A year in the South, 1865 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

A year in the South, 1865 - Essay Example CORNELIA MCDONALD: Cornelia McDonald was the widow of a confederate officer and the mother of seven. In the story she is fighting poverty and despair and takes apart a mattress thread by thread to make a suit for one of his sons. For Cornelia the year only presented heartaches and hardships for she was forced to leave her genteel home in Winchester, Virginia for rundown accommodations in Lexington, where Cornelia was compelled to tutor young ladies to make the ends meet, after her hometown was taken over by Union Soldiers. A small patch of vegetable plot and a cow made a huge financial gap between the life with which Cornelia and her children were used to and the life she had to spend. Â  Her friends in town of Lexington, including the wife of General William Pendleton, helped Cornelia survive the difficult winter and spring of 1865. Though she survived the financial hardship borne of war and the loss of her husband, Cornelia's spirits reduced considerably with the termination of th e Confederacy as she sided with Union until the war broke out. But once the war began in earnest she adopted the Confederate cause with zeal. In the spring of 1865, Lexington became an impoverished town hosting a stream of black and white refugees. Cornelia was depressed after watching the rise of the slaves and the downfall of her own children, who now have to do laborious work to survive. In many ways, Cornelia protested against this change but always with much care to avoid any rebuke mainly protesting by her gestures and stares. Her own family’s survival kept her busy to take part in any rebellious activities against Yankee soldiers. In summer Cornelia only wished to end her life after an accident of dropping boiling hot water on her foot burning her so badly that she was confined to bed for weeks. Stephen traces the lives of these ordinary southerners during the year of 1865 and his characters come from different racial, religion and class backgrounds and thus the events had a unique impact on all of them. But for some reason Stephen refused to make any connection between these stories, He only portrayed the life of four people in short biographies to depict a picture of change in South throughout the year. LOUIS HUGH: Louis Hugh was 32 years old in the year 1865, a mullato slave born of black mother and a white father, born in Virginia near Charlottesville, in year 1832. At the age of eleven he was sold by his mother to man who further sold him in Richmond from where his life took him to Mississippi, where he was given as a Christmas present to the wife of one of his buyers. Being motherless and friendless he grieved for a long time for his hardships but after a while adapted to the new life. For Louis after facing so many hardships in Mississippi plantation, the year of 1865 was a ray of hope. Hired by his master as a butler, he sold tobacco in his spare time and became talented in many ways. Louise risen himself from a status of slave to a stati on of relative security. Throughout much of the Civil war Lou spend his life as a slave at salt works near Alabama’s Tombigbee River, where his wife Matilda was hired as a cook in works. He was a butler, carriage driver, trusted servant, his wife was the family cook, and Hughes made a position for himself but still tried to escape from the war numerous times before the end of the

Technical Definition and Description Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Technical Definition and Description - Essay Example This informs the person about the processes that occur as a result of binding, leading to the drug effect. A renowned scientist, Paul Ehrlich concluded that drugs cannot work unless they are bound (Berges-Gimeno & Stevenson, 2004). This paper outlines how aspirin works starting with a history of the drug, its administration, benefits and the way it works. This is beneficial to patients. An overview of Aspirin’s history Aspirin is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), and it is also known as a salicylate (Berges-Gimeno & Stevenson, 2004). This drug owes its origin to Luke Hoffman who discovered a powder from the bark of willow plant around the fifth century. Hippocrates commonly referred to as the father of medicine appraised the use of the powder in relieving pain. In the 1700s, Reverend Edmund Stone talked about its success in alleviating pain and fevers. Scientists later discovered that the bitter powder from willow bark contained a chemical called salicin. This che mical is converted into salicylic acid once ingested by a person and is widely used to manufacture aspirin. The drug was registered as the most popular painkiller in the world, in the 1950 Guinness Book of Records. It is widely known as a â€Å"wonder drug† because it cures several diseases in the contemporary world (Jeffreys, 2005). Administration of aspirin It is usually administered orally through tablets, but it can also be administered through caplets, capsules, liquid elixir and suppositories. Benefits of Aspirin The following are the benefits of aspirin. It; Relieves mild pain such as muscle cramps, toothaches and headaches Controls fever Manages pain in gout and arthritis Reduces swellings Regulates blood pressure in expectant women Treats cataracts in diabetic patients Prevents some cancers such as breast and bowel cancers Treats gum disease (Vane, 1971) How it works Researchers and medical practitioners have found it difficult explain how aspirin works due to its nu merous effects (Weissmann, 1991). However, in the 1970s, biologists came to a conclusion regarding how aspirin works. The drug inhibits synthesizing of some hormones responsible for causing pain and inflammation in the body. Aspirin has an active ingredient called acetylsalicylic acid. This ingredient inhibits chemical processes such as physiological processes in the body. It inhibits production of body chemicals referred to as prostaglandin and thromboxane, which are potential mediators in inflammation. Aspirin undergoes esterification whereby salicylic acid is mixed with acetic anhydride. This results in a chemical reaction which turns the hydroxyl group in salicylic acid into an ester (R-OH R-OCOCH3). This is followed by action on COX. The figure below shows this process. Prostaglandins are important because; they Aid in regulation of acid production, in the stomach Ensure the stomach lining does not digest itself Transmit pain into the brain Are responsible for inflammation The mediators are produced from arachidonic acid through bis-oxygenation of arachidonate into prostaglandin PGG2. Thereafter, PGG2 is reduced to PGH2 following a peroxidase reaction which is enhanced by cyclooxygenase, also called PTGS synthase. This is a catalyst and enzyme which is crucial in the synthesis of prostaglandin as well as thromboxane. The cyclooxygenase (COX) comprise of two types; COX-1 and COX-2. Aspirin acts as an irreversible inhibitor unlike other NSAIDs like ibuprofen and diclofenac. It plays the