"At the last session of the American Climatological Association one of the speakers declared that in pneumonia 'Negroes invariably run a subnormal temperature.' The question is did he use a thermometer; if so, what kind. Another stated that he had never seen a Negro recover from tuberculosis. Few Negroes have sufficient money to indulge in such a luxury."
These are snippets from the "Items" section of the Oct.-Dec. 1909 issue of the Journal of the National Medical Association - the publication of the organization created in 1895 for American black physicians, who were closed out of the major professional group, the American Medical Association, until well into the last century.
The National Library of Medicine has made available online the complete archive of the journal, which began publication 100 years ago and continues today. It's on PubMed Central, the library's free digital archive of full-text journal articles. The library announced the addition this month, in honor of Black History Month.
More from the National Library of Medicine press release:
Since its founding, this landmark journal has enabled African American health professionals to keep current regarding the latest medical and public health practices, even in the face of segregation and discrimination. This archive provides historical insight into the social, medical and public health issues that continue to be of particular concern to African American patients and physicians. It has also served as a venue to challenge disparaging interpretations of African American health history published in other medical and social science journals. The collection is of great interest to U.S. and international researchers concerned with the societal impact of health care inequalities. Scholars seeking to understand the historic barriers faced by the African American patient and physician will find this collection to be an invaluable resource.
