fifth business :: essays research papers

There is one human emotion that can paralyse us, lead us to lie both to ourselves and others, to take action that we don't like, and to cripple any rational thought processes. It is self perpetuating if allowed to get out of control. Its side effects are either anger, aggressiveness or fear and reclusiveness. Its symptoms are irrational behaviour, lying, anguish, lack of self-esteem, and in extreme cases, thoughts of suicide. It is guilt. In The Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies, guilt is a reoccurring theme throughout the novel and is a major force in one’s life. Davies demonstrates this by having one character feeling guilt while another who does not. Davies introduces the reader with Dunstable Ramsay and Percy Boyd Staunton. They are depicted as friends yet rivals at the same time. This is shown when Dunstable had a sleigh that was faster than Percy’s. Of course Percy who is the spoiled rich boy becomes jealous, and starts calling Dunstable names. Knowing that Percy hates it when he is being ignored, Dunstable provokes Percy and ends up with him being chased with snowballs. Eventually someone gets hit and it’s not Dunstable, rather it was Mrs. Dempster whom he had ran around of cover. This is where the whole chain of guilt starts right after this incident. Dunstable feels guilty for this because the snowball who was supposed to hit him, ended up hitting Mrs.Dempster who was pregnant at that time.He feels even guiltier when he hears about the premature birth and infancy of Paul Dempster, which gives him a sickening feeling. As well Dunstable was raised in a strict family and has been encouraged to feel guilt even in the smallest of matters. From that day onward Dunstable was a changed individual who became a responsible person to Mrs. Dempster and was a loyal one. Throughout his life he becomes a better person because of the guilt which he accepts and tries to resolve. When Paul Dempster grows up and learns about his mother’s demise, he himself feels guilty. When he grows older and understands things clearer, he blamed himself for causing his mother’s illness, because he was told that his birth had caused it. His guilt is amplified when the residents in the town keep their distances from him. After his mother was caught with the tramp performing sexual acts and being discovered by the townsfolk, Paul gets taunted and teased by his schoolmates who make rude comments towards his mother.

Race and Identity in Richard Wright’s Black Boy

Stephen Donato Professor Schmitz HSF 20 September 2012 Race and Identity in Richard Wright’s Black Boy Each and every person on this Earth today has an identity. Over the years, each individual creates their identity through past experiences, family, race, and many other factors. Race, which continues to cause problems in today’s world, places individuals into certain categories. Based on their race, people are designated to be part of a larger, or group identity instead of being viewed as a person with a unique identity. Throughout Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Richard is on a search for his true identity.Throughout Black Boy, one can see that Richard’s racial background assigns him with a certain identity or a certain way in which some people believe he should live his life. Growing up in the Jim Crow South, many young blacks, have their identities essentially already created for them based solely on the backgrounds and race. During this time period, white s expect blacks to behave a certain way, have certain traits, and treat them with absolute respect. Whites during Richard’s time still feel they are much superior to the blacks they interact with, and have many expectations that would be considered racist today.However, in his work, Richard Wright shows how one can break from this predetermined mold. In many instances during the work, Richard breaks from this identity to which he is assigned in order to create his unique identity and grow into the person he wants to become. Richard refuses to sit back and to be absorbed into the Jim Crow lifestyle of southern blacks. In Richard Wright’s Black Boy, Richard’s past experiences with both white and black individuals, family, and race issues shape his true identity and develop him into the man of his dreams living the life which he chooses instead of the one assigned to him.Richard Wright, a young black boy growing up in his family home in Mississippi, searches for hi s identity through many different experiences. A constant in his life which continues to shape his identity time and time again is his family. Throughout the work, Richard searches for a loving and caring family. Although his family may not fit the description at all times, they help him to form his independence, a big part of his true identity. As a young black male growing up in a house with his extended family, Richard did not have many freedoms. Throughout Black Boy, Richard’s family constantly shelters him from the outside world.The story begins in his grandmother’s home in Mississippi where his family constantly reprimands him. For example, in the beginning of this work, Richard Wright’s grandmother has fallen sick in the house. Therefore, Richard is expected to be quiet and not play with his brother. Richard, a young boy, just wants to have some fun, and proceeds to play with matches. He becomes more and more curious, and sets the curtains on fire, almost burning down the house. Because he was so sheltered, he became this curious little boy, causing trouble in his family home.Consequently, Richard is beaten for his actions, which becomes a common theme through the work. Richard explains: I was lashed so hard and long that I lost consciousness. I was beaten out of my senses and later I found myself in bed, screaming, determined to run away, tussling with my mother and father who were trying to keep me still (Wright 7) Time and time again, family members or outsiders attempt to beat Richard. He learns his first real lesson shaping his identity while trying to buy groceries for the house. After his father leaves, Richard’s mother tells Richard he is now in charge of buying groceries.Richard feels like the man of the house, and acts very confidently, until he needs to go buy the food. The first two times he attempts to buy food, a crowd of boys beats him and steals his money. However, his mother sends him out a third time equippe d with a stick. Richard easily defeats the boys and claims that night he â€Å"won the right to the streets of Memphis† (Wright 21). In this situation, it seems that Richard’s mom is not being fair by sending him out to get beat up time and time again. However, she is only doing this in order to help Richard survive in the future.By winning the right to the streets of Memphis, Richard is growing more independent. He no longer relies on his father to bring home food because he is not coming back, and he is able to stand up for himself when the time comes. Richard becomes more independent throughout different experiences in Black Boy. Richard’s grandmother, a devoutly religious person, has an underlying grievance with Richard because he is not religious. Richard’s grandmother begins to shelter him by not buying him books which he needs for school. Richard explains, â€Å"I needed textbooks and had to wait for months to obtain them.Granny said that she woul d not buy worldly books for me† (Wright 143). In addition, Richard claims that his Granny always burned the books he had brought into the house, â€Å"branding them as worldly† (Wright 151). Richard needed money to buy his books, some new clothes, and lunch during the week at school. However, his grandmother continues to shelter him by not allowing him to work. When Richard asked to work on the weekends, Richard explains that â€Å"she laid down the injunction that I could not work on Saturdays while I slept under her roof† (Wright 147).These two instances with his grandmother show Richard’s ambition. Richard wants to make something of himself, and does not want to sit back and live the usual life of a black individual. He wants to begin working in order to make money to buy his books so that he can study and live out his dream of becoming a writer. He begins to read articles in magazines from newspapers he sells, and learns of the vast world. He loves it, and he â€Å"hungered for a different life, for something new† (Wright 151). Richard wants to get out and experience the world, and break the mold of the assumed black identity.To begin this task, Richard begins writing his own stories. After Richard completes his first story, he brings it to his neighbor to read. Her reaction to his story was the common reaction: â€Å"What’s that for? † (Wright 141). Later, Richard shows his grandmother his second piece, The Voodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre. She has the same reaction as the neighbor, and begins to question him on what the story is about and why he is writing a story for the newspaper. According to her, he will not be able to get a job because people are going to think that he is weak minded (Wright 198).Richard exceeds expectations and completes tasks that black people aren’t supposed to do. Richard changes his identity from a subservient black boy into a sort of rebellious young man by beginning his writing career. Throughout the work, Richard introduces a countless number of jobs from working in homes of whites, to attempting to learn the trade of optometry. For one of his many jobs, Richard is working for a white family. While interviewing for this job, the mother of the family asks if he will steal from them, a common trait associated with black people.While working for this family, Richard is having a conversation with the mother. She asks him, â€Å"What grade are you in school? † (Wright 173). Richard responds, â€Å"Seventh, ma’am† (Wright 173). She then asks him, â€Å"Then why are you going to school? † (Wright 173). This conversation shows that whites think it is unnecessary for blacks to go to school past the sixth grade because they should be working. Whites think that they will never amount to anything, and therefore should not be wasting their time in school. However, Richard wants to break this predetermined mold of who he is supposed to be.He replies to his employer, â€Å"Well, I want to be a writer† (Wright 173). While working for this white family, Richard’s predetermined identity and his plans to break from this mold are both shown. Eventually, Richard hopes to be able to write for a living, and continues to attend school to study to become the best he can be. Both his employer and his family tell him that he has no chance of becoming a writer, but he continues to prove everyone wrong by not worrying about his race. He dismisses the fact that there are no famous black writers, and continues to achieve his goals and continues to form his true identity.Richard continues to press on and works hard each and every day in order