title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The of the Code was published by Father Jean-Vincent Scheil in 1902, in the fourth volume of the "Reports of the Delegation to Persia" (). After a brief introduction with details of the excavation, Scheil gave a transliteration and a free translation into French, as well as a selection of images. Editions in other languages soon followed: in German by Hugo Winckler in 1902, in English by C. H. W. Johns in 1903, and in Italian by Pietro Bonfante, also in 1903.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The Code was thought to be the earliest Mesopotamian law collection when it was rediscovered in 1902—for example, C. H. W. Johns' 1903 book was titled "The Oldest Code of Laws in the World". The English writer H. G. Wells included Hammurabi in the first volume of "The Outline of History", and to Wells too the Code was "the earliest known code of law". However, three earlier collections were rediscovered afterwards: the Code of Lipit-Ishtar in 1947, the Laws of Eshnunna in 1948, and the Code of Ur-Nammu in 1952. Early commentators dated Hammurabi and the stele to the 23rd century BC. However, this is an earlier estimate than even the "ultra-long chronology" would support. The Code was compiled near the end of Hammurabi's reign. This was deduced partly from the list of his achievements in the prologue.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Scheil enthused about the stele's importance and perceived fairness, calling it "a moral and political masterpiece". C. H. W. Johns called it "one of the most important monuments in the history of the human race". He remarked that "there are many humanitarian clauses and much protection is given the weak and the helpless", and even lauded a "wonderful modernity of spirit". John Dyneley Prince called the Code's rediscovery "the most important event which has taken place in the development of Assyriological science since the days of Rawlinson and Layard". Charles Francis Horne commended the "wise law-giver" and his "celebrated code". James Henry Breasted noted the Code's "justice to the widow, the orphan, and the poor", but remarked that it "also allows many of the old and naïve ideas of justice to stand". Commentators praised the advanced society they believed the Code evinced. Several singled out perceived secularism: Owen Jenkins, for example, but even Charles Souvay for the "Catholic Encyclopedia", who opined that unlike the Mosaic Law the Code was "founded upon the dictates of reason". The question of the Code's influence on the Mosaic Law received much early attention. Scholars also identified Hammurabi with the Biblical figure Amraphel, but this proposal has since been abandoned.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The relief appears to show Hammurabi standing before a seated Shamash. Shamash wears the horned crown of divinity and has a solar attribute, flames, spouting from his shoulders. Contrastingly, Scheil, in his , identified the seated figure as Hammurabi and the standing figure as Shamash. Scheil also held that the scene showed Shamash dictating to Hammurabi while Hammurabi held a scribe's stylus, gazing attentively at the god. Martha Roth lists other interpretations: "that the king is offering the laws to the god; that the king is accepting or offering the emblems of sovereignty of the rod and ring; or—most probably—that these emblems are the measuring tools of the rod-measure and rope-measure used in temple-building". Hammurabi may even be imitating Shamash. It is certain, though, that the draughtsman showed Hammurabi's close links to the divine realm, using composition and iconography.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The prologue and epilogue together occupy one-fifth of the text. Out of around 4,130 lines, the prologue occupies 300 lines and the epilogue occupies 500. They are in ring composition around the laws, though there is no visual break distinguishing them from the laws. Both are written in poetic style, and, as William W. Davies wrote, "contain much... which sounds very like braggadocio".


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The 300-line prologue begins with an etiology of Hammurabi's royal authority (1–49). Anum, the Babylonian sky god and king of the gods, granted rulership over humanity to Marduk. Marduk chose the centre of his earthly power to be Babylon, which in the real world worshipped him as its tutelary god. Marduk established the office of kingship within Babylon. Finally, Anum, along with the Babylonian wind god Enlil, chose Hammurabi to be Babylon's king. Hammurabi was to rule "to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak" (37–39: ). He was to rise like Shamash over the Mesopotamians (the , literally the "black-headed people") and illuminate the land (40–44).


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Hammurabi then lists his achievements and virtues (50–291). These are expressed in noun form, in the Akkadian first person singular nominal sentence construction "[noun]... " ("I am [noun]"). The first nominal sentence (50–53) is short: "I am Hammurabi, the shepherd, selected by the god Enlil" (). Then Hammurabi continues for over 200 lines in a single nominal sentence with the delayed to the very end (291).


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Hammurabi repeatedly calls himself , "pious" (lines 61, 149, 241, and 272). The metaphor of Hammurabi as his people's shepherd also recurs. It was a common metaphor for ancient Near Eastern kings, but is perhaps justified by Hammurabi's interest in his subjects' affairs. His affinities with many different gods are stressed throughout. He is portrayed as dutiful in restoring and maintaining temples and peerless on the battlefield. The list of his accomplishments has helped establish that the text was written late in Hammurabi's reign. After the list, Hammurabi explains that he fulfilled Marduk's request to establish "truth and justice" () for the people (292–302), although the prologue never directly references the laws. The prologue ends "at that time:" (303: ) and the laws begin.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Unlike the prologue, the 500-line epilogue is explicitly related to the laws. The epilogue begins (3144'–3151'): "these are the just decisions which Hammurabi... has established" (). He exalts his laws and his magnanimity (3152'–3239'). He then expresses a hope that "any wronged man who has a lawsuit" () may have the laws of the stele read aloud to him and know his rights (3240'–3256'). This would bring Hammurabi praise (3257'–3275') and divine favour (3276'–3295'). Hammurabi wishes for good fortune for any ruler who heeds his pronouncements and respects his stele (3296'–3359'). However, he invokes the wrath of the gods on any man who disobeys or erases his pronouncements (3360'–3641', the end of the text).


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The epilogue contains much legal imagery, and the phrase "to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak" (3202'–3203': ) is reused from the prologue. However, the king's main concern appears to be ensuring that his achievements are not forgotten and his name not sullied. The list of curses heaped upon any future defacer is 281 lines long and extremely forceful. Some of the curses are very vivid: "may the god Sin... decree for him a life that is no better than death" (3486'–3508': ); "may he [the future defacer] conclude every day, month, and year of his reign with groaning and mourning" (3497'–3501': ); may he experience "the spilling of his life force like water" (3435'–3436': ). Hammurabi implores a variety of gods individually to turn their particular attributes against the defacer. For example: "may the [storm] god Adad... deprive him of the benefits of rain from heaven and flood from the springs" (3509'–3515': ); "may the god [of wisdom] Ea... deprive him of all understanding and wisdom, and may he lead him into confusion" (3440'–3451': ). Gods and goddesses are invoked in this order:


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The Code of Hammurabi is the longest and best-organised legal text from the ancient Near East, as well as the best-preserved. The classification below (columns 1–3) is Driver & Miles', with several amendments, and Roth's translation is used. Laws represented by letters are those reconstructed primarily from documents other than the Louvre stele.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The purpose and legal authority of the Code have been disputed since the mid-20th century. Theories fall into three main categories: that it is legislation, whether a code of law or a body of statutes; that it is a sort of law report, containing records of past cases and judgments; and that it is an abstract work of jurisprudence. The jurisprudence theory has gained much support within Assyriology.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The term "code" presupposes that the document was intended to be enforced as legislation. It was used by Scheil in his , and widely adopted afterwards. C. H. W. Johns, one of the most prolific early commentators on the document, proclaimed that "the Code well deserves its name". Recent Assyriologists have used the term without comment, as well as scholars outside Assyriology. However, only if the text was intended as enforced legislation can it truly be called a code of law and its provisions laws.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The document, on first inspection, resembles a highly organised code similar to the Code of Justinian and the Napoleonic Code. There is also evidence that , which in the Code of Hammurabi sometimes denote individual "laws", were enforced. One copy of the Code calls it a , "royal decree", which denotes a kind of enforced legislation.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: However, the arguments against this view are strong. Firstly, it would make a very unusual code—Reuven Yaron called the designation "Code" a "persistent misnomer". Vital areas of society and commerce are omitted. For example, Marc Van De Mieroop observes that the Code "deals with cattle and agricultural fields, but it almost entirely ignores the work of shepherds, vital to Babylonia's economy". Then, against the legislation theory more generally, highly implausible circumstances are covered, such as threshing with goats, animals far too unruly for the task (law 270). The laws are also strictly casuistic ("if... then"); unlike in the Mosaic Law, there are no apodictic laws (general commands). These would more obviously suggest prescriptive legislation. The strongest argument against the legislation theory, however, is that most judges appear to have paid the Code no attention. This line of criticism originated with Benno Landsberger in 1950. No Mesopotamian legal document explicitly references the Code or any other law collection, despite the great scale of the corpus. Two references to prescriptions on "a stele" () come closest. In contrast, numerous judgments cite royal -decrees. Raymond Westbrook held that this strengthened the argument from silence that ancient Near Eastern legal "codes" had legal import. Furthermore, many Old Babylonian judgments run entirely counter to the Code's prescriptions.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: A second theory is that the Code is a sort of law report, and as such contains records of past cases and judgments, albeit phrased abstractly. This would provide one explanation for the casuistic format of the "laws"; indeed, Jean Bottéro believed he had found a record of a case that inspired one. However, such finds are inconclusive and very rare, despite the scale of the Mesopotamian legal corpus. Furthermore, legal judgments were frequently recorded in Mesopotamia, and they recount the facts of the case without generalising them. These judgments were concerned almost exclusively with points of fact, prompting Martha Roth to comment: "I know of only one case out of thousands extant that might be said to revolve around a point of law".


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: A third theory, which has gained traction within Assyriology, is that the Code is not a true code but an abstract treatise on how judgments should be formulated. This led Fritz Rudolf Kraus, in an early formulation of the theory, to call it jurisprudence (). Kraus proposed that it was a work of Mesopotamian scholarship in the same category as omen collections like and . Others have provided their own versions of this theory. A. Leo Oppenheim remarked that the Code of Hammurabi and similar Mesopotamian law collections "represent an interesting formulation of social criticism and should not be taken as normative directions".


