Obai's Online Journal

A pharmaceutical drug are used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease.

There are two main sources of drugs, plants and microorganisms.

There are a lot of drugs that use plant resources. For example:

1. Digitalis’ leaves are used in the drug Digoxin to treat congestive heart failure (CHF).
2. Cinchona’s bark is used in the drug Quinine to treat Malaria.
3. Opium’s fruits are used in the drug Morphine to treat Analgesic.
4. Eserin’s seeds are used in the drug Anticholinestrase to treat Myasthenia gravis (MG)

There are a lot of drugs that use microorganisms resources. For example:

1. The drug Penicillin is made from penicilium notatum.
2. The drug Chloramphenicol is made from Streptomyces Venezuelace.
3. The drug Griseofluvin in made from Penicillin grisofullivum.
4. The drug Streptomyum is made from Streptomyces griseus.
5. The drug Neomycin is made from Streptomyces fradiae.

Drugs are not just developed and then used. All drugs have to be tested to make sure that they work, and are safe, before they can be prescribed. Furthermore, all drugs have to pass 3 tests:

1. The drugs are tested using human cells grown in the laboratory.
2. Drugs are then tested on animals. That is done by giving a drug to the animals, then monitoring them carefully for any side-effects.
3. Clinical trials. They are tested on healthy volunteers to check they are safe. Very low doses of the drug are given to begin with. If there are no problems, further clinical trials are done to find the optimum dose for the drug.

The first test is always done on human cells grown in the laboratory to test their if the drug kills any cells or causes the cell to stop functioning properly and if the drug does what it is supposed to do. This is not done on animals (mostly mice because of the similarity of DNA between humans and mice) because of the strict laws of tests in animals in the UK. If the drug passes the test, it is then considered safe for animals use. The drug is now guaranteed to be doing what it is supposed to be doing and it needs to be tested for side effects. If there are no risky side effects the drug is tested on healthy human beings to see the effects of the drug in the human body and if it is safe or not for human use. If it passes all of those tests, clinical trial are carried to find the optimum dose of the drug. After that the drug is submitted to the NDA. When the NDA approves the drug, the drug starts getting marketed.

The three phases of clinical trials are:

1. Phase I trials, usually in healthy volunteers, determine safety and dosing.
2. Phase II trials are used to get an initial reading of efficacy and further explore safety in small numbers of patients having the disease targeted by the NCE.
3. Phase III trials are large, pivotal trials to determine safety and efficacy in sufficiently large numbers of patients with the targeted disease. If safety and efficacy are adequately proved, clinical testing may stop at this step and the NCE advances to the new drug application (NDA) stage.

Micro organisms are divided into three classes:

-Bacteria

-Viruses

-Fungi

Chicken pox is a viral infection caused by vaicella zoster virus or (VZV). The most important point to get is that not all micro organisms are infectious. The infectious micro organisms are known as Pathogens. Humans have developed a defence mechanism to defend them from Pathogens called the Immune System. The Immune System consists of white blood cells, and they have another name: Leukocytes. White blood cells include macrophages which are a type of phagocytes. Phagocytes are large cells that attack and feed on foreign microscopic things out of a cell, and then digest them, this also known as engulfing and digesting. However, that is not the only type of a white blood cell, there is an other type which is the lymphocyte. Lymphocytes also have two sub-types which are the B cells and the T cells. B cells get their name from their development of bone morrow. B cells create antibodies. T cells get their name from their development of a small organism known as thymus gland. T cells are responsible for attacking cells infected by the help of macrophages and they activate phagocytes. B cells cause antibodies that are proteins to counteract an antigen. Antigens are structures that are in all pathogens. Antibodies try to bind with antigens disabling them by activating a cascade of nine proteins , known as complement. Complement help assist the antibodies in destroying the bacteria.The Pathogens are the labelled based on their antigens, the B cells then produce memory cells that help create antigens for that pathogen i.e. chicken pox which helps the antibodies to react quickly in case of reinfection. Once the immune system reaches this level, it has gained a status known as “Acquired Immunity” against that pathogen.