to break the mold of his assigned identity due to his race. Richard eventually becomes the valedictorian of his ninth grade class, and has a huge disagreement with his principal. The principal summons Richard to his office and says to him, â€Å"Well, Richard Wright, here is your speech† (Wright 206). After Richard claims that he has already written his own speech, the principal tells him â€Å"Listen, boy, you’re going to speak to both white and colored people that night. What can you alone think of saying to them?You have no experience. . . † (Wright 206). Richard continues to fight this assumption made by his principal that he cannot deliver a speech which will be acceptable for white people to listen to. Even when his Uncle Tom claims, â€Å"the principal's speech is the better speech† (Wright 209) Richard agrees. However, Richard wants to give the speech he wrote because it says what he wants to say (Wright 209-10). Richard did not care if the principal’s speech was better than his; he wanted to deliver his speech the way he wanted to deliver it. Here, Richard continues to develop his true dentity as a fighter who will not stand for this assigned identity. He wants to make a difference in the world, and he is fed u p with everyone just taking the abuse they receive. He begins to build up a dream in himself which the educational system in the Jim Crow South had been rigged and designed to stifle (Wright 199). He was only fifteen years old, and already began realizing how the Jim Crow South worked. However, he did not like the system, and constantly fought against it. Growing up in Marlboro, New Jersey, race was not much of an issue for me.Throughout my K-8 public education, over ninety-five percent of the students in my school were white, just like me. I had no problem fitting in, and was able to have many of the privileges spoken about in Peggy McIntosh's â€Å"White Privilege. † I got along with almost all of my classmates growing up, and was even friends with the few black kids in my school. Ben, a black classmate of mine became a close friend when we played on the basketball team together. As I moved on from Middle School to a private, catholic high school, there were even less minor ities. In my senior graduating class I had three black classmates.These few individuals were sometimes segregated from the group, and might have felt uncomfortable during some circumstances. However, I did not realize at the time how sheltered I was from the world. I did not have many friends of different cultures and was not truly aware of the world outside of my high school and my hometown. I never truly viewed the other perspective; I took for granted my opportunity to go to school and get a good, public school education through middle school. I then again took for granted my ability to go to private high school to receive an even more personalized education in a smaller school.I did not think about the poor ethnic groups living in the slums of places such as Haiti, or even in places such as Newark, NJ. I had this sort of mindset going through school that if it didn’t involve me, it wasn’t my problem to fix. Students in these poor, urban areas such as Newark and Cam den in NJ tend to have a different lifestyle than students from Marlboro. In these poor communities, school is almost looked at as it is in black boy. Most kids from these areas will begin working when they graduate high school, and do not go onto college. Again, I took for granted my opportunity to go to a small, unique, private college.Most kids in these areas I described don’t even dream of going college because they believe it is just not a possibility for them. In my short time at Babson, I have met people from countries that I have never heard of before. I have acquainted myself with many different people of many different races, and I am beginning to learn a few facts about many different cultures. In this short period of time, my cultural horizon has broadened greatly. I cannot wait to see how much I will learn about so many different cultures and ethnic groups in my four years at Babson.In conclusion, Richard Wright searches for his identity throughout his life in th e Jim Crow South. Richard does not want to just be another drop in the bucket in this Jim Crow lifestyle, and does not want to fit the mold of a typical black male. He has dreams, aspirations, and goals which no other black youth has been able to accomplish. He continues to fight against the assumed black identity until he forms his own self-identity. Richard’s race definitely lead to assumptions being made by different individuals, but he was able to break free of these assumptions and create a life in which he was in control.Richard Wright broke free of the Jim Crow South and lived the life which he wanted to live while developing his own identity. Just as Wright did, every one of us struggles to define who we are, when in reality we are only who we are supposed to be. I pledge my honor that I have neither received nor provided unauthorized assistance during the completion of this work. Works Cited Wright, Richard. Black Boy (american Hunger): A Record of Childhood and Yout h. New York, NY: HarperPerennial, 1993. Print.

Essay of Ancient China

Ancient China In ancient Chinese cosmology, the universe was created not by divinities but self-generated from the interplay of nature's basic duality: the active, light, dry, warm, positive, masculine yang and the passive, dark, cold, moist, negative yin. All things, animate and inanimate, and all circumstances were a combination of these fundamentals. The ultimate principle of the universe was the tao, â€Å"the way,† and it determined the proper proportions of yin and yang in everything. Anything that altered the natural relation of yin to yang was considered bad, and right living consisted of carefully following the tao.If one observed the tao by moderation, equanimity, and morality, as taught in the Tao-te Ching, by Lao-tzu (sixth century B. C. ), one would be impervious to disease and resistant to the ravages of aging; disregard of the tao led to illness, which was not so much a punishment for sin as the inevitable result of acting contrary to natural laws. However, illn ess also could be caused by forces beyond one's control: â€Å"Wind is the cause of a hundred diseases,† and atmospheric conditions could upset the harmonious inner balance of the yang and yin.One had to be alert to this possibility and combat its effects as well as modify internal imbalances of the vital forces. Longevity and health were the rewards. Chinese medicine, in league with Taoism, was focused on the prevention of illness; for, as the legendary Huang Ti, father of Chinese medicine, observed, â€Å"the superior physician helps before the early budding of disease. † Although Taoist hygiene called for temperance and simplicity in most things, sexual mores were governed by the yin-yang aspect of Chinese philosophy.Ejaculation in intercourse led to diminution of a man's yang, which, of course, upset the inner balance of his nature. On the other hand, one was strengthened by absorption of the yin released by the orgasm of one's female partner—unless she was over thirty, the point where female essence lost its efficacy. The tao was important in Confucianism also, as the path of virtuous conduct, and for centuries the precepts of Confucius (K'ung Fu-tzu, 550-479 B. C. ) set the most prevalent standards of behavior. In early Chinese philosophy, there was a tendency to accept and combine aspects of all religions and to make way for new ideas.Nevertheless, the ancient Chinese were profoundly conservative once an institution, custom, philosophy, mode of dress, or even a furniture style was firmly established, and it remained relatively unchanged over centuries. As Confucius said: â€Å"Gather in the same places where our fathers before us have gathered; perform the same ceremonies which they before us have performed; play the same music which they before us have played; pay respect to those whom they honored; love those who were dear to them. † Although ancient China's development was relatively isolated, there was early contact with India and Tibet.Buddhism came to China from India, and medical concepts and practices were an important part of its teachings. The gymnastic and breathing exercises in Chinese medical methodology also came from India and were closely related to the principles of Yoga and to aspects of Ayurvedic medicine. There were also contacts with Southeast Asia, Persia, and the Arabic world. In the second century B. C. , the Chinese ambassador Chang Chien spent more than a decade in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt, bringing back information on drugs, viticulture, and other subjects.Over the centuries, knowledge of humoral medicine and of numerous new medicaments filtered into China. The introduction of the wisdom of the Mediterranean world was greatly facilitated in the fifth century by the expulsion and wide dispersion from Constantinople of the heretical Nestorian Christians. The mother of Kublai Khan (1216-94), founder of the Mongol dynasty, was a Nestorian and asked the Pope to send European d octors to China. Early Medical Writings Classical Chinese medicine was based primarily on works ascribed to three legendary emperors. The most ancient was Fu Hsi (c. 2900 B. C. , who was said to have originated the pa kua, a symbol composed of yang lines and yin lines combined in eight (pa) separate trigrams (kua) which could represent all yin-yang conditions. This system is followed even today in the I Ching (Book of Changes), though as a game or superstition in the West. Shen Nung, the Red Emperor (Hung Ti), compiled the first medical herbal, the Pen-tsao (c. 2800 B. C. ), in which he reported the effects of 365 drugs, all of them personally tested. One legend explains that a magic drug made his abdominal skin transparent, so he could observe the action of the many plants he evaluated.Another story tells that he cut open his abdomen and stitched in a window. Shen Nung is also said to have drawn up the first charts on acupuncture, a medical procedure presumably even older than the legendary emperors. The fame of Yu Hsiung (c. 2600 B. C. ), the Yellow Emperor (Huang Ti), rests on his great medical compendium, the Nei Ching (Canon of Medicine). Transmitted orally for many centuries, this seminal work was possibly committed to writing by the third century B. C. Its present form dates from the eighth century A. D. when the last extensive revision was done by Wang Ping. The major portion of the Nei Ching, the Sun-Wen (Simple Questions), records the discourse of the Yellow Emperor with Ch'i Po, his prime minister, on virtually all phases of health and illness, including prevention and treatment. The section called Ling-Hsu (Spiritual Nucleus), deals entirely with acupuncture. Yu Hsiung also was said to be responsible for another great compendium, The Discourses of the Yellow Emperor and the Plain Girl, which