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: This interpretation bypasses the problem of low congruence between the Code and actual legal judgments. Secondly, the Code does bear striking similarities to other works of Mesopotamian scholarship. Key points of similarity are the list format and the order of the items, which Ann Guinan describes as a complex "serial logic". Marc Van De Mieroop explains that, in common with other works of Mesopotamian scholarship such as omen lists, king lists, and god lists, the entries of the Code of Hammurabi are arranged according to two principles. These are "opposition"—whereby a variable in one entry is altered to make another entry—and "pointillism"—whereby new conditions are added to an entry, or paradigmatic series pursued, to generate a sequence. Van De Mieroop provides the following examples:


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Laws 215 and 218 illustrate the principle of opposition: one variable of the first law, the outcome of the operations, is altered to create the second.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Here, following the principle of pointillism, circumstances are added to the first entry to create more entries. Pointillism also lets list entries be generated by following paradigmatic series common to multiple branches of scholarship. It can thus explain the implausible entries. For example, in the case of the goat used for threshing (law 270), the previous laws concern other animals that "were" used for threshing. The established series of domesticated beasts dictated that a goat come next.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Wolfram von Soden, who decades earlier called this way of thinking ("list science"), often denigrated it. However, more recent writers, such as Marc Van De Mieroop, Jean Bottéro, and Ann Guinan, have either avoided value judgments or expressed admiration. Lists were central to Mesopotamian science and logic, and their distinctive structural principles let entries be generated infinitely. Linking the Code to the scribal tradition within which "list science" emerged also explains why trainee scribes copied and studied it for over a millennium. The Code appears in a late Babylonian (7th–6th century BC) list of literary and scholarly texts. No other law collection became so entrenched in the curriculum. Rather than a code of laws, then, it may be a scholarly treatise.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Much has been written on what the Code suggests about Old Babylonian society and its legal system. For example, whether it demonstrates that there were no professional advocates, or that there were professional judges. Scholars who approach the Code as a self-contained document renounce such claims.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: One principle widely accepted to underlie the Code is , or "eye for an eye". Laws 196 and 200 respectively prescribe an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth when one man destroys another's. Punishments determined by could be transferred to the sons of the wrongdoer. For example, law 229 states that the death of a homeowner in a house collapse necessitates the death of the house's builder. The following law 230 states that if the homeowner's son died, the builder's son must die also.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Persons were not equal before the law; not just age and profession but also class and gender dictated the punishment or remedy they received. Three main kinds of person, , , and (male)/ (female), are mentioned throughout the Code. A / was a male/female slave. As for and , though contentious, it seems likely that the difference was one of social class, with meaning something like "gentleman" and something like "commoner". The penalties were not necessarily stricter for a than an : a 's life may have been cheaper, but so were some of his fines. There was also inequality within these classes: laws 200 and 202, for example, show that one could be of higher rank than another.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Martha Roth has shown that ideas of shame and honour motivated certain laws. Most readers will also be struck by the violence of many of the punishments. This prompted Driver and Miles to remark that "the Babylonians believed in corporal punishments... and did not highly value human life".


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The above principles are distant in spirit from modern systems of common and civil law, but some may be more familiar. One such principle is the presumption of innocence; the first two laws of the stele prescribe punishments, determined by , for unsubstantiated accusations. Written evidence was valued highly, especially in matters of contract. One crime was given only one punishment. The laws also recognized the importance of the intentions of a defendant. Lastly, the Code's establishment on public stelae was supposedly intended to increase access to justice. Whether or not this was true, suggesting that a wronged man have the stele read aloud to him (lines 3240'–3254') is a concrete measure in this direction, given the inaccessibility of scribal education in the Old Babylonian period.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: One last question is what source the Code claims for its legitimacy. The prologue asserts that Hammurabi was chosen by the gods. Raymond Westbrook observed that in ancient Near Eastern law, "the king was the primary source of legislation". However, they could delegate their god-given legal authority to judges. However, as Owen B. Jenkins observed, the prescriptions themselves bear "an astonishing absence... of all theological or even ceremonial law".


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The laws are written in the Old Babylonian dialect of Akkadian. Their style is regular and repetitive, and today they are a standard set text for introductory Akkadian classes. However, as A. Leo Oppenheim summarises, the cuneiform signs themselves are "vertically arranged... within boxes placed in bands side by side from right to left", an arrangement already antiquated by Hammurabi's time. Since Akkadian learners today tend to begin by studying later phases of cuneiform, where the signs have been rotated ninety degrees, they have to turn their head on one side to read the Louvre stele.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The laws are expressed in casuistic format: they are conditional sentences with the case detailed in the protasis ("if" clause) and the remedy given in the apodosis ("then" clause). The protasis begins , "if", except when it adds to circumstances already specified in a previous law (e.g. laws 36, 38, and 40). The preterite is used for simple past verbs in the protasis, or possibly for a simple conditional. The perfect often appears at the end of the protasis after one or more preterites to convey sequence of action, or possibly a hypothetical conditional. The durative, sometimes called the "present" in Assyriology, may express intention in the laws. For ease of English reading, some translations give preterite and perfect verbs in the protasis a present sense. In the apodosis, the verbs are in the durative, though the sense varies between permissive—"it is permitted that "x" happen"—and instructive—""x" must/will happen". In both protasis and apodosis, sequence of action is conveyed by suffixing verbs with , "and". can also have the sense "but".


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The Code is relatively well-understood, but some items of its vocabulary are controversial. As mentioned, the terms and have proved difficult to translate. They probably denote respectively a male member of a higher and lower social class. Wolfram von Soden, in his "Akkadisches Handwörterbuch", proposed that was derived from , "to bow down/supplicate". As a word for a man of low social standing, it has endured, possibly from a Sumerian root, into Arabic (), Italian (), Spanish (), and French (). However, some earlier translators, also seeking to explain the 's special treatment, translated it as "leper" and even "noble". Some translators have supplied stilted readings for , such as "seignior", "elite man", and "member of the aristocracy"; others have left it untranslated. Certain legal terms have also proved difficult to translate. For example, and can denote the law in general as well as individual laws, verdicts, divine pronouncements and other phenomena. can likewise denote the law in general as well as a kind of royal decree.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The Code of Hammurabi bears strong similarities to earlier Mesopotamian law collections. Many purport to have been written by rulers, and this tradition was probably widespread. Earlier law collections express their god-given legitimacy similarly. Like the Code of Hammurabi, they feature prologues and epilogues: the Code of Ur-Nammu has a prologue, the Code of Lipit-Ishtar a prologue and an epilogue, and the Laws of Eshnunna an epilogue. Also, like the Code of Hammurabi, they uphold the "one crime, one punishment" principle. The cases covered and language used are, overall, strikingly similar. Scribes were still copying earlier law collections, such as the Code of Ur-Nammu, when Hammurabi produced his own Code. This suggests that earlier collections may have not only resembled the Code but influenced it. Raymond Westbrook maintained that there was a fairly consistent tradition of "ancient Near Eastern law" which included the Code of Hammurabi, and that this was largely customary law. Nonetheless, there are differences: for example, Stephen Bertman has suggested that where earlier collections are concerned with compensating victims, the Code is concerned with physically punishing offenders. Additionally, the above conclusions of similarity and influence apply only to the law collections themselves. The actual legal practices from the context of each code are mysterious.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The Code of Hammurabi also bears strong similarities to later Mesopotamian law collections: to the casuistic Middle Assyrian Laws and to the Neo-Babylonian Laws, whose format is largely relative ("a man who..."). It is easier to posit direct influence for these later collections, given the Code's survival through the scribal curriculum. Lastly, although influence is more difficult to trace, there is evidence that the Hittite laws may have been part of the same tradition of legal writing outside Mesopotamia proper.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The relationship of the Code of Hammurabi to the Mosaic Law, specifically the Covenant Code of Exodus 20:22–23:19, has been a subject of discussion since its discovery. Friedrich Delitzsch argued the case for strong influence in a 1902 lecture, in one episode of the "" ("Babel and Bible", or "Panbabylonism") debate on the influence of ancient Mesopotamian cultures on ancient Israel. However, he was met with strong resistance. There was cultural contact between Mesopotamia and the Levant, and Middle Bronze Age tablets of casuistic cuneiform law have been found at Hazor. There are also similarities between the Code of Hamurabi and the Covenant Code: in the casuistic format, in principles such as ("eye for an eye"), and in the content of the provisions. Some similarities are striking, such as in the provisions concerning a man-goring ox (Code of Hammurabi laws 250–252, Exodus 21:28–32). Certain writers have posited direct influence: David P. Wright, for example, asserts that the Covenant Code is "directly, primarily, and throughout dependent upon the Laws of Hammurabi", "a creative rewriting of Mesopotamian sources... to be viewed as an academic abstraction rather than a digest of laws". Others posit indirect influence, such as via Aramaic or Phoenician intermediaries. The consensus, however, is that the similarities are a result of inheriting common traditions. In 1916, George A. Barton cited "a similarity of antecedents and of general intellectual outlook". More recently, David Winton Thomas has stated: "There is no ground for assuming any direct borrowing by the Hebrew from the Babylonian. Even where the two sets of laws differ little in the letter, they differ much in the spirit".


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The influence of the Code of Hammurabi on later law collections is difficult to establish. Marc Van De Mieroop suggests that it may have influenced the Greek Gortyn Code and the Roman Twelve Tables. However, even Van De Mieroop acknowledges that most Roman law is not similar to the Code, or likely to have been influenced by it.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Knowing the Code's influence on modern law requires knowing its influence on Mosaic and Graeco-Roman law. Since this is contentious, commentators have restricted themselves to observing similarities and differences between the Code and, e.g., United States law and medieval law. Some have remarked that the punishments found in the Code are no more severe, and, in some cases, less so.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Law 238 stipulates that a sea captain, ship-manager, or ship charterer that saved a ship from total loss was only required to pay one-half the value of the ship to the ship-owner. In the "Digesta seu Pandectae" (533), the second volume of the codification of laws ordered by Justinian I (527–565) of the Eastern Roman Empire, a legal opinion written by the Roman jurist Paulus at the beginning of the Crisis of the Third Century in 235 AD was included about the "Lex Rhodia" ("Rhodian law") that articulates the general average principle of marine insurance established on the island of Rhodes in approximately 1000 to 800 BC as a member of the Doric Hexapolis, plausibly by the Phoenicians during the proposed Dorian invasion and emergence of the purported Sea Peoples during the Greek Dark Ages (c. 1100 – c. 750) that led to the proliferation of the Doric Greek dialect. The law of general average constitutes the fundamental principle that underlies all insurance.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: The Code is often referred to in legal scholarship, where its provisions are assumed to be laws, and the document is assumed to be a true code of laws. This is also true outside academia. Some writers incorrectly state that the Code of Hammurabi is the oldest code of laws. All stress its importance and positive attributes: the Louvre, for example, calls it "the emblem of the Mesopotamian civilization". Iraq's Hammurabi Human Rights Organization was named after the Code.


