title: Vitamin B12

text: Absorption of food vitamin B thus requires an intact and functioning stomach, exocrine pancreas, intrinsic factor, and small bowel. Problems with any one of these organs makes a vitamin B deficiency possible. Individuals who lack intrinsic factor have a decreased ability to absorb B. In pernicious anemia, there is a lack of IF due to autoimmune atrophic gastritis, in which antibodies form against parietal cells. Antibodies may alternately form against and bind to IF, inhibiting it from carrying out its B protective function. Due to the complexity of B absorption, geriatric patients, many of whom are hypoacidic due to reduced parietal cell function, have an increased risk of B deficiency. This results in 80–100% excretion of oral doses in the feces versus 30–60% excretion in feces as seen in individuals with adequate IF.


title: Vitamin B12

text: Once the IF/B complex is recognized by specialized ileal receptors, it is transported into the portal circulation. The vitamin is then transferred to transcobalamin II (TC-II/B), which serves as the plasma transporter. Hereditary defects in production of the transcobalamins and their receptors may produce functional deficiencies in B and infantile megaloblastic anemia, and abnormal B related biochemistry, even in some cases with normal blood B levels. For the vitamin to serve inside cells, the TC-II/B complex must bind to a cell receptor, and be endocytosed. The transcobalamin II is degraded within a lysosome, and free B is finally released into the cytoplasm, where it may be transformed into the proper coenzyme, by certain cellular enzymes (see above).


title: Vitamin B12

text: Investigations into the intestinal absorption of B point out that the upper limit of absorption per single oral dose, under normal conditions, is about 1.5µg. The passive diffusion process of B absorption—normally a very small portion of total absorption of the vitamin from food consumption—may exceed the R-protein and IF mediated absorption when oral doses of B are very large (a thousand or more µg per dose) as commonly happens in dedicated-pill oral B supplementation. This allows pernicious anemia and certain other defects in B absorption to be treated with oral megadoses of B, even without any correction of the underlying absorption defects. See the section on supplements above.


title: Vitamin B12

text: How fast B levels change depends on the balance between how much B is obtained from the diet, how much is secreted and how much is absorbed. The total amount of vitamin B stored in the body is about 2–5mg in adults. Around 50% of this is stored in the liver. Approximately 0.1% of this is lost per day by secretions into the gut, as not all these secretions are reabsorbed. Bile is the main form of B excretion; most of the B secreted in the bile is recycled via enterohepatic circulation. Excess B beyond the blood's binding capacity is typically excreted in urine. Owing to the extremely efficient enterohepatic circulation of B, the liver can store 3 to 5 years' worth of vitamin B; therefore, nutritional deficiency of this vitamin is rare in adults in the absence of malabsorption disorders. In the absence of enterohepatic reabsorption, only months to a year of vitamin B are stored.


title: Vitamin B12

text: Vitamin B is derived from a tetrapyrrolic structural framework created by the enzymes deaminase and cosynthetase which transform aminolevulinic acid via porphobilinogen and hydroxymethylbilane to uroporphyrinogen III. The latter is the first macrocyclic intermediate common to heme, chlorophyll, siroheme and B itself. Later steps, especially the incorporation of the additional methyl groups of its structure, were investigated using C methyl-labelled S-adenosyl methionine. It was not until a genetically engineered strain of "Pseudomonas denitrificans" was used, in which eight of the genes involved in the biosynthesis of the vitamin had been overexpressed, that the complete sequence of methylation and other steps could be determined, thus fully establishing all the intermediates in the pathway.


title: Vitamin B12

text: Species from the following genera and the following individual species are known to synthesize B: "Propionibacterium shermanii", "Pseudomonas" "denitrificans", "Streptomyces" "griseus", "Acetobacterium", "Aerobacter", "Agrobacterium", "Alcaligenes", "Azotobacter", "Bacillus", "Clostridium", "Corynebacterium", "Flavobacterium", "Lactobacillus", "Micromonospora", "Mycobacterium", "Nocardia", "Proteus",


title: Vitamin B12

text: Industrial production of B is achieved through fermentation of selected microorganisms. "Streptomyces griseus", a bacterium once thought to be a fungus, was the commercial source of vitamin B for many years. The species "Pseudomonas denitrificans" and "Propionibacterium freudenreichii" subsp. "shermanii" are more commonly used today. These are grown under special conditions to enhance yield. Rhone-Poulenc improved yield via genetic engineering "P. denitrificans". "Propionibacterium", the other commonly used bacteria, produce no exotoxins or endotoxins and are generally recognized as safe (have been granted GRAS status) by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States.


title: Vitamin B12

text: The complete laboratory synthesis of B was achieved by Robert Burns Woodward and Albert Eschenmoser in 1972. The work required the effort of 91 postdoctoral fellows (mostly at Harvard) and 12 PhD students (at ETH Zurich) from 19 nations. The synthesis constitutes a formal total synthesis, since the research groups only prepared the known intermediate cobyric acid, whose chemical conversion to vitamin B was previously reported. This synthesis of vitamin B is of no practical consequence due to its length, taking 72 chemical steps and giving an overall chemical yield well under 0.01%. Although there have been sporadic synthetic efforts since 1972, the Eschenmoser–Woodward synthesis remains the only completed (formal) total synthesis.


title: Vitamin B12

text: Between 1849 and 1887, Thomas Addison described a case of pernicious anemia, William Osler and William Gardner first described a case of neuropathy, Hayem described large red cells in the peripheral blood in this condition, which he called "giant blood corpuscles" (now called macrocytes), Paul Ehrlich identified megaloblasts in the bone marrow, and Ludwig Lichtheim described a case of myelopathy.


title: Vitamin B12

text: During the 1920s, George Whipple discovered that ingesting large amounts of raw liver seemed to most rapidly cure the anemia of blood loss in dogs, and hypothesized that eating liver might treat pernicious anemia. Edwin Cohn prepared a liver extract that was 50 to 100 times more potent in treating pernicious anemia than the natural liver products. William Castle demonstrated that gastric juice contained an "intrinsic factor" which when combined with meat ingestion resulted in absorption of the vitamin in this condition. In 1934, George Whipple shared the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with William P. Murphy and George Minot for discovery of an effective treatment for pernicious anemia using liver concentrate, later found to contain a large amount of vitamin B.


title: Vitamin B12

text: While working at the Bureau of Dairy Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mary Shaw Shorb was assigned work on the bacterial strain "Lactobacillus lactis" Dorner (LLD), which was used to make yogurt and other cultured dairy products. The culture medium for LLD required liver extract. Shorb knew that the same liver extract was used to treat pernicious anemia (her father-in-law had died from the disease), and concluded that LLD could be developed as an assay method to identify the active compound. While at the University of Maryland she received a small grant from Merck, and in collaboration with Karl Folkers from that company, developed the LLD assay. This identified "LLD factor" as essential for the bacteria's growth. Shorb, Folker and Alexander R. Todd, at the University of Cambridge, used the LLD assay to extract the anti-pernicious anemia factor from liver extracts, purify it, and name it vitamin B. In 1955, Todd helped elucidate the structure of the vitamin, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1957. The complete chemical structure of the molecule was determined by Dorothy Hodgkin, based on crystallographic data in 1956, for which for that and other crystallographic analyses she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964. Hodgkin went on to decipher the structure of insulin.


title: Vitamin B12

text: Five people have been awarded Nobel Prizes for direct and indirect studies of vitamin B: George Whipple, George Minot and William Murphy (1934), Alexander R. Todd (1957), and Dorothy Hodgkin (1964).


title: Vitamin B12

text: Industrial production of vitamin B is achieved through fermentation of selected microorganisms. As noted above, the completely synthetic laboratory synthesis of B12 was achieved by Robert Burns Woodward and Albert Eschenmoser in 1972, though this process has no commercial potential, requiring almost 70 steps and having a yield well below 0.01%.


title: Vitamin B12

text: In the 1970s, John A. Myers, a physician residing in Baltimore, developed a program of injecting vitamins and minerals intravenously for various medical conditions. The formula included 1000 µg of cyanocobalamin. This came to be known as the Myers' cocktail. After his death in 1984, other physicians and naturopaths took up prescribing "intravenous micro-nutrient therapy" with unsubstantiated health claims for treating fatigue, low energy, stress, anxiety, migraine, depression, immunocompromised, promoting weight loss and more. However, other than a report on case studies there are no benefits confirmed in the scientific literature. Healthcare practitioners at clinics and spas prescribe versions of these intravenous combination products, but also intramuscular injections of just vitamin B. A Mayo Clinic review concluded that there is no solid evidence that vitamin B injections provide an energy boost or aid weight loss.


title: Vitamin B12

text: There is evidence that for elderly people, physicians often repeatedly prescribe and administer cyanocobalamin injections inappropriately, evidenced by the majority of subjects in one large study either having had normal serum concentrations or had not been tested prior to the injections.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for "The Story of G.I. Joe" (1945), followed by his starring in several classic film noirs. His acting is generally considered a forerunner of the antiheroes prevalent in film during the 1950s and 1960s. His best-known films include "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" (1944), "Out of the Past" (1947), "River of No Return" (1954), "The Night of the Hunter" (1955), "Thunder Road" (1958), "Cape Fear" (1962), "El Dorado" (1966), "Ryan's Daughter" (1970) and "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" (1973). He is also known for his television role as U.S. Navy Captain Victor "Pug" Henry in the epic miniseries "The Winds of War" (1983) and sequel "War and Remembrance" (1988).


