View a FREE sample

Chapter 1 - Childhood

• Dr. Spencer Black and his brother, Bernard, were born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1851 and 1848, respectively.

• Their father was the surgeon Gregory Black.

• Their mother, Meredith Black, died when delivering Spencer.

• Dr. Gregory Black was a respected professor of anatomy at the Medical Arts College of Boston.

• He conducted dissections for students at a time when cadavers were in scarce supply.

• He and his sons would go and dig up corpses to use in his classes.

• In 1868, Dr. Gregory Black died of smallpox.

• In 1869, Spencer and Bernard moved to Philadelphia and lived with their uncle Zacariah and aunt Isadore.

• Although Gregory had set aside some money for his burial, Zacariah and Isadore had to pay some of the expenses themselves.

Chapter 2 - Academy of Medicine

• By the time the Black boys moved to Philadelphia, Bernard had completed three years of schooling at the Medical Arts College...

(read more Chapter Abstracts)

This section contains 1,895 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample