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Nocturnal emission

A nocturnal emission, also known as a wet dream, sex dream, or sleep orgasm, is a spontaneous orgasm during sleep that includes ejaculation for a male, or vaginal lubrication and/or an orgasm for a female.

Context
Nocturnal emissions happen after stressful dreams in REM sleep which activate the sympathetic nervous system hence leading to ejaculation.

Nocturnal emissions can start as early as age nine and are most common during adolescence and early young adult years, but they may happen any time after puberty. It is possible for men to wake up during a wet dream or simply to sleep through it, but for women, some researchers have added the requirement that she should also awaken during the orgasm and perceive that the orgasm happened before it counts as a wet dream. Vaginal lubrication alone does not mean that the woman has had an orgasm.

Composition
Due to the difficulty in collecting ejaculate produced during nocturnal emissions, relatively few studies have examined its composition.

In the largest study, which included nocturnal emission samples from 10 men with idiopathic anejaculation, the semen concentration was equivalent to samples obtained from the same men by penile vibratory stimulation, although the proportions of sperm which were motile and which were of normal morphology were higher in the nocturnal emission specimens.

Frequency
In a detailed study, men and women reported that roughly 8% of their everyday dreams contain some form of sexual-related activity. 4% of sex dreams among both men and women resulted in orgasms.

In males
The frequency of nocturnal emissions is highly variable. Some reported that it is due to being sexually inactive for a period of 1–2 weeks, with no engagement in either intercourse or masturbation. Some males have experienced large numbers of nocturnal emissions as teenagers, while others have never experienced any. In the U.S., 83% of men experience nocturnal emissions at some time in their life.

For males who have experienced nocturnal emissions, the mean frequency ranges from 0.36 times per week (about once every three weeks) for single 15-year-old males to 0.18 times per week (about once every five and a half weeks) for 40-year-old single males. For married males, the mean ranges from 0.23 times per week (about once per month) for 19-year-old married males to 0.15 times per week (about once every two months) for 50-year-old married males.

In Indonesia surveys have shown that 97% of men experience nocturnal emissions by the age of 24.

Some males have the emissions only at a specific age, while others have them throughout their lives following puberty. The frequency with which one has nocturnal emissions has not been conclusively linked to frequency of masturbation. Alfred Kinsey found: ""...some correlation between the frequencies of masturbation and the frequencies of nocturnal emissions. In general the males who have the highest frequencies of nocturnal emissions may have somewhat lower rates of masturbation.""

One factor that can affect the number of nocturnal emissions males have is whether they take testosterone-based drugs. In a 1998 study by Finkelstein et al, the number of boys reporting nocturnal emissions drastically increased as their testosterone doses were increased, from 17% of subjects with no treatment to 90% of subjects at a high dose.

Thirteen percent of males experience their first ejaculation as a result of a nocturnal emission. Kinsey found that males experiencing their first ejaculation through a nocturnal emission were older than those experiencing their first ejaculation by means of masturbation. The study indicates that such a first ejaculation resulting from a nocturnal emission was delayed a year or more from what would have been developmentally possible for such males through physical stimulation.

In females
In 1953, sex researcher Alfred Kinsey found that nearly 40% of the women he interviewed have had one or more nocturnal orgasms or wet dreams. Those who reported experiencing these said that they usually had them several times a year and that they first occurred as early as thirteen, and usually by the age of 21. Kinsey defined female nocturnal orgasm as sexual arousal during sleep that awakens one to perceive the experience of orgasm.

Research published by Barbara L. Wells in the 1986 Journal of Sex Research indicates that as many as 85% of women have experienced nocturnal orgasm by the age of 21. This research was based on women waking up with or during orgasm.

Studies have found that males typically have more frequent spontaneous nocturnal sexual experiences than females. However, female wet dreams may also be more difficult to identify with certainty than male wet dreams because ejaculation is usually associated with male orgasm while vaginal lubrication may not indicate orgasm.

Cultural views
Numerous cultural and religious views have been advanced related to nocturnal emissions. Below is a limited summary of some perspectives.

Jewish and Samaritan
Some examples of passages under the Mosaic law of the Hebrew Bible teach that under the law of Moses, a man who had a nocturnal emission incurred ritual defilement (as with any other instance of ejaculation):

"'If a man has an emission of semen, he shall bathe his whole body in water and be unclean [Hebrew tameh] until the evening. And every garment and every skin on which the semen comes shall be washed with water and be unclean until the evening.'"

"'When you are encamped against your enemies, then you shall keep yourself from every evil thing. If any man among you becomes unclean [Hebrew lo yihyeh tahor, literally 'will not be clean'] because of a nocturnal emission [literally: 'by reason of what happens to him by night'], then he shall go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp, but when evening comes, he shall bathe himself in water, and as the sun sets, he may come inside the camp.'"

The first of these is part of a passage stating similar regulations about sexual intercourse and menstruation. Leviticus 12 makes similar regulations about childbirth.

A third passage relates more specifically to priests, requiring any "of the offspring of Aaron who has ... a discharge", among other causes of ritual defilement, to abstain from eating holy offerings until after a ritual immersion in a mikveh and until the subsequent nocturnal emission.

In Judaism, the Tikkun HaKlali, also known as "The General Remedy", is a set of ten Psalms designed in 1805 by Rebbe Nachman, whose recital is intended to serve as repentance for nocturnal emissions.

Patristic Christian
Saint Augustine held that male nocturnal emissions, unlike masturbation, did not pollute the conscience of a man, because they were not voluntary carnal acts, and were therefore not to be considered a sin.