thoroughly covered the subject of sex from the Taoist point of view.Among other notable sources for ancient medical lore, one might mention the Shih Ching (Boo k of Odes), which perhaps predates Homer's epics, and the Lun-yu, discourses of Confucius probably written down shortly after his death, which affected patterns of behavior for many generations. During the long Chou dynasty (c. 1050-255 B. C. ), a lengthy compilation of medical works, Institutions of Chou, was completed and became the criterion for subsequent dynasties on the duties and organization of physicians. In the Han dynasty (206 B. C. -A. D. 20), there was a noted clinical author named Tsang Kung, who pioneered in the description of many diseases, including cancer of the stomach, aneurysm, and rheumatism. Chang Chung-ching, the Chinese Hippocrates, in the third century A. D. , wrote the classic treatise Typhoid and Other Fevers. Ko Hung, a famed alchemist and a careful observer, wrote treatises describing beriberi (a vitamin B deficiency), hepatitis, and plague, and gave one of the earliest reports on smallpox: â€Å"As the New Year approached there was a seasonal affectio n in which pustules appeared on the face and spread rapidly all over the body.They looked like burns covered with white starch and reformed as soon as they were broken. The majority died if not treated. After recovery purplish black scars remained. † Sun Szu-miao (A. D. 581-682) wrote Ch'ien Chin Yao Fang (A Thousand Golden Remedies), which summarized in thirty volumes much of the known medical learning, and he headed a committee which produced a fifty-volume collection on pathology. An extensive codification of forensic medicine, Hsi Yuan Lu, was done in the Sung dynasty and became the prime source for knowledge of medical jurisprudence.Anatomy and Physiology Ideas of anatomy in ancient China were reached by reasoning and. by assumption rather than dissection or direct observation. Since the doctrines of Confucius forbade violation of the body, it was not until the eighteenth century, long after Vesalius, that the Chinese began systematic, direct anatomical studies. Even as l ate as the nineteenth century, in the Viceroy's Hospital Medical School, anatomy was taught by diagrams and artificial models rather than dissection.Physiological functions were constructed into a humoral system much like Greek concepts of the sixth century B. C. and Galenic views of the second century A. D. , except that there were five instead of four essential humors. (The number five had mystical value for the Chinese and was used for most classifications: five elements, five tastes, five qualities, five kinds of drugs, five treatments, five solid organs, five seasons, five emotions, five colors, etc. ) The medical compendium Nei Ching stated that each emotion had its seat in a particular organ.Happiness dwelt in the heart, thought in the spleen, sorrow in the lungs, and the liver housed anger as well as the soul. Ideas in the Nei Ching concerning movement of the blood (â€Å"All the blood is under control of the heart. † â€Å"The blood current flows continuously in a c ircle and never stops. â€Å") have been thought to approach an understanding of its circulation antedating Harvey by thousands of years; however, some body vessels were believed to convey air, and there is little evidence that commentators perceived the blood-carrying vessels as a contained system. DiagnosisThe Chinese methods of diagnosis included questioning, feeling the pulse, observing the voice and body, and in some circumstances touching the affected parts. In almost all times and cultures physicians have used a similar approach, for all healers have sought to know as much as possible about a patient in order to understand his or her illness and advise treatment. However, in some respects ancient physicians saw each patient more completely as a reflection of his surroundings (indeed, the entire universe) than does the doctor of today. The Chinese doctor wanted to learn ow the patient had violated the tao, and to do this he took into account the patient's rank; changes in his or her social status, household, economic position, sense of well-being, or appetite; the weather; and the dreams of the patient and his or her family. Perhaps the most important diagnostic technique of the ancient Chinese was examination of the pulse. The physician felt the right wrist and then the left. He compared the beats with his own, noting precise time as well as day and season since each hour affected the nature of the pulsations.Each pulse had three distinct divisions, each associated with a specific organ, and each division had a separate quality, of which there were dozens of varieties. Moreover, each division or zone of the pulse had a superficial and deep projection. Thus literally hundreds of possible characteristics were obtainable. In one treatise, Muo-Ching, ten volumes were necessary to cover all the intricacies of the pulse. A patient had only to extend his or her arm through drawn bed curtains for the physician to determine the symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, a nd proper treatment by intensive palpation of the pulse.Whenever possible the examiner also felt the skin of the ill person. However, it was considered bad form for a man to intimately examine a woman, so special ceramic, ivory, and wooden dolls were pointed to by the invalid to indicate where discomfort was felt. Treatment According to the Nei Ching, there were five methods of treatment: cure the spirit, nourish the body, give medications, treat the whole body, and use acupuncture and moxibustion. The physician had to put the patient back on the right path, the tao.Assuming that specific mental states caused changes in specific organs, the healer linked certain objectionable behavioral and constitutional factors with illness and attempted to have the patient rectify these. For instance, dissolute and licentious ideas led to diseases of the lungs, but acting out such thoughts brought on heart trouble. A doctor had to determine the cause of disharmony in the body and act accordingly. Exercises were developed to keep the body fit and to restore well-being. Hua T'o, the great surgeon, worked out an ingenious system of physical therapy by advising mimicry of the natural movements of animals.Massage—kneading, tapping, pinching, and chafing—was also a regular method of treatment, as were the application of plasters and evacuation of the intestinal tract by cathartics. In nourishing a patient's body, the physician resorted to complex combinations of foods according to their potential amounts of yang and yin. Foods also had to fit the seasons, and each of the five tastes had benefits for a particular element of the body: sour for the bones, pungent for the tendons, salty for the blood, bitter for respiration, and sweet for muscle.Medications The Chinese pharmacopoeia was always rich, from the time of the Pen-tsao, the first medical herbal, to the later dynasties when two thousand items and sixteen thousand prescriptions made up the armamentarium. Drugs w ere considered more likely to be good if they tasted bad. As one would expect, they were classified into five categories: herbs, trees, insects, stones, and grains. The therapeutic minerals and metals included compounds of mercury (calomel was employed for venereal diseases), arsenic, and magnetic stones.Animal-derived remedies, in addition to â€Å"dragon teeth† (powdered fossilized bones), included virtually anything obtainable from living creatures: whole parts, segments of organs, urine, dung. Two plant substances especially associated with China may be singled out. One is ephedra (ma huang), the â€Å"horsetail† plant described by the Red Emperor, which was used for thousands of years as a stimulant, as a remedy for respiratory -diseases, to induce fevers and perspiration, and to depress coughs.Ephedra entered the Greek pharmacopoeia and eventually was disseminated throughout most of the world. It only became a factor in Western medicine in the late nineteenth cen tury after Japanese investigators isolated and purified the active principle, ephedrine, and established its pharmacologic action. A second medicinal herb, always highly popular among the Chinese, is ginseng (â€Å"man-shaped root†). To the Chinese, preparations containing ginseng were almost miraculous in delaying old age, restoring sexual powers, stimulating the debilitated, and sedating the overwrought.In addition it improved diabetes and stabilized blood pressure. In recent years this root has been under scrutiny by Western pharmacologists attempting to evaluate its true benefits. Multitudes in Asia, and even some Westerners, are so convinced of its effectiveness that high-grade wild roots have brought fabulous prices (even reaching thousands of dollars apiece). Although many items in the Chinese materia medica have either faded into bscurity or been labeled fanciful, others subsequently have been found to possess sound pharmacologic bases: seaweed, which contains iodine, was used in treating enlargement of the thyroid; the willow plant, containing salicylic acid, was a remedy for rheumatism; the Siberian wort has antispasmodics for menstrual discomfort; and mulberry flowers contain rutin, a treatment for elevated blood pressure. Whether opium was used as a drug before quite late in Chinese history is still in dispute. Acupuncture and Moxibustion These modalities have been an integral part of Chinese medical therapy for thousands of years.The Yellow Emperor is said to have invented them, but they may well have existed long before his time. The aim of these treatments was to drain off excess yang or yin and thus establish a proper balance, but external energy also could be introduced into the body. In acupuncture the skin is pierced by long needles to varying prescribed depths. Needles are inserted into any of 365 points along the twelve meridians that traverse the body and transmit an active life force called ch'i. Each of these points is related to a particular organ.For instance, puncture of a certain spot on the ear lobe might be the proper way to treat an abdominal ailment. Virtually every illness, weakness, and symptom is thought to be amenable to correction by acupuncture. Acupuncture spread to Korea and Japan by the end of the tenth century A. D. , to Europe about the seventeenth century, and recent years have seen a wider interest in this Chinese medical practice in the West. Individual paramedical healers and even some medical practitioners have been swamped with requests for acupuncture, especially for problems apparently little benefited by conventional practices.The eventual acceptability of this practice in standard Western medicine remains to be seen. Moxibustion is as old as acupuncture, and the same meridians and points govern placement of the moxa. However, in this treatment a powdered plant substance, usually mugwort, is fashioned into a small mound on the patient's skin and