IN SCIENCE, MEDICINE, INDUSTRY AND TECHNOLOGY, the 19th century soared, an essential and spectacular overture to the advances of our time. Darwin published the theory of evolution; Pasteur invented bacteriology and began the fight against infectious diseases; Virchow focused pathology on the cell; and anesthesia and antisepsis improved surgery. A series of remarkable discoveries in the closing years of the 19th century set the stage for 20th-century research in oncology and biomedical sciences. Cancer research accelerated as Röntgen described X rays, the Curies isolated radium, and Müller observed abnormalities of cancer cells.

						Preventive Medicine: Jenner and a Vaccination Against Smallpox Smallpox was widespread and deadly in 18th-century England. Edward Jenner caused a furor in 1798 with his paper on inoculating humans against smallpox with fluid from sores of vaccina, a cattle disease. When his paper was declined by the Royal Society, Jenner published it himself. Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon and the Empress of Russia endorsed Jenner's vaccine, which cut the smallpox death rate to nearly zero where its use was compulsory.

		The Development of Morbid Anatomy The removal of bans against dissection and autopsy paved the way for pioneering work by two great pathologists. Giovanni Morgagni correlated and indexed case histories with autopsy findings, and Matthew Baillie produced the first systematic illustrated pathology textbook based on organs. Cancers of the breast, stomach, rectum, testes, bladder, pancreas and esophagus were described in fine detail in their works.

		Through the Microscope: Focusing on Cancer Cells Better microscopes not only helped apprehend disease-causing organisms, but also made possible the examination of cells and cellular activity. Study of cancer tissues and tumors revealed that cancer cells were markedly different in appearance than normal cells of surrounding tissue. Researchers began to focus on questions such as the origin of cells and the relationship of disease to the behavior of a cell.

		Surgery Comes of Age: Antisepsis and Anesthesia Before Joseph Lister's experiments with disinfectants and Crawford Long's introduction of ether, surgery posed a grave threat of infection and death to patients and the certainty of unbearable pain. Lister's use of carbolic acid sprays in operating rooms and hospital wards sharply lowered mortality rates. Ether anesthesia in general surgery enabled the science of surgery to advance rapidly.

		First Cancer Statistics Are Collected By the mid-19th century, French and Italian researchers had found that women died from cancer much more frequently than men, and that the cancer death rate for both sexes was rising. Using analyses by age, sex and occupation, Domenico Rigoni-Stern concluded that incidences of cancer increase with age; that cancer is found less in the country than in the city; and that unmarried persons are more likely to contract the disease.

		Pasteur, Koch and the New Science of Bacteriology Louis Pasteur's experiments confirmed ancient theories that invisible organisms caused disease, and paved the way for Lister's work in antisepsis. Pasteur identified bacteria responsible for sheep anthrax and chicken colera, and found the cause and cure for rabies. Robert Koch developed bacteria cultures, discovering the tuberculosis bacillus, the cholera vibrio, and the transmission of plague by fleas.
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