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: Hammurabi leads Babylon in five of the six "Civilization" video games, and in "Civilization VI" his leader ability is "Ninu Ilu Sirum". This is an early reading of the Code's incipit, ("when the august god Anu[m]..."). The soundtrack to the South Korean television series "Ms. Hammurabi", which is about a judge, features the track "Code of Hammurabi". The thrash metal band Testament's 2020 album Titans of Creation also features a track called "Code of Hammurabi".


title: Code of Hammurabi

text: There is a relief portrait of Hammurabi over the doors to the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol, along with portraits of 22 others "noted for their work in establishing the principles that underlie American law". There are replicas of the Louvre stele in institutions around the world, including: the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York City, the Peace Palace in The Hague (seat of the International Court of Justice), the National Museum of Iran in Tehran, the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, the University of Chicago Oriental Institute, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the University of Kansas Clendening History of Medicine Library, and the Prewitt–Allen Archaeological Museum of Corban University.


title: Bigg Boss (Hindi season 15)

text: Bigg Boss 15, also known as Bigg Boss: "Sankat in Jungle" or Bigg Boss: Pan Pana Pan Pandrah was the fifteenth season of the Indian reality TV series "Bigg Boss". It premiered on 2 October 2021 on Colors TV Salman Khan hosted the season for the twelve time. and the grand finale aired on 30 January 2022 where Tejasswi Prakash emerged as the winner and Pratik Sehajpal emerged as the runner-up. The season marked a series of disappointments for the franchise and the show recorded the lowest TRP of just 0.8.


title: Bigg Boss (Hindi season 15)

text: The first teaser was released on 22 August 2021, in which Salman Khan is a forest officer talking to a wishful talking tree named "Vishwasuntree" in which veteran actress Rekha gave her voice. On the Grand Finale of Bigg Boss OTT, another promo was released revealing the date of the premiere .


title: Bigg Boss (Hindi season 15)

text: This theme of the season was "Sankat In Jungle". The eye this time was covered with green grass and shows a tree in the pupil of the eye with flames coming from the centre of the eye.


title: Bigg Boss (Hindi season 15)

text: The house this time had a ""Jungle Theme"" and was located in Goregaon for the third time. The house was divided into 2 parts, Jungle House and Main House. On Day 21, Jungle House was closed.


title: Bigg Boss (Hindi season 15)

text: Apart from the usual hour-long episode, viewers also had access to the direct "24x7" "camera footage". The


title: Bigg Boss (Hindi season 15)

text: viewers also had access to "Before TV" on Voot Select where the episode was telecast 30 minutes before it was telecasted on Colors TV. Also for the first time, Live Voting was conducted for the Eviction Process. On weekdays, the show was at 10.30 PM IST & weekend show was at 9.30 PM IST which was changed to 8 PM IST from Week 16.


title: Bigg Boss (Hindi season 15)

text: All housemates will be given a survival kit with a few essentials throughout the season and will get fewer facilities this time. The housemates will enter a small jungle house which has a small kitchen, no beds and sofa and bathroom for the first 3 weeks. The housemates who will survive the jungle will enter the main luxurious house. There is a wishful tree in the garden area named "Vishwasuntree" who is the queen of the magical jungle in the house and will give advantages and privileges to the contestants who perform well in the jungle. On Day 36, Salman announced that there will be a new zone named VIP Zone. The members who are in VIP Zone are eligible to be in the finale.


title: Sweet Magnolias

text: Sweet Magnolias is an American romantic drama streaming television series, developed by Sheryl J. Anderson and based on the "Sweet Magnolias" novels by Sherryl Woods. It stars JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Brooke Elliott, Heather Headley and Jamie Lynn Spears. The series premiered on Netflix on May 19, 2020. In July 2020, the series was renewed for a second season. The 10-episode second season premiered on February 4, 2022. In May 2022, the series was renewed for a third season.


title: Sweet Magnolias

text: "Sweet Magnolias" follows "three South Carolina women, best friends since childhood, as they shepherd each other through the complexities of romance, career, and family."


title: Sweet Magnolias

text: On September 27, 2018, it was announced that Netflix had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of ten episodes. The series was based on the "Sweet Magnolias" book series by Sherryl Woods and executive producers were expected to include Woods, Sheryl J. Anderson, and Dan Paulson. Anderson was also set to serve as the series' showrunner. Production companies involved with the series were slated to consist of Daniel L. Paulson Productions. The series premiered on May 19, 2020. Norman Buckley directed six of the episodes and served as co-executive producer. On July 23, 2020, Netflix renewed the series for a second season which premiered on February 4, 2022. On May 4, 2022, Netflix renewed the series for a third season.


title: Sweet Magnolias

text: On May 20, 2019, Monica Potter, Brooke Elliott, and Heather Headley were announced as the leads. On July 1, 2019, it was reported that Chris Klein, Jamie Lynn Spears, and Justin Bruening had joined the cast as series regulars. On August 1, 2019, JoAnna Garcia Swisher was cast as Maddie Townsend, replacing Potter who was originally cast as the lead. On May 4, 2021, Dion Johnstone and Brandon Quinn were promoted to series regulars for second season.


title: Sweet Magnolias

text: Principal photography for the series began on July 8, 2019 in Covington, Georgia. The second season began filming in April 2021 and wrapped up in July 2021. Season 3 began filming in July 2022.


title: Sweet Magnolias

text: For the first season, Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 78% based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10.


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: Uhtred or Uchtred, called the Bold (died 1016), was the ealdorman of Northumbria from 1006 to 1016, when he was assassinated. He was the son of Waltheof I, ealdorman of Bamburgh (Bebbanburg), whose ancient family had ruled from the castle of Bamburgh on the Northumbrian coast and was involved in the generations-long blood feud described in "De obsessione Dunelmi".


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: In 995, according to Symeon of Durham, when the remains of St Cuthbert were transferred from Chester-le-Street to Durham, Uhtred went to Durham with his monks to clear the site of the new cathedral. The new cathedral was founded by Bishop Aldhun, and Uhtred married Aldhun's daughter, Ecgfrida, probably at about this time. From his marriage he received several estates that had belonged to the church.


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: In 1006 Malcolm II of Scotland invaded Northumbria and besieged the newly founded episcopal city of Durham. At that time the Danes were raiding southern England and King Ethelred was unready to send help to the Northumbrians. Ealdorman Waltheof was too old to fight and remained in his castle at Bamburgh. Ealdorman Ælfhelm of York also took no action.


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: Uhtred, acting for his father, called together an army from Bernicia and Yorkshire and led it against the Scots. The result was a decisive victory for Uhtred. Local women washed the severed heads of the Scots, receiving a payment of a cow for each, and the heads were fixed on stakes to Durham's walls.


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: Uhtred was rewarded by King Ethelred II with the ealdormanry of Bamburgh even though his father was still alive. In the meantime, Ethelred had Ealdorman Ælfhelm of York murdered, and he allowed Uhtred to succeed Ælfhelm as ealdorman of York, thus uniting northern and southern Northumbria under the house of Bamburgh. It seems likely that Ethelred did not trust the Scandinavian population of southern Northumbria and wanted an Anglo-Saxon in power there.


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: After receiving these honours Uhtred dismissed his wife, Ecgfrida, and married Sige, daughter of Styr, son of Ulf. Styr was a rich citizen of York. It appears that Uhtred was trying to make political allies amongst the Danes in Deira. Through Sige, Uhtred had two children, Eadulf, later Eadulf III, and Gospatric. This Gospatric's grandson was the infamous Eadwulf Rus who murdered Bishop Walcher.


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: In 1013 King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark invaded England, sailing up the Humber and Trent to the town of Gainsborough. Uhtred submitted to him there, as did all of the Danes in the north. In the winter of 1013, Ethelred was forced into exile in Normandy. After London had finally submitted to him, Sweyn was accepted as king by Christmas 1013; however, he reigned for only five weeks. He died at, or near, Gainsborough on 2 February 1014. At Sweyn's death, Ethelred was able to return from exile and resume his reign. Uhtred, along with many others, transferred his allegiance back to Ethelred, on his return. Uhtred also married Ethelred’s daughter Ælfgifu about this time.


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: In 1016 Uhtred campaigned with Ethelred's son Edmund Ironside in Cheshire and the surrounding shires. While Uhtred was away from his lands, Sweyn's son, Cnut, invaded Yorkshire. Cnut's forces were too strong for Uhtred to fight, and so Uhtred did homage to him as King of England.


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: Uhtred was summoned to a peace meeting with Cnut, and on the way there, he and forty of his men were murdered by Thurbrand the Hold at Wighill with the connivance of Cnut. Uhtred was succeeded in Bernicia by his brother Eadwulf Cudel. Cnut made the Norwegian, Eric of Hlathir, ealdorman ("earl" in Scandinavian terms) in southern Northumbria.


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: His first marriage, about 995, was to Ecgfrida, daughter of Bishop Aldhun of Durham. He repudiated her before 1006, but not before they had one son:


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: Second, Uhtred married Sige, daughter of Styr Ulfsson of York, about 1004. A condition of this marriage was that Uhtred kill Styr's enemy Thurbrand. This did not occur but, they had two children before they separated circa 1006:


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: The killing of Uhtred by Thurbrand the Hold started a blood feud that lasted for many years and is the subject of the historical work, "De obsessione Dunelmi". Uhtred's son Ealdred subsequently avenged his father by killing Thurbrand, but Ealdred in turn was killed by Thurbrand's son, Carl.