A similar view was expressed by Aquinas, who wrote in the Summa Theologica II-II-154-5: ""For there is no one who while sleeping does not regard some of the images formed by his imagination as though they were real, as stated above... ...Wherefore what a man does while he sleeps and is deprived of reason's judgment, is not imputed to him as a sin, as neither are the actions of a maniac or an imbecile.""

Islamic
A wet dream (احتلام, ihtilam) is not a sin in Islam. Moreover, whereas a person fasting (in Ramadan or otherwise) would normally be considered to have broken their fast by ejaculating on purpose (during either masturbation or intercourse), nocturnal emission is not such a cause. However, they are still required to bathe prior to undergoing some rituals in the religion.

Muslim scholars consider ejaculation something that makes one temporarily ritually impure, a condition known as junub, meaning that a Muslim who has had an orgasm or ejaculated must have a ghusl (consisting of ablution followed by bathing the entire body so that not a single hair remains dry on the whole body—may also require one to rub the body according to Maliki school of thought, dalk in Arabic—while showering) before they can read any verse of the Quran or perform the formal prayers. Informal supplications and prayers (du'a) do not require such a bath.

Indian traditions
The Hindu text Manusmriti suggests Brahmans who had nocturnal emissions to bathe and chant mantras praying to return their virility. Vinaya suggests masturbation is a sin, but a nocturnal emission is not. During the third Buddhist council, it was suggested that having wet dreams as an Arhat does not count as a sin.

Medieval Europe
In European folklore, nocturnal emissions were believed to be caused by a succubus copulating with the individual at night, an event associated with sleep paralysis and possibly night terrors.

East Asia
Traditional East Asian medicine considered it problematic, because it was considered to be an act of evil spirits that tries to rob the life of a person. The literature suggests a "cure" for nocturnal emissions, which prescribes fried leek seeds three times a day.

title: Nocturnal emission


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Philip Nitschke

Philip Haig Nitschke (born 8 August 1947) is an Australian humanist, author, former physician, and founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International. He campaigned successfully to have a legal euthanasia law passed in Australia's Northern Territory and assisted four people in ending their lives before the law was overturned by the Government of Australia. Nitschke was the first doctor in the world to administer a legal, voluntary, lethal injection, after which the patient activated the syringe using a computer. Nitschke states that he and his group are regularly subject to harassment by authorities. In 2015, Nitschke burned his medical practising certificate in response to what he saw as onerous conditions that violated his right to free speech, imposed on him by the Medical Board of Australia. Nitschke has been referred to in the media as "Dr Death" or "the Elon Musk of assisted suicide".

Early life and career
Nitschke was born in 1947 in Ardrossan, South Australia, the son of school teachers Harold and Gweneth (Gwen) Nitschke. Nitschke studied physics at the University of Adelaide, gaining a PhD from Flinders University in laser physics in 1972. Rejecting a career in the sciences, he instead travelled to the Northern Territory to take up work with the Aboriginal land rights activist Vincent Lingiari and the Gurindji at Wave Hill. After the hand-back of land by the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, Nitschke became a Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife ranger. However, after badly injuring his subtalar joint, which effectively finished his career as a ranger, he began studying for a medical degree. In addition to having long been interested in studying medicine he has suffered from hypochondria most of his adult life and futilely hoped with his medical studies to educate himself out of the problem. He graduated from the University of Sydney Medical School in 1989.

After graduating Nitschke worked as an intern at Royal Darwin Hospital, and then as an after hours general practitioner. When the Northern Territory branch of the Australian Medical Association publicly opposed the proposed Northern Territory legislation to provide for legal euthanasia, Nitschke and a small group of dissenting Territory doctors published a contrary opinion in the NT News under the banner Doctors for change. This put him in a position of an informal spokesperson for the proposed legislation. After the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act (ROTI Act) came into force on 1 July 1996, Nitschke assisted four terminally ill people to end their lives using the Deliverance Machine he developed. This practice was ceased when the ROTI Act was effectively nullified by the Australian Parliament's Euthanasia Laws Act 1997.

In the 1996 Australian federal election Nitschke ran in the seat of the Northern Territory for the Australian Greens but was unsuccessful.

After the ROTI Act was nullified Nitschke began providing advice to others about how they can end their lives, leading to the formation of Exit International in 1997. A notable case of Nitschke's was that of Nancy Crick, aged 69. On 22 May 2002, Crick, in the presence of over 20 friends and family (but not Nitschke), took a lethal dose of barbiturates, went quickly to sleep, and died within 20 minutes. Nitschke had encouraged Crick to enter palliative care, which she did for a number of days before returning home again. She had undergone multiple surgeries to treat bowel cancer and was left with multiple dense and inoperable bowel adhesions that left her in constant pain and frequently in the toilet with diarrhoea. She was not, however, terminally ill at the time of her death. Nitschke said the scar tissue from previous cancer surgery had caused her suffering. "She didn't actually want to die when she had cancer. She wanted to die after she had cancer treatment," he said.

Nitschke made headlines in New Zealand when he announced plans to accompany eight New Zealanders to Mexico where the drug Nembutal, capable of producing a fatal overdose, can be purchased legally. He also made headlines, even angering some fellow right-to-die advocates, when he presented his plan to launch a "death ship" that would have allowed him to circumvent local laws by euthanising people from around the world in international waters.

In the 2007 Australian federal election Nitschke ran against the Australian politician Kevin Andrews in the Victorian seat of Menzies but was unsuccessful.

In 2009 Nitschke helped to promote Dignified Departure, a 13-hour, pay-television program on doctor-assisted suicide in Hong Kong and mainland China. The program aired in October in China on the Family Health channel, run by the official China National Radio.

Organisations opposed to euthanasia, as well as some supporting euthanasia, are critical of Nitschke and his methods.