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum is rated number 23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male stars of classic American cinema.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on August 6, 1917, into a Methodist family of English-Scottish-Irish and Norwegian descent. His father, James Thomas Mitchum, a shipyard and railroad worker, was of English-Scottish-Irish descent, and his mother, Ann Harriet Gunderson, was a Norwegian immigrant and sea captain's daughter. His older sister, Annette (known as Julie Mitchum during her acting career), was born in 1914. James was crushed to death in a railyard accident in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1919. His widow was awarded a government pension, and soon realized she was pregnant. Her third child, John, was born in September of that year.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Ann married Lieutenant Hugh "The Major" Cunningham Morris, a former Royal Naval Reserve officer. They had a daughter, Carol Morris, born July 1927 on the family farm in Delaware. When all of the children were old enough to attend school, Ann found employment as a linotype operator for the "Bridgeport Post".


title: Robert Mitchum

text: As a child, Mitchum was known as a prankster, often involved in fistfights and mischief. In 1929 his mother sent the twelve-year-old Mitchum to live with her parents in Felton, Delaware; the boy was promptly expelled from middle school for scuffling with the principal. A year later he moved in with his older sister in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. After being expelled from Haaren High School he left his sister and traveled throughout the country, hopping freight cars and taking a number of jobs, including ditch-digging for the Civilian Conservation Corps and professional boxing. He later stated that at age 14 in Savannah, Georgia, he was arrested for vagrancy and put in a local chain gang. By Mitchum's account, he escaped and returned to his family in Delaware. At the age of 16, while recovering from injuries that nearly cost him a leg, he met 14 year old Dorothy Spence, whom he would later marry. He soon went back on the road, eventually "riding the rails" to California.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: In the mid-1930s Julie Mitchum moved to the West Coast in the hope of acting in movies, and the rest of the Mitchum family soon followed her to Long Beach, California. Robert arrived in 1936. During this time, Mitchum worked as a ghostwriter for astrologer Carroll Righter. Julie persuaded him to join the local theater guild with her. At The Players Guild of Long Beach, Mitchum worked as a stagehand and occasional bit-player in company productions. He also wrote several short pieces which were performed by the guild. According to Lee Server's biography ("Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care"), Mitchum put his talent for poetry to work writing song lyrics and monologues for Julie's nightclub performances.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: In 1940, he returned to Delaware to marry Dorothy Spence, and they moved back to California. He gave up his artistic pursuits at the birth of their first child James, nicknamed Josh, and two more children, Chris and Petrine, followed. Mitchum found steady employment as a machine operator during World War II with the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, but the noise of the machinery damaged his hearing. He also suffered a nervous breakdown (which resulted in temporary vision problems), due to job-related stress.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: He then sought work as a film actor, performing initially as an extra and in small speaking parts. His agent got him an interview with Harry Sherman, the producer of Paramount's "Hopalong Cassidy" western film series, which starred William Boyd; Mitchum was hired to play minor villainous roles in several films in the series during 1942 and 1943. He went uncredited as a soldier in the 1943 film "The Human Comedy" starring Mickey Rooney. His first on-screen credit came in 1943 as a Marine private in the Randolph Scott war film "Gung Ho"! Mitchum continued to find work as an extra and supporting actor in numerous productions for various studios.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: After impressing director Mervyn LeRoy during the making of "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," Mitchum signed a seven-year contract with RKO Radio Pictures. He was groomed for B-Western stardom in a series of Zane Grey adaptations. Following the moderately successful Western "Nevada", RKO lent Mitchum to United Artists for a prominent supporting actor role in "The Story of G.I. Joe" (1945). In the film, he portrayed war-weary officer Bill Walker (based on Captain Henry T. Waskow), who remains resolute despite the troubles he faces. The film, which followed the life of an ordinary soldier through the eyes of journalist Ernie Pyle (played by Burgess Meredith), became an instant critical and commercial success. Shortly after filming, Mitchum was drafted into the United States Army, serving at Fort MacArthur, California, as a medic. At the 1946 Academy Awards, "The Story of G.I. Joe" was nominated for four Oscars, including Mitchum's only nomination for an Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor. He finished the year with a Western ("West of the Pecos") and a story of returning Marine veterans ("Till the End of Time"), before migrating to a genre that came to define Mitchum's career and screen persona: film noir.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum was initially known for his work in film noir. His first foray into the genre was a supporting role in the 1944 B-movie "When Strangers Marry", about newlyweds and a New York City serial killer. Another early noir, "Undercurrent", featured him as a troubled, sensitive man entangled in the affairs of his tycoon brother (Robert Taylor) and his brother's suspicious wife (Katharine Hepburn). John Brahm's "The Locket" (1946) featured Mitchum as a bitter ex-boyfriend to Laraine Day's femme fatale. Raoul Walsh's "Pursued" (1947) combined the Western and noir genres, with Mitchum's character attempting to recall his past and find those responsible for killing his family. "Crossfire" (also 1947) featured Mitchum as a member of a group of returned World War II soldiers embroiled in a murder investigation for an act committed by an anti-Semite in their ranks. The film, directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring (in order of billing) Robert Young, Mitchum and Robert Ryan, earned five Academy Award nominations.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Following "Crossfire", Mitchum starred in "Out of the Past" (also called "Build My Gallows High"), directed by Jacques Tourneur and featuring the cinematography of Nicholas Musuraca. In his best-known noir role, Mitchum played Jeff Markham, a small-town gas-station owner and former investigator, whose unfinished business with gambler Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) and femme fatale Kathie Moffett (Jane Greer) comes back to haunt him.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: On September 1, 1948, after a string of successful films for RKO, Mitchum and actress Lila Leeds were arrested for possession of marijuana. The bust was the result of a sting operation designed to capture other Hollywood partiers as well, but Mitchum and Leeds did not receive the tipoff. After serving a week at the county jail (he described the experience to a reporter as being "like Palm Springs, but without the riff-raff"), Mitchum spent 43 days (February 16 to March 30) at a Castaic, California, prison farm. "Life" photographers were permitted to take photos of him mopping up in his prison uniform. The arrest inspired the exploitation film "She Shoulda Said No!" (1949), which starred Leeds. Mitchum's conviction was later overturned by the Los Angeles court and district attorney's office on January 31, 1951, after being exposed as a setup.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Despite Mitchum's legal troubles and problems without his studio, his popularity was not harmed and films released immediately after his arrest were box-office hits. "Rachel and the Stranger" (1948) featured Mitchum in a supporting role as a mountain man competing for the hand of Loretta Young, the indentured servant and wife of William Holden. In the film adaptation of John Steinbeck's novella "The Red Pony" (1949), he appeared as a trusted cowhand to a ranching family. He returned to in "The Big Steal" (also 1949), where he reunited with Jane Greer in an early Don Siegel film.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: In "Where Danger Lives" (1950), Mitchum played a doctor who comes between a mentally unbalanced Faith Domergue and cuckolded Claude Rains. "The Racket" was a noir remake of the early crime drama " The Racket " (1928), and featured Mitchum as a police captain fighting corruption in his precinct. The Josef von Sternberg film, "Macao" (1952), had Mitchum as a victim of mistaken identity at an exotic resort casino, playing opposite Jane Russell. Otto Preminger's "Angel Face" was the first of three collaborations between Mitchum and British stage actress Jean Simmons. Mitchum plays an ambulance driver who allows a murderously insane heiress to fatally seduce him.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum was fired from "Blood Alley" (1955) over his conduct, reportedly having thrown the film's transportation manager into San Francisco Bay. According to Sam O'Steen's memoir "Cut to the Chase", Mitchum showed up on-set after a night of drinking and tore apart a studio office when they did not have a car ready for him. Mitchum walked off the set of the third day of filming "Blood Alley", claiming he could not work with the director. Because Mitchum was showing up late and behaving erratically, producer John Wayne, after failing to obtain Humphrey Bogart as a replacement, took over the role himself.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Following a series of conventional Westerns and , as well as the Marilyn Monroe adventure vehicle "River of No Return" (1954), Mitchum appeared in "The Night of the Hunter" (1955), Charles Laughton's only film as director. Based on a novel by Davis Grubb, the thriller starred Mitchum as a monstrous criminal posing as a preacher to find money hidden by his cellmate in the man's home. His performance as Reverend Harry Powell is considered by many to be one of the best of his career. Stanley Kramer's melodrama "Not as a Stranger", also released in 1955, was a box-office hit. The film starred Mitchum against type, as an idealistic young doctor, who marries an older nurse (Olivia de Havilland), only to question his morality many years later. However, the film was not well received, with most critics pointing out that Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, and Lee Marvin were all too old for their characters. Olivia de Havilland received top billing over Mitchum and Sinatra.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: On March 8, 1955, Mitchum formed DRM (Dorothy and Robert Mitchum) Productions to produce five films for United Artists; four films were produced. The first film was "Bandido" (1956). Following a succession of average Westerns and the poorly received "Foreign Intrigue" (1956), Mitchum starred in the first of three films with Deborah Kerr. The John Huston war drama "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison", cast Mitchum as a Marine corporal shipwrecked on a Pacific Island with a nun, Sister Angela (Deborah Kerr), as his sole companion. In this character study they struggle with the elements, the Japanese garrison, and their growing feelings for one-another. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay. For his role, Mitchum was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. In the World War II submarine classic "The Enemy Below" (1956), Mitchum played the captain of a US Navy destroyer who matches wits with a wily German U-boat captain Curt Jurgens, both men would also appear in the 1962 World War II epic "The Longest Day".


title: Robert Mitchum

text: "Thunder Road" (1958), the second DRM Production, was loosely based on an incident in which a driver transporting moonshine was said to have fatally crashed on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee, somewhere between Bearden Hill and Morrell Road. According to "Metro Pulse" writer Jack Renfro, the incident occurred in 1952 and may have been witnessed by James Agee, who passed the story on to Mitchum. He starred, produced, co-wrote the screenplay, and is rumored to have directed much of the film. It costars his son James, as his on-screen brother, in a role originally intended for Elvis Presley. Mitchum also co-wrote (with Don Raye) the theme song, "The Ballad of Thunder Road."


