One of the first recorded cases of multiple myeloma in the modern era was that of Thomas Alexander McBean.

McBean was a well-to-do grocer in London who, in 1844, developed a condition which at the time had no name and no known cause.

It is now known, however, that what McBean had was multiple myeloma. This has been determined, in part, through work done by Dr. Henry Bence Jones in analyzing a sample of McBean's urine -- work which led to the identification of what is now described as Bence Jones protein. …