Conflict with Medical Board of Australia
In February 2014 Nitschke was approached after a workshop by Nigel Brayley, 45. Brayley was facing ongoing questions about the death of his wife, which police were treating as suspected murder. Two other female friends of his had also died, one of whom is still missing. Nitschke recounts that Brayley rebuffed suggestions to seek counselling and had already obtained the drug Nembutal. Brayley then committed suicide in May 2014. Although Nitschke was unaware of the investigation at the time, he now believes that Brayley, whom he described as a "serial killer", had made a rational decision to commit suicide rather than face long imprisonment. Nitschke stated that he does not believe he could have changed Brayley's mind, that Brayley was not his patient, that Brayley was not depressed and did not seek or want Nitschke's advice. The Medical Board of Australia (MBA) and Beyondblue said Nitschke had an obligation to refer the man to a psychologist or psychiatrist (a view dismissed by the NT Supreme Court in 2015).

On 23 July 2014, as a consequence of the Brayley case, the MBA voted to use emergency powers to suspend his practitioner's licence immediately, on the grounds that he presented "a serious risk to public health and safety". Nitschke said he would appeal the suspension, which he claimed was politically motivated, and that the Board "made it clear that what they really object to is the way I think. It's ideas they object to — namely, my belief that people should have a right to suicide, is something they think is contrary to medical practice." The MBA later clarified that the suspension was an interim measure pending the outcome of an inquiry. Nitschke said the suspension will not affect his work for Exit International and that he had not practised medicine for years.

Nitschke appealed to an MBA tribunal in Darwin to have his July 2014 suspension from practising medicine overturned. In late 2014 the appeal was rejected on the grounds that, although it was accepted that Brayley was not Nitschke's patient, the controversial concept of rational suicide was inconsistent with the medical profession's code of conduct and that, as a medical practitioner providing advice on suicide, he posed a serious risk because people may elect to commit suicide believing it to be a pathway sanctioned by a medical practitioner and perhaps the medical profession generally. Nitschke then appealed the tribunal's decision to the Darwin Supreme Court.

On 6 July 2015 the Northern Territory supreme court upheld Nitschke's appeal, finding the emergency suspension of his licence by the MBA should not have been upheld by a review tribunal. Justice Hiley's ruling said that the tribunal and board had misconstrued the doctors’ code of conduct, which requires them to "protect and promote the health of individuals", as extending to all doctors and all individuals. "A doctor would constantly need to fear that any interaction with any other individual or community, including an individual who is not and never has been his or her patient, may be in breach of the (code), even if the doctor did nothing in circumstances where there was no other obligation to do something," he said. Nitschke said the MBA's erroneous interpretation was "ludicrous" and flew in the face of common law. Nitschke's lawyer will apply for costs of approximately AU$300,000, which were paid using donations, including $20,000 from Swiss euthanasia organisation Dignitas.

In October 2015 the MBA lifted Nitschke's suspension but drew up a list of 25 conditions under which Nitschke could continue to practise. These conditions included prohibitions on giving advice or information to the public or patients about euthanasia, or Nembutal, or suicide, and forcing him to rescind his endorsement of and involvement with the 'Peaceful Pill' handbook and related videos. In response Nitschke, calling the MBA's actions "a heavy-handed and clumsy attempt to restrict the free flow of information on end-of-life choice", surveyed more than 1,000 members of his advocacy group, Exit International, and received strong support for ending his medical registration. As a consequence of the MBA restrictions and the results of the member survey, Nitschke publicly burned his medical practising certificate and announced the end of his medical career, vowing to continue to promote euthanasia.

Nitschke stated that he will remain a doctor and will legitimately use the title "doctor" (he has a PhD), and will continue to see patients and Exit members in clinics that he runs in Australia and other countries. In the wake of this incident, Nitschke and his partner, Fiona Stewart, decided in 2015 to relocate to the more liberal politico-legal environment of Holland.

Conflict with police
Nitschke states that he and his group are regularly subject to harassment by authorities, including detention and questioning at international airports, and raids on homes and the premises of Exit International.

On 2 May 2009 Nitschke was detained for nine hours by British Immigration officials at Heathrow Airport after arriving for a visit to the UK to lecture on voluntary euthanasia and end-of-life choices. Nitschke said it was a matter of free speech and that his detention said something about changes to British society which were "quite troubling". Nitschke was told that he and his wife, author Fiona Stewart, were detained because the workshops may contravene British law. However, although assisting someone to commit suicide in the UK was illegal, the law did not apply to a person lecturing on the concept of euthanasia, and Nitschke was allowed to enter. Dame Joan Bakewell, the British government's "Voice of Older People", said that the current British law on assisted suicide was "a mess" and that Nitschke should have been made more welcome in the UK.

On 1 August 2014, after euthanasia advocate Max Bromson, 66, who suffered from terminal bone cancer, ended his life with Nembutal in a Glenelg motel room, surrounded by family members, police carried out a three-hour raid on Exit International's Adelaide premises, interrogating Nitschke and seizing Nitschke's phones, computers and other items. Nitschke said he felt violated by the "heavy-handed and unnecessary" police actions and confiscations that would cripple Exit International's activities. In August 2016, after exactly two years of investigation, South Australian police advised that no charges would be laid against anyone over the death. In 2019, Nitschke's phone and computer were finally returned.