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum returned to Mexico for "The Wonderful Country" (1959) with Julie London, and Ireland for "A Terrible Beauty"/"The Night Fighters" for the last of his DRM Productions.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum and Kerr reunited for the Fred Zinnemann film "The Sundowners" (1960), playing an Australia husband and wife struggling in the sheep industry during the Depression. The film received five Oscar nominations, and Mitchum earned the year's National Board of Review award for Best Actor for his performance. The award also recognized his performance in the Vincente Minnelli rural drama "Home from the Hill" (also 1960). He was teamed with former leading ladies Kerr and Simmons, as well as Cary Grant, for the Stanley Donen comedy "The Grass Is Greener" the same year.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum's performance as the menacing rapist Max Cady in "Cape Fear" (1962) brought him further renown for playing cold, predatory characters. The 1960s were marked by a number of lesser films. He was one of the all-star husbands of Shirley MacLaine in the comedy "What a Way to Go!" (1964), the drunken sheriff in the Howard Hawks Western "El Dorado" (1967), a quasi-remake of "Rio Bravo" (1959), and another WWII epic, "Anzio" (1968). He co-starred with Dean Martin in the 1968 Western "5 Card Stud", playing a homicidal preacher.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum made a departure from his typical screen persona with the 1970 David Lean film "Ryan's Daughter", in which he starred as Charles Shaughnessy, a mild-mannered schoolmaster in World War I–era Ireland. At the time of filming, Mitchum's recent films had been critical and commercial flops, and he was going through a personal crisis that had him considering suicide. Screenwriter Robert Bolt told him that he could do so after the film was finished and that he would personally pay for his burial. Though the film was nominated for four Academy Awards (winning two) and Mitchum was much publicized as a contender for a Best Actor nomination, he was not nominated. George C. Scott won the award for his powerful performance in "Patton", a project Mitchum had rejected as glorifying war.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: The 1970s featured Mitchum in a number of well-received crime dramas. "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" (1973) had the actor playing an aging Boston hoodlum caught between the Feds and his criminal friends. Sydney Pollack's "The Yakuza" (1974) transplanted the typical story arc to the Japanese underworld. He also appeared in 1976's "Midway" about a crucial 1942 World War II battle. Mitchum's stint as an aging Philip Marlowe in the Raymond Chandler adaptation "Farewell, My Lovely" (1975) (a remake of 1944's "Murder My Sweet") was sufficiently well received by audiences and critics for him to reprise the role in 1978's "The Big Sleep", a remake of the 1946 film of the same title.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: In 1982, Mitchum played Coach Delaney in the film adaptation of playwright/actor Jason Miller's 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning play "That Championship Season".


title: Robert Mitchum

text: At the premiere for "That Championship Season", Mitchum, while intoxicated, assaulted a female reporter and threw a basketball that he was holding (a prop from the film) at a female photographer from "Time" magazine, injuring her neck and knocking out two of her teeth. She sued him for $30 million for damages. The suit eventually "cost him his salary from the film".


title: Robert Mitchum

text: "That Championship Season" may have indirectly led to another debacle for Mitchum several months later. In a February 1983 "Esquire" interview, he made several racist, anti-Semitic and sexist statements, including, when asked if the Holocaust occurred, responded "so the Jews say." Following the widespread negative response, he apologized a month later, saying that his statements were "prankish" and "foreign to my principle". He claimed that the problem had begun when he recited a racist monologue from his role in "That Championship Season," the writer believing the words to be his own. Mitchum, who claimed that he had only reluctantly agreed to the interview, then decided to "string... along" the writer with even more incendiary statements.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum expanded to television work with the 1983 miniseries "The Winds of War". The big-budget Herman Wouk story aired on ABC, starring Mitchum as naval officer "Pug" Henry and Victoria Tennant as Pamela Tudsbury, and examined the events leading up to America's involvement in World War II. He returned to the role in 1988's "War and Remembrance", which continued the story through the end of the war.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: In 1984, Mitchum entered the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, California for treatment of alcoholism.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: He played George Hazard's father-in-law in the 1985 miniseries "North and South", which also aired on ABC.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum starred opposite Wilford Brimley in the 1986 made-for-TV movie "Thompson's Run". A hardened con (Mitchum), being transferred from a federal penitentiary to a Texas institution to finish a life sentence as a habitual criminal, is freed at gunpoint by his niece (played by Kathleen York). The cop (Brimley) who was transferring him, and has been the con's lifelong friend and adversary for over 30 years, vows to catch the twosome.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: In 1987, Mitchum was the guest host on "Saturday Night Live", where he played private eye Philip Marlowe for the last time in the parody sketch, "Death Be Not Deadly." The show ran a short comedy film he made (written and directed by his daughter, Trina) called "Out of Gas", a mock sequel to "Out of the Past" (Jane Greer reprised her role from the original film). He also was in Richard Donner's 1988 comedy "Scrooged".


title: Robert Mitchum

text: In 1991, Mitchum was given a lifetime achievement award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures; in the same year, he received the Telegatto award and, in 1992, the Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Golden Globe Awards.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum continued to appear in films until the mid-1990s, such as Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man", and he narrated the Western "Tombstone". In contrast to his role as the antagonist in the original, he played the protagonist police detective in Martin Scorsese's remake of "Cape Fear", but the actor gradually slowed his workload. His last film appearance was a small but pivotal role in the television biographical film, "James Dean: Race with Destiny", playing "Giant" director George Stevens. Mitchum's last starring role was in the 1995 Norwegian movie "Pakten".


title: Robert Mitchum

text: One of the lesser-known aspects of Mitchum's career was his foray into music as a singer. Critic Greg Adams writes, "Unlike most celebrity vocalists, Robert Mitchum actually had musical talent." Mitchum's voice was often used instead of that of a professional singer when his character sang in his films. Notable productions featuring Mitchum's own singing voice included "Rachel and the Stranger", "River of No Return", and "The Night of the Hunter". After hearing traditional calypso music and meeting artists such as Mighty Sparrow and Lord Invader while filming "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" in the Caribbean islands of Tobago, he recorded "Calypso – is like so ..." in March 1957. On the album, released through Capitol Records, he emulated the calypso sound and style, even adopting the style's unique pronunciations and slang. A year later, he recorded a song he had written for "Thunder Road", titled "The Ballad of Thunder Road". The country-style song became a modest hit for Mitchum, reaching number 69 on the "Billboard" Pop Singles chart. The song was included as a bonus track on a successful reissue of "Calypso ..." and helped market the film to a wider audience.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Although Mitchum continued to use his singing voice in his film work, he waited until 1967 to record his follow-up record, "That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings". The album, released by Nashville-based Monument Records, took him further into country music, and featured songs similar to "The Ballad of Thunder Road". "Little Old Wine Drinker Me", the first single, was a top-10 hit at country radio, reaching number nine there, and crossed over onto mainstream radio, where it peaked at number 96. Its follow-up, "You Deserve Each Other", also charted on the "Billboard" Country Singles chart. He sang the title song to the Western "Young Billy Young", made in 1969.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum's sons, James and Christopher, were actors, and his daughter, Petrine Day Mitchum, a writer. His grandchildren, Bentley Mitchum and Carrie Mitchum, are actors, as was his younger brother, John, who died in 2001. Another grandson, Kian, is a successful model.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum was a Republican who campaigned for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election, and considered him to be the only honest politician. According to 2012 interview with his son Chris, conducted by Breitbart News, Mitchum also supported Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush in 1992.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: A lifelong heavy smoker, Mitchum died on July 1, 1997, five weeks before his 80th birthday, in Santa Barbara, California, from complications of lung cancer and emphysema. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea, though there is a plot marker in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Delaware. He was survived by his wife of 57 years, Dorothy Mitchum (May 2, 1919 – April 12, 2014, Santa Barbara, California, aged 94).


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum is regarded by some critics as one of the finest actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Roger Ebert called him "the soul of film noir". Mitchum, however, was self-effacing; in an interview with Barry Norman for the BBC about his contribution to cinema, Mitchum stopped Norman in mid-flow and in his typical nonchalant style, said, "Look, I have two kinds of acting. One on a horse and one off a horse. That's it." He had also succeeded in annoying some of his fellow actors by voicing his puzzlement at those who viewed the profession as challenging and hard work. He is quoted as having said in the Norman interview that acting was actually very simple and that his job was to "show up on time, know his lines, hit his marks, and go home". Mitchum had a habit of marking most of his appearances in the script with the letters "n.a.r.", which meant "no action required", and also possessed a photographic memory that allowed him to remember lines with relative ease. He was also known for his profiency with accents. Dismissive of method acting, when asked by George Peppard if he had studied it during filming of "Home from the Hill", Mitchum jokingly responded that he had studied the Smirnoff method.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: Mitchum's subtle and understated acting style often garnered him criticism of sleepwalking through his performances. The directors who worked with him however had nothing but praise for him. Charles Laughton, who directed him in "The Night of the Hunter", considered Mitchum to be one of the best actors in the world and believed that he would have been the greatest Macbeth. John Huston felt that Mitchum was on the same pedestal of actors like Marlon Brando, Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier. Howard Hawks praised Mitchum for being a hard worker, labeling the actor a "fraud" for pretending to not care about acting. Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Michael Madsen and Mark Rylance have cited Mitchum as one of their favorite actors.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: His close friend and co-star on four movies, Deborah Kerr, commented on his acting abilities: "He makes acting seem like it's absolutely real. There's no acting to it at all. It's like falling off a log for him." Jane Greer, his co-star in "Out of the Past" and "The Big Steal", said of him: "Bob would never be caught acting. He just is."


title: Robert Mitchum

text: AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars lists Mitchum as the 23rd-greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. AFI also recognized his performances as the menacing rapist Max Cady and Reverend Harry Powell as the 28th and 29th greatest screen villains of all time as part of AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains. He provided the voice of the famous American Beef Council commercials that touted "Beef ... it's what's for dinner", from 1992 until his death.


title: Robert Mitchum

text: A "Mitchum's Steakhouse" operated in Trappe, Maryland, where Mitchum and his family lived from 1959 to 1965.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per the 2011 population census) makes it the fifth-most populous city in India, and the encompassing urban agglomeration population estimated at 6,357,693 is the seventh-most populous in India. Ahmedabad is located near the banks of the Sabarmati River, from the capital of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, also known as its twin city.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad has emerged as an important economic and industrial hub in India. It is the second-largest producer of cotton in India, due to which it was known as the 'Manchester of India' along with Kanpur. Ahmedabad's stock exchange (before it was shut down in 2018) was the country's second oldest. Cricket is a popular sport in Ahmedabad; a newly built stadium, called Narendra Modi Stadium, at Motera can accommodate 132,000 spectators, making it the largest stadium in the world. The world-class Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave is currently under construction and once complete, it will be one of the biggest sports centers (Sports City) in India. The effects of the liberalisation of the Indian economy have energised the city's economy towards tertiary sector activities such as commerce, communication and construction. Ahmedabad's increasing population has resulted in an increase in the construction and housing industries, resulting in the development of skyscrapers.