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: Ealdred's vengeance had to wait until the 1070s, when Waltheof II, Ealdred's grandson had his soldiers kill most of Carl's sons and grandsons. This is an example of the notorious Northumbrian blood feuds that were common at this time.


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: Uhtred's dynasty continued to reign in Bernicia. He was succeeded first by Ealdred, Earl of Bamburgh (killed 1038) his son by Ecgfrida, followed by another of his son by Sige, Eadulf (killed 1041).


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: After the Norman Conquest, Eadulf's son Osulf briefly held the earldom of northern Northumbria in 1067 until he too was killed, succeeded by Uhtred's grandson by his third marriage (and Osulf's uncle), Gospatric, who was Earl of Northumbria from 1068 to 1072 before being forced to flee to Scotland. His replacement was Ealdred's maternal grandson, Waltheof II, who was deprived and in 1076 executed for treason. The murder of his Norman replacement, William Walcher, Bishop of Durham, by Uhtred's descendant Eadulf Rus led William the Conqueror to send an army northwards to harry the region again. In Scotland, Earl Gospatric's descendants held the Earldom of Dunbar for centuries.


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: Bernard Cornwell was inspired to write his series "The Saxon Stories" after learning he was a descendant of Uhtred the Bold, who is the inspiration behind the series protagonist Lord Uhtred of Bebbanburg. Several events in the series are based on events in the life of Uhtred the Bold, such as the siege of Bebbanburg by the Scots and the severed heads on poles; however, unlike many other characters in the book series who correspond closely to historical figures, such as Alfred the Great, Guthrum, and King Guthred, the main character "Uhtred" is fictitious: he lives in the middle of the 9th century – being aged about ten at the battle of York (867) – more than a hundred years before the historical "Uhtred the Bold".


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: The fictitious Lord Uhtred of Bebbanburg is also the main protagonist in the television series "The Last Kingdom", which is based on "The Saxon Stories".


title: Uhtred the Bold

text: Adrian Mourby's two radio plays, "The Corsaint" (c. 1986) and its sequel, "The King of the North Rides his Horse through the Sky" (1992) provide dramatic realisations of the story of the siege of Durham and the severed heads on poles as told about the historical Uhtred. They were broadcast by BBC Radio 3.


title: Antibiotic

text: An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention of such infections. They may either kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria. A limited number of antibiotics also possess antiprotozoal activity. Antibiotics are not effective against viruses such as the common cold or influenza; drugs which inhibit growth of viruses are termed antiviral drugs or antivirals rather than antibiotics. They are also not effective against fungi; drugs which inhibit growth of fungi are called antifungal drugs.


title: Antibiotic

text: Sometimes, the term "antibiotic"—literally "opposing life", from the Greek roots ἀντι "anti", "against" and βίος "bios", "life"—is broadly used to refer to any substance used against microbes, but in the usual medical usage, antibiotics (such as penicillin) are those produced naturally (by one microorganism fighting another), whereas non-antibiotic antibacterials (such as sulfonamides and antiseptics) are fully synthetic. However, both classes have the same goal of killing or preventing the growth of microorganisms, and both are included in antimicrobial chemotherapy. "Antibacterials" include antiseptic drugs, antibacterial soaps, and chemical disinfectants, whereas antibiotics are an important class of antibacterials used more specifically in medicine and sometimes in livestock feed.


title: Antibiotic

text: Antibiotics have been used since ancient times. Many civilizations used topical application of moldy bread, with many references to its beneficial effects arising from ancient Egypt, Nubia, China, Serbia, Greece, and Rome. The first person to directly document the use of molds to treat infections was John Parkinson (1567–1650). Antibiotics revolutionized medicine in the 20th century. Alexander Fleming (1881–1955) discovered modern day penicillin in 1928, the widespread use of which proved significantly beneficial during wartime. However, the effectiveness and easy access to antibiotics have also led to their overuse and some bacteria have evolved resistance to them. The World Health Organization has classified antimicrobial resistance as a widespread "serious threat [that] is no longer a prediction for the future, it is happening right now in every region of the world and has the potential to affect anyone, of any age, in any country". Global deaths attributable to antimicrobial resistance numbered 1.27 million in 2019.


title: Antibiotic

text: The term 'antibiosis', meaning "against life", was introduced by the French bacteriologist Jean Paul Vuillemin as a descriptive name of the phenomenon exhibited by these early antibacterial drugs. Antibiosis was first described in 1877 in bacteria when Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch observed that an airborne bacillus could inhibit the growth of "Bacillus anthracis". These drugs were later renamed antibiotics by Selman Waksman, an American microbiologist, in 1947.


title: Antibiotic

text: The term "antibiotic" was first used in 1942 by Selman Waksman and his collaborators in journal articles to describe any substance produced by a microorganism that is antagonistic to the growth of other microorganisms in high dilution. This definition excluded substances that kill bacteria but that are not produced by microorganisms (such as gastric juices and hydrogen peroxide). It also excluded synthetic antibacterial compounds such as the sulfonamides. In current usage, the term "antibiotic" is applied to any medication that kills bacteria or inhibits their growth, regardless of whether that medication is produced by a microorganism or not.


title: Antibiotic

text: The term "antibiotic" derives from "anti" + βιωτικός ("biōtikos"), "fit for life, lively", which comes from βίωσις ("biōsis"), "way of life", and that from βίος ("bios"), "life". The term "antibacterial" derives from Greek ἀντί ("anti"), "against" + βακτήριον ("baktērion"), diminutive of βακτηρία ("baktēria"), "staff, cane", because the first bacteria to be discovered were rod.


title: Antibiotic

text: Antibiotics are used to treat or prevent bacterial infections, and sometimes protozoan infections. (Metronidazole is effective against a number of parasitic diseases). When an infection is suspected of being responsible for an illness but the responsible pathogen has not been identified, an empiric therapy is adopted. This involves the administration of a broad-spectrum antibiotic based on the signs and symptoms presented and is initiated pending laboratory results that can take several days.


title: Antibiotic

text: When the responsible pathogenic microorganism is already known or has been identified, definitive therapy can be started. This will usually involve the use of a narrow-spectrum antibiotic. The choice of antibiotic given will also be based on its cost. Identification is critically important as it can reduce the cost and toxicity of the antibiotic therapy and also reduce the possibility of the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. To avoid surgery, antibiotics may be given for non-complicated acute appendicitis.


title: Antibiotic

text: Antibiotics may be given as a preventive measure and this is usually limited to at-risk populations such as those with a weakened immune system (particularly in HIV cases to prevent pneumonia), those taking immunosuppressive drugs, cancer patients, and those having surgery. Their use in surgical procedures is to help prevent infection of incisions. They have an important role in dental antibiotic prophylaxis where their use may prevent bacteremia and consequent infective endocarditis. Antibiotics are also used to prevent infection in cases of neutropenia particularly cancer-related.


title: Antibiotic

text: The use of antibiotics for secondary prevention of coronary heart disease is not supported by current scientific evidence, and may actually increase cardiovascular mortality, all-cause mortality and the occurrence of stroke.


title: Antibiotic

text: There are many different routes of administration for antibiotic treatment. Antibiotics are usually taken by mouth. In more severe cases, particularly deep-seated systemic infections, antibiotics can be given intravenously or by injection. Where the site of infection is easily accessed, antibiotics may be given topically in the form of eye drops onto the conjunctiva for conjunctivitis or ear drops for ear infections and acute cases of swimmer's ear. Topical use is also one of the treatment options for some skin conditions including acne and cellulitis. Advantages of topical application include achieving high and sustained concentration of antibiotic at the site of infection; reducing the potential for systemic absorption and toxicity, and total volumes of antibiotic required are reduced, thereby also reducing the risk of antibiotic misuse. Topical antibiotics applied over certain types of surgical wounds have been reported to reduce the risk of surgical site infections. However, there are certain general causes for concern with topical administration of antibiotics. Some systemic absorption of the antibiotic may occur; the quantity of antibiotic applied is difficult to accurately dose, and there is also the possibility of local hypersensitivity reactions or contact dermatitis occurring. It is recommended to administer antibiotics as soon as possible, especially in life-threatening infections. Many emergency departments stock antibiotics for this purpose.


title: Antibiotic

text: Antibiotic consumption varies widely between countries. The WHO report on surveillance of antibiotic consumption' published in 2018 analysed 2015 data from 65 countries. As measured in defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants per day. Mongolia had the highest consumption with a rate of 64.4. Burundi had the lowest at 4.4. Amoxicillin and amoxicillin/clavulanic acid were the most frequently consumed.


title: Antibiotic

text: Antibiotics are screened for any negative effects before their approval for clinical use, and are usually considered safe and well tolerated. However, some antibiotics have been associated with a wide extent of adverse side effects ranging from mild to very severe depending on the type of antibiotic used, the microbes targeted, and the individual patient. Side effects may reflect the pharmacological or toxicological properties of the antibiotic or may involve hypersensitivity or allergic reactions. Adverse effects range from fever and nausea to major allergic reactions, including photodermatitis and anaphylaxis.


title: Antibiotic

text: Common side effects of oral antibiotics include diarrhea, resulting from disruption of the species composition in the intestinal flora, resulting, for example, in overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria, such as "Clostridium difficile". Taking probiotics during the course of antibiotic treatment can help prevent antibiotic-associated diarrhea. Antibacterials can also affect the vaginal flora, and may lead to overgrowth of yeast species of the genus "Candida" in the vulvo-vaginal area. Additional side effects can result from interaction with other drugs, such as the possibility of tendon damage from the administration of a quinolone antibiotic with a systemic corticosteroid.


title: Antibiotic

text: Some antibiotics may also damage the mitochondrion, a bacteria-derived organelle found in eukaryotic, including human, cells. Mitochondrial damage cause oxidative stress in cells and has been suggested as a mechanism for side effects from fluoroquinolones. They are also known to affect chloroplasts.