In April 2016 British police, acting on an Interpol drug alert, forced entry into the home of a member of Nitschke's organisation, retired professor Dr Avril Henry, aged 81, who was in failing health. Without knocking, police —accompanied by a psychiatrist, GP and social worker— forced their way into Dr Henry's home by smashing her glass front door at 10pm and questioned her for six hours, confiscating a bottle of imported Nembutal, and leaving at 4am. They decided Dr Henry "had capacity" and would not be sectioned (detained involuntarily for mental assessment). Worried that the police would return and confiscate her remaining Nembutal, she committed suicide four days later. Dr Nitschke commented that police had made Dr Henry's last days on earth a misery and that “police need to realise that in the UK, suicide is not a crime, and mental health authorities need to recognise that not everyone who seeks to end their life is in need of psychiatric intervention", adding that the police action was "a significant abuse of power against a vulnerable elderly woman".

In May 2018 Australian Federal Police used local police force personnel in different regions of the country to conduct late night raids on the homes of elderly Exit members, demanding to know if they had bought the euthanasia drug Nembutal. Pensioners in poor health, some in wheelchairs, were forced to leave their beds and answer police questions.

Operation Painter
In October 2016 New Zealand police, in a "sting" operation code named "Operation Painter", set up roadblocks (checkpoints) outside an Exit International meeting and took down names and addresses of all attendees. Some of the elderly members of the group were later visited at their homes by police with warrants, and searches were conducted. Computers, tablets, cameras, letters and books were seized. Nitschke said police actions were unprecedented and probably in breach of the Bill of Rights, which guaranteed freedom of association. The police operation was the subject of an Independent Police Conduct Authority investigation. Legal action against the police followed. In March 2018, the Independent Police Conduct Authority found Operation Painter to be illegal.

This coincided with another action by New Zealand police in which 76-year old Patsy McGrath, a member of Nitschke's Exit group, had her home raided in 2016 and her store-bought helium balloon cylinder confiscated under warrant. The confiscation of the cylinder was later found to be illegal and it was returned to her in 2018.

Dying with dignity
On 29 April 2009 Nitschke said: "It seems we demand humans to live with indignity, pain and anguish whereas we are kinder to our pets when their suffering becomes too much. It simply is not logical or mature. Trouble is, we have had too many centuries of religious claptrap." He works mainly with older people from whom he gains inspiration, saying: "You get quite inspired and uplifted by the elderly folk who see this as quite a practical approach".

In July 2009 Nitschke said he no longer believed voluntary euthanasia should only be available to the terminally ill, but that elderly people afraid of getting old and incapacitated should also have a choice.

Nitschke expects that a growing number of people importing their own euthanasia drugs, "really don't care if the law is changed or not".

Palliative care
Palliative care specialists state that many requests for euthanasia arise from fear of physical or psychological distress in the patient's last days, and that widespread and equitable availability of specialist palliative care services will reduce requests for euthanasia. Nitschke is dismissive of this argument. "We have too many people who have the best palliative care in the world and they still want to know that they can put an end to things," he said. "By and large, palliative care have done pretty well out of the argument over the euthanasia issue, because they are the ones that have argued that they just need better funding and then no one will ever want to die – that's a lie."

Younger people and suicide
In 2010 the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine released a report into Australian deaths caused by the drug Nembutal, which Nitschke recommends as a euthanasia drug. Of the 51 deaths studied, 14 were of people between the ages of 20 and 40. Nitschke acknowledged that the information about the drug that was provided online could be accessed by people below the age of 50 who were not terminally ill, but argued that the risk was necessary in order to help the elderly and the seriously ill.

It was alleged that Joe Waterman, 25, had committed suicide after accessing Nitschke's online euthanasia handbook, by misrepresenting his age as over 50. Waterman subsequently imported Nembutal and ended his life. In another case Lucas Taylor, 26, committed suicide in Germany by taking Nembutal after soliciting advice at an Exit International online forum (which, according to Nitschke, he accessed by claiming his age was 65).

Individual rights argument
Nitschke argues that an individual person has a fundamental right to control their own death just as they have a right to control their own life. He believes in having the "Peaceful Pill" available for every adult of sound mind.

Opposition to nitrogen hypoxia execution technique
In 2024, Nitschke appeared in an Alabama court as an expert witness to oppose the state's plan to execute convicted killer Kenneth Smith using a mask-and-gas technique incorporating nitrogen. Nitschke testified that the mask-and-gas approach had been rejected decades ago because it was unreliable, and that Smith could be "horribly maimed without a complete seal between mask and face" leading to incomplete cerebral hypoxia and a resultant vegetative state. Nitschke said that nitrogen must be delivered correctly to work as intended. Nitschke said the Alabama nitrogen hypoxia method was "quick and nasty" and ignored the possibilities of vomiting and air leakage.

Internet
On 22 May 2009 it was disclosed in the press, citing WikiLeaks, that the Australian Government had added the online Peaceful Pill Handbook to the blacklist maintained by the Australian Communications and Media Authority used to filter internet access to citizens of Australia. The Australian Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, planned to introduce legislation just before the 2010 election to make internet service providers block a blacklist of "refused classification" websites. The blacklist is expected to include Exit's websites and other similar sites. Nitschke said the proposals were the "final nail in the coffin for euthanasia advocacy" in Australia, where people are banned from discussing end-of-life issues over the phone, buying books about it or importing printed material on it. "The one avenue we had open to us was the internet, and now it looks like it will be part of Conroy's grand plan to provide a so-called clean feed to Australia. It's outrageous."

In April 2010 Nitschke began holding a series of "Hacking Masterclasses" to teach people how to circumvent the Australian internet filter. Access to Nitschke's online Peaceful Pill Handbook was blocked during trials of the government's filter. A government spokeswoman said euthanasia would not be targeted by the proposed filter, but confirmed that "The (website) ... for accessing an electronic version of the [Peaceful Pill Handbook] was classified as refused classification" because it provided detailed instruction in "crimes relating to the possession, manufacture and importation of barbiturates".

Nitschke said Exit International would investigate if it could set up its own proxy server or VPN tunnel, so its members had a safe way of accessing its information.