title: Ahmedabad

text: In 2010, Ahmedabad was ranked third in "Forbes"s list of fastest growing cities of the decade. In 2012, "The Times of India" chose Ahmedabad as India's best city to live in. The gross domestic product of Ahmedabad metro was estimated at $68 billion in 2020. In 2020, Ahmedabad was ranked as the third-best city in India to live by the Ease of Living Index. In July 2022, "Time" magazine included Ahmedabad in its list of world's 50 greatest places of 2022.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad has been selected as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under the Government of Indias flagship Smart Cities Mission. In July 2017, the Historic City of Ahmedabad, or Old Ahmedabad, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage City. The city is home to the , located in Kalupur area of Old Ahmedabad.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The area around Ahmedabad has been inhabited since the 11th century, when it was known as "Ashaval". At that time, Karna, the Chaulukya (Solanki) ruler of Anhilwara (modern Patan), waged a successful war against the Bhil king of Ashaval, and established a city called "Karnavati" on the banks of the Sabarmati. Solanki rule lasted until the 13th century, when Gujarat came under the control of the Vaghela dynasty of Dholka. Gujarat subsequently came under the control of the Delhi Sultanate in the 14th century. However, by the earlier 15th century, the local Muslim governor Zafar Khan Muzaffar established his independence from the Delhi Sultanate and crowned himself Sultan of Gujarat as Muzaffar Shah I, thereby founding the Muzaffarid dynasty. In 1411, this area came under the control of his grandson, Sultan Ahmed Shah, who selected the forested area along the banks of the Sabarmati river for a new capital city. He laid the foundation of a new walled city near Karnavati and named it Ahmedabad after himself. According to other versions, he named the city after four Muslim saints in the area who all had the name Ahmed. Ahmed Shah I laid the foundation of the city on 26 February 1411 (at 1.20 pm, Thursday, the second day of Dhu al-Qi'dah, Hijri year 813) at Manek Burj. Manek Burj is named after the legendary 15th-century Hindu saint, Maneknath, who intervened to help Ahmed Shah I build Bhadra Fort in 1411.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Chandan and Rajesh Nath, 13th generation descendants of Saint Maneknath, perform "puja" and hoist the flag on Manek Burj on Ahmedabad's foundation day and for the Vijayadashami festival every year.


title: Ahmedabad

text: In 1487, Mahmud Begada, the grandson of Ahmed Shah, fortified the city with an outer wall in circumference and consisting of twelve gates, 189 bastions and over 6,000 battlements. In 1535 Humayun briefly occupied Ahmedabad after capturing Champaner when the ruler of Gujarat, Bahadur Shah, fled to Diu. Ahmedabad was then reoccupied by the Muzaffarid dynasty until 1573 when Gujarat was conquered by the Mughal emperor Akbar. During the Mughal reign, Ahmedabad became one of the Empire's thriving centres of trade, mainly in textiles, which were exported as far as Europe. The Mughal ruler Shahjahan spent the prime of his life in the city, sponsoring the construction of the Moti Shahi Mahal in Shahibaug. The Deccan Famine of 1630–32 affected the city, as did famines in 1650 and 1686. Ahmedabad remained the provincial headquarters of the Mughals until 1758, when they surrendered the city to the Marathas.


title: Ahmedabad

text: During the period of Maratha Empire governance, the city became the centre of a conflict between the Peshwa of Poona and the Gaekwad of Baroda. In 1780, during the First Anglo-Maratha War, a British force under James Hartley stormed and captured Ahmedabad, but it was handed back to the Marathas at the end of the war. The British East India Company took over the city in 1818 during the Third Anglo-Maratha War. A military cantonment was established in 1824 and a municipal government in 1858. Incorporated into the Bombay Presidency during British rule, Ahmedabad became one of the most important cities in the Gujarat region. In 1864, a railway link between Ahmedabad and Mumbai (then Bombay) was established by the Bombay, Baroda, and Central India Railway (BB&CI), enabling traffic and trade between northern and southern India via the city. Over time, the city established itself as the home of a developing textile industry, which earned it the nickname "Manchester of the East".


title: Ahmedabad

text: The Indian independence movement developed roots in the city when Mahatma Gandhi established two ashrams – the Kochrab Ashram near Paldi in 1915 and the Satyagraha Ashram (now Sabarmati Ashram) on the banks of the Sabarmati in 1917 – which would become centres of nationalist activities. During the mass protests against the Rowlatt Act in 1919, textile workers burned down 51 government buildings across the city in protest at a British attempt to extend wartime regulations after the First World War. In the 1920s, textile workers and teachers went on strike, demanding civil rights and better pay and working conditions. In 1930, Gandhi initiated the Salt Satyagraha from Ahmedabad by embarking from his ashram on the Dandi Salt March. The city's administration and economic institutions were rendered inoperative in the early 1930s by the large numbers of people who took to the streets in peaceful protests, and again in 1942 during the Quit India Movement. Following independence and the partition of India in 1947, the city was scarred by the intense communal violence that broke out between Hindus and Muslims in 1947, Ahmedabad was the focus of settlement by Hindu migrants from Pakistan, who expanded the city's population and transformed its demographics and economy.


title: Ahmedabad

text: By 1960, Ahmedabad had become a metropolis with a population of slightly under half a million people, with classical and colonial European-style buildings lining the city's thoroughfares. It was chosen as the capital of Gujarat state after the partition of the State of Bombay on 1 May 1960. During this period, a large number of educational and research institutions were founded in the city, making it a centre for higher education, science and technology. Ahmedabad's economic base became more diverse with the establishment of heavy and chemical industry during the same period. Many countries sought to emulate India's economic planning strategy and one of them, South Korea, copied the city's second "Five-Year Plan".


title: Ahmedabad

text: In the late 1970s, the capital shifted to the newly built city of Gandhinagar. This marked the start of a long period of decline in the city, marked by a lack of development.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The 1974 "Nav Nirman" agitation – a protest against a 20% hike in the hostel food fees at the L.D. College of Engineering in Ahmedabad – snowballed into a movement to remove Chimanbhai Patel, then chief minister of Gujarat. In the 1980s, a reservation policy was introduced in the country, which led to anti-reservation protests in 1981 and 1985. The protests witnessed violent clashes between people belonging to various castes. The city was considerably impacted by the 2001 Gujarat earthquake; up to 50 multi-storey buildings collapsed, killing 752 people and causing much damage. The following year, a three-day period of violence between Hindus and Muslims in the western Indian state of Gujarat, known as the 2002 Gujarat riots, spread to Ahmedabad; in eastern Chamanpura, 69 people were killed in the Gulbarg Society massacre on 28 February 2002. Refugee camps were set up around the city, housing 50,000 Muslims, as well as some small Hindu camps.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The 2008 Ahmedabad bombings, a series of seventeen bomb blasts, killed and injured several people. Militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad claimed responsibility for the attacks.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Other than New Delhi, Ahmedabad is a rare city in India to have hosted premiers of major economies like the US, China and Canada. On 24 February 2020, President Trump became the first president of the US to visit the city as part of Namaste Trump. Earlier, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited the city.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad had a population of 5,633,927, making it the fifth most populous city in India. The urban agglomeration centred upon Ahmedabad, then having a population of 6,357,693, now estimated at 7,650,000, is the seventh most populous urban agglomeration in India. The city had a literacy rate of 89.62%; 93.96% of the men and 84.81% of the women were literate. Ahmedabad's sex ratio in 2011 was 897 women per 1000 men. According to the census for the Ninth Plan, there are 30,737 rural families living in Ahmedabad. Of those, 5.41% (1663 families) live below the poverty line. Approximately 440,000 people live in slums within the city.


title: Ahmedabad

text: In 2010, "Forbes" magazine rated Ahmedabad as the fastest-growing city in India, and listed it as third fastest-growing in the world after the Chinese cities of Chengdu and Chongqing. In 2011, it was rated India's best megacity to live in by leading market research firm IMRB. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report of 2003, Ahmedabad has the lowest crime rate of the 35 Indian cities with a population of more than one million. In December 2011, market research firm IMRB declared Ahmedabad the best megacity to live in when compared to India's other megacities. Slightly less than half of all real estate in Ahmedabad is owned by "community organisations" (i.e. cooperatives), and according to Vrajlal Sapovadia, professor of the B.K. School of Business Management, "the spatial growth of the city is to [an] extent [a] contribution of these organisations". Ahmedabad Cantonment provides residential zones for Indian Army officials. Ahmedabad's 2020 population is now estimated at 8,059,441. In 1950, the population of Ahmedabad was 854,959. Ahmedabad has grown by 950,155 since 2015, which represents a 2.54% annual change. According to the UN World Population Prospects, the population might increase to 8,854,444 by 2025. It is also predicted to have a massive rise to 11,062,112 as early as 2035.


title: Ahmedabad

text: In the mid-1970s and early 1980s, the textile mills that were responsible for much of Ahmedabad's wealth faced competition from automation and domestic specialty looms. Several mills closed down, leaving between 40,000 and 50,000 people without a source of income, and many moved into informal settlements in the city centre. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), the governing and administrative body of the city, simultaneously lost much of its tax base and saw an increased demand for services. In the 1990s, newly emerging pharmaceutical, chemical, and automobile manufacturing industries required skilled labor, so many migrants seeking work ended up in the informal sector and settled in slums.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad has made efforts to reduce poverty and improve the living conditions of poor residents. The urban poverty rate has declined from 28% in 1993–1994 to 10% in 2011–2012. This is partly due to the strengthening of the AMC and its partnership with several civil society organizations (CSOs) representing poor residents. Through projects and programs, the AMC has provided utilities and basic services to slums. However, some challenges remain, and there are still many residents who lack access to sanitation, improved water, and electricity. Riots, often rooted in religious tensions, threaten the stability of neighborhoods and have caused spatial segregation across religious and caste lines. Finally, the conception of pro-poor, inclusive development is being overshadowed by a national initiative promoting the creation of 'global cities' of capital investment and technological innovation. This has shifted priorities towards constructing new housing and attracting private development rather than servicing the urban poor.


