Devil Facial Tumor Disease

In Christianity, the Devil is represented as the founder of an empire “on fire”, an empire that struggles against and counteracts the kingdom of God. The Devil is described as an entity who is filled with evil power, but not enough power to overcome Christ if they were to duel. Though the Devil is not as powerful as Christ, he’s unfettered, given the designation of being the ultimate source of evil power. Since the inception of Christianity, portrayals of the Devil have been fundamental in instilling fear within the Christian population. The Devil’s abilities and appearance has become feared by approximately 31.5% of the world’s population. As historians have had access to the past that they haven’t had before, it’s been discovered that the iconography of the Devil isn’t necessarily original, but rather, inspired from religions with an age older than Christianity. While there’s an infinite amount of possible sources available to attribute the iconography of the Christian Devil to, the Greek god Pan provides source materials that show imagery and behavior similarities to the Christian Devil. By analyzing texts by ancient authors such as Hesiod and Ovid, as well as paintings and sculptures spanning multiple centuries, I will argue that the Greek god Pan’s iconography and behavior was used as inspiration for the Christian Devil.

During the early 1700s, a traveler met a man in the Massachusetts forest. However, this was no mortal human, but the devil. “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Devil and Tom Walker,” two short stories, both start out this way. Washington Irving wrote the latter in 1824, which tells how Tom Walker profited by working for the devil. In 1835, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “Young Goodman Brown,” which describes Goodman Brown’s encounter with the devil. Despite minor deviations between their themes, the two stories share ideas regarding the devil, specifically his appearance and connection with man’s depravity. overpowering minor deviations between their themes. [MAYBE DELETE THE LAST HALF OF THE THESIS, AND ADD SPECIFICITY TO THE FIRST HALF (WHICH IDEAS OF THE DEVIL ARE SIMILAR?)]]

Cancer, medically called ‘tumorigenesis’ (Thaker, Lutgendorf, & Sood, 2007, p.430) occurs when cells in the body orient themselves for malignant growth. Such cells show ‘self-sufficiency in growth signals’, are ‘insensitive to anti-growth signals’ and have ‘limitless replicative potential’ (Thaker, Lutgendorf, & Sood, 2007, p.430). Once a particular set of cells become malignant, the malignancy can spread to other set of cells in different organs due to ‘crosstalk’ between the affected cells and their surrounding ‘tissues’ and ‘micro-environments’(Thaker, Lutgendorf, & Sood, 2007, p.430).

Cancer is the second largest cause of death in Australia and accounts for approximately 27% of all deaths. Risk factors generally include exposure to sun, poor diet and smoking. Many types of cancer such as skin cancer, lung cancer and breast cancer are easily preventable by early detection and awareness; however, some cancers cannot be prevented.

Both Hawthorne and King used the Devil’s appearance in their stories to develop the effect of evil on the protagonists. In Hawthorne’s story, the Devil was portrayed as a human-like and friendly character, despite his evil intentions. The Devil appeared to be “in the same rank of life as Goodman Brown,” and he could have been mistaken as a relative to Goodman Brown (Hawthorne 2). The Devil’s similarities to Goodman Brown established the Devil as a man, not so much a monster, which is a possible explanation as to why Goodman Brown had agreed to meet the Devil. Although he remained as a human figure throughout the story, the Devil seemed dark and evil. The Devil’s staff “bore the likeness of a great black snake,” which describes the nature of the Devil (2). The description of the staff applies to the Devil himself as an evil, manipulative liar. Hawthorne also used phrases such as “the dark figure” and “gleamed darkly” to develop the evil nature and appearance of the Devil in his story (7).

There are several reasons that someone could become diagnosed with cancer, a couple examples being smoking and their eating habits. Things like pig meat and beef using in hot dogs, bacon, burgers and so on are linked to 18 percent of deaths by cancer. It’s been proven that chemicals that are added to these meats are the reason for the link with cancer. There are 800 studies that went on from a group of 22 scientist from IARC trying to find this direct link between cancer and meat. According to Associated Press, “Based on that analysis, the IARC classified processed meat as cancer-causing, noticing links in particular to colon cancer, but also stomach cancer.”

Cancer is characterized by unregulated/uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. The etiological factors of Cancer include both external factors (tobacco, infectious organisms, chemicals, and radiation) and inherent factors (inherited mutations, hormones, immune conditions, and mutations that occur from metabolism). The etiological factors may act together or in sequence to trigger the development of cancer. It may take several years for the manifestation of the disease to be obvious after the initial trigger.

C. If a patient does have cancer and it is detected in the early stages there is a greater chance of recovery.

Cancer is defined as a disease caused by an uncontrollable division of abnormal cells in a part of the body. Cancer can be caused by many variables in one’s environment and the variables that are more likely to cause cancer are often referred to carcinogens. Carcinogens are harmful factors that can increase one’s chance of developing a form of cancer. Carcinogens can be anything from ultra violet rays to dust particles from wood; tobacco is one of the most well-known carcinogens because it increases one’s chances of developing lung cancer by a stagger amount. The reason tobacco has the ability to make such an impact is because tobacco contains more than 70 carcinogens altogether. When it comes down to it, the carcinogens are all working together

Indigenous Australians have higher lung, cervix and liver cancer rates than the rest the rest of the Australian population however the rates of breast, colon, rectum, lymphoma, prostate and melanoma are lower than that of the rest of the population. [1] The cancers that appear at lower rates throughout the indigenous community often appear at later stages of life through the age group that acquires them more frequently through the rest of the population. Due to the shorter life expectancy of the indigenous community the rates at which these age related cancers occur will be lower as fewer people are reaching the age where they begin to commonly take place. [2]

Devils are ferocious beasts and that is just what the Tasmanian devil is. The Tasmanian Devil is Australia's top predator and its icon animal. These creatures have developed a disease over the past 20 years called Devil Facial Tumor Disease. This causes large lumps of cancer on the face and neck. This is transferred from one to another with contacts such as a bite and once it has gone into the devils system they can die within 6 to 12 months.

The word “cancer” first appeared in medical literature in 400BC during the time of Hippocrates as “karkinos”. Cancer was compared to a crab, which was denoted by its hardened back, its painful sting and its mobility. Another Greek word described cancer as “onkos” which represented the load born by cancer patients which is

The creative theory of Cancer is quite interesting actually. According to Greek mythology, Hercules was sent to battle with a Lernaean Hydra. Hera (the queen of the gods) wanted to give Hercules a disadvantage in battle . So, Hera's plan was to send a crab named Karkinos to distract Hercules. Hera's plan failed as Hercules kicked Karkinos with so much

One thing I learned in researching cancer is that in order for cancer to appear in our body it has to avoid being detected by our immune system. The cancer cells have to avoid being detected by the immune system because if they are detected the immune system will try and fight off the abnormality. If your immune system does not detect the abnormality in cells, the cancer cells will grow and reproduce causing cancer to spread rapidly. The cancer cells that are not detected they can create colonies and spread rapidly.

Cancer occurrs by the production of multiple mutations in a single cell that causes it to proliferate out of control. Cancer cells often different from their normal neighbors by a host of specific phenotypic changes, such as rapid division rate, invasion of new cellular territories, high metabolic rate, and altered shape. Some of those mutations may be transmitted from the parents through the germ line. Others arise de novo in the somatic cell lineage of a particular cell. Cancer-promoting mutations can be identified in a variety of ways. They can be cloned and studied to learn how they can be controlled.