Chemistry and Pharmacology: Fentanyl is about 100 times more potent than morphine as an analgesic. It is a Âµ-opioid receptor agonist with high lipid solubility and a rapid onset and short duration of effects. Fentanyl rapidly crosses the blood-brain barrier. It is similar to other -Âµopioid receptor agonists (like morphine or oxycodone) in its pharmacological effects and produces analgesia, sedation, respiratory depression, nausea, and vomiting. Fentanyl appears to produce muscle rigidity with greater frequency than other opioids.
Babylonia, Iraq. c. 1750 BCE. Hammurabi, also spelled Hammurapi (born , Babylon [now in Iraq]âdied c. 1750 bce) sixth and best-known ruler of the 1st (Amorite) dynasty of Babylon (reigning c. 1792â1750 bce), noted for his surviving set of laws, once considered the oldest promulgation of laws in human history. See Hammurabi, Code of.
So begins the Law Code of Hammurabi, a list of nearly 300 laws etched into a two and one-half meter high black diorite pillar, discovered in 1902 but dating back to the time of Hammurabi himself (1792-1750 B.C.E).