title: Ahmedabad

text: As of 2011, about 66% of the population lives in formal housing. The other 34% lives in slums or "chawls", which are tenements for industrial workers. There are approximately 700 slum settlements in Ahmedabad, and 11% of the total housing stock is public housing. The population of Ahmedabad has increased while the housing stock has remained generally constant, and this has led to a rise in density of both formal and informal housing and a more economical usage of existing space. The Indian census estimates that the Ahmedabad slum population was 25.6% of the total population in 1991 and had decreased to 4.5% in 2011, but these numbers are contested and local entities maintain that the census underestimates informal populations. There is a consensus that there has been a reduction in the percentage of the population that lives in slum settlements, and that there has also been a general improvement in living conditions for slum residents.


title: Ahmedabad

text: In the 1990s, the AMC faced increased slum populations. They found that residents were willing and able to pay for legal connections to water, sewage, and electricity, but because of tenure issues, they were paying higher prices for low-quality, informal connections. To address this, beginning in 1995, the AMC partnered with civil society organizations to create the Slum Networking Project (SNP) to improve basic services in 60 slums, benefitting approximately 13,000 households. This project, also known as "Parivartan (Change)", involved participatory planning in which slum residents were partners alongside AMC, private institutions, microfinance lenders, and local NGOs. The goal of the program was to provide both physical infrastructure (including water supply, sewers, individual toilets, paved roads, storm drainage, and tree planting) and community development (i.e. the formation of resident associations, women's groups, community health interventions, and vocational training). In addition, participating households were granted a minimum de facto tenure of ten years. The project cost a total of 4,350 million. Community members and the private sector each contributed 600 million, NGOs provided 90 million, and the AMC paid for the rest of the project. Each slum household was responsible for no more than 12% of the cost of upgrading their home.


title: Ahmedabad

text: This project has generally been regarded as a success. Having access to basic services increased the residents' working hours, since most work out of their homes. It also reduced the incidence of illness, particularly water-borne illness, and increased children's rates of school attendance. The SNP received the 2006 UNHABITAT Dubai International Award for Best Practice to Improve the Living Environment. However, concerns remain about the community's responsibility and capacity for the maintenance of the new infrastructure. Additionally, trust was weakened when the AMC demolished two of slums that were upgraded as part of SNP to create recreational parks.


title: Ahmedabad

text: According to the 2011 census, Hindus are the predominant religious community in the city comprising 81.56% of the population followed by Muslims (13.51%), Jains (3.62%), Christians (0.85%) and Sikhs (0.24%). Buddhists, people following other religions and those who didn't state any religion make up the remainder.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad lies at in western India at 53 metres (174 ft) above sea level on the banks of the Sabarmati river, in north-central Gujarat. It covers an area of . The Sabarmati frequently dried up in the summer, leaving only a small stream of water, and the city is in a sandy and dry area. However, with the execution of the Sabarmati River Front Project and Embankment, the waters from the Narmada river have been diverted to the Sabarmati to keep the river flowing throughout the year, thereby eliminating Ahmedabad's water problems. The steady expansion of the Rann of Kutch threatened to increase desertification around the city area and much of the state; however, the Narmada Canal network is expected to alleviate this problem. Except for the small hills of Thaltej-Jodhpur Tekra, the city is almost flat. Three lakes lie within the city's limits—Kankaria, Vastrapur and Chandola. Kankaria, in the neighbourhood of Maninagar, is an artificial lake developed by the Sultan of Gujarat, Qutb-ud-din, in 1451.


title: Ahmedabad

text: According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, the town falls under seismic zone 3, in a scale of 2 to 5 (in order of increasing vulnerability to earthquakes).


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad is divided by the Sabarmati into two physically distinct eastern and western regions. The eastern bank of the river houses the old city, which includes the central town of Bhadra. This part of Ahmedabad is characterised by packed bazaars, the "pol" system of closely clustered buildings, and numerous places of worship. A Pol (pronounced as pole) is a housing cluster which comprises many families of a particular group, linked by caste, profession, or religion. This is a list of Pols in the old walled city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India. Heritage of these Pols has helped Ahmedabad gain a place in UNESCO's Tentative Lists, in selection criteria II, III and IV. The secretary-general of EuroIndia Centre quoted that if 12000 homes of Ahmedabad are restored they could be very helpful in promoting heritage tourism and its allied businesses. The "Art Reverie" in "Moto Sutharvado" is Res Artis center.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The first pol in Ahmedabad was named "Mahurat Pol". Old city also houses the main railway station, the main post office, and some buildings of the Muzaffarid and British eras. The colonial period saw the expansion of the city to the western side of Sabarmati, facilitated by the construction of Ellis Bridge in 1875 and later the relatively modern Nehru Bridge. The western part of the city houses educational institutions, modern buildings, residential areas, shopping malls, multiplexes and new business districts centred around roads such as Ashram Road, C. G. Road and Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Sabarmati Riverfront is a waterfront being developed along the banks of the Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad, India. Proposed in the 1960s, its construction began in 2005


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad has a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSh), with marginally less rain than required for a tropical savanna climate. There are three main seasons: summer, monsoon and winter. Aside from the monsoon season, the climate is extremely dry. The weather is hot from March to June; the average summer maximum is , and the average minimum is . From November to February, the average maximum temperature is , and the average minimum is . Cold winds from the north are responsible for a mild chill in January. The southwest monsoon brings a humid climate from mid-June to mid-September. The average annual rainfall is about , but infrequent heavy torrential rains cause local rivers to flood and it is not uncommon for droughts to occur when the monsoon does not extend as far west as usual. The highest temperature in the city was recorded on 18 and 19 May 2016, with it reaching .


title: Ahmedabad

text: Following a heat wave in May 2010 reaching and claiming hundreds of lives, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), in partnership with an international coalition of health and academic groups and with support from the Climate & Development Knowledge Network, developed the Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan. Aimed at increasing awareness, sharing information and coordinating responses to reduce the health effects of heat on vulnerable populations, the action plan is the first comprehensive plan in Asia to address the threat of adverse heat on health. It also focuses on community participation, building public awareness of the risks of extreme heat, training medical and community workers to respond to and help prevent heat-related illnesses, and coordinating an interagency emergency response effort when heat waves hit.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Early in Ahmedabad's history, under Ahmed Shah, builders fused Hindu craftsmanship with Persian architecture, giving rise to the Indo-Saracenic style. Many mosques in the city were built in this fashion. Sidi Saiyyed Mosque was built in the last year of the Sultanate of Gujarat. It is entirely arched and has ten stone latticework windows or jali on the side and rear arches. Private mansions or haveli from this era have carvings. A Pol is a typical housing cluster of Old Ahmedabad.


title: Ahmedabad

text: After independence, modern buildings appeared in Ahmedabad. Architects given commissions in the city included Louis Kahn, who designed the IIM-A; Le Corbusier, who designed the Shodhan and Sarabhai Villas, the Sanskar Kendra and the Mill Owners' Association Building, and Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed the administrative building of Calico Mills and the Calico Dome. B. V. Doshi came to the city from Paris to supervise Le Corbusier's works and later set up the School of Architecture (now CEPT). His local works include Sangath, Amdavad ni Gufa, Tagore Memorial Hall and the School of Architecture. Charles Correa, who became a partner of Doshi's, designed the Gandhi Ashram and Achyut Kanvinde, and the Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association complex. Christopher Charles Benninger's first work, the Alliance Française, is located in the Ellis Bridge area. Anant Raje designed major additions to Louis Kahn's IIM-A campus, namely the Ravi Mathai Auditorium and KLMD.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Some of the most visited gardens in the city include Law Garden, Victoria Garden and Bal Vatika. Law Garden was named after the College of Law situated close to it. Victoria Garden is located at the southern edge of the Bhadra Fort and contains a statue of Queen Victoria. Bal Vatika is a children's park situated on the grounds of Kankaria Lake and also houses an amusement park. Other gardens in the city include Parimal Garden, Usmanpura Garden, Prahlad Nagar Garden and Lal Darwaja Garden.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad's Kamla Nehru Zoological Park houses a number of endangered species including flamingoes, caracals, Asiatic wolves and chinkara.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The Kankaria Lake, built in 1451 AD, is one of the biggest lakes in Ahmedabad. In earlier days, it was known by the name "Qutub Hoj" or "Hauj-e-Kutub". Lal Bahadur Shastri lake in Bapunagar is almost 136,000 square metres. In 2010, another 34 lakes were planned in and around Ahmedabad of which five lakes will be developed by AMC; the other 29 will be developed by the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA). Vastrapur lake is a small artificial lake located in the western part of Ahmedabad. Beautified by local authorities in 2002, it is surrounded by greenery and paved walkways and has become a popular leisure spot for the citizens. Chandola Lake covers an area of 1200 hectares. It is home to cormorants, painted storks and spoonbills. During the evening time, many people visit this place and take a leisurely stroll. There is a recently developed lake in Naroda, and there is also the world's largest collection of antique cars in Kathwada at IB farm (Dastan Farm). AMC has also developed the Sabarmati Riverfront.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Looking at the health of traffic police staff deployed near the Pirana dump site, the Ahmedabad City Police is going to install outdoor air purifiers at traffic points so that the deployed staff can breathe fresh air.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad is the administrative headquarters of Ahmedabad district, administered by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). The AMC was established in July 1950 under the Bombay Provincial Corporation Act of 1949. The AMC commissioner is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer appointed by the state government who reserves the administrative executive powers, whereas the corporation is headed by the mayor of Ahmedabad. The city residents elect the 192 municipal councillors by popular vote, and the elected councillors select the deputy mayor and mayor of the city. The mayor, Bijal Patel, was appointed on 14 June 2018. The administrative responsibilities of the AMC are: water and sewerage services, primary education, health services, fire services, public transport and the city's infrastructure. AMC was ranked 9th out of 21 cities for "the best governance & administrative practices in India in 2014. It scored 3.4 out of 10 compared to the national average of 3.3." Ahmedabad registers two accidents per hour.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The city is divided into seven zones constituting 48 wards. The city's urban and suburban areas are administered by the Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA).