burned, usually raising a blister. Dentistry The treatment of tooth disorders was confined mainly to applying or ingesting drugs—pomegranate, aconite, ginseng, garlic, rhubarb, and arsenic, as well as animal products such as dung and urine.The Nei Ching classified nine types of toothaches, which included some obviously due to infections and tooth decay. Like the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, the ancient Chinese believed that worms were often responsible for dental problems. Toothpicks and tooth whiteners were used, and loose teeth were stabilized with bamboo splints. Gold was sometimes used to cover teeth, but the purpose was decorative rather than protective. Surgery Although surgery was not one of the five methods of treatment listed in the Nei Ching, the knife was known and used.Hua T'o, one of the few names mentioned in connection with surgery, treated an arm wound of the famous general Kuan Yu by cutting his flesh and scraping the bone. Physicians knew how to deal with wounds, and at least two classics we re devoted entirely to their treatment. The proper attitude toward pain was to bear it without a sign of emotion, and much was made of the insouciance of the general treated by Hua T'o; he played chess while the surgeon operated. Nevertheless, apparently some kind of anesthesia was often used.Wine and drugs like hyoscyamus were probably mainstays, but the use of opium and Indian hemp is still in question. Eunuchs and Footbinding Another surgical procedure, though hardly therapeutic, was the frequent castration of certain males seeking advancement at court. Though originally a severe punishment, the total removal of penis and testicles came to be a pledge of absolute allegiance to the monarch, since it released the eunuch from conflict with Confucian admonitions of first loyalty to family and the obligation of siring a son for posterity.Footbinding is also of medical interest, for it caused the development of artificially clubbed feet. Over a period of one thousand years, every young girl of proper family willingly permitted herself to be crippled by her mother and aunts to achieve the tiny foot of ideal feminine beauty. Her toes were gradually folded under the sole, and by increasingly tight bandaging her heelbone and forefoot were brought closer together. Without Golden Lotuses, as the best-shaped bound feet were called, a girl was unmarriageable, nor was the life of a courtesan open to her, for tiny feet were a woman's most desirable feature.For a man, a bound-foot wife had profound sexual significance, but she was also a status symbol inasmuch as her helplessness indicated that he was wealthy enough to support a woman, or women, in idleness. There was also an advantage to him in her restricted mobility, for it kept her home and made illicit amorous adventures difficult. Although China's Manchu conquerors forbade the practice in the nineteenth century, it was not until the early twentieth that footbinding was completely abandoned. Diseases Some epidemic dise ases were understood well enough to allow the development of protective measures.In the eleventh century, inoculation against smallpox was effected by putting scabs from smallpox pustules into the nostrils, a method which may have come from India. Wearing the clothing of someone who had the disease was another means of prevention. The relationship of cowpox (as a protective) to smallpox may have been perceived, since ingesting powdered fleas from infected cows was also recommended to stave off smallpox. But other devastating pestilences were neither understood nor held in check. During the Han dynasty an epidemic of what appears to have been typhoid fever killed two-thirds of the population of one region.Precise descriptions of leprosy in the Nei Ching and later works attest to the diagnostic accuracy of the early Chinese healers, but their explanation of the disease's causes and their treatment follow preconceived notions of the time. â€Å"The wind and chills lodge in the blood v essels and cannot be got rid of. This is called li-feng. For the treatment prick the swollen parts with a sharp needle to let the foul air out. † Fourteenth-century writings referred to chaulmoogra oil, a pressing from seeds of an East Indian tree, as a specific for leprosy, and this oil remained the principal antileprous drug even in the West until recent decades.An illness that may have been tuberculosis was recognized as contagious: â€Å"Generally the disease gives rise to high fever, sweating, asthenia, unlocalized pains making all positions difficult and slowly bringing about consumption and death, after which the disease is transmitted to the relations until the whole family has been wiped out. † Venereal diseases, although not well differentiated, received a variety of therapies, including the use of metallic substances for internal medication.In the Secret Therapy for the Treatment of Venereal Disease, the seventeenth-century physician Chun Szi-sung reported us ing arsenic, which, until the development of penicillin, was the modern medication for venereal disease, in the form of Salvarsan and derivatives synthesized by Paul Ehrlich. There seem always to have been places in China where the sick poor could go for medical care. With the advance of Buddhism in the Han and T'ang dynasties, in-patient hospitals staffed by physician-priests became common.However, in the ninth century, when anti-Buddhists were in control, hospitals as well as 4,600 temples were destroyed or emptied. Nevertheless, by the twelfth century hospitals had again become so numerous that virtually every district had at least one tax-supported institution. The upper classes preferred to be treated and cared for in their homes, thus leaving public hospitals to the poor and lower classes. The Practitioners In the Institutions of Chou, compiled hundreds of years before Christ, the hierarchy of physicians in the kingdom was delineated.The five categories were: chief physician ( who collected drugs, examined other physicians, and assigned them); food physicians (who prescribed six kinds of food and drink); physicians for simple diseases (such as headaches, colds, minor wounds); ulcer physicians (who may have been the surgeons); and physicians for animals (evidently veterinarians). Physicians were also rated according to their results, and as early as the Chou and T'ang dynasties each doctor had to report both successes and failures—to control his movement up or down in the ranks.In the seventh century A. D. examinations were required for one to qualify as a physician, some four centuries earlier than the first licensing system in the West. Medical knowledge was thought of as a secret power that belonged to each practitioner. Whereas in other societies, both advanced and primitive, closely knit guilds might control the spread of medical lore, the Chinese physician kept his secrets to himself—passing them on only to sons or, sometimes, specially selected qualifiers.In early times, a physician gave his services out of philanthropy, for since the original healers were rulers, sages, nobles, and, perhaps, priests, economic and social incentives were absent. Later, direct fees or salaries were instituted, and the court and certain prosperous households kept physicians on retainer. Formal schools may have existed as early as the tenth century, and in the eleventh century an organization for medical education was set up under imperial auspices. Under the Ming dynasty in the fourteenth century, the school system became fixed. It changed little over the next centuries, xcept for a gradual decline, and by 1800 there was only one medical school left in Peking. Teachers were held strictly accountable for the performance of their students, and fines were imposed if the professor failed to enforce attendance or if his pupils did poorly on exams. The examination system was complex: a pyramidal structure provided a process of elimination which continued until those with the highest scores emerged. The top students could be heart doctors, the next level were assistant examiners, and lower scores could mean limited assignment in teaching.Specialization may have occurred early. While physicians and apothecaries were separate for a long time, they were both regarded as healers. In the Chou dynasty there were nine specialties, and they grew to thirteen by the Mongol period, early in the fourteenth century. The subdivisions became even more complex, with doctors for the great blood vessels, small vessels, fevers, smallpox, eyes, skin, bones, larynx, and mouth and teeth. There were also gynecologists, pediatricians, and pulsologists for internal diseases, external medicine, the nose and throat, and for children's illnesses.Some healers specialized in moxibustion, acupuncture, or massage. Even the experts in incantation and dietetics were considered medical specialists and were often held in higher regard than other doctor s; surgeons were generally of low rank. Furthermore, each of the practitioners in each category had assistants and students—all of whom had to qualify by examination. Obstetrics was in the hands of midwives for many centuries; it is not known when the first women doctors were in practice. One female physician is mentioned by name in documents from the Han dynasty (206 B.C. -A. D. 220), but women may have been doctors at an earlier date. By the fourteenth century women were officially recognized as physicians. Throughout the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the practicing medical theorists could be divided into six main philosophic schools. The Yin-yang group focused on insufficiencies of one of these forces. The Wen-pou doctors attributed illnesses to a preponderance of yang and frequently prescribed ginseng and aconite. The Radical group used drastic medication.The Conservatives relied entirely on the authorities of the past, reedited the classic works, and made no deviations from strict authoritarianism. The Eclectic physicians, as their name implies, used a variety of principles from the other sects. The sixth school based all therapy on bringing the five elements and six vapors into harmony. Spread of Chinese Medicine to Korea, Japan, And Tibet Ancient Chinese medicine was well-developed long before the beginning of the Christian era, and its influence appears to have spread into adjacent Korea by the sixth century A.D. At that time, after a severe epidemic had ravaged Japan, Korean doctors who were invited to counsel Japanese physicians introduced them to Chinese medical classics and commentaries. By the seventh century, Japanese scholars and doctors were going directly to China for their information and experience. In the eighth century, a Chinese Buddhist monk named Chien Chen came to Japan and achieved a prominent position in the imperial court at Nara, where, given the Japanese name Kanjin, he taught, practiced medicine, and translated Chinese materia medica.Late in that century, Chinese medicine was well-established