<P> In the 16th and 17th centuries, it became more acceptable for doctors to dissect bodies to discover the cause of death . The German professor Wilhelm Fabry believed that breast cancer was caused by a milk clot in a mammary duct . The Dutch professor Francois de la Boe Sylvius, a follower of Descartes, believed that all disease was the outcome of chemical processes, and that acidic lymph fluid was the cause of cancer . His contemporary Nicolaes Tulp believed that cancer was a poison that slowly spreads, and concluded that it was contagious . </P> <P> The first cause of cancer was identified by British surgeon Percivall Pott, who discovered in 1775 that cancer of the scrotum was a common disease among chimney sweeps . The work of other individual physicians led to various insights, but when physicians started working together they could draw firmer conclusions . </P> <P> With the widespread use of the microscope in the 18th century, it was discovered that the' cancer poison' eventually spreads from the primary tumor through the lymph nodes to other sites ("metastasis"). This view of the disease was first formulated by the English surgeon Campbell De Morgan between 1871 and 1874 . The use of surgery to treat cancer had poor results due to problems with hygiene . The renowned Scottish surgeon Alexander Monro saw only 2 breast tumor patients out of 60 surviving surgery for two years . In the 19th century, asepsis improved surgical hygiene and as the survival statistics went up, surgical removal of the tumor became the primary treatment for cancer . With the exception of William Coley who in the late 19th century felt that the rate of cure after surgery had been higher before asepsis (and who injected bacteria into tumors with mixed results), cancer treatment became dependent on the individual art of the surgeon at removing a tumor . The underlying cause of his results might be that infection stimulates the immune system to destroy left tumor cells . During the same period, the idea that the body was made up of various tissues, that in turn were made up of millions of cells, laid rest the humor - theories about chemical imbalances in the body . </P> <P> The genetic basis of cancer was recognised in 1902 by the German zoologist Theodor Boveri, professor of zoology at Munich and later in Würzburg . He discovered a method to generate cells with multiple copies of the centrosome, a structure he discovered and named . He postulated that chromosomes were distinct and transmitted different inheritance factors . He suggested that mutations of the chromosomes could generate a cell with unlimited growth potential which could be passed on to its descendants . He proposed the existence of cell cycle check points, tumour suppressor genes and oncogenes . He speculated that cancers might be caused or promoted by radiation, physical or chemical insults or by pathogenic microorganisms . </P>

When was the first person diagnosed with cancer