and also are there reports of it before it was discovered? eg - symptoms which match cancer.
It used to be called the “wasting disease”. You could search for that.
Well, the reason it’s called cancer is because it looks crab-like (you know, like the crab Cancer in the Zodiac?) in that it can have lots of projections off the main mass. That’s the kind of observation that modern people really wouldn’t tend to use as a naming basis. Just for what it’s worth.
I swear I had not yet seen this thread when I posted just now.
Readers Digest (November 2001) says that the Greeks named it cancer because it looked like a crab.
Jockstrap
Smeghead living up to your name there. what does that thread answer? nothing.
Is this supposed to be a joke of some kind or are your meds running low? If not you’ve got some major 'tude dissing someone who tried to answer your question then referenced another, similar thread relating to his answer.
This:
was meant to help narrow it down, no matter how slightly. Terribly sorry it didn’t live up to your high standards.
Okay, so this page talks about ancient Egyptians trying to deal with tumors:
Now, try not to spazz out too hard, NK, but I’m going to post a quote from that site that mentions the whole cancer/crab thing, but it shows that “cancer” first became a diagnosis in the time of Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.).
I admit I haven’t seen that many tumors yet, but none of the ones I’ve seen have reminded me of a crab in any way. Of course, none of the constellations look like a crab to me, either.
[hijack] Why would it be called wasting disease? It does the opposite of wasting, it’s TOO much flesh… right?[/hijack]
Well, yeah it is, but it sucks up all the nutrition your body needs, then you just waste away. People with untreated or late-state cancer are very emaciated. Usually, your body dies when it can’t feed the tumor anymore.
Unexplained weight loss is one of the classic symptoms of cancer, like fandango said. I saw a picture somewhere the other day of a guy who was dying from stomach cancer and he was about as skinny and emaciated as they get.
Another hijack… I was reading a Sci-Fan novel and one of the Khans (after Gehgis) was dying of ‘a demon within him’ and the character knew it was cancer. Any record of one of the Khans dying like this?
It’s hard to find the answer on Google because there are so many pages that mention The Conqueror, the movie in which John Wayne played Genghis Khan and, as legend has it, A-bomb tests near the set caused the actors to all die from cancer.
Do you think Wayne’s chain smoking five packs of cigarettes a day might also have had a wee bit to do with his death by lung cancer. Nahhhh… it had to be the A-bomb.
sorry Smeghead i was in a bad mood and didnt realise your previous reply had offered an explaination.
Apology accepted. So should we, like, hug or something?
Nope. I think you need a full out kiss over this one :D.