Pettenkofer, Max von, 1818–1901, German chemist and hygienist. He studied medicine at Munich. Pettenkofer is considered a founder of epidemiology and is known for his researches in the ventila...

Borelli, Giovanni Alfonso, 1608–79, Italian physiologist, physicist, astronomer, and mathematician; son of a Spanish infantryman. His wide interests led to original contributions in many field...

Colon cancer, cancer of any part of the colon (often called the large intestine). Colon cancer is the second most common cancer diagnosed in the United States. Epidemiological evidence has sho...

Flexner, Simon, 1863–1946, American pathologist, b. Louisville, Ky., M.D. Univ. of Louisville, 1889; brother of Abraham Flexner. He served with the Rockefeller Institute (now Rockfeller Univ.)...

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), agency of the U.S. Public Health Service since 1973, with headquarters in Atlanta; it was established in 1946 as the Communicable Disease Cent...

Sydenham, Thomas, 1624–89, English physician, called the English Hippocrates. He studied at Oxford and Montpellier, and practiced in London. His conceptions of the causes and treatments of epi...

Salk, Jonas Edward, 1914–95, American physician and microbiologist, b. New York City, B.S. College of the City of New York, 1934, M.D. New York Univ. College of Medicine, 1939. He did research...

Biometrics, also known as biostatistics or biometry, in biology, the development and application of statistical and mathematical methods to the analysis of data resulting from biological obser...

Breast cancer, cancer that originates in the breast. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in women (following lung cancer). Even allowing for improvements in detection (i....