G – Glass Lantern Slide 

Lantern slides are positive transparent photographs made on glass and viewed with the aid of a “magic lantern,” the predecessor of the slide projector. 

Dr. Sidney Farber, pathologist-in-chief at Boston Children’s Hospital from 1947 to 1970, used lantern slides to study disease in children at the Children’s Cancer Center. In 1946, Farber discovered that folic acid played a key role in the growth of cancerous cells in leukemia, or cancer of the blood. He became determined to see if folate antagonists, or antifolates, could block the growth of leukemic white blood cells. 

Late in December of 1947, Farber tried using aminopterin, an antifolate, to treat two year old Boston Children’s leukemia patient Robert Sandler. In less than a week, the growth of cancerous white blood cells halted. Within two weeks, Sandler was up and walking again, with a returned healthy appetite. 

This was the first successful use of chemotherapy to achieve remission in leukemia. Until Farber’s discovery, no drug had been found to be effective against tumors of the bodily fluids. The breakthrough opened the door for chemotherapy to become the major intervention in cancer treatment that it is today.