoted especial attention to topics pertaining to the
health and sanitary conditions of the people. At its meeting in Selma in
1909, one evening session was devoted to the subject of tuberculosis in one
of the largest churches in the city which was packed with an interested and
appreciative audience.
The Lone Star Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Association of
Texas holds annual meetings, and, aside from the purely professional aspects
of these gatherings, especial attention is paid to health topics.
The Medico-Chirurgical Society of New York for the past year has
been teaching the people by means of lectures in the different churches, etc.
The Medico-Chirurgical Society of the District of Columbia, with a
membership of seventy or eighty, devotes much of its attention to topics
pertaining to the public health. An Anti-tuberculosis League has been formed
in the city of Washington with a membership of about 2,000.
In addition to what Negro physicians are doing in an organized way, a
tremendous amount of work—a great deal of it unheard of outside of their
immediate communities—is being done by individual physicians. Without
doubt the Negro physician is one of the most potent forces for the uplift
of the race, and there seems to be a growing realization on his part of what
his great responsibilities are in this regard. The great volume of his work
is done in private, in his office consultations, on his daily rounds, in the
churches, the secret orders, the Sunday schools, the Y. M. C. A.'s, and in
a great many other gatherings; he uses his influence for the betterment of
racial conditions, and at the same time for the good of the public, for it
cannot be denied that whatever may be done for the uplift of the Negro as
a race, at the same time, helps the general public.
As an instance of the above I might cite a few examples: Dr. A. A.
Wyche, a Negro physician practising in the city of Charlotte, North Caro¬
lina, was impressed with how little our young men knew about caring for
[52]
their general health, and to that end began a course of Sunday afternoon
lectures to boys and young men on different subjects pertaining to their
welfare. He said, "It was surprising to know the good these talks have
done. So many have come to me privately and expressed how much they
have been helped by them." He is now preparing a series of lectures to be
given to the young women. He is also giving lectures once a week to
trained nurses, to the Minister's Union, and the graded school teachers
upon hygiene and other medical subjects.
At Atlanta, the Fairhaven Infirmary is operated by six Negro physicians
and is doing great service in offering shelter at very reasonable rates. The
nurses from the Nurse Training Department of Morris Brown College are
sent out to do charity work under the direction of physicians, and in that
way carry relief to the homes of many who really need the care of a nurse
but could not pay for such services.
Dr. R. F. Boyd of Nashville, Tennessee, writes: "I have been deeply
interested in this subject for a number of years. I am at present president
of the Anti-tuberculosis League of Nashville which holds bi-monthly meet¬
ings in the various churches, instructing the people as to the origin, pre¬
vention and cure of 'the Great White Plague.' We have a committee
that distributes sputum cups to those who are subject to the disease. »The
anti-spitting law has been so thoroughly taught that now most of the peo¬
ple obey it almost implicitly, and the amount of spitting on the floors, cars
and side walks is very much reduced. Since we began this campaign many of
our people are living in better houses, wear better clothes and are more
careful about the selection and preparation of their food. The churches,
schoolhouses and public buildings are better ventilated and the mortality is
lessened."
In Lexington, Ky., the Local Negro Medical Society frequently gives
lectures on health topics to help educate the people in the prevention as
well as treatment of the disease, and special effort is made to decrease the
mortality from tuberculosis. Some of the Negro insurance companies are
alive to the issue and are taking steps to benefit the health and prolong the
lives of their policy-holders. The North Carolina Mutual and Provident
Association of Durham, North Carolina, through Dr. A. M. Moore, its
medical director, advises that the most potent method is the bedside in¬
struction given by agents and superintendents while paying sick claims.
This comes at a time when one is more inclined to receive instruction.
[53]
Through our annual agents' conference I give a daily lecture on sanitation,
contagious and preventable diseases, and explain the danger of flies and
water supply, as well as buying second-hand bedding, carpets or clothes;
moving into houses in which contagious sickness has been prior, especially
tuberculosis cases. We try to make every agent a sanitary officer. We is¬
sue a quarterly bulletin which is an advertising chart, one page of which is
devoted to sanitation and health hints.
"I have succeeded in having several district physicians' societies organ¬
ized which meet in different cities, holding public meetings on sanitation,
hygiene and contagious diseases. We are constantly urging the agents by
circular letters and talks to strive in every way to better the condition of the
people in as many ways as possible."
The Union Mutual Aid Association of Mobile, Alabama, distributes
through its agents, from time to time, helpful literature. Health talks are
given to the agents by physicians. The agents are required, as cause and
opportunity present, to speak to the policy-holders on improving their sani¬
tary surroundings.