In January 2018, YouTube deleted Nitschke's YouTube channel "Exityourtube". The channel had been operating for 10 years. YouTube gave no reason why the account was deleted without notice.

Television
On 10 September 2010 Nitschke complained that the Commercials Advice self-regulator of advertising content on Australian commercial television had prevented the television screening of a paid advertisement from Exit International in which an actor depicted a dying man who requested the option of voluntary euthanasia. Commercials Advice reportedly cited Section 2.17.5 of the Commercial Television Code of Practice: Suicide. The advertisement was felt to condone the practice of suicide. Nitschke responded that the acts of Commercials Advice constitute interference with the right to free speech. Similar TV commercials, planned for use during Nitschke's Canadian lecture tour of 2010, were likewise banned by the Television Bureau of Canada, after lobbying by anti-euthanasia pressure groups.

Billboards
In 2010 Nitschke planned to use billboards in Australia to feature the message "85 per cent of Australians support voluntary euthanasia but our government won't listen". In September 2010, Nitschke's billboard advertising campaign was blocked by Billboards Australia. Billboards Australia cited section of the NSW Crimes Act that outlaws the aiding or abetting of suicide or attempted suicide. Nitschke was told to provide legal advice outlining how his billboard did not break this law, a request Nitschke described as "ludicrous", pointing out that the billboards urge "political change and in no way could be considered to be in breach of the crimes act". Nitschke said he had sought a legal opinion from prominent human rights lawyer Greg Barns. The lawyer was able to convince Billboards Australia to rescind its ruling, in part.

Exit bag and CoGen
Nitschke created devices to aid people who want euthanasia, including a product called the "exit bag" (a large plastic bag with a drawstring allowing it to be secured around the neck) and the "CoGen" (or "Co-Genie") device. The CoGen device generates the deadly gas carbon monoxide, which is inhaled with a face mask.

Euthanasia device

In December 2008 Nitschke released details of a euthanasia machine to the media. He called it "flawless" and "undetectable", saying the new process uses ordinary household products including a barbecue gas bottle — available from hardware stores — filled with nitrogen. Nitschke developed a process in which patients lose consciousness immediately and die a few minutes later.

Nitschke said: "So it's extremely quick and there are no drugs. Importantly this doesn't fail – it's reliable, peaceful, available and with the additional benefit of undetectability."

Barbiturate testing kit
In 2009 Nitschke made a barbiturate testing kit available, initially launched in the UK, then Australia. Nitschke said the kit was made available by Exit International in response to growing demand for something to test the Nembutal obtained from Mexico, often delivered in the post without labels. "They want to be sure they have the right concentration," Nitschke said. The kits have chemicals that change colour when mixed with Nembutal. He was detained for an hour for questioning on arrival at Auckland Airport in New Zealand on a trip to hold public meetings and launch the kit.

Pentobarbital long-storage pill
In October 2009 Nitschke announced his intention to inform people at his workshops where to obtain a long-storage form of sodium pentobarbital (Nembutal) that manufacturers say can be stored for up to fifty years without degrading. Liquid forms of pentobarbital degrade within a few years, while the solid form (a white, crystalline powder) does not. Nitschke intends to advise people on how to reconstitute the pill into liquid form for ingestion if and when it ever becomes appropriate. He said that he sees it as a way of keeping people accurately informed and allowing them to make viable choices. The provision of this information would be consistent with good medical care, in his view.

Nitrogen canisters
In 2012 Nitschke started a beer-brewing company (Max Dog Brewing) for the purpose of importing nitrogen canisters. Nitschke stated that the gas cylinders can be used for both brewing and, if required, to end life at a later stage in a "peaceful, reliable [and] totally legal" manner. Nitschke said, "[nitrogen] was undetectable even by autopsy, which was important to some people".

An Australian anti-euthanasia campaigner complained to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) about the canisters. AHPRA has undertaken to investigate. The investigation is not complete.

Following a 2013 workshop showcasing Nitschke's nitrogen gas product, the AMA's WA branch president and general practitioner, Richard Choong, said that he was strongly opposed to it, regardless of its technical legality, since "any machine that can help you kill yourself can be abused, misused and maliciously used". Nitschke responded that without such information most elderly people who want to end their lives hang themselves, which is "an embarrassment and shame".

In 2014 Australians Valerie Seeger and Claire Parsons used the Max Dog brewing equipment to commit suicide. Police investigated but decided not to prosecute Nitschke after a two and a half year investigation.

Sarco device
In 2017 Nitschke invented the 3D-printed suicide capsule, which he named "the Sarco". The Sarco consists of a detachable coffin mounted on a stand containing a nitrogen canister. In an article in December 2017 about the Sarco, Newsweek referred to Nitschke as "the Elon Musk of assisted suicide".

Comedian
Nitschke began his comedy career at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2015 with his show Dicing with Dr Death. ThreeWeeks called it "engaging and highly thought-provoking". He performed a newer Australian version of his show, retitled Practising without a License, at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April 2016 and again in Darwin in August 2016. The Herald Sun reviewed his performance favorably: "[Nitschke] "presented his case with such measure, warm humour and intelligence that even his puns were excusable".

Awards and recognition

 * In 1996 Nitschke received the Rainier Foundation Humanitarian Award
 * In 1998 Nitschke was recognised as the Australian Humanist of the Year by the Council of Australian Humanist Societies.
 * He is a nine-time nominee for Australian of the Year (2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014) and twice a state finalist (2005 & 2006)

Books
Nitschke is the author of three books:

Killing Me Softly: Voluntary Euthanasia And The Road To The Peaceful Pill
Published 2005. In reviewing the book, bioethicist Michael Cooke wrote "Nitschke's insight has been to recognise that assisted suicide is no longer about compassionate medicine, but about technology. Through his work on the web, he is gradually transforming voluntary euthanasia from a mere philosophy into an open-source internet enterprise."

