Murphy, James B. (James Bumgardner), 1884-1950

James Bumgardner Murphy was a pathologist. His research at the Rockefeller Institute (1909-1950), and indeed his career, centered on cancer studies: the role of lymphocytes in tuberculosis, studies in X-ray effects, and the nature of malignant tumors in fowls.

From the description of Papers, [ca. 1918]-1950. (American Philosophical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 86165436

A native North Carolinian, the cancer researcher James B. Murphy was born into a medical family. The son of Patrick Livingston Murphy, Director of the Western North Carolina Insane Asylum, and Bettie Waddell (Bumgardner), Murphy was raised in Morganton, N.C., and educated at the University of North Carolina (BS, 1905) and at the medical school at Johns Hopkins (MD, 1909). Drawn by inclination toward research rather than practice, Murphy nevertheless demonstrated particular skill in dissection and in experimental technique. Fresh out of medical school, he obtained a position under the psychiatrist, Adolf Meyer, in New York, and when Meyer was hired at Johns Hopkins in 1911, Murphy was prepared to return to Baltimore.

Florence Rena Sabin, however, suggested that Murphy accept an offer at the Rockefeller Institute to work in the pathology department under Peyton Rous. Rous's recent work on the viral origins of cancer was just beginning to garner wide notice and seemed to harbor great potential. Making full use of his laboratory skills, Murphy provided valuable assistance in demonstrating that the transmissible agent in the cellular extracts remained active after freezing and drying, and he played a similarly important part in demonstrating that embryos did not reject transplanted tissues, as adult tissues did. His work on the role of lymphocytes in regulating immune response was sufficiently out of step with the main currents of immunology at the time that it received little

During the 1920s, Murphy became a nationally prominent figure in cancer research, serving for many years as an officer in the American Society for the Control of Cancer and its successor the American Cancer Society, on the Advisory Council of the National Cancer Institute, and on the Committee on Growth of the National Research Council. He filled similar guiding roles with the American Bureau of Medical Aid to China, the Bar Harbor Medical and Surgical Hospital, the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Lab, the Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Cancer (ca. 1932-1950); and the National Advisory Cancer Council; New York Academy of Medicine (1923-1950).

Murphy died at his summer home in Bar Harbor, Maine, one year after his retirement from Rockefeller.

From the guide to the James Bumgardner Murphy Papers, Circa 1918-1950, (American Philosophical Society)