Biographical Memoirs: Volume 62 (1993)
Chapter: A SHORT STAY IN DALLAS, 1947-49
C. Breedis); the genetics of spontaneous leukemia (with R. Cole); the role of the thymus in leukemogenesis; the individuality of the monocytes, histiocytes and microglia cells (with H. Dunning) and their relation to reticulum cell sarcoma; differentiation of leukemia and leukemoid reactions (with W. A. Barnes); and the possibilities of experimental therapy of leukemias (with L. Reiner and C. Flory). We also expanded the list of different viruses causing leukemias and sarcomas, and indicated the essential identity of mouse and human leukemias and the neoplastic character of both. . . . The two years Elvin Kabat spent with us at Cornell were highly productive. In addition to work on high-speed sedimentation of leukemia viruses, the histochemical identification of alkaline phosphatases, and the localization of alkaline phosphatase (with C. Breedis) in the proximal convoluted tubules of the kidney led us to identify the site of nephrotoxic agents such as the mercurial compounds, then used in the therapy of syphilis.1
A SHORT STAY IN DALLAS, 1947-49
Disappointed at being passed over for chairmanship of the Pathology Department at Cornell after Opie's retirement, Jacob left to join the Veterans Administration Hospital in Dallas, Texas, in 1947. The Dallas position also carried an academic appointment at Southwestern Medical College, but several unforeseen setbacks made this position much less desirable than he had anticipated. Though accepted wholeheartedly by the faculty, the dean (a retired general of the Army Medical Corps) refused to appoint Jacob to a full professorship, a rank he held at Cornell; nor would the dean allow him to accept any of the research grants from the foundations that supported him in New York. (It would be hard to imagine any of today's deans conducting such an act of self-immolation.)
Although a heavy service load severely handicapped Jacob's research, notable observations were still made. With T. Bali he observed some remarkable changes in radiation-induced ovarian tumors, and he isolated a highly functional mast cell tumor.