The Union Mutual Aid Association is inaugurating this year the plan
of giving small sums of money to the health department of a number of
municipalities of the state to be applied to sanitary improvement. It is not
expected that the fund presented will accomplish very much, but it will
help to wake the colored people up to the fact that some of the more
thoughtful of the race are alive to the necessity of making tahgible effort
along this line. The company is planning at some time in the future to
give one yearly medical examination to its policy-holders at any time the
policy-holder, in good standing, may elect to take the same.
The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Virginia,
is doing good work at its annual conferences by bringing together race
leaders and teachers, physicians, etc., and among other subjects, discussing
the health conditions among the Negroes. At the 1909 conference the
Anti-tuberculosis League of Virginia was organized. In Elizabeth City
County they are trying to teach the people that consumption is curable if
taken in hand in time, and to apply to an intelligent physician for treatment
instead of going to the druggist or taking patent medicines.
Great efforts are being made in Norfolk to prevent the spread of con¬
sumption. Some four years ago the Anti-tuberculosis League opened a
free clinic for the treatment of consumption, three days in the week being
[54]
devoted to colored patients, and for the year ending September 30, 1909,
sixty-four colored patients were treated at this clinic. These patients
were supplied with sputum cups, medicine and printed instructions as to
how to take care of themselves and protect themselves from infection, thus
aiding in their own cure and protecting others from becoming victims of the
disease. In October, 1909, a tuberculosis clinic was opened in the city of
Norfolk for the colored people, with a trained nurse in charge, and seven
colored physicians on the clinic staff in charge of the work. The city paid
the salary of the nurses and the expenses of the clinic; the physicians volun¬
teered their services. From October 1, 1909 to June 1, 1910 one hun¬
dred and three patients were treated at this clinic. The nurse was re¬
quired to follow up the patients who attended the clinics and give them in¬
structions in their houses. One thousand six hundred and eighty-five such
visits were made during the past year.
An Anti-tuberculosis League was organized in Portsmouth, Virginia,
April 30, 1909. On October 19, 1909 the Richmond branch of the col¬
ored Anti-tuberculosis League was organized. This league has held a series
of public meetings at churches. The third Sunday in January, 1910 was
observed as tuberculosis day. A sermon on tuberculosis was preached in
nearly every colored church in Richmond, and literature bearing on the
subject was distributed. The visiting committee of the league, with Miss
Mary F. Clark, a registered nurse, as chairman, did very important work by
affiliating with the city health authorities in hunting up tubercular patients
and providing proper treatment. The committee divided the city into dis¬
tricts and nurses were assigned to each district. Food, clothing, medicine,
and even fuel has been furnished for the sick. Persons have been taught
how to care for sick, and how to clean and care for their houses, and in
some instances cooking lessons were given, and in many other ways this
committee has helped along the work. The membership of the league is
about four hundred.
Another element in the work of improving the health of the Negroes
is the rise of the Negro hospitals. Dr. George W. Hubbard, Dean of
Meharry Medical College, reports that the graduates of Meharry own and
control six institutions of this kind in Tennessee, two in Oklahoma, five in
Texas and one each in Missouri, Colorado and Georgia. These hospitals
and sanatoriums have' been well patronized, and have proved financially sue-
cessful and have done much to prevent the sufferings of the colored people.
[55]
Space will not permit me to do more than barely mention the names of a
great many others which are either owned or controlled by Negroes: Prov¬
ident Hospital, Chicago; Freedmen's Hospital, Washington; The Frederick
Douglass Memorial Hospital, Philadelphia; The Plymouth Hospital, in
Boston; the Provident Hospital, in St. Louis; the Provident Hospital, in
Baltimore, Maryland; the Mercy Hospital, Philadelphia; the Richmond
Hospital, and the Woman's Central League Hospital in Richmond, Virginia;
the Lincoln Hospital, at Durham, North Carolina; the St. Agnes Hospital,
and the Shaw University Hospital, at Raleigh, North Carolina; the Hos¬
pital and Nurse Training School at Charleston, South Carolina; the
Charity Hospital, at Savannah, Georgia; the WcVicar Hospital, at Spel-
man Seminary, Atlanta; the Fairhaven Infirmary, Atlanta; the Lamar
Hospital, Augusta; the Burrus Sanatorium, Augusta; the Tuskegee Insti¬
tute Hospital, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama; the Hale Infirmary, Wont'
gomery; the Northcross Sanatorium, Montgomery; the Cottage Home In¬
firmary, Decatur; the Old Folk's Home and Hospital, Birmingham; the
Burwell Sanatorium, in Selma; the Harris Infirmary, Mobile, Alabama; the
Kenniebrew Sanatorium, Jacksonville, Illinois; the Red Cross Sanatorium,
Louisville, Kentucky; the Burt Sanatorium, Clarksville, Tennessee; the
Lincoln Hospital, Indianapolis, Indiana, and the Perry Sanatorium, Kansas
City, Missouri.
