Oral cancer patient, 19th-century Japan. Illustration from 'A Surgical Casebook', a 19th-century manuscript of hand-painted pictures commissioned by Japanese surgeon Hanaoka Seishu (1760-1835). Hanaoka pioneered the use of general anaesthesia to remove tumours from cancer patients. His book illustrated the cancers and other conditions that he treated, and the patients that came to him for treatment. The illustrations were by an artist named Tangetsu.