The Peaceful Pill Handbook
The Peaceful Pill Handbook print edition was originally published in the U.S. in 2006, written by Nitschke and partner Fiona Stewart; the eHandbook version is updated six times a year. Prohibited or at limited sale in Australia and New Zealand.

In 2008 the on-line version of the handbook was launched. Called The Peaceful Pill eHandbook, it contains video clips on assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia methods such as barbiturates, over the counter drugs, gases and poisons.

 * A German edition of the print book — Die Friedliche Pille — was published in 2011 and is published also online.
 * A French edition — La Pilule Paisible — since re-titled Pilule Douce was published in June 2015 and is published also online.
 * An Italian edition – La Pillola della Quiete was published in online format in 2017
 * A Dutch edition – Handboek De Vredige Pil was published in print and online formats in 2018.

Damned If I Do
An autobiography (with Peter Corris); published by Melbourne University Press in 2013. Nitschke's personal story from his early days, to his activist student days in Adelaide, to working with Aboriginal land rights groups in Australia's Far North; to his successful campaign to have euthanasia legalised in Australia

Mademoiselle & the Doctor
A 2004 documentary film, Mademoiselle and the Doctor, focused on the quest of a retired Perth professor, Lisette Nigot, a healthy 79-year-old, to seek a successful method of voluntary euthanasia. She sought advice from Nitschke. Nigot took an overdose of medication which she had bought in the United States and died, not long before her 80th birthday. In a note to Nitschke thanking him for his support, she described him as a crusader working for a worthwhile humane cause. "After 80 years of a good life, I have [had] enough of it", she wrote, "I want to stop it before it gets bad."

35 Letters
In 2014 Nitschke featured in the documentary 35 Letters about Australian woman Angelique Flowers. Angelique was a young member of Exit International. She was 30 years old when she died of bowel cancer. The film premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in 2014 where it won the Australian Foundation Award.

Dignified Departure
In 2009 Nitschke helped to promote Dignified Departure, a 13-hour, pay-television program on doctor-assisted suicide in Hong Kong and mainland China. The program aired in October in China on the Family Health channel, run by the official China National Radio.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Philip Nitschke


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Thomas Romney Robinson

John Thomas Romney Robinson FRS FRSE (23 April 1792 – 28 February 1882), usually referred to as Thomas Romney Robinson, was a 19th-century Irish astronomer and physicist. He was the longtime director of the Armagh Astronomical Observatory, one of the chief astronomical observatories in the UK of its time.

He is remembered as inventor of the 4-cup anemometer.

Biography
Robinson was born at St Anne's in Dublin, the son of the English portrait painter Thomas Robinson (d. 1810) and his wife, Ruth Buck (d. 1826). He was educated at Belfast Academy then studied Divinity at Trinity College Dublin, where he was elected a Scholar in 1808, graduating BA in 1810 and obtaining a fellowship in 1814, at the age of 22. He was for some years a deputy professor of natural philosophy (physics) at Trinity.

Having been also ordained as an Anglican priest while at Trinity, he obtained the church livings of the Anglican Church at Enniskillen and at Carrickmacross in 1824.

In 1823, now aged 30, he additionally gained the appointment of astronomer at the Armagh observatory. From then on he always resided at the Armagh observatory, engaged in researches connected with astronomy and physics, until his death in 1882.

During the 1840s and 1850s Robinson was a frequent visitor to the world's most powerful telescope of that era, the so-called Leviathan of Parsonstown telescope, which had been built by Robinson's friend and colleague William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse. Robinson was active with Parsons in interpreting the higher-resolution views of the night sky produced by Parsons' telescope, particularly with regard to the galaxies and nebulae and he published leading-edge research reports on the question. Back at his own observatory in Armagh, Robinson compiled a large catalogue of stars and wrote many related reports. In 1862 he was awarded a Royal Medal "for the Armagh catalogue of 5345 stars, deduced from observations made at the Armagh Observatory, from the years 1820 up to 1854; for his papers on the construction of astronomical instruments in the memoirs of the Astronomical Society, and his paper on electromagnets in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy".

Robinson is also of note as the inventor of a device for measuring the speed of the wind, the Robinson cup-anemometer (1846).

He was president of the Royal Irish Academy from 1851 to 1856, and was a long-time active organiser in the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Robinson was a friend of Charles Babbage, who said he was "indebted" for having reminded him about the first time he came up with the idea of the calculating machine.

Family
He married twice: firstly Eliza Isabelle Rambaut (d. 1839) and secondly Lucy Jane Edgeworth (1806–1897), the lifelong disabled daughter of the politician Richard Lovell Edgeworth. His daughter Mary Susanna Robinson married the physicist George Gabriel Stokes. Stokes frequently visited Robinson in Armagh in Robinson's later years.

Recognition
On the Moon, Robinson (crater) is named in his honour.