Along with the establishment of Negro hospitals have arisen the
nurses' training schools. Most of the hospitals mentioned above have con¬
nected with them such schools which are sending out from year to year a
large number of colored women who are not only getting ready employment
among the white people but are taking their share of the burden of spread¬
ing the gospel of good health and right living among Negroes.
The Associated Charities of Birmingham, Alabama, employs a colored
nurse to do settlement work, and furnishes medical attention without
charge where needed.
Under the supervision of the Visiting Nurses' Association of Chicago,
there are four of the graduate nurses of Provident Hospital working among
the Negroes; also one graduate of this hospital is a member of the school
nurses' force. Her work is in the school where a large per cent, of the pu¬
pils are Negroes. In all probability in the near future another Negro
nurse will be added to the tuberculosis nurse force. A tuberculosis dispen¬
sary is about to be established in connection with Provident Hospital.
[56]
From the third annual report of the Chicago Tuberculosis Institute,
1908, we quote: "Early in February a mass meeting of colored people was
held in Fulton Hall. The result of this meeting was the formation of a
strong Negro committee which has done active work during the year and,
among other things, arranged for a dozen or more Sunday services at the
different colored churches in the city with sermons on tuberculosis."
Dr. Anna R. Cooper, a colored physician, is the leader of a movement
to establish the Paul Lawrence Dunbar Sanitarium for the treatment of tu¬
berculosis among Negroes. Governor Hadley of Missouri has recently ap¬
pointed an important tuberculosis commission. The object of the com¬
mission is to find out just what the sanitary conditions are among the Ne¬
groes. The Municipal Health Leagues were recently formed by both the
white and colored people of Raleigh, North Carolina.
At Asheville, North Carolina, in both colored and white schools, the
modern health drinking faucets have been established and other improve¬
ments in sanitation have been installed.
Wuch is being done to improve the conditions in Savannah, Georgia.
The Wen's Sunday Club, colored, of that city was organized in 1905.
It has had an average attendance since its organization of two hundred peo¬
ple. About every colored physician in the city has spoken before the club.
In the summer of 1905 a regular campaign for health improvement was
carried on. All the colored churches were visited and addresses made at
each one by physicians and others. Wothers' clubs were organized es¬
pecially to assist in improving health conditions.
The colored Knights of Pythias are helping to restore to health a
great many people by having established in 1908 at Hot Springs, Arkansas,
a bath house and sanitarium where thousands of colored people have gone
and received benefit by the scientific application of the waters.
The Tuskegee Institute has been alive to this movement and in num¬
erous ways has attempted to improve conditions in the school, in the sur¬
rounding communities and in other places. Several forces have co-operated
along this line.
The American tuberculosis exhibition, under the direction of Wr. E.
G. Routzahn, paid a visit to the Institute in December, 1908, remaining
several days, giving stereopticon lectures, health talks, as well as displaying
the exhibit to thousands of visitors, including those connected with the
school, the town of Tuskegee and the surrounding community. At the
[57]
same time a Tuberculosis Congress was held, where important subjects con¬
cerning tuberculosis and the health of the Negro were discussed.
At the annual Negro Conference of 1909 the subject, "General Health
Conditions of Negroes in the Southern States," was discussed under the
following headings:
"How the ministers can assist in bringing about better health condi¬
tions;" "What the teacher can do to improve our health conditions;"
"How the doctor can assist in improving our general health conditions;"
"Food and its relations to health."
The late Dr. S. P. Lloyd, of Savannah, Georgia, led the discussion
with a paper on health conditions from the physician's standpoint. He
gave as the general causes of the high death rate among the Negroes poor
housing conditions, bad landlords, dissipation, ignorance. He advocated
improving these conditions by general education, by public instruction through
the newspapers, physicians and ministers; that the municipalities ought to
see that better houses are built for the Negroes. He also advocated the
systematic and permanent co-operation of the Negroes themselves.
Bishop Alstork told how the church could help. During the discus¬
sion individual communion cups were advocated, also that lodges should
hold shorter sessions; that churches should not be swept out Sunday morn¬
ings just before services.
The Tuskegee Institute has also assisted in this work by the publica¬
tion of bulletins of health under the direction of the resident physician.