title: Antibiotic

text: There are few well-controlled studies on whether antibiotic use increases the risk of oral contraceptive failure. The majority of studies indicate antibiotics do not interfere with birth control pills, such as clinical studies that suggest the failure rate of contraceptive pills caused by antibiotics is very low (about 1%). Situations that may increase the risk of oral contraceptive failure include non-compliance (missing taking the pill), vomiting, or diarrhea. Gastrointestinal disorders or interpatient variability in oral contraceptive absorption affecting ethinylestradiol serum levels in the blood. Women with menstrual irregularities may be at higher risk of failure and should be advised to use backup contraception during antibiotic treatment and for one week after its completion. If patient-specific risk factors for reduced oral contraceptive efficacy are suspected, backup contraception is recommended.


title: Antibiotic

text: In cases where antibiotics have been suggested to affect the efficiency of birth control pills, such as for the broad-spectrum antibiotic rifampicin, these cases may be due to an increase in the activities of hepatic liver enzymes' causing increased breakdown of the pill's active ingredients. Effects on the intestinal flora, which might result in reduced absorption of estrogens in the colon, have also been suggested, but such suggestions have been inconclusive and controversial. Clinicians have recommended that extra contraceptive measures be applied during therapies using antibiotics that are suspected to interact with oral contraceptives. More studies on the possible interactions between antibiotics and birth control pills (oral contraceptives) are required as well as careful assessment of patient-specific risk factors for potential oral contractive pill failure prior to dismissing the need for backup contraception.


title: Antibiotic

text: Interactions between alcohol and certain antibiotics may occur and may cause side effects and decreased effectiveness of antibiotic therapy. While moderate alcohol consumption is unlikely to interfere with many common antibiotics, there are specific types of antibiotics, with which alcohol consumption may cause serious side effects. Therefore, potential risks of side effects and effectiveness depend on the type of antibiotic administered.


title: Antibiotic

text: Antibiotics such as metronidazole, tinidazole, cephamandole, latamoxef, cefoperazone, cefmenoxime, and furazolidone, cause a disulfiram-like chemical reaction with alcohol by inhibiting its breakdown by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, which may result in vomiting, nausea, and shortness of breath. In addition, the efficacy of doxycycline and erythromycin succinate may be reduced by alcohol consumption. Other effects of alcohol on antibiotic activity include altered activity of the liver enzymes that break down the antibiotic compound.


title: Antibiotic

text: The successful outcome of antimicrobial therapy with antibacterial compounds depends on several factors. These include host defense mechanisms, the location of infection, and the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of the antibacterial. The bactericidal activity of antibacterials may depend on the bacterial growth phase, and it often requires ongoing metabolic activity and division of bacterial cells. These findings are based on laboratory studies, and in clinical settings have also been shown to eliminate bacterial infection. Since the activity of antibacterials depends frequently on its concentration, "in vitro" characterization of antibacterial activity commonly includes the determination of the minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration of an antibacterial.


title: Antibiotic

text: To predict clinical outcome, the antimicrobial activity of an antibacterial is usually combined with its pharmacokinetic profile, and several pharmacological parameters are used as markers of drug efficacy.


title: Antibiotic

text: In important infectious diseases, including tuberculosis, combination therapy (i.e., the concurrent application of two or more antibiotics) has been used to delay or prevent the emergence of resistance. In acute bacterial infections, antibiotics as part of combination therapy are prescribed for their synergistic effects to improve treatment outcome as the combined effect of both antibiotics is better than their individual effect. Methicillin-resistant "Staphylococcus aureus" infections may be treated with a combination therapy of fusidic acid and rifampicin. Antibiotics used in combination may also be antagonistic and the combined effects of the two antibiotics may be less than if one of the antibiotics was given as a monotherapy. For example, chloramphenicol and tetracyclines are antagonists to penicillins. However, this can vary depending on the species of bacteria. In general, combinations of a bacteriostatic antibiotic and bactericidal antibiotic are antagonistic.


title: Antibiotic

text: In addition to combining one antibiotic with another, antibiotics are sometimes co-administered with resistance-modifying agents. For example, β-lactam antibiotics may be used in combination with β-lactamase inhibitors, such as clavulanic acid or sulbactam, when a patient is infected with a β-lactamase-producing strain of bacteria.


title: Antibiotic

text: Antibiotics are commonly classified based on their mechanism of action, chemical structure, or spectrum of activity. Most target bacterial functions or growth processes. Those that target the bacterial cell wall (penicillins and cephalosporins) or the cell membrane (polymyxins), or interfere with essential bacterial enzymes (rifamycins, lipiarmycins, quinolones, and sulfonamides) have bactericidal activities. Protein synthesis inhibitors (macrolides, lincosamides, and tetracyclines) are usually bacteriostatic (with the exception of bactericidal aminoglycosides). Further categorization is based on their target specificity. "Narrow-spectrum" antibiotics target specific types of bacteria, such as gram-negative or gram-positive, whereas broad-spectrum antibiotics affect a wide range of bacteria. Following a 40-year break in discovering classes of antibacterial compounds, four new classes of antibiotics were introduced to clinical use in the late 2000s and early 2010s: cyclic lipopeptides (such as daptomycin), glycylcyclines (such as tigecycline), oxazolidinones (such as linezolid), and lipiarmycins (such as fidaxomicin).


title: Antibiotic

text: With advances in medicinal chemistry, most modern antibacterials are semisynthetic modifications of various natural compounds. These include, for example, the beta-lactam antibiotics, which include the penicillins (produced by fungi in the genus "Penicillium"), the cephalosporins, and the carbapenems. Compounds that are still isolated from living organisms are the aminoglycosides, whereas other antibacterials—for example, the sulfonamides, the quinolones, and the oxazolidinones—are produced solely by chemical synthesis. Many antibacterial compounds are relatively small molecules with a molecular weight of less than 1000 daltons.


title: Antibiotic

text: Since the first pioneering efforts of Howard Florey and Chain in 1939, the importance of antibiotics, including antibacterials, to medicine has led to intense research into producing antibacterials at large scales. Following screening of antibacterials against a wide range of bacteria, production of the active compounds is carried out using fermentation, usually in strongly aerobic conditions.


title: Antibiotic

text: The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a common phenomenon. Emergence of resistance often reflects evolutionary processes that take place during antibiotic therapy. The antibiotic treatment may select for bacterial strains with physiologically or genetically enhanced capacity to survive high doses of antibiotics. Under certain conditions, it may result in preferential growth of resistant bacteria, while growth of susceptible bacteria is inhibited by the drug. For example, antibacterial selection for strains having previously acquired antibacterial-resistance genes was demonstrated in 1943 by the Luria–Delbrück experiment. Antibiotics such as penicillin and erythromycin, which used to have a high efficacy against many bacterial species and strains, have become less effective, due to the increased resistance of many bacterial strains.


title: Antibiotic

text: Resistance may take the form of biodegradation of pharmaceuticals, such as sulfamethazine-degrading soil bacteria introduced to sulfamethazine through medicated pig feces.


title: Antibiotic

text: The survival of bacteria often results from an inheritable resistance, but the growth of resistance to antibacterials also occurs through horizontal gene transfer. Horizontal transfer is more likely to happen in locations of frequent antibiotic use.


title: Antibiotic

text: Antibacterial resistance may impose a biological cost, thereby reducing fitness of resistant strains, which can limit the spread of antibacterial-resistant bacteria, for example, in the absence of antibacterial compounds. Additional mutations, however, may compensate for this fitness cost and can aid the survival of these bacteria.


title: Antibiotic

text: Paleontological data show that both antibiotics and antibiotic resistance are ancient compounds and mechanisms. Useful antibiotic targets are those for which mutations negatively impact bacterial reproduction or viability.


title: Antibiotic

text: Several molecular mechanisms of antibacterial resistance exist. Intrinsic antibacterial resistance may be part of the genetic makeup of bacterial strains. For example, an antibiotic target may be absent from the bacterial genome. Acquired resistance results from a mutation in the bacterial chromosome or the acquisition of extra-chromosomal DNA. Antibacterial-producing bacteria have evolved resistance mechanisms that have been shown to be similar to, and may have been transferred to, antibacterial-resistant strains. The spread of antibacterial resistance often occurs through vertical transmission of mutations during growth and by genetic recombination of DNA by horizontal genetic exchange. For instance, antibacterial resistance genes can be exchanged between different bacterial strains or species via plasmids that carry these resistance genes. Plasmids that carry several different resistance genes can confer resistance to multiple antibacterials. Cross-resistance to several antibacterials may also occur when a resistance mechanism encoded by a single gene conveys resistance to more than one antibacterial compound.


title: Antibiotic

text: Antibacterial-resistant strains and species, sometimes referred to as "superbugs", now contribute to the emergence of diseases that were, for a while, well controlled. For example, emergent bacterial strains causing tuberculosis that are resistant to previously effective antibacterial treatments pose many therapeutic challenges. Every year, nearly half a million new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) are estimated to occur worldwide. For example, NDM-1 is a newly identified enzyme conveying bacterial resistance to a broad range of beta-lactam antibacterials. The United Kingdom's Health Protection Agency has stated that "most isolates with NDM-1 enzyme are resistant to all standard intravenous antibiotics for treatment of severe infections." On 26 May 2016, an "E. coli" "superbug" was identified in the United States resistant to colistin, "the last line of defence" antibiotic.


title: Antibiotic

text: Per "The ICU Book" "The first rule of antibiotics is to try not to use them, and the second rule is try not to use too many of them." Inappropriate antibiotic treatment and overuse of antibiotics have contributed to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, potential harm from antibiotics extends beyond selection of antimicrobial resistance and their overuse is associated with adverse effects for patients themselves, seen most clearly in critically ill patients in Intensive care units. Self-prescribing of antibiotics is an example of misuse. Many antibiotics are frequently prescribed to treat symptoms or diseases that do not respond to antibiotics or that are likely to resolve without treatment. Also, incorrect or suboptimal antibiotics are prescribed for certain bacterial infections. The overuse of antibiotics, like penicillin and erythromycin, has been associated with emerging antibiotic resistance since the 1950s. Widespread usage of antibiotics in hospitals has also been associated with increases in bacterial strains and species that no longer respond to treatment with the most common antibiotics.


