Background
Robert Cooke was born on August 17, 1880 in Holmdel, New Jersey, United States. He was the son of Henry Gansevoort Cooke, a third-generation physician, and Maria Cowdrey. Cooke had suffered from allergy since childhood.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Robert Anderson Cooke
Edit ProfileEducation
His early education was provided at the family farm in Holmdel by a governess. He then attended Rutgers Preparatory School in New Brunswick and received the Bachelor of Arts in 1900 from Rutgers College. In 1904 he earned the Doctor of Medicine degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, and the Master of Arts from Rutgers. He was awarded a Doctor of Science degree in 1925 by Rutgers.
Career
On the farm he had severe asthma attacks after contact with horses or other animals. During his internship at Presbyterian Hospital in New York (1905 - 07), his own condition focused his attention on allergy problems. Assigned to ride horse-drawn ambulances, he suffered an asthmatic attack after each call. In 1908, having been exposed to diphtheria, he received a shot of antitoxin produced in horse serum. He immediately felt hot and dizzy, his face and arms swelled, and he gasped for breath. Only prompt Adrenalin injection saved him from death by anaphylactic shock. By 1910 Cooke had decided to devote his career to the study and treatment of allergy. At that time allergic reactions were believed due to poisons in the substances to which the individual had been exposed, and no treatment was available. Cooke rejected this view, observing that some persons reacted to horse serum extracts, pollens, certain foods, or other substances, while others were not sensitive to them. In his practice he sought patients suffering from asthma and hay fever.
From 1920 to 1940 he was assistant professor of immunology and then of clinical medicine at Cornell University Medical College. In 1932 he moved his allergy clinic, by then world-renowned, to Roosevelt Hospital, where he became director of the Department of Allergy. In 1949 Cooke assumed directorship of the new Robert A. Cooke Institute of Allergy, named in honor of his outstanding work in the field. Beginning with an early published paper, "The Treatment of Hay Fever by Active Immunization" (1915), Cooke engaged in basic research and experimentation in immunology, making important contributions to knowledge of the nature and treatment of allergies. While pursuing his interest in hay fever and asthma, he also dealt with such other aspects of hypersensitivity as allergic reactions to specific foods.
He believed that multiple shots of desensitizing extracts created immunity, and he was the first to demonstrate the development of a blocking antibody after desensitization. As physicians began treating allergies, Cooke tackled the problem of standardizing dosage. Practitioners agreed that the higher the dose administered, the better the results; but in the early years of allergy treatment, doses were not uniform in strength, and it was unsafe to administer greater quantities.
Cooke promoted the view that doses of extract should be standardized and was responsible for the protein nitrogen unit used in such standardization. His studies of family incidence of hay fever showed the importance of hereditary factors in allergy. He also sought to understand nonallergic asthma and demonstrated that some cases were not caused by substances revealed by skin tests. Some of Cooke's findings were controversial and were disputed by other investigators. Cooke and Mary Loveless demonstrated antibody development after multiple shots but disagreed over the nature of the antibody.
Allergists accepted Cooke's view on the importance of standardizing doses for desensitization, but not all agreed with him on the proper size of a standard dose. While Cooke favored the use of interdermal skin tests to determine hypersensitivity, others preferred scratch tests. In his basic research on the nature of allergy, Cooke established rigorous scientific principles in a newly emerging field. He published more than 120 articles and essays. His book, Allergy in Theory and Practice (1947), was long the standard text. Cooke worked to establish the field of allergy as a medical specialty.
He trained a generation of allergists who demonstrated their high esteem and respect for him when they established the Robert A. Cooke Institute of Allergy Alumni Association in 1958. This group sponsors an annual memorial lecture given at the meeting of the American Academy of Allergy.
He was able to treat his own allergy sufficiently so that he could raise purebred Angus cattle at Hockhockson Farm in Colts Neck, New Jersey, a family property since 1789. He applied the same high standards of achievement in this endeavor as in medicine, founding the New Jersey Aberdeen-Angus Breeders Association in 1938.
Achievements
-
He developed methods of testing for allergy and treated symptoms by neutralization of allergic reactions. He also developed the first treatment for desensitization for hay fever. Cooke founded and directed the first clinic for allergic diseases at New York Hospital. He founded the American Society for the Study of Allergy and Allied Conditions (now the American Academy of Allergy) and the Association of Allergy Clinics of Greater New York.
Membership
He was a fellow and master of the American College of Physicians. He was also elected a fellow of the American Medical Association and of the New York Academy of Medicine.
Connections
Cooke married Florence Rogers in 1916. They had one son before their divorce in 1926. Cooke married A. Louise Hegan on April 18, 1929; she died in 1947. In 1950 he married Marie McNally Salman.
