[1] On the basis of the works of Fuchs (see below), he proposed the "seed and soil" theory of metastasis, which claims the distribution of cancers are not coincidental.

[1] He was the fifth child and fourth son of surgeon and pathologist Sir James Paget (1814–1899).

[5] Paget has long been credited with proposing the seed and soil theory of metastasis, though in his paper "The Distribution Of Secondary Growths In Cancer Of The Breast"[6] he states "…the chief advocate of this theory of the relation between the embolus and the tissues which receive it is Fuchs…".

[7] Ernst Fuchs (1851–1930) an Austrian ophthalmologist, physician and researcher however, does not refer to the phenomenon as "seed and soil", but defines it as a "predisposition" of an organ to be the recipient of specific growths.

In 1962, Archibald Hill noted that "Stephen Paget's death indeed was claimed by anti-vivisectionists as a direct consequence of their prayers.