Scene 2 starts with lords discussing Scotland and Macbeth, as the English army and the rebels approach with the lead of Malcom. This is when we are introduced to the meeting of the English and the Scottish rebel army’s meeting in near Birnam Wood. We know, from this scene that Macbeth is preparing his army in Dunsinane Castle. The lords show us that Macbeth’s army is fighting not for their king, but because they are forced to fight.

LENNOX

     Or so much as it needs,

To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.

Make we our march towards Birnam.

In scene 3, Macbeth’s keeps making a fuss, next to the doctor, about how he is undefeatable and that he cannot be scared because no one can kill him since everyone is born from a women. Plus that he will be king until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Castle. Seyton, Macbeth’s servant says that an army of ten thousand men are approaching. The doctor then tells Macbeth about Lady Macbeth’s delusions and Macbeth orders him to cure her from them.

MACBETH

I’ll put it on.

Send out more horses. Skirr the country round.

Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armor.

MALCOLM

Let every soldier hew him down a bough

And bear ’t before him. Thereby shall we shadow

The numbers of our host and make discovery

Err in report of us.

MACBETH

     She should have died hereafter.

There would have been a time for such a word.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

To the last syllable of recorded time,

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

MACBETH

     I will not yield,

To kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet,

And to be baited with the rabble’s curse.

Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,

And thou opposed, being of no woman born,

Yet I will try the last. Before my body

I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,

And damned be him that first cries, “Hold, enough!”

In this act, the readers witness how a physician and a nurse find out about some dark stuff that they are not supposed to know about Lady Macbeth. Everyday Lady Macbeth goes to a box picks up a letter seal it and then she goes back to bed. The nurse was suspicious so she asked a physicist to watch, and then Lady Macbeth starts talking about death and blood and Banquo’s death, the nurse and the physicist were scared, so they decided to act if they have not seen nor heard anything.

LADY MACBETH

Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.

[…]

LADY MACBETH

The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?—What, will these hands ne’er be clean?—No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that. You mar all with this starting.

[…]

LADY MACBETH

Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh!

[…]

LADY MACBETH

Wash your hands. Put on your nightgown. Look not so pale.—I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on ’s grave.

[…]

LADY MACBETH

To bed, to bed. There’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come. Give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone.—To bed, to bed, to bed!

In this act we see how Macduff tries to persuade Malcom to be King of Scotland. However Malcom starts talking about how he would make a bad king and that he has got bad desires. Therefore if Malcom becomes king of Scotland, Scotland will suffer. Macduff then feels really disappointed since he has left his family in Scotland without goodbyes to see someone who deos not want to be a king. However Malcom then says that even though he has these bad desires, he never acted upon them. Therfore he might be a good king. Then the doctor comes and tells Malcom that a crowd of ill people are waiting for a person to heal them. Macduff then asks him who is that person and what does he mean. To the n find out that person is the king of England and that the king of England can cure you from evilness from just telling you. Ross then enters Macduff asks him about Scotland and he replies that everything is upside down and that Macduff’s family is OK. However he tells Macduff that his wife and child were killed by Macbeth. And then all three of them decide to go on war against Macbeth.

MALCOLM

     This tune goes manly.

Come, go we to the king. Our power is ready;

Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth

Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above

Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may.

The night is long that never finds the day.

 

Lady Macduff is worried about her husband’s sudden disappear to England. Lady Macduff does talk to Ross about but Ross leaves her vulnerable to risks. Lady Macduff does question Macduff’s love towards his family since he left the whole family vulnerable to risks knowing that Scotland is not a safe place any more. Lady Macduff then has a really lengthy conversation with her son about traitors and her husband given that she thinks that her husband is a traitor. This conversation ends with the killing of Lady Macduff and her son.

FIRST MURDERER

     (Stabbing him)     What, you egg?

Young fry of treachery!

SON

He has killed me, mother.