in Japan, and a medical school based on its methodology was founded by the Japanese physician Wake Hiroya. Early in the next century (806–10), the Emperor Heijo vainly attempted to combat foreign influence and restore traditional Japanese medical practice, but the methods of Chinese healing were too firmly entrenched. In the tenth century, acupuncture reached Japan, followed by moxibusti on (the word moxa is Japanese), and the full complement of Chinese medicine was accepted in Japan.With medical training closely based on Chinese systems, the Japanese exacted exceptionally intensive and prolonged study before permitting entrance into the profession by governmental examination. As in ancient China, high social standing was a requirement for admission to medical school, but separate instruction by assigned teachers was apparently also arranged to accommodate the more lowly. The authority of Chinese medicine, no t to mention Chinese culture and philosophy, moved east as well as west by the seventh and eighth centuries.However, Arabic and Indian missionaries of Islam and Buddhism made influence a two-way exchange as they traveled to China seeking converts. Since their missions necessitated the translation of Sanskrit and Arabic writings into Chinese and vice versa, medical knowledge inevitably was passed back and forth. Consequently, the crossroads areas of Southeast Asia and Tibet developed a medical system combining aspects of Chinese, Indian, and Arabic practice. Arabic influence, which stemmed in part from Greek teachings, was evident in the doctrine of four humors (phlegm, blood, bile, and wind), whereas Indian deas were seen in the Yogic placement of the soul in the core of the spinal column and reliance on breathing exercises. Traveling Buddhist priests, who were quite successful in spreading their faith, for a long time also practiced medicine. During this early period, the two wives (one Chinese) of a Tibetan king converted him to Buddhism, and thereafter scholars were invited to bring Chinese writings into Tibet, which resulted in collections in Tibetan called Kanjur and Tanjur, the latter containing medical information.In the thirteenth century, the Mongol conqueror Kublai Khan wanted this body of knowledge available again in Chinese but was unable to carry through the translation. Nevertheless, his grandson in the next century arranged for scholars from Tibet, Mongolia, and Central Asia to accomplish the task. Ironically, while the Mongols were in control they allied themselves with non-Chinese such as Uighars, Jews, Christians, and Moslems, and they preferred Arabic medicine to Chinese. Essay of Ancient China Ancient China In ancient Chinese cosmology, the universe was created not by divinities but self-generated from the interplay of nature's basic duality: the active, light, dry, warm, positive, masculine yang and the passive, dark, cold, moist, negative yin. All things, animate and inanimate, and all circumstances were a combination of these fundamentals. The ultimate principle of the universe was the tao, â€Å"the way,† and it determined the proper proportions of yin and yang in everything. Anything that altered the natural relation of yin to yang was considered bad, and right living consisted of carefully following the tao.If one observed the tao by moderation, equanimity, and morality, as taught in the Tao-te Ching, by Lao-tzu (sixth century B. C. ), one would be impervious to disease and resistant to the ravages of aging; disregard of the tao led to illness, which was not so much a punishment for sin as the inevitable result of acting contrary to natural laws. However, illn ess also could be caused by forces beyond one's control: â€Å"Wind is the cause of a hundred diseases,† and atmospheric conditions could upset the harmonious inner balance of the yang and yin.One had to be alert to this possibility and combat its effects as well as modify internal imbalances of the vital forces. Longevity and health were the rewards. Chinese medicine, in league with Taoism, was focused on the prevention of illness; for, as the legendary Huang Ti, father of Chinese medicine, observed, â€Å"the superior physician helps before the early budding of disease. † Although Taoist hygiene called for temperance and simplicity in most things, sexual mores were governed by the yin-yang aspect of Chinese philosophy.Ejaculation in intercourse led to diminution of a man's yang, which, of course, upset the inner balance of his nature. On the other hand, one was strengthened by absorption of the yin released by the orgasm of one's female partner—unless she was over thirty, the point where female essence lost its efficacy. The tao was important in Confucianism also, as the path of virtuous conduct, and for centuries the precepts of Confucius (K'ung Fu-tzu, 550-479 B. C. ) set the most prevalent standards of behavior. In early Chinese philosophy, there was a tendency to accept and combine aspects of all religions and to make way for new ideas.Nevertheless, the ancient Chinese were profoundly conservative once an institution, custom, philosophy, mode of dress, or even a furniture style was firmly established, and it remained relatively unchanged over centuries. As Confucius said: â€Å"Gather in the same places where our fathers before us have gathered; perform the same ceremonies which they before us have performed; play the same music which they before us have played; pay respect to those whom they honored; love those who were dear to them. † Although ancient China's development was relatively isolated, there was early contact with India and Tibet.Buddhism came to China from India, and medical concepts and practices were an important part of its teachings. The gymnastic and breathing exercises in Chinese medical methodology also came from India and were closely related to the principles of Yoga and to aspects of Ayurvedic medicine. There were also contacts with Southeast Asia, Persia, and the Arabic world. In the second century B. C. , the Chinese ambassador Chang Chien spent more than a decade in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt, bringing back information on drugs, viticulture, and other subjects.Over the centuries, knowledge of humoral medicine and of numerous new medicaments filtered into China. The introduction of the wisdom of the Mediterranean world was greatly facilitated in the fifth century by the expulsion and wide dispersion from Constantinople of the heretical Nestorian Christians. The mother of Kublai Khan (1216-94), founder of the Mongol dynasty, was a Nestorian and asked the Pope to send European d octors to China. Early Medical Writings Classical Chinese medicine was based primarily on works ascribed to three legendary emperors. The most ancient was Fu Hsi (c. 2900 B. C. , who was said to have originated the pa kua, a symbol composed of yang lines and yin lines combined in eight (pa) separate trigrams (kua) which could represent all yin-yang conditions. This system is followed even today in the I Ching (Book of Changes), though as a game or superstition in the West. Shen Nung, the Red Emperor (Hung Ti), compiled the first medical herbal, the Pen-tsao (c. 2800 B. C. ), in which he reported the effects of 365 drugs, all of them personally tested. One legend explains that a magic drug made his abdominal skin transparent, so he could observe the action of the many plants he evaluated.Another story tells that he cut open his abdomen and stitched in a window. Shen Nung is also said to have drawn up the first charts on acupuncture, a medical procedure presumably even older than the legendary emperors. The fame of Yu Hsiung (c. 2600 B. C. ), the Yellow Emperor (Huang Ti), rests on his great medical compendium, the Nei Ching (Canon of Medicine). Transmitted orally for many centuries, this seminal work was possibly committed to writing by the third century B. C. Its present form dates from the eighth century A. D. when the last extensive revision was done by Wang Ping. The major portion of the Nei Ching, the Sun-Wen (Simple Questions), records the discourse of the Yellow Emperor with Ch'i Po, his prime minister, on virtually all phases of health and illness, including prevention and treatment. The section called Ling-Hsu (Spiritual Nucleus), deals entirely with acupuncture. Yu Hsiung also was said to be responsible for another great compendium, The Discourses of the Yellow Emperor and the Plain Girl, which thoroughly covered the subject of sex from the Taoist point of view.Among other notable sources for ancient medical lore, one might mention the Shih Ching (Boo k of Odes), which perhaps predates Homer's epics, and the Lun-yu, discourses of Confucius probably written down shortly after his death, which affected patterns of behavior for many generations. During the long Chou dynasty (c. 1050-255 B. C. ), a lengthy compilation of medical works, Institutions of Chou, was completed and became the criterion for subsequent dynasties on the duties and organization of physicians. In the Han dynasty (206 B. C. -A. D. 20), there was a noted clinical author named Tsang Kung, who pioneered in the description of many diseases, including cancer of the stomach, aneurysm, and rheumatism. Chang Chung-ching, the Chinese Hippocrates, in the third century A. D. , wrote the classic treatise Typhoid and Other Fevers. Ko Hung, a famed alchemist and a careful observer, wrote treatises describing beriberi (a vitamin B deficiency), hepatitis, and plague, and gave one of the earliest reports on smallpox: â€Å"As the New Year approached there was a seasonal affectio n in which pustules appeared on the face and spread rapidly all over the body.They looked like burns covered with white starch and reformed as soon as they were broken. The majority died if not treated. After recovery purplish black scars remained. † Sun Szu-miao (A. D. 581-682) wrote Ch'ien Chin Yao Fang (A Thousand Golden Remedies), which summarized in thirty volumes much of the known medical learning, and he headed a committee which produced a fifty-volume collection on pathology. An extensive codification of forensic medicine, Hsi Yuan Lu, was done in the Sung dynasty and became the prime source for knowledge of medical jurisprudence.Anatomy and Physiology Ideas of anatomy in ancient China were reached by reasoning and. by assumption rather than dissection or direct observation. Since the doctrines of Confucius forbade violation of the body, it was not until the eighteenth century, long after Vesalius, that the Chinese began systematic, direct anatomical studies. Even as l ate as the nineteenth century, in the Viceroy's Hospital Medical School, anatomy was taught by diagrams and artificial models rather than dissection.Physiological functions were constructed into a humoral system much like Greek concepts of the sixth century B. C. and Galenic views of the second century A. D. , except that there were five instead of four essential humors. (The number five had mystical value for the Chinese and was used for most