Herbert Scurlock
*This date celebrates the birth of Herbert C. Scurlock, who was born in 1875. He was a Black biochemist who pioneered the use of radiation therapy for cancer treatment and X-rays to diagnose dental problems.
Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he graduated from Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, with an A.B. in 1895. He earned a medical degree from Howard University in 1900 and a master of arts from Columbia University in 1915. From 1900 to 1905, Dr. Scurlock was an assistant in chemistry and a lecturer in X-ray and electrotherapy at Howard University’s College of Medicine. He then temporarily took charge of chemistry and physics at Howard’s College of Liberal Arts before returning to the College of Medicine as a full professor and head of the Department of Physiological Chemistry.
Dr. Scurlock was a member of the Medico-Chirurgical Society of the District of Columbia and served as its president in 1916. He was also a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Medical Association.
Herbert Scurlock, a professor of physiological chemistry who died in 1952, published his textbook Quantitative Chemical Analysis in 1915, which is available at the Library of Congress.