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad observes a range of festivals. Celebrations and observances include Uttarayan, an annual kite-flying day on 14 and 15 January. Nine nights of Navratri are celebrated with people performing Garba, the most popular folk dance of Gujarat, at venues across the city. The festival of lights, Deepavali, is celebrated with the lighting of lamps in every house, decorating the floors with rangoli, and the lighting of firecrackers. The annual Rath Yatra procession on the "Ashadh-sud-bij" date of the Hindu calendar at the Jagannath Temple, the festival of colours Holi, celebrated on the last full moon day in the end of the winter and based on the lunisolar Hindu calendar, and the procession of "Tajia" during the Muslim holy month of Muharram are important events.


title: Ahmedabad

text: One of the most popular dishes in Ahmedabad is a Gujarati "thali", which was first served commercially by Chandvilas Hotel in 1900. It consists of roti (Chapati), dal, rice and (cooked vegetables, sometimes with curry), with accompaniments of pickles and roasted "papads". Sweet dishes include laddoo, mango, and . "Dhoklas", and are also very popular dishes in Ahmedabad. Beverages include buttermilk and tea. Drinking alcohol is forbidden in Ahmedabad.


title: Ahmedabad

text: There are many restaurants, which serve Indian and international cuisines. Most of the food outlets serve only vegetarian food, as a strong tradition of vegetarianism is maintained by the city's Jain and Hindu communities. The first all-vegetarian Pizza Hut in the world opened in Ahmedabad. KFC has a separate staff uniform for serving vegetarian items and prepares vegetarian food in a separate kitchen, as does McDonald's. Ahmedabad has a quite a few restaurants serving typical Mughlai non-vegetarian food in older areas like Bhatiyar Gali, Kalupur and Jamalpur.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Manek Chowk is an open square near the centre of the city that functions as a vegetable market in the morning and a jewellery market in the afternoon. However, it is better known for its food stalls in the evening, which sell local street food. It is named after the Hindu saint Baba Maneknath. Parts of Ahmedabad are known for their folk art. The artisans of Rangeela "pol" make tie-dyed "bandhinis", while the cobbler shops of Madhupura sell traditional "mojdi" (also known as "mojri") footwear. Idols of Ganesha and other religious icons are made in huge numbers in the Gulbai Tekra area. In 2019, there was a swing in the trend and people are adopting a more eco-friendly version of the Ganesha statue. The shops at the Law Garden sell mirrorwork handicrafts.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Three main literary institutions were established in Ahmedabad for the promotion of Gujarati literature: Gujarat Vidhya Sabha, Gujarati Sahitya Parishad and Gujarat Sahitya Sabha. Saptak School of Music festival is held in the first week of the new year. This event was inaugurated by Ravi Shankar.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The Sanskar Kendra, one of the several buildings in Ahmedabad designed by Le Corbusier, is a city museum depicting its history, art, culture and architecture. The Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya and the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Memorial have permanent displays of photographs, documents and other articles relating to Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel. The Calico Museum of Textiles has a large collection of Indian and international fabrics, garments and textiles. The Hazrat Pir Mohammad Shah Library has a collection of rare original manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Sindhi and Turkish. There is the Vechaar Utensils Museum which has stainless steel, glass, brass, copper, bronze, zinc and German silver tools.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Shreyas Foundation has four museums on the same campus. Shreyas Folk Museum (Lokayatan Museum) has art forms and artefacts from the communities of Gujarat. Kalpana Mangaldas Children's Museum has a collection of toys, puppets, dance and drama costumes, coins and a repository of recorded music from traditional shows from all over the world. Kahani houses photographs of fairs and festivals of Gujarat. Sangeeta Vadyakhand is a gallery of musical instruments from India and other countries.


title: Ahmedabad

text: L D Institute of Indology houses 76,000 hand-written Jain manuscripts with 500 illustrated versions and 45,000 printed books, making it the largest collection of Jain scripts, Indian sculptures, terracottas, miniature paintings, cloth paintings, painted scrolls, bronzes, woodwork, Indian coins, textiles and decorative art, paintings of Rabindranath Tagore and art of Nepal and Tibet. N C Mehta Gallery of Miniature Paintings has a collection of ornate miniature paintings and manuscripts from all over India.


title: Ahmedabad

text: In 1949 Darpana Academy of Performing Arts was established by the scientist Dr. Vikram Sarabhai and Bharat Natyam dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai, and thus Ahmemedabad city became the centre of Indian classical dance.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad had a literacy rate of 79.89% in 2001 which rose to 89.62 percent in 2011. As of 2011, the literacy rate among males and females were 93.96 and 84.81 percent, respectively.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Among the several , Gujarat University is the largest and claims to be the oldest; although the Gujarat Vidyapith was established in 1920 by Mahatma Gandhi – it received no charter from the British Raj, becoming a deemed university only in 1963. A large number of colleges in the city are affiliated with Gujarat University.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Gujarat Technological University, CEPT University, Nirma University, Institute of Infrastructure Technology Research and Management (IITRAM) and Ahmedabad University all date from this century. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University has over 100,000 students enrolled on its distance learning courses.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad is home to the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, which was ranked first among management institutes in the country by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2018.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Established in 1947 by the scientist Vikram Sarabhai, the oldest of the , the Physical Research Laboratory is active in space science, astronomy, high-energy physics and other areas of research.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, established in 1949 by Mrinalini Sarabhai, was listed by UNESCO as an institution active in the "Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage".


title: Ahmedabad

text: Schools in Ahmedabad are either run publicly by the municipal corporation, or privately by entities, trusts and corporations. The majority of schools are affiliated with the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board, although some are affiliated with the Central Board for Secondary Education, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, International Baccalaureate and National Institute of Open School.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Newspapers in Ahmedabad include English dailies such as "The Times of India", "Indian Express", "DNA", "The Economic Times", "The Financial Express", "Ahmedabad Mirror" and "Metro". Newspapers in other languages include "Divya Bhaskar", "Gujarat Samachar", "Sandesh", "Rajasthan Patrika", "Sambhaav", and "Aankhodekhi". The city is home to the historic Navajivan Publishing House, which was founded in 1919 by Mahatma Gandhi.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The state-owned All India Radio Ahmedabad is broadcast both on medium wave bands and FM bands (96.7 MHz) in the city. It competes with five private local FM stations: Radio City (91.1 MHz), Red FM (93.5 MHz), My FM (94.3 MHz), Radio One (95.0 MHz), Radio Mirchi (98.3 MHz) and Mirchi Love (104 MHz). Gyan Vani (104.5 MHz) is an educational FM radio station run under the media co-operation model. In March 2012, Gujarat University started a campus radio service on 90.8 MHz, which was the first of its kind in the state and the fifth in India.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The state-owned television broadcaster Doordarshan provides free terrestrial channels, while three multi system operators—InCablenet, Siti Cable and GTPL—provide a mix of Gujarati, Hindi, English, and other regional channels via cable. Telephone services are provided by landline and mobile operators such as Jio, BSNL Mobile, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The gross domestic product of Ahmedabad was estimated at US$80 billion in 2014. The RBI ranked Ahmedabad as the seventh largest deposit centre and seventh largest credit centre nationwide as of June 2012. In the 19th century, the textile and garments industry received strong capital investment. On 30 May 1861 Ranchhodlal Chhotalal founded the first Indian textile mill, the Ahmedabad Spinning and Weaving Company Limited, followed by the establishment of a series of textile mills such as Calico Mills, Bagicha Mills and Arvind Mills. By 1905 there were about 33 textile mills in the city. The textile industry expanded further at a rapid rate during the First World War, and benefited from the influence of Mahatma Gandhi's Swadeshi movement, which promoted the purchase of Indian-made goods. Ahmedabad was known as the "Manchester of the East" for its textile industry. The city is the largest supplier of denim and one of the largest exporters of gemstones and jewellery in India. The automobile industry is also important to the city; after Tata's Nano project, Ford and Suzuki are planning to establish plants near Ahmedabad while the Groundbreaking ceremony for Peugeot has already been performed.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The Ahmedabad Stock Exchange, located in the Ambavadi area of the city, is India's second oldest stock exchange. Two of the biggest pharmaceutical companies of India — Zydus Cadila and Torrent Pharmaceuticals – are based in the city. The Nirma group of industries, which runs detergent and chemical industrial units, has its corporate headquarters in the city. The city houses the corporate headquarters of the Adani Group, a multinational trading and infrastructure development company. The Sardar Sarovar Project of dams and canals has improved the supply of potable water and electricity for the city. The information technology industry has developed significantly in Ahmedabad, with companies such as Tata Consultancy Services opening offices in the city. A NASSCOM survey in 2002 on the "Super Nine Indian Destinations" for IT-enabled services ranked Ahmedabad fifth among the top nine most competitive cities in the country. The city's educational and industrial institutions have attracted students and young skilled workers from the rest of India.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad houses other major Indian corporates such as Cadila Healthcare, Rasna, Wagh Bakri, Nirma, Cadila Pharmaceuticals, and Intas Biopharmaceuticals. Ahmedabad is the second largest cotton textile centre in India after Mumbai and the largest in Gujarat. Many cotton manufacturing units operate in and around Ahmedabad. Textiles are one of the major industries of the city. Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation has acquired land in Sanand taluka of Ahmedabad to set up three new industrial estates.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, from the city centre, provides domestic and international flights for Ahmedabad and the capital Gandhinagar. It is the busiest airport in Gujarat and the seventh-busiest in India in terms of passenger traffic. The Ahmedabad airport was earlier managed by Airports Authority of India and was leased to the city-based Adani Group in November 2020 for operations and maintenance. The Dholera International Airport is proposed to be built near Fedara. It will be the largest airport in India with a total area of 7,500 hectares.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The first seaplane service in India started between Ahmedabad and the Statue of Unity, Kevadia, on 31 October 2020. The 19-seater plane makes four trips daily between the two destinations.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad is one of six operating divisions in the Western Railway zone. Ahmedabad railway station, locally known as Kalupur station, is the main terminus to differentiate it from other suburban railway stations. It is the centre point for railway stations in Gujarat and the Western Railway zone, so many lines begin from here, connecting the city to elsewhere in Gujarat and India. Other main stations are also present, which connect to different cities, such as Sabarmati Junction, ,


