Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash. In 1864, the scientist Benjamin Apthorp Gould was appointed to conduct a survey of the physical characteristics of thousands of Civil War soldiers, sailors, and students. Five years later, what emerged from the published report was a narrative of racial difference. An entire chapter was devoted to lung function: making use of the recently developed spirometer (a measuring device), Gould declared a “very striking” difference between the capacity of Black and white lungs. Gould’s findings were consistent with previous conjectures, where the apparent lower lung function of Black people was part of a justification for enslavement. The report also had a significant legacy, contributing to the establishment of racial difference in lung function as a scientific fact. The assumption that Black people have lower “normal” lung capacity became built into medical practice: a “race correction” in the equation that translates spirometer readings into a measurement of lung function automatically lowered the threshold of “normal” lung function for Black patients. This meant that the same spirometer reading could be categorized …