Andrewes's christmas fairy tale: atypical thinking about cancer aetiology in 1935

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I first heard about Andrewes' fairy story from fellow historians of science and then just after Christmas 2014, found the letter and story in the Peyton Rous collection at the American Philosophical Society library in Philadelphia. To my amazement, the story had not been published in its entirety... only a small portion had been quoted by one of the aforementioned colleagues. I knew right away that with or without their input this was something I had to bring to light. "Notes and Records of the Royal Society" seemed a natural venue because both parties... Andrewes and the person to whom he sent the letter, Peyton Rous, were members of the Society and this story offered a unique opportunity to highlight their activities and the importance of their transatlantic correspondence in keeping alive the notion that viruses could cause tumours. Nearly a year later, in early December 2015, I learned that my co-author had had a similar idea some 20 years ago, but for various reasons his paper was never published. Reading his maanuscript, it was amazing how similar our ideas were regarding the importance of the fairytale, and so we joined forces at the eleventh hour and submitted it... our version of a Christmas fairytale for the editors. Said fairy story is published in full as an appendix. Give yourselves a treat and read it even if you only glance at the rest of the paper cursorily if at all!

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