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad Metro has been under construction since March 2015. The first phase of the Ahmedabad metro is 40 km long; 6.5 km is underground and the remaining stretch is elevated. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the first section between Vastral Gam and Apparel Park on 4 March 2019 and was opened to public on 6 March 2019. The rest of the Phase-1 was inaugurated on 30 September 2022. The construction of the Phase-2 was started in 2021 connecting Gandhinagar.


title: Ahmedabad

text: National Highway 48 passes through Ahmedabad and connects it with New Delhi and Mumbai. The National Highway 147 also links Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar. It is connected to Vadodara through National Expressway 1, a -long expressway with two exits. This expressway is part of the Golden Quadrilateral project.


title: Ahmedabad

text: In 2001, Ahmedabad was ranked as the most-polluted city in India out of 85 cities by the Central Pollution Control Board. The Gujarat Pollution Control Board gave auto rickshaw drivers an incentive of 10,000 to convert the fuel of all 37,733 auto rickshaws in Ahmedabad to cleaner-burning compressed natural gas to reduce pollution. As a result, in 2008, Ahmedabad was ranked as 50th most-polluted city in India.


title: Ahmedabad

text: "Ahmedabad BRTS" is a bus rapid transit system in the city. It is operated by Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited, a subsidiary of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and others. Inaugurated in October 2009, the network expanded to by December 2015 with daily ridership of passengers. The Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service (AMTS), maintained by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, runs the public bus service in the city. More than 750 AMTS buses serve the city. Ahmedabad BRTS also runs 50 electric buses apart from CNG and diesel busses.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Service is a public bus service launched on 1 April 1947 and solely operated by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. It has a fleet of more than 900 buses as of 2018 covering almost every part of the city.


title: Ahmedabad

text: A bicycle renting and sharing service was started in Ahmedabad in 2013 by MYBYK. The project started with 200 bicycles and aimed to provide bicycles for commuting from one BRTS station to another. As of 2021, it had 150 bicycle hubs with a fleet of 6,000 bicycles, making Ahmedabad India's largest public bicycle share (PBS) city.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Cricket is one of the most popular sports in the city. Narendra Modi Stadium, also known as "Motera Stadium", originally "Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium" built in 1982, hosts both one day internationals and test matches. It is the largest stadium in the world by capacity, with a seating capacity of 132,000 spectators. It hosted the 1987, 1996 and 2011 Cricket World Cups. This is the home ground of first-class team Gujarat cricket team, which competes in domestic tournaments. Ahmedabad has a second cricket stadium at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's Sports Club of Gujarat.


title: Ahmedabad

text: tennis, squash and golf. Ahmedabad has nine golf courses. Mithakhali Multi Sports Complex is being developed by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to promote various indoor sports. Ahmedabad has also hosted national level games for roller skating and table tennis. Kart racing is gaining popularity in the city, with the introduction of a 380 metre long track based on Formula One design concepts.


title: Ahmedabad

text: Sabarmati Marathon has been organized every year December–January since 2011; it has categories like a full and half-marathon, a 7 km dream run, a 5 km run for the visually disabled, and a 5 km wheelchair run. In 2007, Ahmedabad hosted the 51st national level shooting games.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The 2016 Kabaddi World Cup was held in Ahmedabad at The Arena by Transtadia (a renovated Kankaria football ground).


title: Ahmedabad

text: Geet Sethi, a five-time winner of the World Professional Billiards Championship and a recipient of India's highest sporting award, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, was raised in Ahmedabad.


title: Ahmedabad

text: The Adani Ahmedabad Marathon has been organized by the Adani Group every year since 2017; it attracted 8,000 participants in its first edition and also hosted its first virtual marathon in 2020 in compliance with COVID-19 guidelines.


title: Alchemy

text: Alchemy (from Arabic: "al-kīmiyā"; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, "khumeía") is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first attested in a number of pseudepigraphical texts written in Greco-Roman Egypt during the first few centuries AD.


title: Alchemy

text: Alchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materials. Common aims were chrysopoeia, the transmutation of "base metals" (e.g., lead) into "noble metals" (particularly gold); the creation of an elixir of immortality; and the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease. The perfection of the human body and soul was thought to result from the alchemical "magnum opus" ("Great Work"). The concept of creating the philosophers' stone was variously connected with all of these projects.


title: Alchemy

text: Islamic and European alchemists developed a basic set of laboratory techniques, theories, and terms, some of which are still in use today. They did not abandon the Ancient Greek philosophical idea that everything is composed of four elements, and they tended to guard their work in secrecy, often making use of cyphers and cryptic symbolism. In Europe, the 12th-century translations of medieval Islamic works on science and the rediscovery of Aristotelian philosophy gave birth to a flourishing tradition of Latin alchemy. This late medieval tradition of alchemy would go on to play a significant role in the development of early modern science (particularly chemistry and medicine).


title: Alchemy

text: Modern discussions of alchemy are generally split into an examination of its exoteric practical applications and its esoteric spiritual aspects, despite criticisms by scholars such as Eric J. Holmyard and Marie-Louise von Franz that they should be understood as complementary. The former is pursued by historians of the physical sciences, who examine the subject in terms of early chemistry, medicine, and charlatanism, and the philosophical and religious contexts in which these events occurred. The latter interests historians of esotericism, psychologists, and some philosophers and spiritualists. The subject has also made an ongoing impact on literature and the arts.


title: Alchemy

text: The word alchemy comes from old French "alquemie", "alkimie", used in Medieval Latin as . This name was itself adopted from the Arabic word (). The Arabic in turn was a borrowing of the Late Greek term "khēmeía" (), also spelled "khumeia" () and "khēmía" (), with "al-" being the Arabic definite article 'the'. Together this association can be interpreted as 'the process of transmutation by which to fuse or reunite with the divine or original form'. Several etymologies have been proposed for the Greek term. The first was proposed by Zosimos of Panopolis (3rd–4th centuries), who derived it from the name of a book, the "Khemeu." Hermanm Diels argued in 1914 that it rather derived from χύμα, used to describe metallic objects formed by casting.


title: Alchemy

text: Others trace its roots to the Egyptian name ' (hieroglyphic 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 ' ), meaning 'black earth', which refers to the fertile and auriferous soil of the Nile valley, as opposed to red desert sand. According to the Egyptologist Wallis Budge, the Arabic word "ʾ" actually means "the Egyptian [science]", borrowing from the Coptic word for "Egypt", ' (or its equivalent in the Mediaeval Bohairic dialect of Coptic, '). This Coptic word derives from Demotic ', itself from ancient Egyptian '. The ancient Egyptian word referred to both the country and the colour "black" (Egypt was the "black Land", by contrast with the "red Land", the surrounding desert); so this etymology could also explain the nickname "Egyptian black arts".


title: Alchemy

text: Alchemy encompasses several philosophical traditions spanning some four millennia and three continents. These traditions' general penchant for cryptic and symbolic language makes it hard to trace their mutual influences and "genetic" relationships. One can distinguish at least three major strands, which appear to be mostly independent, at least in their earlier stages: Chinese alchemy, centered in China; Indian alchemy, centered on the Indian subcontinent; and Western alchemy, which occurred around the Mediterranean and whose center shifted over the millennia from Greco-Roman Egypt to the Islamic world, and finally medieval Europe. Chinese alchemy was closely connected to Taoism and Indian alchemy with the Dharmic faiths. In contrast, Western alchemy developed its philosophical system mostly independent of but influenced by various Western religions. It is still an open question whether these three strands share a common origin, or to what extent they influenced each other.


title: Alchemy

text: The start of Western alchemy may generally be traced to ancient and Hellenistic Egypt, where the city of Alexandria was a center of alchemical knowledge, and retained its pre-eminence through most of the Greek and Roman periods. Following the work of André-Jean Festugière, modern scholars see alchemical practice in the Roman Empire as originating from the Egyptian goldsmith's art, Greek philosophy and different religious traditions. Tracing the origins of the alchemical art in Egypt is complicated by the pseudepigraphic nature of texts from the Greek alchemical corpus. The treatises of Zosimos of Panopolis, the earliest historically attested author (fl. c. 300 CE), can help in situating the other authors. Zosimus based his work on that of older alchemical authors, such as Mary the Jewess, Pseudo-Democritus, and Agathodaimon, but very little is known about any of these authors. The most complete of their works, The "Four Books" of Pseudo-Democritus, were probably written in the first century AD.


title: Alchemy

text: Recent scholarship tends to emphasize the testimony of Zosimus, who traced the alchemical arts back to Egyptian metallurgical and ceremonial practices. It has also been argued that early alchemical writers borrowed the vocabulary of Greek philosophical schools but did not implement any of its doctrines in a systematic way. Zosimos of Panopolis wrote in the "Final Abstinence" (also known as the "Final Count"). Zosimos explains that the ancient practice of "tinctures" (the technical Greek name for the alchemical arts) had been taken over by certain "demons" who taught the art only to those who offered them sacrifices. Since Zosimos also called the demons "the guardians of places" (, ) and those who offered them sacrifices "priests" (, ), it is fairly clear that he was referring to the gods of Egypt and their priests. While critical of the kind of alchemy he associated with the Egyptian priests and their followers, Zosimos nonetheless saw the tradition's recent past as rooted in the rites of the Egyptian temples.


