The medical community's preoccupation with medical history is based on our continued amazement at the accomplishments of our predecessors, without the diagnostic and therapeutic tools that we believe are indispensable in today's practice of medicine, such as computed tomographic scans, lasers, and third-generation antibiotics.
If you are intrigued by medical history, then A Century of Black Surgeons: The USA Experience is required reading. This two-volume set documents a facet of medical history that has not been previously compiled in one text. Of equal importance is the social history of this country, which is chronicled as a necessary part of this unique story.
Dr Claude Organ, Jr, and Margaret M. Kosiba, RN, have done an impressive amount of research and documentation in compiling this work. As is well known, much of the history of blacks in the United States has been lost because of destruction of records and lack of documentation.