classifications: five elements, five tastes, five qualities, five kinds of drugs, five treatments, five solid organs, five seasons, five emotions, five colors, etc. ) The medical compendium Nei Ching stated that each emotion had its seat in a particular organ.Happiness dwelt in the heart, thought in the spleen, sorrow in the lungs, and the liver housed anger as well as the soul. Ideas in the Nei Ching concerning movement of the blood (â€Å"All the blood is under control of the heart. † â€Å"The blood current flows continuously in a c ircle and never stops. â€Å") have been thought to approach an understanding of its circulation antedating Harvey by thousands of years; however, some body vessels were believed to convey air, and there is little evidence that commentators perceived the blood-carrying vessels as a contained system. DiagnosisThe Chinese methods of diagnosis included questioning, feeling the pulse, observing the voice and body, and in some circumstances touching the affected parts. In almost all times and cultures physicians have used a similar approach, for all healers have sought to know as much as possible about a patient in order to understand his or her illness and advise treatment. However, in some respects ancient physicians saw each patient more completely as a reflection of his surroundings (indeed, the entire universe) than does the doctor of today. The Chinese doctor wanted to learn ow the patient had violated the tao, and to do this he took into account the patient's rank; changes in his or her social status, household, economic position, sense of well-being, or appetite; the weather; and the dreams of the patient and his or her family. Perhaps the most important diagnostic technique of the ancient Chinese was examination of the pulse. The physician felt the right wrist and then the left. He compared the beats with his own, noting precise time as well as day and season since each hour affected the nature of the pulsations.Each pulse had three distinct divisions, each associated with a specific organ, and each division had a separate quality, of which there were dozens of varieties. Moreover, each division or zone of the pulse had a superficial and deep projection. Thus literally hundreds of possible characteristics were obtainable. In one treatise, Muo-Ching, ten volumes were necessary to cover all the intricacies of the pulse. A patient had only to extend his or her arm through drawn bed curtains for the physician to determine the symptoms, diagnosis, prognosis, a nd proper treatment by intensive palpation of the pulse.Whenever possible the examiner also felt the skin of the ill person. However, it was considered bad form for a man to intimately examine a woman, so special ceramic, ivory, and wooden dolls were pointed to by the invalid to indicate where discomfort was felt. Treatment According to the Nei Ching, there were five methods of treatment: cure the spirit, nourish the body, give medications, treat the whole body, and use acupuncture and moxibustion. The physician had to put the patient back on the right path, the tao.Assuming that specific mental states caused changes in specific organs, the healer linked certain objectionable behavioral and constitutional factors with illness and attempted to have the patient rectify these. For instance, dissolute and licentious ideas led to diseases of the lungs, but acting out such thoughts brought on heart trouble. A doctor had to determine the cause of disharmony in the body and act accordingly. Exercises were developed to keep the body fit and to restore well-being. Hua T'o, the great surgeon, worked out an ingenious system of physical therapy by advising mimicry of the natural movements of animals.Massage—kneading, tapping, pinching, and chafing—was also a regular method of treatment, as were the application of plasters and evacuation of the intestinal tract by cathartics. In nourishing a patient's body, the physician resorted to complex combinations of foods according to their potential amounts of yang and yin. Foods also had to fit the seasons, and each of the five tastes had benefits for a particular element of the body: sour for the bones, pungent for the tendons, salty for the blood, bitter for respiration, and sweet for muscle.Medications The Chinese pharmacopoeia was always rich, from the time of the Pen-tsao, the first medical herbal, to the later dynasties when two thousand items and sixteen thousand prescriptions made up the armamentarium. Drugs w ere considered more likely to be good if they tasted bad. As one would expect, they were classified into five categories: herbs, trees, insects, stones, and grains. The therapeutic minerals and metals included compounds of mercury (calomel was employed for venereal diseases), arsenic, and magnetic stones.Animal-derived remedies, in addition to â€Å"dragon teeth† (powdered fossilized bones), included virtually anything obtainable from living creatures: whole parts, segments of organs, urine, dung. Two plant substances especially associated with China may be singled out. One is ephedra (ma huang), the â€Å"horsetail† plant described by the Red Emperor, which was used for thousands of years as a stimulant, as a remedy for respiratory -diseases, to induce fevers and perspiration, and to depress coughs.Ephedra entered the Greek pharmacopoeia and eventually was disseminated throughout most of the world. It only became a factor in Western medicine in the late nineteenth cen tury after Japanese investigators isolated and purified the active principle, ephedrine, and established its pharmacologic action. A second medicinal herb, always highly popular among the Chinese, is ginseng (â€Å"man-shaped root†). To the Chinese, preparations containing ginseng were almost miraculous in delaying old age, restoring sexual powers, stimulating the debilitated, and sedating the overwrought.In addition it improved diabetes and stabilized blood pressure. In recent years this root has been under scrutiny by Western pharmacologists attempting to evaluate its true benefits. Multitudes in Asia, and even some Westerners, are so convinced of its effectiveness that high-grade wild roots have brought fabulous prices (even reaching thousands of dollars apiece). Although many items in the Chinese materia medica have either faded into bscurity or been labeled fanciful, others subsequently have been found to possess sound pharmacologic bases: seaweed, which contains iodine, was used in treating enlargement of the thyroid; the willow plant, containing salicylic acid, was a remedy for rheumatism; the Siberian wort has antispasmodics for menstrual discomfort; and mulberry flowers contain rutin, a treatment for elevated blood pressure. Whether opium was used as a drug before quite late in Chinese history is still in dispute. Acupuncture and Moxibustion These modalities have been an integral part of Chinese medical therapy for thousands of years.The Yellow Emperor is said to have invented them, but they may well have existed long before his time. The aim of these treatments was to drain off excess yang or yin and thus establish a proper balance, but external energy also could be introduced into the body. In acupuncture the skin is pierced by long needles to varying prescribed depths. Needles are inserted into any of 365 points along the twelve meridians that traverse the body and transmit an active life force called ch'i. Each of these points is related to a particular organ.For instance, puncture of a certain spot on the ear lobe might be the proper way to treat an abdominal ailment. Virtually every illness, weakness, and symptom is thought to be amenable to correction by acupuncture. Acupuncture spread to Korea and Japan by the end of the tenth century A. D. , to Europe about the seventeenth century, and recent years have seen a wider interest in this Chinese medical practice in the West. Individual paramedical healers and even some medical practitioners have been swamped with requests for acupuncture, especially for problems apparently little benefited by conventional practices.The eventual acceptability of this practice in standard Western medicine remains to be seen. Moxibustion is as old as acupuncture, and the same meridians and points govern placement of the moxa. However, in this treatment a powdered plant substance, usually mugwort, is fashioned into a small mound on the patient's skin and burned, usually raising a blister. Dentistry The treatment of tooth disorders was confined mainly to applying or ingesting drugs—pomegranate, aconite, ginseng, garlic, rhubarb, and arsenic, as well as animal products such as dung and urine.The Nei Ching classified nine types of toothaches, which included some obviously due to infections and tooth decay. Like the Mesopotamians and Egyptians, the ancient Chinese believed that worms were often responsible for dental problems. Toothpicks and tooth whiteners were used, and loose teeth were stabilized with bamboo splints. Gold was sometimes used to cover teeth, but the purpose was decorative rather than protective. Surgery Although surgery was not one of the five methods of treatment listed in the Nei Ching, the knife was known and used.Hua T'o, one of the few names mentioned in connection with surgery, treated an arm wound of the famous general Kuan Yu by cutting his flesh and scraping the bone. Physicians knew how to deal with wounds, and at least two classics we re devoted entirely to their treatment. The proper attitude toward pain was to bear it without a sign of emotion, and much was made of the insouciance of the general treated by Hua T'o; he played chess while the surgeon operated. Nevertheless, apparently some kind of anesthesia was often used.Wine and drugs like hyoscyamus were probably mainstays, but the use of opium and Indian hemp is still in question. Eunuchs and Footbinding Another surgical procedure, though hardly therapeutic, was the frequent castration of certain males seeking advancement at court. Though originally a severe punishment, the total removal of penis and testicles came to be a pledge of absolute allegiance to the monarch, since it released the eunuch from conflict with Confucian admonitions of first loyalty to family and the obligation of siring a son for posterity.Footbinding is also of medical interest, for it caused the development of artificially clubbed feet. Over a period of one thousand years, every young girl of proper family willingly permitted herself to be crippled by her mother and aunts to achieve the tiny foot of ideal feminine beauty. Her toes were gradually folded under the sole, and by increasingly tight bandaging her heelbone and forefoot were brought closer together. Without Golden Lotuses, as the best-shaped bound feet were called, a girl was unmarriageable, nor was the life of a courtesan open to her, for tiny feet were a woman's most desirable feature.For a man, a bound-foot wife had profound sexual significance, but she was also a status symbol inasmuch as her helplessness indicated