In honor of Black History Month, UNMC Today is highlighting the contributions of African-Americans in medicine. The seven-part series continues today with William Augustus Hinton, who developed the world-renown test for syphilis.
William Augustus Hinton — developed the world-renowned test for syphilis
William Augustus Hinton was born in Chicago, Ill., in 1883. He earned a bachelor of science degree from Harvard University in 1905. Because of financial limitations, he spent the next four years as a teacher before entering Harvard Medical School in 1909. Although Harvard offered Hinton a scholarship for black students, Hinton refused it. He entered a competition with the entire student body and won two of Harvard’s most prestigious scholarships.
After graduating from medical school in 1912, he began work at the Wasserman Laboratory, teaching serological techniques. By 1918, Dr. Hinton was an instructor in preventive medicine and hygiene at the Harvard Medical School, while continuing his work as chief of the Wasserman Laboratory. From 1921 to 1946, Dr. Hinton served as instructor in bacteriology and immunology at Harvard. Then, in 1949, he was promoted to clinical professor, the first black to become a professor at Harvard Medical School in its 313 years. In all, Dr. Hinton would teach bacteriology at Harvard for 36 years. He retired in 1950 with the status of professor emeritus.
Dr. Hinton’s greatest contribution to medical science was the Hinton test for determining the presence of syphilis, which became the preferred test by the U.S. Public Health Service. His test also was used extensively by the U.S Army in World War II. Hinton published his first paper on the serology of syphilis in Rosenau’s Textbook of Preventative Medicine — just two years after graduating from medical school.
During the 1920s, he perfected his world-renowned test, which greatly reduced the percentage of false positive results. In 1934, the U.S. Public Health Service declared the Hinton test the most effective test for syphilis. In 1936, Hinton published Syphilis and Its Treatment, the first medical textbook ever published by an African-American. (Taken from Macmillan Information Now Encyclopedia: The African-American).