A plant genus was named Romneya in commemoration of him by his friend Dr. Thomas Coulter c.1833. The common name of California Tree Poppy is given to the species Romneya coulteri. Source 'Trees and Shrubs in the British Isles' 4th ed vol.IV. 1980

Works

 * Poems by Thomas Romney Robinson, written between the age of seven and thirteen; to which is prefixed A short account of the author (1808)
 * On voltaic electricity (1818)
 * A system of mechanics, for the use of the students in the University of Dublin (1820)
 * Description of a New Air-pump (1825)
 * Astronomical Observations made at the Armagh Observatory (1829)
 * Astronomical Observations, Part 1, Volume 1 (1829)
 * On the Longitude of the Armagh Observatory (1839)
 * An Account of the Casting of the Great Speculum by the Earl of Rosse (1 January 1840)
 * On the Difference of Longitude Between the Observatories of Armagh and Dublin, Determined by Rocket Signals (1840)
 * On the Difference of Longitude between the Observatories of Armagh and Dublin, Determined by Rocket Signals (1 January 1843)
 * On the Constant of Refraction, Determined by Observations with the Mural Circle of the Armagh Observatory (1 January 1843)
 * On the Effect of Heat in Lessening the Affinities of the Elements of Water (31 December 1846)
 * Collection of Articles on Meteorology and Magnetism (1846), coauthor
 * On the Effect of Heat in Lessening the Affinities of the Elements of Water (1847)
 * On the Relation between the Temperature of Metallic Conductors, and Their Resistance to Electric Currents (1 January 1849)
 * On Electro-Magnets (1 January 1850)
 * On a Thunder-Shower Observed at Markree Castle, on June 30, 1851 (1 January 1850)
 * On the Ordinary Theorem by Which the Magnifying Power of a Telescope Is Determined (1 January 1850)
 * Speeches of the Rev. Thomas Romney Robinson, at the Twenty-second Annual Meeting, Held in Belfast, September 1852
 * Effects Produced by the Vicinity of a Railroad (1852)
 * On the Probable Errors of the Eye and Ear in Transit Observations (1853)
 * Labourers together with God: A sermon on 1 Cor. III. 9 (1853)
 * Places of 5,345 stars observed from 1828 to 1854, at the Armagh observatory: By Rev. T.R. Robinson (1859)
 * Experimental researches on the lifting power of the Electro-Magnet (1859)
 * Light: A Lecture (1862)
 * On Spectra of Electric Light, as Modified by the Nature of the Electrodes and the Media of Discharge (1862)
 * Description of the Great Melbourne Telescope (1869)
 * Speeches delivered in the General Convention of the Church of Ireland (1870)

 * Posthumous
 * Rev. Thomas Romney Robinson correspondence (2008)

title: Thomas Romney Robinson


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Liliaceae

The lily family, Liliaceae, consists of about 15 genera and 610 species of flowering plants within the order Liliales. They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a fair amount of morphological diversity despite genetic similarity. Common characteristics include large flowers with parts arranged in threes: with six colored or patterned petaloid tepals (undifferentiated petals and sepals) arranged in two whorls, six stamens and a superior ovary. The leaves are linear in shape, with their veins usually arranged parallel to the edges, single and arranged alternating on the stem, or in a rosette at the base. Most species are grown from bulbs, although some have rhizomes. First described in 1789, the lily family became a paraphyletic "catch-all" (wastebasket) group of lilioid monocots that did not fit into other families and included a great number of genera now included in other families and in some cases in other orders. Consequently, many sources and descriptions labelled "Liliaceae" deal with the broader sense of the family.

The family evolved approximately 68 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous to Early Paleogene epochs. Liliaceae are widely distributed, mainly in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere and the flowers are insect pollinated. Many Liliaceae are important ornamental plants, widely grown for their attractive flowers and involved in a major floriculture of cut flowers and dry bulbs. Some species are poisonous if eaten and can have adverse health effects in humans and household pets.

A number of Liliaceae genera are popular cultivated plants in private and public spaces. Lilies and tulips in particular have had considerable symbolic and decorative value, and appear frequently in paintings and the decorative arts. They are also an economically important product. Most of their genera, Lilium in particular, face considerable herbivory pressure from deer in some areas, both wild and domestic.

Description
The diversity of characteristics complicates any description of the Liliaceae morphology, and confused taxonomic classification for centuries. The diversity is also of considerable evolutionary significance, as some members emerged from shaded areas and adapted to a more open environment (see Evolution).

General
The Liliaceae are characterised as monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, bulbous (or rhizomatous in the case of Medeoleae) flowering plants with simple trichomes (root hairs) and contractile roots. The flowers may be arranged (inflorescence) along the stem, developing from the base, or as a single flower at the tip of the stem, or as a cluster of flowers. They contain both male (androecium) and female (gynoecium) characteristics and are symmetric radially, but sometimes as a mirror image. Most flowers are large and colourful, except for Medeoleae. Both the petals and sepals are usually similar and appear as two concentric groups (whorls) of 'petals', that are often striped or multi-coloured, and produce nectar at their bases. The stamens are usually in two groups of three (trimerous) and the pollen has a single groove (monosulcate). The ovary is placed above the attachment of the other parts (superior). There are three fused carpels (syncarpus) with one to three chambers (locules), a single style and a three-lobed stigma. The embryo sac is of the Fritillaria type. The fruit is generally a wind dispersed capsule, but occasionally a berry (Medeoleae) which is dispersed by animals. The leaves are generally simple and elongated with veins parallel to the edges, arranged singly and alternating on the stem, but may form a rosette at the base of the stem.

Specific

 * Inflorescence : Usually indeterminate (lacking terminal flower) as a raceme (Lilium); sometimes reduced to a single terminal flower (Tulipa). When pluriflor (multiple blooms), the flowers are arranged in a cluster or rarely are subumbellate (Gagea) or a thyrse (spike).