Run away, I pray you!

He dies. Exit LADY MACDUFF, crying “Murder!” followed by MURDERERS

MACBETH      She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

Shakespeare in this quote is trying to communicate something really important about life. Shakespeare chooses the right time to deliver this message to his audiences. Macbeth’s wife just died, and Macbeth loves her so much. Just to give you an image of how much Macbeth loves his wife, Macbeth killed Duncan, a king of Scotland, because his wife told him to do it, and he did it even when she did shame him and questioned his masculinity.

This is why the soliloquy “She should have died hereafter” by Macbeth is really important. Shakespeare is not talking necessarily about Macbeth’s feelings now. Shakespeare in fact is trying to communicate a message about life. The first two lines are, “She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word.” life is too short for a person to cover everything they want to cover in their lives. Essentially Macbeth is saying that he does not have time for sadness. In a sense Macbeth is right because he, the king of Scotland, is in fight with his people and the English army. In other words, Macbeth is saying through Shakespeare’s words that he does not have the time to mourn about his wife’s death. Which does raise suspension, hence Shakespeare is saying that life is short and you cannot do everything you want to, however Macbeth is saying that he does not have time to be sad – If Macbeth dies he will regret not being sad -. And when Shakespeare says “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death.” In these verses, Shakespeare uses the first metaphors in this soliloquy. Macbeth says that every day we spend on our lives, death starts sneaking from day to day until the time has come and that time that was recorded for you is over. Shakespeare might also mean that God and Angeles were recording everything you have done and every syllable you have said. And then Macbeth says: in the past the way to death was obvious and only fools did choose it. In other words only fools die. The metaphors that Shakespeare used are Creeps since death cannot creep, -it is probably personification as well-, and syllable since time is not measured with syllables. Shakespeare also says that life is a brief candle using a metaphor “Out, out, brief candle!” Shakespeare than says that life is just a player that shows off and gets sad for an hour and then no one hears about him. He also says that this is just a tale told by an idiot, we can see the use of the linguistic device of diction since Shakespeare use the word idiot and nothing else to describe him self to the audience. Shakespeare then continues to say that that idiot ,which is him, is just making sounds that mean nothing. This is interesting, hence in the world of Macbeth Shakespeare is God himself. -He creates stuff and removes stuff and know what is in the characters’ minds.- However, if Shakespeare did not mean that verse on this way, he meant it in a way where he says that (these are words used to explain, and I do not agree with them) this tale is told by an idiot, and that idiot is God, that God is just emitting sounds that mean nothing to him. All of these meanings are all combined to make a beautiful soliloquy.

I think that Macbeth is an equivocator. Macbeth shows a lot of equivocation when the corps of the king Duncan are found. The quote is:

MACBETH

Had I but died an hour before this chance,

I had lived a blessèd time, for from this instant

There’s nothing serious in mortality.

All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead.

The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees

Is left this vault to brag of.

I this Scene, we see how Macbeth pays the witches a visit to kind of ask them about the future. The witches as representatives of evil obviously agreed to what Macbeth has asked them to do. The witches decided to give him apparitions. The first Apparition was an armed head, and he said that Macbeth needs to be careful of Macduff (the thane of fife).

FIRST APPARITION

Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff.

Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.

SECOND APPARITION

Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn

The power of man, for none of woman born

Shall harm Macbeth.

THIRD APPARITION

Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care

Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are.

Macbeth shall never vanquished be until

Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill

Shall come against him.

A show of eight kings, the last with a glass in his hand, followed by BANQUO

MACBETH

Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo. Down!

Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair,

Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first.

A third is like the former.—Filthy hags!

Why do you show me this? A fourth? Start, eyes!

What, will the line stretch out to th’ crack of doom?

Another yet? A seventh? I’ll see no more.

And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass

Which shows me many more, and some I see

That twofold balls and treble scepters carry.

Horrible sight! Now I see ’tis true;

For the blood-boltered Banquo smiles upon me

And points at them for his.