James Ewing, was born in 1866 to a prominent family of Pittsburgh. When he was 14 he was diagnosed with
osteomyelitis and was bedridden for two years. He first completed his B.A. in 1888 at
Amherst College and then studied
medicine at the
College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, from 1888 to 1891. He returned to the College of Physicians and Surgeons as instructor in
histology (1893-1897), and clinical pathology (1897-1898). After a brief stint as a surgeon with the US Army, Ewing was appointed in 1899 the first professor of clinical pathology at the newly formed Medical College of
Cornell University in New York, where he was the only full-time professor. In 1902, Ewing helped to establish one of the first funds for cancer research, endowed by
Mrs. Collis P. Huntington. In 1910, Ewing had approached
New York Hospital about establishing a clinical research facility; when this fell through, he established a collaboration with Memorial Hospital (which would become
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) with the help of industrialist and philanthropist
James Douglas, who gave $100,000 to endow twenty beds for clinical research, equipment for working with
radium, and a clinical laboratory to Memorial for that purpose. The book, which is translated into numerous languages, becomes a cornerstone of modern oncology by establishing a systematic and comprehensive basis for diagnosing human cancer. In 1931 Ewing was formally appointed president of the hospital the accompanying article described his role as one of the most important cancer doctors of his era. He worked at Memorial Hospital until his retirement in 1939. Under his leadership, Memorial became a model for other cancer centers in the United States, combining patient care with clinical and laboratory research, and it was said of him that "The relationship of Ewing to the Memorial Hospital can best be expressed in the words of Emerson, 'Every institution is but the lengthening shadow of some man.' Dr. Ewing is the Memorial Hospital". In 1951, The James Ewing Hospital, a 12-story building on First Avenue between 67th and 68th Streets, opened; it was intended to treat cancer among New York City's poor. ==Bibliography==