Waves can also be separated into transverse and longitudinal waves. In a transverse wave, the motion of the particles of the medium is at right angles (i.e., transverse) to the direction the wave moves.
The experiment's name comes from the Tuskegee Institute, the black university founded by Booker T. Washington. Its affiliated hospital lent the PHS its medical facilities for the study, and other predominantly black institutions as well as local black doctors also participated.
As Allan Brandt suggests, the Tuskegee study must be understood as a result of enduring American racism. In 1932 the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) initiated an experiment in Macon County, Alabama, to determine the natural course of untreated, latent syphilis in black males.