Hanaoka Seishu (1760-1835), Japanese cancer surgeon, carrying out surgery to remove a tumour (red) from the chest of a fully anaesthetized male patient. An assistant is applying traction to the tumour as blood drains into a bowl. Illustration from 'A Surgical Casebook', a 19th-century manuscript of hand-painted pictures commissioned by Hanaoka. 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.