title: Alchemy

text: Mythology – Zosimos of Panopolis asserted that alchemy dated back to Pharaonic Egypt where it was the domain of the priestly class, though there is little to no evidence for his assertion. Alchemical writers used Classical figures from Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology to illuminate their works and allegorize alchemical transmutation. These included the pantheon of gods related to the Classical planets, Isis, Osiris, Jason, and many others.


title: Alchemy

text: The central figure in the mythology of alchemy is Hermes Trismegistus (or Thrice-Great Hermes). His name is derived from the god Thoth and his Greek counterpart Hermes. Hermes and his caduceus or serpent-staff, were among alchemy's principal symbols. According to Clement of Alexandria, he wrote what were called the "forty-two books of Hermes", covering all fields of knowledge. The "Hermetica" of Thrice-Great Hermes is generally understood to form the basis for Western alchemical philosophy and practice, called the hermetic philosophy by its early practitioners. These writings were collected in the first centuries of the common era.


title: Alchemy

text: Technology – The dawn of Western alchemy is sometimes associated with that of metallurgy, extending back to 3500 BC. Many writings were lost when the Roman emperor Diocletian ordered the burning of alchemical books after suppressing a revolt in Alexandria (AD 292). Few original Egyptian documents on alchemy have survived, most notable among them the Stockholm papyrus and the Leyden papyrus X. Dating from AD 250–300, they contained recipes for dyeing and making artificial gemstones, cleaning and fabricating pearls, and manufacturing of imitation gold and silver. These writings lack the mystical, philosophical elements of alchemy, but do contain the works of Bolus of Mendes (or Pseudo-Democritus), which aligned these recipes with theoretical knowledge of astrology and the classical elements. Between the time of Bolus and Zosimos, the change took place that transformed this metallurgy into a Hermetic art.


title: Alchemy

text: Philosophy – Alexandria acted as a melting pot for philosophies of Pythagoreanism, Platonism, Stoicism and Gnosticism which formed the origin of alchemy's character. An important example of alchemy's roots in Greek philosophy, originated by Empedocles and developed by Aristotle, was that all things in the universe were formed from only four elements: earth, air, water, and fire. According to Aristotle, each element had a sphere to which it belonged and to which it would return if left undisturbed. The four elements of the Greek were mostly qualitative aspects of matter, not quantitative, as our modern elements are; "...True alchemy never regarded earth, air, water, and fire as corporeal or chemical substances in the present-day sense of the word. The four elements are simply the primary, and most general, qualities by means of which the amorphous and purely quantitative substance of all bodies first reveals itself in differentiated form." Later alchemists extensively developed the mystical aspects of this concept.


title: Alchemy

text: Alchemy coexisted alongside emerging Christianity. Lactantius believed Hermes Trismegistus had prophesied its birth. St Augustine later affirmed this in the 4th & 5th centuries, but also condemned Trismegistus for idolatry. Examples of Pagan, Christian, and Jewish alchemists can be found during this period.


title: Alchemy

text: Most of the Greco-Roman alchemists preceding Zosimos are known only by pseudonyms, such as Moses, Isis, Cleopatra, Democritus, and Ostanes. Others authors such as Komarios, and Chymes, we only know through fragments of text. After AD 400, Greek alchemical writers occupied themselves solely in commenting on the works of these predecessors. By the middle of the 7th century alchemy was almost an entirely mystical discipline. It was at that time that Khalid Ibn Yazid sparked its migration from Alexandria to the Islamic world, facilitating the translation and preservation of Greek alchemical texts in the 8th and 9th centuries.


title: Alchemy

text: Greek alchemy is preserved in medieval Greek (Byzantine) manuscripts, and yet historians have only relatively recently begun to pay attention to the study and development of Greek alchemy in the Byzantine period.


title: Alchemy

text: The 2nd millennium BC text Vedas describe a connection between eternal life and gold. A considerable knowledge of metallurgy has been exhibited in a third-century CE text called Arthashastra which provides ingredients of explosives (Agniyoga) and salts extracted from fertile soils and plant remains (Yavakshara) such as saltpetre/nitre, perfume making (different qualities of perfumes are mentioned), granulated (refined) Sugar. Buddhist texts from the 2nd to 5th centuries mention the transmutation of base metals to gold. According to some scholars Greek alchemy may have influenced Indian alchemy but there are no hard evidences to back this claim.


title: Alchemy

text: The 11th-century Persian chemist and physician Abū Rayhān Bīrūnī, who visited Gujarat as part of the court of Mahmud of Ghazni, reported that they


title: Alchemy

text: The goals of alchemy in India included the creation of a divine body (Sanskrit "divya-deham") and immortality while still embodied (Sanskrit "jīvan-mukti"). Sanskrit alchemical texts include much material on the manipulation of mercury and sulphur, that are homologized with the semen of the god Śiva and the menstrual blood of the goddess Devī.


title: Alchemy

text: Some early alchemical writings seem to have their origins in the Kaula tantric schools associated to the teachings of the personality of Matsyendranath. Other early writings are found in the Jaina medical treatise "Kalyāṇakārakam" of Ugrāditya, written in South India in the early 9th century.


title: Alchemy

text: Two famous early Indian alchemical authors were Nāgārjuna Siddha and Nityanātha Siddha. Nāgārjuna Siddha was a Buddhist monk. His book, "Rasendramangalam", is an example of Indian alchemy and medicine. Nityanātha Siddha wrote "Rasaratnākara", also a highly influential work. In Sanskrit, "rasa" translates to "mercury", and Nāgārjuna Siddha was said to have developed a method of converting mercury into gold.


title: Alchemy

text: The contents of 39 Sanskrit alchemical treatises have been analysed in detail in G. Jan Meulenbeld's "History of Indian Medical Literature". The discussion of these works in HIML gives a summary of the contents of each work, their special features, and where possible the evidence concerning their dating. Chapter 13 of HIML, "Various works on rasaśāstra and ratnaśāstra" (or "Various works on alchemy and gems") gives brief details of a further 655 (six hundred and fifty-five) treatises. In some cases Meulenbeld gives notes on the contents and authorship of these works; in other cases references are made only to the unpublished manuscripts of these titles.


title: Alchemy

text: A great deal remains to be discovered about Indian alchemical literature. The content of the Sanskrit alchemical corpus has not yet (2014) been adequately integrated into the wider general history of alchemy.


title: Alchemy

text: After the fall of the Roman Empire, the focus of alchemical development moved to the Islamic World. Much more is known about Islamic alchemy because it was better documented: indeed, most of the earlier writings that have come down through the years were preserved as Arabic translations. The word "alchemy" itself was derived from the Arabic word "al-kīmiyā" (الكيمياء). The early Islamic world was a melting pot for alchemy. Platonic and Aristotelian thought, which had already been somewhat appropriated into hermetical science, continued to be assimilated during the late 7th and early 8th centuries through Syriac translations and scholarship.


title: Alchemy

text: In the late ninth and early tenth centuries, the Arabic works attributed to Jābir ibn Hayyān (Latinized as "Geber" or "Geberus") introduced a new approach to alchemy. Paul Kraus, who wrote the standard reference work on Jabir, put it as follows:


title: Alchemy

text: Islamic philosophers also made great contributions to alchemical hermeticism. The most influential author in this regard was arguably Jabir. Jabir's ultimate goal was "Takwin", the artificial creation of life in the alchemical laboratory, up to, and including, human life. He analyzed each Aristotelian element in terms of four basic qualities of "hotness", "coldness", "dryness", and "moistness". According to Jabir, in each metal two of these qualities were interior and two were exterior. For example, lead was externally cold and dry, while gold was hot and moist. Thus, Jabir theorized, by rearranging the qualities of one metal, a different metal would result. By this reasoning, the search for the philosopher's stone was introduced to Western alchemy. Jabir developed an elaborate numerology whereby the root letters of a substance's name in Arabic, when treated with various transformations, held correspondences to the element's physical properties.


title: Alchemy

text: The elemental system used in medieval alchemy also originated with Jabir. His original system consisted of seven elements, which included the five classical elements (aether, air, earth, fire, and water) in addition to two chemical elements representing the metals: sulphur, "the stone which burns", which characterized the principle of combustibility, and mercury, which contained the idealized principle of metallic properties. Shortly thereafter, this evolved into eight elements, with the Arabic concept of the three metallic principles: sulphur giving flammability or combustion, mercury giving volatility and stability, and salt giving solidity. The atomic theory of corpuscularianism, where all physical bodies possess an inner and outer layer of minute particles or corpuscles, also has its origins in the work of Jabir.


title: Alchemy

text: From the 9th to 14th centuries, alchemical theories faced criticism from a variety of practical Muslim chemists, including Alkindus, Abū al-Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, Avicenna and Ibn Khaldun. In particular, they wrote refutations against the idea of the transmutation of metals.


title: Alchemy

text: From the 14th century onwards, many materials and practices originally belonging to Indian alchemy (Rasayana) were assimilated in the Persian texts written by Muslim scholars.


title: Alchemy

text: Researchers have found evidence that Chinese alchemists and philosophers discovered complex mathematical phenomena that were shared with Arab alchemists during the medieval period. Discovered in BC China, the "magic square of three" was an propagated to followers of Abū Mūsā Jābir ibn Ḥayyān at some point over the proceeding several hundred years. Other commonalities shared between the two alchemical schools of thought include discrete naming for ingredients and heavy influence from the natural elements. The silk road provided a clear path for the exchange of goods, ideas, ingredients, religion, and many other aspects of life with which alchemy is intertwined.


title: Alchemy

text: Whereas European alchemy eventually centered on the transmutation of base metals into noble metals, Chinese alchemy had a more obvious connection to medicine. The philosopher's stone of European alchemists can be compared to the Grand Elixir of Immortality sought by Chinese alchemists. In the hermetic view, these two goals were not unconnected, and the philosopher's stone was often equated with the universal panacea; therefore, the two traditions may have had more in common than initially appears.