Before we speak on the Tuskegee Experiment, I feel there are some questions that should be asked. What is the mission of the Public Health Department? What is the Oath of Hippocrates? What is syphilis? Who is Dr. E. Bruusgaard? These answers will become important in helping you understand the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment- a tragedy of race and medicine.
             The Public health service was established in 1918 when Congress established an Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board composed of the Secretaries of war, Navy, and Treasury. This establishment presented itself during World War I. During physical examinations of recruits, it was revealed that a high incidence of rights had venereal infections. Social hygienists had warned that venereal disease threatened to destroy Americans fighting men.
             Public Health is a broad field concerned with protecting and improving the health of a community rather than that of an individual. So what is the mission of the Health Department? To promote and protect the public health by supplementing the coordinated efforts of all those contributing to personal and community health.
             What is the Hippocratic Oath? It is an ethical code adapted as a guide by the medical profession as a means of conducting themselves through the ages. The code, or a fragment of it, has been handed down in various versions through generations. The text of the oath is divided into two major sections. The first sets out the obligations of the physician to students of medicine and the duties of pupil to teacher. In the second section the physician pledges to prescribe only beneficial treatments, according to his abilities and judgment; to refrain from causing harm or hurt; and to live an exemplary personal and professional life.
             What is syphilis? A highly contagious disease cause by the treponema pallidum, a delicate organism that is microscopic in size and resembles a corkscrew in shape. The
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