title: Antibiotic

text: Common forms of antibiotic misuse include excessive use of prophylactic antibiotics in travelers and failure of medical professionals to prescribe the correct dosage of antibiotics on the basis of the patient's weight and history of prior use. Other forms of misuse include failure to take the entire prescribed course of the antibiotic, incorrect dosage and administration, or failure to rest for sufficient recovery. Inappropriate antibiotic treatment, for example, is their prescription to treat viral infections such as the common cold. One study on respiratory tract infections found "physicians were more likely to prescribe antibiotics to patients who appeared to expect them". Multifactorial interventions aimed at both physicians and patients can reduce inappropriate prescription of antibiotics. The lack of rapid point of care diagnostic tests, particularly in resource-limited settings is considered one of the drivers of antibiotic misuse.


title: Antibiotic

text: Several organizations concerned with antimicrobial resistance are lobbying to eliminate the unnecessary use of antibiotics. The issues of misuse and overuse of antibiotics have been addressed by the formation of the US Interagency Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance. This task force aims to actively address antimicrobial resistance, and is coordinated by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the National Institutes of Health, as well as other US agencies. A non-governmental organization campaign group is "Keep Antibiotics Working". In France, an "Antibiotics are not automatic" government campaign started in 2002 and led to a marked reduction of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions, especially in children.


title: Antibiotic

text: The emergence of antibiotic resistance has prompted restrictions on their use in the UK in 1970 (Swann report 1969), and the European Union has banned the use of antibiotics as growth-promotional agents since 2003. Moreover, several organizations (including the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Sciences, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) have advocated restricting the amount of antibiotic use in food animal production. However, commonly there are delays in regulatory and legislative actions to limit the use of antibiotics, attributable partly to resistance against such regulation by industries using or selling antibiotics, and to the time required for research to test causal links between their use and resistance to them. Two federal bills (S.742 and H.R. 2562) aimed at phasing out nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in US food animals were proposed, but have not passed. These bills were endorsed by public health and medical organizations, including the American Holistic Nurses' Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Public Health Association.


title: Antibiotic

text: Despite pledges by food companies and restaurants to reduce or eliminate meat that comes from animals treated with antibiotics, the purchase of antibiotics for use on farm animals has been increasing every year.


title: Antibiotic

text: There has been extensive use of antibiotics in animal husbandry. In the United States, the question of emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains due to use of antibiotics in livestock was raised by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1977. In March 2012, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruling in an action brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council and others, ordered the FDA to revoke approvals for the use of antibiotics in livestock, which violated FDA regulations.


title: Antibiotic

text: Studies have shown that common misconceptions about the effectiveness and necessity of antibiotics to treat common mild illnesses contribute to their overuse.


title: Antibiotic

text: Other forms of antibiotic associated harm include anaphylaxis, drug toxicity most notably kidney and liver damage, and super-infections with resistant organisms. Antibiotics are also known to affect mitochondrial function, and this may contribute to the bioenergetic failure of immune cells seen in sepsis. They also alter the microbiome of the gut, lungs and skin, which may be associated with adverse effects such as Clostridium difficile associated diarrhoea. Whilst antibiotics can clearly be lifesaving in patients with bacterial infections, their overuse, especially in patients where infections are hard to diagnose, can lead to harm via multiple mechanisms.


title: Antibiotic

text: Before the early 20th century, treatments for infections were based primarily on medicinal folklore. Mixtures with antimicrobial properties that were used in treatments of infections were described over 2,000 years ago. Many ancient cultures, including the ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks, used specially selected mold and plant materials to treat infections. Nubian mummies studied in the 1990s were found to contain significant levels of tetracycline. The beer brewed at that time was conjectured to have been the source.


title: Antibiotic

text: The use of antibiotics in modern medicine began with the discovery of synthetic antibiotics derived from dyes.


title: Antibiotic

text: Synthetic antibiotic chemotherapy as a science and development of antibacterials began in Germany with Paul Ehrlich in the late 1880s. Ehrlich noted certain dyes would colour human, animal, or bacterial cells, whereas others did not. He then proposed the idea that it might be possible to create chemicals that would act as a selective drug that would bind to and kill bacteria without harming the human host. After screening hundreds of dyes against various organisms, in 1907, he discovered a medicinally useful drug, the first synthetic antibacterial organoarsenic compound salvarsan, now called arsphenamine.


title: Antibiotic

text: This heralded the era of antibacterial treatment that was begun with the discovery of a series of arsenic-derived synthetic antibiotics by both Alfred Bertheim and Ehrlich in 1907. Ehrlich and Bertheim had experimented with various chemicals derived from dyes to treat trypanosomiasis in mice and spirochaeta infection in rabbits. While their early compounds were too toxic, Ehrlich and Sahachiro Hata, a Japanese bacteriologist working with Erlich in the quest for a drug to treat syphilis, achieved success with the 606th compound in their series of experiments. In 1910, Ehrlich and Hata announced their discovery, which they called drug "606", at the Congress for Internal Medicine at Wiesbaden. The Hoechst company began to market the compound toward the end of 1910 under the name Salvarsan, now known as arsphenamine. The drug was used to treat syphilis in the first half of the 20th century. In 1908, Ehrlich received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his contributions to immunology. Hata was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 and for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912 and 1913.


title: Antibiotic

text: The first sulfonamide and the first systemically active antibacterial drug, Prontosil, was developed by a research team led by Gerhard Domagk in 1932 or 1933 at the Bayer Laboratories of the IG Farben conglomerate in Germany, for which Domagk received the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Sulfanilamide, the active drug of Prontosil, was not patentable as it had already been in use in the dye industry for some years. Prontosil had a relatively broad effect against Gram-positive cocci, but not against enterobacteria. Research was stimulated apace by its success. The discovery and development of this sulfonamide drug opened the era of antibacterials.


title: Antibiotic

text: Observations about the growth of some microorganisms inhibiting the growth of other microorganisms have been reported since the late 19th century. These observations of antibiosis between microorganisms led to the discovery of natural antibacterials. Louis Pasteur observed, "if we could intervene in the antagonism observed between some bacteria, it would offer perhaps the greatest hopes for therapeutics".


title: Antibiotic

text: In 1874, physician Sir William Roberts noted that cultures of the mould "Penicillium glaucum" that is used in the making of some types of blue cheese did not display bacterial contamination. In 1876, physicist John Tyndall also contributed to this field.


title: Antibiotic

text: In 1895 Vincenzo Tiberio, Italian physician, published a paper on the antibacterial power of some extracts of mold.


title: Antibiotic

text: In 1897, doctoral student Ernest Duchesne submitted a dissertation, "" (Contribution to the study of vital competition in micro-organisms: antagonism between moulds and microbes), the first known scholarly work to consider the therapeutic capabilities of moulds resulting from their anti-microbial activity. In his thesis, Duchesne proposed that bacteria and moulds engage in a perpetual battle for survival. Duchesne observed that "E. coli" was eliminated by "Penicillium glaucum" when they were both grown in the same culture. He also observed that when he inoculated laboratory animals with lethal doses of typhoid bacilli together with "Penicillium glaucum", the animals did not contract typhoid. Unfortunately Duchesne's army service after getting his degree prevented him from doing any further research. Duchesne died of tuberculosis, a disease now treated by antibiotics.


title: Antibiotic

text: In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming postulated the existence of penicillin, a molecule produced by certain moulds that kills or stops the growth of certain kinds of bacteria. Fleming was working on a culture of disease-causing bacteria when he noticed the spores of a green mold, "Penicillium rubens", in one of his culture plates. He observed that the presence of the mould killed or prevented the growth of the bacteria. Fleming postulated that the mould must secrete an antibacterial substance, which he named penicillin in 1928. Fleming believed that its antibacterial properties could be exploited for chemotherapy. He initially characterised some of its biological properties, and attempted to use a crude preparation to treat some infections, but he was unable to pursue its further development without the aid of trained chemists.


title: Antibiotic

text: Ernst Chain, Howard Florey and Edward Abraham succeeded in purifying the first penicillin, penicillin G, in 1942, but it did not become widely available outside the Allied military before 1945. Later, Norman Heatley developed the back extraction technique for efficiently purifying penicillin in bulk. The chemical structure of penicillin was first proposed by Abraham in 1942 and then later confirmed by Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin in 1945. Purified penicillin displayed potent antibacterial activity against a wide range of bacteria and had low toxicity in humans. Furthermore, its activity was not inhibited by biological constituents such as pus, unlike the synthetic sulfonamides. (see below) The development of penicillin led to renewed interest in the search for antibiotic compounds with similar efficacy and safety. For their successful development of penicillin, which Fleming had accidentally discovered but could not develop himself, as a therapeutic drug, Chain and Florey shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Medicine with Fleming.


title: Antibiotic

text: Florey credited René Dubos with pioneering the approach of deliberately and systematically searching for antibacterial compounds, which had led to the discovery of gramicidin and had revived Florey's research in penicillin. In 1939, coinciding with the start of World War II, Dubos had reported the discovery of the first naturally derived antibiotic, tyrothricin, a compound of 20% gramicidin and 80% tyrocidine, from "Bacillus brevis". It was one of the first commercially manufactured antibiotics and was very effective in treating wounds and ulcers during World War II. Gramicidin, however, could not be used systemically because of toxicity. Tyrocidine also proved too toxic for systemic usage. Research results obtained during that period were not shared between the Axis and the Allied powers during World War II and limited access during the Cold War.


title: Antibiotic

text: During the mid-20th century, the number of new antibiotic substances introduced for medical use increased significantly. From 1935 to 1968, 12 new classes were launched. However, after this, the number of new classes dropped markedly, with only two new classes introduced between 1969 and 2003.