These topics have included, "Tuberculosis," "Typhoid Fever," "The Dan¬
ger of Flies," and other topics along sanitary lines. Stereopticon lectures
on tuberculosis, general sanitation and the hookworm disease have been
given, and other health talks to students and teachers in the school; also to
the Macon County Farmers' Institute, the Macon County Teachers' Insti¬
tute and to some of the Negro churches.
Four years ago in connection with the hospital there was inaugurated
among the women what is known as the Hospital Aid Society, composed of
an advisory board of ten women and members at large from the school and
community. This society has done a great deal to help improve conditions
at the Institute Hospital; to make patients and nurses more comfortable; to
visit the sick in the community; in many instances furnishing medical atten¬
tion and nurse's services, as well as nourishment and medicine, for those too
poor to pay for these necessities. It also maintains a charity room and bed
[58]
at the Institute Hospital in which suitable indigent patients are taken for
operative and other treatment free of charge. At the last general meeting
of this society it was interesting to hear some of these poor patients tell
with gratitude how they have been helped.
Quite recently all of the school children attending the Children's
House, about two hundred, were examined by the resident physician and
his assistants. A great many defects were found; parents were advised of
the same and directed to physicians, dentists and specialists as the condition
required, in order that the defects might be remedied.
The colored women's clubs are working to improve the homes through
reading circles, by teaching domestic science and by other means. Some of
the clubs are conducting homes for aged men and women, and for boys
and girls. The Boys' Reformatory at Mount Meigs, Alabama, where
thirty-seven boys and two men are cared for on land that cost $500.00, with
a building costing $1,200.00, is an example.
The Woman's Club of Tuskegee Institute is especially active. Houses
are visited with the view to teaching the people the simple principles of hy¬
giene. The smallest details are looked after, as how to prepare and serve
their food, how and when to bathe, how to ventilate their houses, how to
care for their hair, the washing of their clothing, cleaning of their teeth,
sleeping between sheets, and all such subjects as tend to improve their home
conditions. The special subjects of tuberculosis and typhoid fever have
been discussed before the people in the most elementary manner possible.
Mrs. Booker T. Washington says, "The people themselves are most respon¬
sive and co-operative, and as a result of the work which has been done
along these lines, great improvements have been made."
THE NEGRO IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
From "Der Neger in den Vereinigten Staateri von Nordamerika
(The Negro in the United States of America) by Moritz Schauz.
Essen, 1911*
Negro physicians and surgeons numbered 1,734 in the year 1900, and
besides these there were 212 colored dentists and 200 pharmacists. While
a few educated physicians and apothecaries, some of them slave-born, were
practising among their people as early as the end of the eighteenth century,
yet the majority of the Negro "doctors" consisted till far into the nine-
translation by Miss E. L. Herron, Hampton Institute, Virginia
[59]
teenth century of "root doctors'" who healed by spells and by practising by
superstition. After the Civil War, however, a number of Negroes took up
the scientific study of medicine, and Howard University in Washington
alone has graduated over a thousand such students. In general these
colored physicians, surgeons and pharmacists have the esteem of their
white colleagues, and contribute notably to the improvement of the hygiene
of their race which still leaves much to be desired. It is indubitable that
these colored physicians have made the greatest progress of any members of
their race, and together with the teachers, have been of the greatest service
to it, as is clearly shown by the slowly decreasing mortality of the Negroes.
The colored physician, like his white colleague in North America, is
often the proprietor of a pharmacy. Patent medicines are as much beloved
by the Negroes as by the people of North America in general.
The numerous Negro hospitals have already been mentioned.
The National Medical Association founded in 1895 brings the Negro
physicians and surgeons together in annual conferences.
In the chapter on Benefit Societies, etc., there is the following
paragraph:
The number of orphanages and asylums for widows, cripples and aged,
founded by Negroes, amounts to almost 100, to which must be added 40
hospitals conducted by Negroes. While the most of the oldest of the
homes for the aged are supported almost entirely by the colored people
themselves, and the orphanages too receive large financial aid from them;
the more recent colored hospitals though originated by Negroes and con¬
ducted by them nevertheless receive their principal support from the state,
and from white benefactors. Special tuberculosis sanatoria for Negroes
have also been founded quite lately in various places.
In closing, the author wishes to acknowledge the courtesies of Mr.
William C. Bolivar of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who furnished interesting
data for a number of his sketches; Dr. P. A. Johnson of New York City,
from whose article, "The Development of Medical Science and the Rela¬
tion the Negro Sustains to It," in the minutes of the 1905 meeting of the
National Medical Association, he has quoted; Mrs. C. A. Attwell of Tus-
kegee Institute, Alabama, for inspiring words and useful information; also
Mr. A. A. Thomas, the very capable printer of the Tuskegee Institute
Printing Press, who has made many helpful suggestions.
[60]