the devoted help of his wife, herself once a phys- iotherapist, he had recovered well enough to enable him to resume teaching and outpatient work, and to lead an active life. He retired from the health service in October 1974, because he knew that he could no longer operate.
The success of his professional life was in contrast to the tragedy of his personal life. His marriage ended abruptly when his lovely wife died suddenly of eclampsia during her second pregnancy, leaving him alone with an infant son.
He never remarried and gave all of his thought and energy to his work.
He began to study cancer at the Alfred L.
Loomis Laboratory at Bellevue Hospital. His work there caught the eye of James Douglas, a philanthropist, and led to the establishment, in 1913, of the Memorial Hospital for the Study of Cancer and Allied Diseases. Douglas was espe- cially interested in radium and the benefits of radium therapy, and Ewing quickly became an enthusiast for radiation treatment of malignant diseases. As the pathologist of the hospital, he accumulated the great experience that formed the foundation of his book, Neoplastic Diseases,3 published in 1919. It was in 1920 that he first described the bone tumor with which he is iden- tified.4The tumor that he called a diffuse endothe- lioma of bone was labeled “Ewing’s tumor” by Codman in his bone tumor registry of the American College of Surgeons.1It has maintained the designation ever since.
As the director of Memorial Hospital, Ewing had great influence, and his strong support for the use of radiation therapy, rather than operations, for the control of cancer affected the development of the surgical treatment of these lesions. He maintained his position until a few years before his death in 1943 and is remembered as one of the leaders in the fight against cancer during the first half of this century.
References
1. Codman EA (1925) Bone Sarcoma: An Interpreta- tion of the Nomenclature Used by the Committee on the Registry of Bone Sarcomas of the American College of Surgeons. New York, Paul B. Hoeber, Inc 2. Del Regato JA (1977) James Ewing. Int J Radiat
Oncol Biol Phys 2:185
3. Ewing J (1919) Neoplastic Diseases. Philadelphia, W.B. Saunders Co
4. Ewing J (1921) Diffuse endothelioma of bone. Proc NY Pathol Soc 21:17
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Who’s Who in Orthopedics
James EWING
1866–1943
James Ewing2was born in Pittsburgh on Christ- mas Day in 1866. When he was 14 years old, his education was interrupted by osteomyelitis of the femur, for which he was confined to bed for 2 years. At home he had a tutor and in addition he entertained himself by entering contests. In one, for which he provided the longest list of words composed with the letters of the word Constantinople, he was successful. The prize was a microscope, the tool on which his later career was to be based. In 1884, Ewing entered Amherst College where, in spite of a limp and a persistent draining sinus, he participated fully in all of the student activities. Four years later he began his medical education at the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons.
After his graduation from medical school in 1891, Ewing interned in Pittsburgh and New York, showing particular interest in clinical and microscopic pathology. He went to Germany in 1894 to pursue further study in these areas. In 1899, at the age of 33, he was appointed the first professor of pathology at Cornell University.