that he was wealthy enough to support a woman, or women, in idleness. There was also an advantage to him in her restricted mobility, for it kept her home and made illicit amorous adventures difficult. Although China's Manchu conquerors forbade the practice in the nineteenth century, it was not until the early twentieth that footbinding was completely abandoned. Diseases Some epidemic dise ases were understood well enough to allow the development of protective measures.In the eleventh century, inoculation against smallpox was effected by putting scabs from smallpox pustules into the nostrils, a method which may have come from India. Wearing the clothing of someone who had the disease was another means of prevention. The relationship of cowpox (as a protective) to smallpox may have been perceived, since ingesting powdered fleas from infected cows was also recommended to stave off smallpox. But other devastating pestilences were neither understood nor held in check. During the Han dynasty an epidemic of what appears to have been typhoid fever killed two-thirds of the population of one region.Precise descriptions of leprosy in the Nei Ching and later works attest to the diagnostic accuracy of the early Chinese healers, but their explanation of the disease's causes and their treatment follow preconceived notions of the time. â€Å"The wind and chills lodge in the blood v essels and cannot be got rid of. This is called li-feng. For the treatment prick the swollen parts with a sharp needle to let the foul air out. † Fourteenth-century writings referred to chaulmoogra oil, a pressing from seeds of an East Indian tree, as a specific for leprosy, and this oil remained the principal antileprous drug even in the West until recent decades.An illness that may have been tuberculosis was recognized as contagious: â€Å"Generally the disease gives rise to high fever, sweating, asthenia, unlocalized pains making all positions difficult and slowly bringing about consumption and death, after which the disease is transmitted to the relations until the whole family has been wiped out. † Venereal diseases, although not well differentiated, received a variety of therapies, including the use of metallic substances for internal medication.In the Secret Therapy for the Treatment of Venereal Disease, the seventeenth-century physician Chun Szi-sung reported us ing arsenic, which, until the development of penicillin, was the modern medication for venereal disease, in the form of Salvarsan and derivatives synthesized by Paul Ehrlich. There seem always to have been places in China where the sick poor could go for medical care. With the advance of Buddhism in the Han and T'ang dynasties, in-patient hospitals staffed by physician-priests became common.However, in the ninth century, when anti-Buddhists were in control, hospitals as well as 4,600 temples were destroyed or emptied. Nevertheless, by the twelfth century hospitals had again become so numerous that virtually every district had at least one tax-supported institution. The upper classes preferred to be treated and cared for in their homes, thus leaving public hospitals to the poor and lower classes. The Practitioners In the Institutions of Chou, compiled hundreds of years before Christ, the hierarchy of physicians in the kingdom was delineated.The five categories were: chief physician ( who collected drugs, examined other physicians, and assigned them); food physicians (who prescribed six kinds of food and drink); physicians for simple diseases (such as headaches, colds, minor wounds); ulcer physicians (who may have been the surgeons); and physicians for animals (evidently veterinarians). Physicians were also rated according to their results, and as early as the Chou and T'ang dynasties each doctor had to report both successes and failures—to control his movement up or down in the ranks.In the seventh century A. D. examinations were required for one to qualify as a physician, some four centuries earlier than the first licensing system in the West. Medical knowledge was thought of as a secret power that belonged to each practitioner. Whereas in other societies, both advanced and primitive, closely knit guilds might control the spread of medical lore, the Chinese physician kept his secrets to himself—passing them on only to sons or, sometimes, specially selected qualifiers.In early times, a physician gave his services out of philanthropy, for since the original healers were rulers, sages, nobles, and, perhaps, priests, economic and social incentives were absent. Later, direct fees or salaries were instituted, and the court and certain prosperous households kept physicians on retainer. Formal schools may have existed as early as the tenth century, and in the eleventh century an organization for medical education was set up under imperial auspices. Under the Ming dynasty in the fourteenth century, the school system became fixed. It changed little over the next centuries, xcept for a gradual decline, and by 1800 there was only one medical school left in Peking. Teachers were held strictly accountable for the performance of their students, and fines were imposed if the professor failed to enforce attendance or if his pupils did poorly on exams. The examination system was complex: a pyramidal structure provided a process of elimination which continued until those with the highest scores emerged. The top students could be heart doctors, the next level were assistant examiners, and lower scores could mean limited assignment in teaching.Specialization may have occurred early. While physicians and apothecaries were separate for a long time, they were both regarded as healers. In the Chou dynasty there were nine specialties, and they grew to thirteen by the Mongol period, early in the fourteenth century. The subdivisions became even more complex, with doctors for the great blood vessels, small vessels, fevers, smallpox, eyes, skin, bones, larynx, and mouth and teeth. There were also gynecologists, pediatricians, and pulsologists for internal diseases, external medicine, the nose and throat, and for children's illnesses.Some healers specialized in moxibustion, acupuncture, or massage. Even the experts in incantation and dietetics were considered medical specialists and were often held in higher regard than other doctor s; surgeons were generally of low rank. Furthermore, each of the practitioners in each category had assistants and students—all of whom had to qualify by examination. Obstetrics was in the hands of midwives for many centuries; it is not known when the first women doctors were in practice. One female physician is mentioned by name in documents from the Han dynasty (206 B.C. -A. D. 220), but women may have been doctors at an earlier date. By the fourteenth century women were officially recognized as physicians. Throughout the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the practicing medical theorists could be divided into six main philosophic schools. The Yin-yang group focused on insufficiencies of one of these forces. The Wen-pou doctors attributed illnesses to a preponderance of yang and frequently prescribed ginseng and aconite. The Radical group used drastic medication.The Conservatives relied entirely on the authorities of the past, reedited the classic works, and made no deviations from strict authoritarianism. The Eclectic physicians, as their name implies, used a variety of principles from the other sects. The sixth school based all therapy on bringing the five elements and six vapors into harmony. Spread of Chinese Medicine to Korea, Japan, And Tibet Ancient Chinese medicine was well-developed long before the beginning of the Christian era, and its influence appears to have spread into adjacent Korea by the sixth century A.D. At that time, after a severe epidemic had ravaged Japan, Korean doctors who were invited to counsel Japanese physicians introduced them to Chinese medical classics and commentaries. By the seventh century, Japanese scholars and doctors were going directly to China for their information and experience. In the eighth century, a Chinese Buddhist monk named Chien Chen came to Japan and achieved a prominent position in the imperial court at Nara, where, given the Japanese name Kanjin, he taught, practiced medicine, and translated Chinese materia medica.Late in that century, Chinese medicine was well-established in Japan, and a medical school based on its methodology was founded by the Japanese physician Wake Hiroya. Early in the next century (806–10), the Emperor Heijo vainly attempted to combat foreign influence and restore traditional Japanese medical practice, but the methods of Chinese healing were too firmly entrenched. In the tenth century, acupuncture reached Japan, followed by moxibusti on (the word moxa is Japanese), and the full complement of Chinese medicine was accepted in Japan.With medical training closely based on Chinese systems, the Japanese exacted exceptionally intensive and prolonged study before permitting entrance into the profession by governmental examination. As in ancient China, high social standing was a requirement for admission to medical school, but separate instruction by assigned teachers was apparently also arranged to accommodate the more lowly. The authority of Chinese medicine, no t to mention Chinese culture and philosophy, moved east as well as west by the seventh and eighth centuries.However, Arabic and Indian missionaries of Islam and Buddhism made influence a two-way exchange as they traveled to China seeking converts. Since their missions necessitated the translation of Sanskrit and Arabic writings into Chinese and vice versa, medical knowledge inevitably was passed back and forth. Consequently, the crossroads areas of Southeast Asia and Tibet developed a medical system combining aspects of Chinese, Indian, and Arabic practice. Arabic influence, which stemmed in part from Greek teachings, was evident in the doctrine of four humors (phlegm, blood, bile, and wind), whereas Indian deas were seen in the Yogic placement of the soul in the core of the spinal column and reliance on breathing exercises. Traveling Buddhist priests, who were quite successful in spreading their faith, for a long time also practiced medicine. During this early period, the two wives (one Chinese) of a Tibetan king converted him to Buddhism, and thereafter scholars were invited to bring Chinese writings into Tibet, which resulted in collections in Tibetan called Kanjur and Tanjur, the latter containing medical information.In the thirteenth century, the Mongol conqueror Kublai Khan wanted this body of knowledge available again in Chinese but was unable to carry through the translation. Nevertheless, his grandson in the next century arranged for scholars from Tibet, Mongolia, and Central Asia to accomplish the task. Ironically, while the Mongols were in control they allied themselves with non-Chinese such as Uighars, Jews, Christians, and Moslems, and they preferred Arabic medicine to Chinese.

