IN: Michael Bloomberg was born at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, on February 14, 1942. Bloomberg's family is Jewish. Bloomberg's father, William Henry Bloomberg (1906-1963), was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts and worked as an accountant for a dairy company. He was the son of Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, an immigrant from Russia.

In 2001, the incumbent mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, was ineligible for re-election, as the city limited the mayoralty to two consecutive terms. Several well-known New York City politicians aspired to succeed him. Bloomberg, a lifelong member of the Democratic Party, decided to run for mayor as a member of the Republican Party ticket. Voting in the primary began on the morning of September 11, 2001. The primary was postponed later that day, due to the September 11 attacks. In the rescheduled primary, Bloomberg defeated Herman Badillo, a former Congressman, to become the Republican nominee. Meanwhile, the Democratic primary did not produce a first-round winner. After a runoff, the Democratic nomination went to New York City Public Advocate Mark J. Green.  In the general election, Bloomberg received Giuliani's endorsement. He also had a huge spending advantage. Although New York City's campaign finance law restricts the amount of contributions which a candidate can accept, Bloomberg chose not to use public campaign funds and therefore his campaign was not subject to these restrictions. He spent $73 million of his own money on his campaign, outspending Green five to one. One of the major themes of his campaign was that, with the city's economy suffering from the effects of the World Trade Center attacks, it needed a mayor with business experience.  In addition to serving as the Republican nominee, Bloomberg had the ballot line of the controversial Independence Party, in which "Social Therapy" leaders Fred Newman and Lenora Fulani exert strong influence. Some say that endorsement was important, as Bloomberg's votes on that line exceeded his margin of victory over Green. (Under New York's fusion rules, a candidate can run on more than one party's line and combine all the votes received on all lines. Green, the Democrat, had the ballot line of the Working Families Party. He also created an independent line called Students First whose votes were combined with those on the Independence line). Another factor was the vote in Staten Island, which has traditionally been far friendlier to Republicans than the rest of the city. Bloomberg handily beat Green in that borough, taking 75 percent of the vote there. Overall, Bloomberg won 50 percent to 48 percent.  Bloomberg's election marked the first time in New York City history that two different Republicans had been elected mayor consecutively. New York City has not been won by a Republican in a presidential election since Calvin Coolidge won in 1924. Bloomberg is considered a social liberal, who is pro-choice, in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage and an advocate for stricter gun control laws. Although 68 percent of New York City's registered voters are Democrats, Bloomberg decided the city should host the 2004 Republican National Convention. The convention drew thousands of protesters, many of them local residents angry over the Iraq war and other issues. The New York Police Department arrested approximately 1,800 protesters, but according to The New York Times, more than 90 percent of the cases were later dismissed or dropped for lack of evidence.

How much did his spend on his campaign efforts?

OUT: He spent $73 million of his own money on his campaign, outspending Green five to one.


IN: Cullen was born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. His father William was a lawyer retained by the Duke of Hamilton as factor, and his mother was Elizabeth Roberton of Whistlebury. He studied at the Old Grammar School of Hamilton (renamed in 1848 The Hamilton Academy), then, in 1726, began a General Studies arts course at the University of Glasgow. He began his medical training as apprentice to John Paisley, a Glasgow apothecary surgeon, then spent 1729 as surgeon on a merchant vessel trading between London and the West Indies.

According to Rocca, Cullen was known for systemizing and promoting medical knowledge rather than producing original research. Despite the lack of original work, some believed that Cullen's attempt to organize existing knowledge was actually a sign of his "practical sagacity" as a practitioner. He was a lecturer for more than forty years. In order to understand Cullen's medical teaching at the time, it is important to understand Cullen's conception of "system" as he taught it in his classes. Cullen described a system as "an organised body of opinions on particular topics in the medical curriculum." He also referred to system as the principles in his book First Lines of the Practice of Physic. There were many possible reasons behind Cullen's emphasis of the system of medicine. In the 18th century, a period of Scottish Enlightenment, there were competing theories about the mechanisms of the human body and the causes of diseases proposed by different professors, who competed for students' teaching fees. Thus, having an underlying system of medical knowledge was a practical way to organize the knowledge coherently for the students.  Like many prominent medical figures in the 18th century, William Cullen took a great interest in the nervous system. He defined the nervous system as an "animated machine" whose main function is to "perform a variety of motions," communicate and interact with "external bodies." Cullen believed that the nervous system was composed of four elements: the medullary substance, consisting of the brain and the spinal cord, the membranous nerves, the sensory nerves, and the muscular fibers.  Cullen's understanding of the nervous system was also influenced by his contemporaries, one of whom was Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777). Haller proposed that tissues, including muscles, were characterized by "irritability" (or contractility), while nerves were characterized by "sensibility" (or feeling). Using Haller's characterization, Cullen defined disease "as an excess or deficiency of sensibility." However, Cullen interpreted sensibility as "muscle mobility and vigour" and diseases were caused by the imbalance of irritability and sensibility. Based on this definition of disease, his therapeutics "either stimulated or sedated the nervous system." He categorized diseases into four main classes: pyrexiae, neuroses, cachexiae, and locales. Within the classes were nineteen orders and 132 genera. The four orders of neuroses were comata, adynamiae, spasmi and vesaniae. Comata was defined as "a diminution of voluntary motion, with sleep, or a deprivation of the senses." Adynamiae is defined as "a diminution of the involuntary motions, whether vital or natural." Spasmi was defined as "irregular motions of the muscles or muscular fibers." Vesaniae was defined as "disorders of the judgement without any pyrexia or coma."  Cullen's emphasis on the importance of the nervous system was driven by the understanding that the nervous system controls the human body and therefore, "all diseases may, in some sense, be called affections of the nervous system, because, in almost every disease, the nerves are more or less hurt." Although Cullen's nosology did not last very long, Cullen's influential teachings on medical knowledge and his attempt to systematize and generalize medical knowledge were integral parts of 18th century Scottish Enlightenment.

when did he write that book?

OUT: