Nineteenth (19th) Century Cancer

Yep cancer has been around for a long time and also affected people during the nineteenth century. At the time treatments ranged from herbs and types of food to full fledged operations with or without anesthesia depending on how early in the century.

photo credit: seriykotik1970 via photopin cc

Surgery tended to be the primary type of treatment for cancer both internal and external. At the beginning of the century operations were performed without anesthesia but this would be more for external tumors. Internal surgery occurred more toward the end of the century when there was use of ehter and morphine as an anesthetic.

There were a variety of beliefs surrounding the cause behind the mysterious disease from trauma to irritation to infection. The eventual discovery and use of the microscope helped further the understanding of cancer cells at the time.

I did a little research on cancer at the turn of the century for my novel A White Room because I wanted one of my characters to die after coughing up blood but I didn't want to fall back on the cliche tuburculosis so I went with stomach cancer.

Cancer just didn't seem to be as big of a deal in the ninteenth century - probably because they didn't quite know what it was especially since cancer has all kinds of symptoms depending where in the body the damaged cells are at. Most of the time it probably just looked like people were getting sick and dieing, and at the time that was one of those things that happened and it wasn't questioned as much as people question something like that today. There were high rates of death from all types of sickness and cancer had no real reason to stand out. I think tumors were more of the focus rather than cancer itself because that was what people could see.

Check out the links below to start researching cancer at this time period:

American Cancer Society: The Use of the Microscope on Cancer Cells and the Believed Casues throughout History.

CBS Rare Graphic Photos of Cancer in the 1800s

News Medicals Detailed Page on Cancer History with a Great Section on the 19th Century

BBC Bone Study to Determine Frequency of Cancer in Ancestors including 19th Century

A Distrubing Account of 19th Century Cancer Treatment on Smart People I Know Website'

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