Autobiography of a Face Essays

and now he’ll shrivel up like a prune if you let him. With any luck, I’ll have him holding his own fishing pole by this spring, and I’ve already got my eyes on a little pair of water skis. Who knows, maybe 20 years from now, he’ll be writing an autobiography about how growing up on the water help shape his life too.†¦ Irish Autobiographies Adapted for Film This image of mid-twentieth century Ireland embodied in the themes of emigration, cultural isolation, economic depression, literary censorship and religious conservatism have become a fixed concept in the collective imaginative and cultural production. At the start of the twenty-first century, far from seeking to exorcise such associations, Joe Cleary has noted that "the period is repeatedly evoked because it serves as the definitive image of the anti-modern†¦ Online classes or Face-to-face? Students learn at different paces and different ways. Online classes is one of the ways for students to learn different subjects, and it proves to be a good for some students. Online classes allow you work at your own pace which most students enjoy. The other way is the traditional sitting in a desk, listening to a teacher/professor teach on and on, and trying to stay awake until its over. Classroom makes you have a good sense of time management. Students need to†¦ Multicultural Education Autobiography and Reflection Throughout the entire course, as a class we have covered a variety of different topics ranging from ethnicity to gender and sexual orientation. Some of the topics covered in our class were easier to discuss while being able to express our own thoughts. Other topics were topics that we had been aware of, yet we did not feel so comfortable discussing because as humans we tend to care what others might think of us when we speak up. For example, sexual†¦ race, gender or beliefs. Gandhi: An Autobiography and The Help portray multiple insights of the world in the 1900’s compared to modern day society. Social justice is a major theme in The Help and Gandhi: An Autobiography. In these two books we see how society can be a cruel mistress. How people of different races are treated throughout time and how the main characters never give up on hope for a better future in our community. In Gandhi: An Autobiography and The Help, the social aspect of†¦ Introduction In 1946, the book simply titled Autobiography of a Yogi was published. It was written by a hitherto unknown saint from India named Paramahansa Yogananda. Paramahansa Yogananda was an Indian Yogi who left the shores of India in 1920 to teach God realization to people of the West. In this inspiring book, he describes his meetings with miracle performing yogis in India such as the levitating saint, a tiger fighting swami, a yogi who bilocates and other great saints search for a guru, and†¦ Sexual Autobiography Shaping my sexual behavior was generally influenced by my mom. I learned to be dependent on men and use safe sex through media. Gender sex roles also placed me to be secretive with my sex life and nurturing. My body image makes me insecure when it comes to intimacy. There were no specific sexual guidelines that my family made me follow. I was raised in a family where I was able to explore and have my own opinions about sexual situations. Not having guidelines or a path made†¦ Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face "Language supplies us with ways to express ever subtle levels of meaning, but does that imply language gives meaning, or robs us of it when we are at a loss to name things?"(Grealy 44). Throughout her childhood and young adulthood, Lucy Grealy attempts to create a self-image based on her looks, through the reactions of others, and her own hopefulness, but these fail and she learns to forget her image completely. It is at this time of forgetting her image that†¦ need to take big steps and make sacrifices. After reading the autobiography of Malcolm X its admirable that he became such an intellectual man even thought he didn 't finish school and had a difficult time pronouncing words. He was someone that went through many changes in his life to fight for equality and never give up on his dreams. His passion and his aspirations in life to fight against racial discrimination in America help him face all his academic struggles and to become a intellectual and knowledgeable†¦ From an Electrician to a Teacher: An Autobiography â€Å"The heart of human excellence often begins to beat when you discover a pursuit that absorbs you, frees you, challenges you, and gives you a sense of joy, meaning and passion.† – Angel Chernoof* I firmly believe that to be successful and flourish in education and childhood learning, your heart must lead you to this passion – as my heart did a year ago. Coming out of high school, my dreams were far beyond teaching and spending a lifetime discovering†¦

Gene Expression Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Gene Expression - Essay Example Before we start to Compare and contrast transgenic methods for manipulating gene expression between Drosophila and vertebrate animals let us discuss in brief about what is gene expression and function of genes Gene expression Genes exert their effects on the phenotype. The biological information is contained in the base sequence of DNA. Gene expression is the process by which this information is made available to the cell. This has been described by the central dogma. This states that information is transferred from DNA to RNA and RNA to a protein. During expression gene synthesis from mRNA molecule, into which information has been transferred in the form of genetic code. This synthesis of mRNA from of the strands of the DNA molecule is called transcription. The first step in gene expression is called transcription. Two strands of DNA separate, only one them act as template for the transcription into mRNA in 5’ïÆ'  3’ direction. This strand is non coding (antisense) strand and the other stand of DNA is coding strand (sense strand). This synthesis of polypeptide chain or a protein from mRNA is called translation.... Many genes express whenever the product is required and the expression is regulated. These genes are called regulated genes. Certain genes are expressed as a function of the interaction between RNA polymerase with promoter without any regulation. Such genes are called constitutive genes. They are constantly needed for cellular activities. Flow of genetic information from DNA to protein through RNA was described by crick as central dogma of molecular biology. The studies of bacterial genetics indicate that all genes not only specify the structure of an enzyme but some of them also regulate the expression of other genes. These genes are called regulator genes. This concept of gene regulation has been studied by Franois Jacob and Jacques monod in 1961.the relationship between the nucleotide sequence of mRNA and amino acid sequence that constitute a polypeptide chain is called as genetic code. Gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster Introduction Heterochromatin was originally defined visually as the heavily staining region seen in both the meiotic and interphase nucleus (hietz 1928). The contrast between the openness of euchromantin and the compactness of the heterochromatic implied that the euchromatic is the location of most gene function and led to the neglect of heterochromatin. However, it has become increasingly clear that the nuclear genome is more than a collection of autonomous DNA sequence and that a deeper knowledge of the structure of the nucleus and the chromatin, including the heterochromatin, will contribute to our understanding of the gene expression. In Drosophila melanogaster heterochromatin accounts for approximately 30 % of the genome. Its properties have been studied since the advent

Stephen Kings Novels Recreated into Films Movie Review

Stephen Kings Novels Recreated into Films - Movie Review Example The story of Dr Louis Creed (Midkiff) and his efforts to revive his three-year-old son (Hughes), killed by one of the giant trucks that thunder past their new Maine home, is more like a sketchy outline than a finished work. No film about a scalpel-wielding three-year-old psycho zombie could be entirely devoid of shocks. But reams of tedious exposition, about a children's pet 'sematary' and the magical resurrecting properties of an Indian burial ground, stretch patience and credulity to their limits, while Lambert fails to exploit the potential of the novel's best set pieces. The stories told in flashback by Creed's wife (Crosby) and their elderly neighbour (Gwynne) also seem hopelessly contrived, arresting the book's page-turning plot without adding emotional or psychological depth. If Pet Sematary was just a movie, then it might seem somehow acceptable: its plot, sort of a modern day zombie flick, is fairly creepy, and its premise is sufficiently horrific. Pet Sematary is not, however, a stand-alone film. It is, after all, a translation of a novel, and a great novel, at that. Though plotwise, the film stays fairly true to Stephen King's novel, it remains flat and unconvincing throughout. Unfortunately, this is a fate that has befallen most of King's work. Stephen King's novels don't, as a rule, translate well onto the silver screen. In much the same way that Church, having come back from the dead, seems to be missing something vital, so do King's books when they transition to movies. Perhaps this is because so much of the action in Stephen King's novels, so much of what is horrifying in them, happens to the characters internally. It is their thoughts, their fears, their histories and hopes, that make King's novels so successful. Films often have difficulty con veying this, and this is especially true of the horror genre. Pet Sematary is no exception to this rule. The novel that Pet Sematary is based on is probably one of the best, most terrifying horror novels ever written, and that only makes the movie even more disappointing. In his novel, Stephen King reveals the horror layer by layer, peeling away the sense of normality and safety little by little, until all that is left is sheer terror. Dreamcatcher Starring: Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Director: Lawrence Kasdan, Release Date: March 2003, Genres: Horror, Suspense. The movie opens with four troubled guys in their late twenties, Dr. Henry Devlin (Thomas Jane), Joe 'Beaver' Clarendon (Jason Lee), Gary 'Jonesy' Jones (Damian Lewis) and Pete Moore (Timothy Olyphant), dealing with their gift. These lifelong buddies were given the ability to read minds and more by a mentally challenged guy named Douglas 'Duddits' Cavell (Donnie Wahlberg) when they were young. Now they use their magic to do such mundane things as finding the lost car keys of a real estate agent that one of them wants to date. But their talents will soon be put to the test. Meanwhile back in the snow-covered woods where the guys are going for their annual outing, trouble is brewing. The mad Colonel Abraham Kurtz (Morgan Freeman), ably assisted by

Critical Paper 2A Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Critical Paper 2A - Essay Example Bear in mind that in a lot of these cases the women are primary income earners, and in their quest for high-paying jobs they often rolling the dice with a heavy heart. A lot of the income earned by these women fuel the economies of their home countries to the tune of millions of dollars annually. The question is, have the effects of poverty effectively dehumanized the women living in developing countries? Let us take a closer look at the situation of women in the Philippines, one of the world’s leading providers of woman migrant workers because of the seething poverty that is prevalent in the country. (United Nations Development Fund for Women, 2008) Women in the Philippines are considered the backbone of its society, being a Roman Catholic country. While most men are still the primary wage earners, a significant portion of women are the breadwinners of an increasingly large number of single-parent households. Now, the main point of contention here is that the Philippines is not exactly an equal opportunity employer. The majority of the well-paying jobs still go to the men, and women are oftentimes relegated to low-paying, menial work such as secretarial jobs or clerking posts. And that’s if they choose to do it the â€Å" honorable† way. Rampant stories run abound about with nursing school graduates saddled with an unwanted pregnancy, and are then forced to work as prostitutes to support the child as the husband had abandoned her. The Philippines is a country seemingly built for infidelity, and the practice is as socially accepted as it can ever get.. Thus, women are often saddled with unwanted babies, and with no good-paying jobs to support them, are forced to turn to drastic measures. (Department of Social Welfare and Development, 2008) While not all women are keen on exploring prostitution as a living , the next best alternative is to look for jobs