Blacks in Medicine Clinical, Demographic, and Socioeconomic Correlat
This socially conscious, culturally relevant book explores the little-known history and present climate of Black people in the medical field. It reveals the deficiencies in the American healthcare structure that have contributed to the mismanagement
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Blacks in Medicine
Statuette of Imhotep in the Louvre, Paris. (Image courtesy of Hu Totya CC 3.0) (By anonymous, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=657268) Imhotep, son of mythical creator god Ptah, was born in Egypt about 3000 BCE. During his life, he was renowned as a philosopher, sage, scribe, poet, astronomer, chief lector priest, magician, and architect. He designed and constructed the first man-made stone structure, the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, part of the necropolis of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis. He was most famed for his skill as a physician and is generally considered the original author of the content of the Edwin Smith Papyrus, the oldest known surgical treatise on trauma (ca. 1600 BCE), which contains almost 100 anatomical terms and describes 48 injuries and their treatment. (Many historians believe that the text of the Smith papyrus was copied from a much older document originally written by Imhotep.) The first phrases of the Smith papyrus demonstrate that thousands of years before William Harvey, the ancient Egyptians directly associated the pulse with the heart, understanding its importance as the central organ of the body. In the papyrus, injuries are assessed with palpation, described and diagnosed rationally, with treatment, prognosis, and explanatory notes. Imhotep was the first known physician to extract medicine from plants and is remembered for viewing disease and injury as naturally occurring, not as punishments inflicted by the gods, spirits, or curses. He was known as a medical demigod 100 years after his death and was elevated as a full deity by the Egyptians in c. 525 BCE, paving the way thousands of years before the arrival of the Greek/Roman god Asclepius and the Greek father of medicine, Hippocrates.
Richard Allen Williams
Blacks in Medicine Clinical, Demographic, and Socioeconomic Correlations
Richard Allen Williams Encino, CA USA
ISBN 978-3-030-41959-2 ISBN 978-3-030-41960-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41960-8 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty,
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