title: Antibiotic

text: Both the WHO and the Infectious Disease Society of America report that the weak antibiotic pipeline does not match bacteria's increasing ability to develop resistance. The Infectious Disease Society of America report noted that the number of new antibiotics approved for marketing per year had been declining and identified seven antibiotics against the Gram-negative bacilli currently in phase 2 or phase 3 clinical trials. However, these drugs did not address the entire spectrum of resistance of Gram-negative bacilli. According to the WHO fifty one new therapeutic entities - antibiotics (including combinations), are in phase 1-3 clinical trials as of May 2017. Antibiotics targeting multidrug-resistant Gram-positive pathogens remains a high priority.


title: Antibiotic

text: A few antibiotics have received marketing authorization in the last seven years. The cephalosporin ceftaroline and the lipoglycopeptides oritavancin and telavancin for the treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infection and community-acquired bacterial pneumonia. The lipoglycopeptide dalbavancin and the oxazolidinone tedizolid has also been approved for use for the treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infection. The first in a new class of narrow spectrum macrocyclic antibiotics, fidaxomicin, has been approved for the treatment of "C. difficile" colitis. New cephalosporin-lactamase inhibitor combinations also approved include ceftazidime-avibactam and ceftolozane-avibactam for complicated urinary tract infection and intra-abdominal infection.


title: Antibiotic

text: Possible improvements include clarification of clinical trial regulations by FDA. Furthermore, appropriate economic incentives could persuade pharmaceutical companies to invest in this endeavor. In the US, the Antibiotic Development to Advance Patient Treatment (ADAPT) Act was introduced with the aim of fast tracking the drug development of antibiotics to combat the growing threat of 'superbugs'. Under this Act, FDA can approve antibiotics and antifungals treating life-threatening infections based on smaller clinical trials. The CDC will monitor the use of antibiotics and the emerging resistance, and publish the data. The FDA antibiotics labeling process, 'Susceptibility Test Interpretive Criteria for Microbial Organisms' or 'breakpoints', will provide accurate data to healthcare professionals. According to Allan Coukell, senior director for health programs at The Pew Charitable Trusts, "By allowing drug developers to rely on smaller datasets, and clarifying FDA's authority to tolerate a higher level of uncertainty for these drugs when making a risk/benefit calculation, ADAPT would make the clinical trials more feasible."


title: Antibiotic

text: Because antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains continue to emerge and spread, there is a constant need to develop new antibacterial treatments. Current strategies include traditional chemistry-based approaches such as natural product-based drug discovery, newer chemistry-based approaches such as drug design, traditional biology-based approaches such as immunoglobulin therapy, and experimental biology-based approaches such as phage therapy, fecal microbiota transplants, antisense RNA-based treatments, and CRISPR-Cas9-based treatments.


title: Antibiotic

text: Most of the antibiotics in current use are natural products or natural product derivatives, and bacterial, fungal, plant and animal extracts are being screened in the search for new antibiotics. Organisms may be selected for testing based on ecological, ethnomedical, genomic, or historical rationales. Medicinal plants, for example, are screened on the basis that they are used by traditional healers to prevent or cure infection and may therefore contain antibacterial compounds. Also, soil bacteria are screened on the basis that, historically, they have been a very rich source of antibiotics (with 70 to 80% of antibiotics in current use derived from the actinomycetes).


title: Antibiotic

text: In addition to screening natural products for direct antibacterial activity, they are sometimes screened for the ability to suppress antibiotic resistance and antibiotic tolerance. For example, some secondary metabolites inhibit drug efflux pumps, thereby increasing the concentration of antibiotic able to reach its cellular target and decreasing bacterial resistance to the antibiotic. Natural products known to inhibit bacterial efflux pumps include the alkaloid lysergol, the carotenoids capsanthin and capsorubin, and the flavonoids rotenone and chrysin. Other natural products, this time primary metabolites rather than secondary metabolites, have been shown to eradicate antibiotic tolerance. For example, glucose, mannitol, and fructose reduce antibiotic tolerance in "Escherichia coli" and "Staphylococcus aureus", rendering them more susceptible to killing by aminoglycoside antibiotics.


title: Antibiotic

text: Natural products may be screened for the ability to suppress bacterial virulence factors too. Virulence factors are molecules, cellular structures and regulatory systems that enable bacteria to evade the body's immune defenses (e.g. urease, staphyloxanthin), move towards, attach to, and/or invade human cells (e.g. type IV pili, adhesins, internalins), coordinate the activation of virulence genes (e.g. quorum sensing), and cause disease (e.g. exotoxins). Examples of natural products with antivirulence activity include the flavonoid epigallocatechin gallate (which inhibits listeriolysin O), the quinone tetrangomycin (which inhibits staphyloxanthin), and the sesquiterpene zerumbone (which inhibits "Acinetobacter baumannii" motility).


title: Antibiotic

text: Antibodies (anti-tetanus immunoglobulin) have been used in the treatment and prevention of tetanus since the 1910s, and this approach continues to be a useful way of controlling bacterial diseases. The monoclonal antibody bezlotoxumab, for example, has been approved by the US FDA and EMA for recurrent "Clostridium difficile" infection, and other monoclonal antibodies are in development (e.g. AR-301 for the adjunctive treatment of "S. aureus" ventilator-associated pneumonia). Antibody treatments act by binding to and neutralizing bacterial exotoxins and other virulence factors.


title: Antibiotic

text: Phage therapy is under investigation as a method of treating antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Phage therapy involves infecting bacterial pathogens with viruses. Bacteriophages and their host ranges are extremely specific for certain bacteria, thus, unlike antibiotics, they do not disturb the host organism's intestinal microbiota. Bacteriophages, also known as phages, infect and kill bacteria primarily during lytic cycles. Phages insert their DNA into the bacterium, where it is transcribed and used to make new phages, after which the cell will lyse, releasing new phage that are able to infect and destroy further bacteria of the same strain. The high specificity of phage protects "good" bacteria from destruction.


title: Antibiotic

text: Some disadvantages to the use of bacteriophages also exist, however. Bacteriophages may harbour virulence factors or toxic genes in their genomes and, prior to use, it may be prudent to identify genes with similarity to known virulence factors or toxins by genomic sequencing. In addition, the oral and IV administration of phages for the eradication of bacterial infections poses a much higher safety risk than topical application. Also, there is the additional concern of uncertain immune responses to these large antigenic cocktails.


title: Antibiotic

text: There are considerable regulatory hurdles that must be cleared for such therapies. Despite numerous challenges, the use of bacteriophages as a replacement for antimicrobial agents against MDR pathogens that no longer respond to conventional antibiotics, remains an attractive option.


title: Antibiotic

text: Fecal microbiota transplants involve transferring the full intestinal microbiota from a healthy human donor (in the form of stool) to patients with "C. difficile" infection. Although this procedure has not been officially approved by the US FDA, its use is permitted under some conditions in patients with antibiotic-resistant "C. difficile" infection. Cure rates are around 90%, and work is underway to develop stool banks, standardized products, and methods of oral delivery.


title: Antibiotic

text: Antisense RNA-based treatment (also known as gene silencing therapy) involves (a) identifying bacterial genes that encode essential proteins (e.g. the "Pseudomonas aeruginosa" genes "acpP", "lpxC", and "rpsJ"), (b) synthesizing single stranded RNA that is complementary to the mRNA encoding these essential proteins, and (c) delivering the single stranded RNA to the infection site using cell-penetrating peptides or liposomes. The antisense RNA then hybridizes with the bacterial mRNA and blocks its translation into the essential protein. Antisense RNA-based treatment has been shown to be effective in "in vivo" models of "P. aeruginosa" pneumonia.


title: Antibiotic

text: In addition to silencing essential bacterial genes, antisense RNA can be used to silence bacterial genes responsible for antibiotic resistance. For example, antisense RNA has been developed that silences the "S. aureus" "mecA" gene (the gene that encodes modified penicillin-binding protein 2a and renders "S. aureus" strains methicillin-resistant). Antisense RNA targeting "mecA" mRNA has been shown to restore the susceptibility of methicillin-resistant staphylococci to oxacillin in both "in vitro" and "in vivo" studies.


title: Antibiotic

text: In the early 2000s, a system was discovered that enables bacteria to defend themselves against invading viruses. The system, known as CRISPR-Cas9, consists of (a) an enzyme that destroys DNA (the nuclease Cas9) and (b) the DNA sequences of previously encountered viral invaders (CRISPR). These viral DNA sequences enable the nuclease to target foreign (viral) rather than self (bacterial) DNA.


title: Antibiotic

text: Although the function of CRISPR-Cas9 in nature is to protect bacteria, the DNA sequences in the CRISPR component of the system can be modified so that the Cas9 nuclease targets bacterial resistance genes or bacterial virulence genes instead of viral genes. The modified CRISPR-Cas9 system can then be administered to bacterial pathogens using plasmids or bacteriophages. This approach has successfully been used to silence antibiotic resistance and reduce the virulence of enterohemorrhagic "E. coli" in an "in vivo" model of infection.


title: Antibiotic

text: In addition to developing new antibacterial treatments, it is important to reduce the selection pressure for the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance. Strategies to accomplish this include well-established infection control measures such as infrastructure improvement (e.g. less crowded housing), better sanitation (e.g. safe drinking water and food) and vaccine development, other approaches such as antibiotic stewardship, and experimental approaches such as the use of prebiotics and probiotics to prevent infection. Antibiotic cycling, where antibiotics are alternated by clinicians to treat microbial diseases, is proposed, but recent studies revealed such strategies are ineffective against antibiotic resistance.


