The following excerpt is from Dr. Cowan’s book “Vaccines, Autoimmunity, and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness,” and is reprinted with permission from the publisher.
In November 1890, a 28-year-old surgeon named William Coley amputated the forearm of a young woman named Bessie Dashiell. Dashiell, a dear friend of John D. Rockefeller Jr., was afflicted with a malignant bone tumor in her hand. Coley had recently joined the staff of New York City’s Memorial Hospital to work under the tutelage of Dr. James Ewing, a revered sarcoma specialist, and Memorial was considered the foremost sarcoma treatment center in the world. Nevertheless, Dashiell’s cancer persisted and spread throughout her body, killing the young woman in a matter of weeks.
