Abraham Lincoln. Did he really mention "cancer"?

Question

I recently caught a historian on the radio speaking about Lincoln, quoting him as characterizing slavery as "like a cancer". A discussion followed in the car over whether people in Lincoln's time even had an appreciation of what CANCER is/was, and at what stage in medicine's evolution did cancer sit in 1861. One of us doubted that anyone in that year even knew what cancer was, and whether the disease had even been identified and labeled as such. And was it common in those times to describe something that spread and killed as "a cancer"?

Answer 1

Hippocrates (the "father of medicine"?) is who gave the group of diseases we call 'cancer' their name sometime around 400 BC. Perhaps that will enlighten the plonker who thinks it's a "modern disease"? LOL!

Eight cases of breast cancer (though of course they are not called that) are also recorded on some papyrus scrolls from 1500BC...

Many people have convinced themselves that cancer is "more common" now, or is caused by some aspect of "modern life", but the (actually wonderful) reality is that fewer of us die younger now because of amazing strides in medicine, which means more of us live long enough to develop various cancers!

When Lincoln spoke in the 1800s, doctors were just developing an understanding of how & why certain cancers "ran in families"...


Have a safe & hopefully cancer-free New Year!