title: Antibiotic

text: Vaccines rely on immune modulation or augmentation. Vaccination either excites or reinforces the immune competence of a host to ward off infection, leading to the activation of macrophages, the production of antibodies, inflammation, and other classic immune reactions. Antibacterial vaccines have been responsible for a drastic reduction in global bacterial diseases. Vaccines made from attenuated whole cells or lysates have been replaced largely by less reactogenic, cell-free vaccines consisting of purified components, including capsular polysaccharides and their conjugates, to protein carriers, as well as inactivated toxins (toxoids) and proteins.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: His influences include Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Murasaki Shikibu and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. While Dazai continues to be widely celebrated in Japan, he remains relatively unknown elsewhere, with only a handful of his works available in English. His last book, "No Longer Human", is his most popular work outside of Japan.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: , who was later known as Osamu Dazai, was born on June 19, 1909, the eighth surviving child of a wealthy landowner in Kanagi, a remote corner of Japan at the northern tip of Tōhoku in Aomori Prefecture. At the time of his birth, the huge, newly-completed Tsushima mansion where he would spend his early years was home to some thirty family members. The Tsushima family was of obscure peasant origins, with Dazai's great-grandfather building up the family's wealth as a moneylender, and his son increasing it further. They quickly rose in power and, after some time, became highly respected across the region.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: Dazai's father, Gen'emon (a younger son of the Matsuki family, which due to "its exceedingly 'feudal' tradition" had no use for sons other than the eldest son and heir) was adopted into the Tsushima family to marry the eldest daughter, Tane; he became involved in politics due to his position as one of the four wealthiest landowners in the prefecture, and was offered membership into the House of Peers. This made Dazai's father absent during much of his early childhood, and with his mother, Tane, being ill, Tsushima was brought up mostly by the family's servants and his aunt Kiye.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: In 1916, Tsushima began his education at Kanagi Elementary. On March 4, 1923, Tsushima's father Gen'emon died from lung cancer, and then a month later in April Tsushima attended Aomori High School, followed by entering Hirosaki University's literature department in 1927. He developed an interest in Edo culture and began studying gidayū, a form of chanted narration used in the puppet theaters. Around 1928, Tsushima edited a series of student publications and contributed some of his own works. He also published a magazine called "Saibō bungei" ("Cell Literature") with his friends, and subsequently became a staff member of the college's newspaper.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: Tsushima's success in writing was brought to a halt when his idol, the writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, committed suicide in 1927 at 35 years old. Tsushima started to neglect his studies, and spent the majority of his allowance on clothes, alcohol, and prostitutes. He also dabbled with Marxism, which at the time was heavily suppressed by the government. On the night of December 10, 1929, Tsushima committed his first suicide attempt, but survived and was able to graduate the following year. In 1930, Tsushima enrolled in the French Literature Department of Tokyo Imperial University and promptly stopped studying again. In October, he ran away with a geisha named and was formally disowned by his family.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: Nine days after being expelled from Tokyo Imperial University, Tsushima attempted suicide by drowning off a beach in Kamakura with another woman, 19-year-old bar hostess . Tanabe died, but Tsushima lived, rescued by a fishing boat and was charged as an accomplice in Tanabe's death. Shocked by the events, Tsushima's family intervened to drop a police investigation. His allowance was reinstated, and he was released of any charges. In December, Tsushima recovered at Ikarigaseki and married Hatsuyo there.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: Soon after, Tsushima was arrested for his involvement with the banned Japanese Communist Party and, upon learning this, his elder brother Bunji promptly cut off his allowance again. Tsushima went into hiding, but Bunji, despite their estrangement, managed to get word to him that charges would be dropped and the allowance reinstated yet again if Tsushima solemnly promised to graduate and swear off any involvement with the party. Tsushima accepted.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: In 1929, when its principal's misappropriation of public funds was discovered at Hirosaki High School, the students, under the leadership of Ueda Shigehiko (Ishigami Genichiro), leader of the Social Science Study Group, staged a five-day allied strike, which resulted in the principal's resignation and no disciplinary action against the students. Tsushima hardly participated in the strike, but in imitation of the proletarian literature in vogue at the time, he summarized the incident in a novel called "Student Group" and read it to Ueda. The Tsushima family was wary of Dazai's leftist activities. On January 16 of the following year, the Special High Police arrested Ueda and nine other students of the Hiroko Institute of Social Studies, who were working as terminal activists for Seigen Tanaka's armed Communist Party.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: In college, Dazai met activist Eizo Kudo, and made a monthly financial contribution of ¥10 to the Communist Party. The reason why he was expelled from his family after his marriage with Hatsuyo Oyama was to prevent the accumulation of illegal activities on Bunji, who was a politician. After his marriage, Dazai was ordered to hide his sympathies and moved repeatedly. In July 1932, Bunji tracked him down, and had him turn himself in at the Aomori Police Station. In December, Dazai signed and sealed a pledge at the Aomori Prosecutor's Office to completely withdraw from leftist activities.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: Tsushima kept his promise and settled down a bit. He managed to obtain the assistance of established writer Masuji Ibuse, whose connections helped him get his works published and establish his reputation. The next few years were productive for Tsushima. He wrote at a feverish pace and used the pen name "Osamu Dazai" for the first time in a short story called "Ressha" ("列車", "Train") in 1933: His first experiment with the first-person autobiographical style that later became his trademark.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: However, in 1935 it started to become clear to Dazai that he would not graduate. He failed to obtain a job at a Tokyo newspaper as well. He finished "The Final Years" ("Bannen"), which was intended to be his farewell to the world, and tried to hang himself March 19, 1935, failing yet again. Less than three weeks later, Tsushima developed acute appendicitis and was hospitalized. In the hospital, he became addicted to Pavinal, a morphine-based painkiller. After fighting the addiction for a year, in October 1936 he was taken to a mental institution, locked in a room and forced to quit cold turkey.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: The treatment lasted over a month. During this time Tsushima's wife Hatsuyo committed adultery with his best friend Zenshirō Kodate. This eventually came to light, and Tsushima attempted to commit double suicide with his wife. They both took sleeping pills, but neither died. Soon after, Dazai divorced Hatsuyo. He quickly remarried, this time to a middle school teacher named Michiko Ishihara (). Their first daughter, Sonoko (), was born in June 1941.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: In the 1930s and 1940s, Dazai wrote a number of subtle novels and short stories that are autobiographical in nature. His first story, "Gyofukuki" (魚服記, "Transformation", 1933), is a grim fantasy involving suicide. Other stories written during this period include "Dōke no hana" (道化の花, "Flowers of Buffoonery", 1935), "Gyakkō" (逆行, "Losing Ground", 1935), "Kyōgen no kami" (狂言の神, "The God of Farce", 1936), an epistolary novel called "Kyokō no Haru" (虚構の春, "False Spring", 1936) and those published in his 1936 collection "Bannen" ("Declining Years" or "The Final Years"), which describe his sense of personal isolation and his debauchery.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: Japan entered the Pacific War in December, but Tsushima was excused from the draft because of his chronic chest problems, as he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The censors became more reluctant to accept Dazai's offbeat work, but he managed to publish quite a bit regardless, remaining one of very few authors who managed to get this kind of material accepted in this period. A number of the stories which Dazai published during World War II were retellings of stories by Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693). His wartime works included "Udaijin Sanetomo" (右大臣実朝, "Minister of the Right Sanetomo", 1943), "Tsugaru" (1944), "Pandora no hako" (パンドラの匣, "Pandora's Box", 1945–46), and "Otogizōshi" (お伽草紙, "Fairy Tales", 1945) in which he retold a number of old Japanese fairy tales with "vividness and wit."


title: Osamu Dazai

text: Dazai's house was burned down twice in the American bombing of Tokyo, but his family escaped unscathed, with a son, Masaki (), born in 1944. His third child, daughter Satoko (), who later became a famous writer under the pseudonym Yūko Tsushima (津島佑子), was born in May 1947.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: In the immediate postwar period, Dazai reached the height of his popularity. He depicted a dissolute life in postwar Tokyo in "Viyon no Tsuma" (ヴィヨンの妻, "Villon's Wife", 1947), depicting the wife of a poet who had abandoned her and her continuing will to live through hardships.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: In 1946, Osamu Dazai released a controversial literary piece titled "Kuno no Nenkan (Almanac of Pain)," a political memoir of Dazai himself. It describes the immediate aftermath of losing the second World War, and encapsulates how Japanese people felt following the country's defeat. Dazai reaffirms his loyalty to the Japanese Emperor of the time, Emperor Hirohito and his son Akihito. Dazai was a known communist throughout his career, and also expresses his beliefs through this "Almanac of Pain".


title: Osamu Dazai

text: Alongside this Dazai also wrote "Jugonenkan" ("For Fifteen Years"), another autobiographical piece. This, alongside "Almanac of Pain", may serve as a prelude to a consideration of Dazai's postwar fiction.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: In July 1947, Dazai's best-known work, "Shayo" ("The Setting Sun", translated 1956) depicting the decline of the Japanese nobility after the war, was published, propelling the already popular writer into celebrityhood. This work was based on the diary of Shizuko Ōta (), an admirer of Dazai's works who first met him in 1941. She bore him a daughter, Haruko, () in 1947.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: A heavy drinker, Dazai became an alcoholic and his health deteriorated rapidly. At this time he met Tomie Yamazaki (), a beautician and war widow who had lost her husband after just ten days of marriage. Dazai effectively abandoned his wife and children and moved in with Tomie.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: Dazai began writing his novel "No Longer Human" (人間失格 "Ningen Shikkaku", 1948) at the hot-spring resort Atami. He moved to Ōmiya with Tomie and stayed there until mid-May, finishing his novel. A quasi-autobiography, it depicts a young, self-destructive man seeing himself as disqualified from the human race. The book is considered one of the classics of Japanese literature and has been translated into several foreign languages.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: In the spring of 1948, Dazai worked on a novelette scheduled to be serialized in the "Asahi Shimbun" newspaper, titled "Guddo bai" (the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "Goodbye") but it was never finished.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: On June 13, 1948, Dazai and Tomie drowned themselves in the rain-swollen Tamagawa Canal, near his house. Their bodies were not discovered until six days later, on June 19, which would have been his 39th birthday. His grave is at the temple of Zenrin-ji, in Mitaka, Tokyo.


title: Osamu Dazai

text: At the time, there was a lot of speculation about the incident, with theories of forced suicide by Tomie. Keikichi Nakahata, a kimono merchant who frequented the young Tsushima family, was shown the scene of the water ingress by a detective from the Mitaka police station. He also speculates that "Dazai was asked to die, and he simply agreed, but just before his death, he suddenly felt an obsession with life".