 * Flowers : Hermaphroditic, actinomorphic (radially symmetric) or slightly zygomorphic (bilaterally symmetric), pedicellate (on a short secondary stem), generally large and showy but may be inconspicuous : (Medeoleae). Bracts may (bracteate) or may not (ebracteate) be present. The perianth is undifferentiated (perigonium) and biseriate (two whorled), formed from six tepals arranged into two separate whorls of three parts (trimerous) each, although Scoliopus has only three petals, free from the other parts, but overlapping. The tepals are usually petaloid (petal like) and apotepalous (free) with lines (striate) or marks in other colors or shades. The perianth is either homochlamydeous (all tepals equal, e.g. Fritillaria) or dichlamydeous (two separate and different whorls, e.g. Calochortus) and may be united into a tube. Nectar is produced in perigonal nectaries at the base of the tepals.

 * Androecium : Six stamens in two trimerous whorls, with free filaments, usually epiphyllous (fused to tepals) and diplostemonous (outer whorl of stamens opposite outer tepals and the inner whorl opposite inner tepals), although Scoliopus has three stamens opposite the outer tepals. The attachment of the anthers to the filaments may be either peltate (to the surface) or pseudo-basifixed (surrounding the filament tip, but not adnate, that is not fused) and dehisce longitudinally and are extrorse (dehiscing away from center). The pollen is usually monosulcate (single groove), but may be inaperturate (lacking aperture: Clintonia, some Tulipa spp.) or operculate (lidded: Fritillaria, some Tulipa spp.), and reticulate (net patterned: Erythronium, Fritillaria, Gagea, Lilium, Tulipa).

 * Gynoecium : Superior ovary (hypogynous), syncarpous (with fused carpels), with three connate (fused) carpels and is trilocular (three locules, or chambers) or unilocular (single locule, as in Scoliopus and Medeola). There is a single style and a three lobed stigma or three stigmata more or less elongated along the style. There are numerous anatropous (curved) ovules which display axile placentation (parietal in Scoliopus and Medeola), usually with an integument and thinner megasporangium. The embryo sac (megagametophyte) varies by genera, but is mainly tetrasporic (e.g. Fritillaria). Embryo sacs in which three of the four megaspores fuse to form a triploid nucleus, are referred to as Fritillaria-type, a characteristic shared by all the core Liliales.

 * Fruit : A capsule that is usually loculicidal (splitting along the locules) as in the Lilioideae, but occasionally septicidal (splitting between them, along the separating septa) in the Calachortoideae and wind dispersed, although the Medeoleae form berries (baccate). The seeds may be flat, oblong, angular, discoid, ellipsoid or globose (spherical), or compressed with a well developed epidermis. The exterior may be smooth or roughened, with a wing or raphe (ridge), aril or one to two tails, rarely hairy, but may be dull or shiny and the lack of a black integument distinguishes them from related taxa such as Allioideae that were previously included in this family, and striate (parallel longitudinally ridged) in the Steptopoideae. The hilum (scar) is generally inconspicuous. The bitegmic (separate testa and tegmen) seed coat itself may be thin, suberose (like cork), or crustaceous (hard or brittle). The endosperm is abundant, cartilaginous (fleshy) or horny and contains oils and aleurone but not starch (non-farinaceous). Its cells are polyploid (triploid or pentaploid, depending on the embryo sac type). The embryo is small (usually less than one quarter of seed volume), axile (radially sectioned), linear (longer than broad) or rarely rudimentary (tiny relative to endosperm) depending on placentation type, and straight, bent, curved or curled at the upper end.

 * Leaves : Simple, entire (smooth and even), linear, oval to filiform (thread-like), mostly with parallel veins, but occasionally net-veined. They are alternate (single and alternating direction) and spiral, but may be whorled (three or more attached at one node, e.g. Lilium, Fritillaria), cauline (arranged along the aerial stem) or sheathed in a basal rosette. They are rarely petiolate (stem attached before apex), and lack stipules. The aerial stem is unbranched.

 * Genome : The Liliaceae include a species with one of the largest genome size within the angiosperms, Fritillaria assyriaca (1C=127.4 pg), while Tricyrtis macropoda is as small as 4.25 pg. Chromosome numbers vary by genus. Some genera like Calochortus (x=6-10), Prosartes (6,8,9,11), Scoliopus (7,8), Streptopus (8, 27) and Tricyrtis (12-13) have a small and variable number of chromosomes while subfamily Lilioideae have a larger and more stable chromosome number (12) as have the Medeoleae (7).

 * Phytochemistry : The seeds contain saponins but no calcium oxalate raphide crystals, chelidonic acid (unlike Asparagales) or cysteine derived sulphur compounds (allyl sulphides), another distinguishing feature from the characteristic alliaceous odour of the Allioideae. Fritillaria in particular contains steroidal alkaloids of the cevanine and solanum type. Solanidine and solanthrene alkaloids have been isolated from some Fritillaria species. Tulipa  contains tulipanin, an anthocyanin. (see also: Toxicology)

Characteristics often vary by habitat, between shade-dwelling genera (such as Prosartes, Tricyrtis, Cardiocrinum, Clintonia, Medeola, Prosartes, and Scoliopus) and sun loving genera. Shade-dwelling genera usually have broader leaves with smooth edges and net venation, and fleshy fruits (berries) with animal-dispersed seeds, rhizomes, and small, inconspicuous flowers while genera native to sunny habitats usually have narrow, parallel-veined leaves, capsular fruits with wind-dispersed seeds, bulbs, and large, visually conspicuous flowers. (See also Evolution).

Taxonomy
The taxonomy of the Liliaceae has a very complex history. The family was first described in the eighteenth century, and over time many other genera were added until it became one of the largest of the monocotyledon families, and also extremely diverse. Modern taxonomic systems, such as the APG which is based on phylogenetic principles using molecular biology, have redistributed many of these genera resulting in the relatively small family that is currently recognised. Consequently, there are many different accounts of the Liliaceae in the literature and older uses of the term occur commonly. To distinguish between them, the Latin terms sensu lato and sensu stricto are frequently used (together with their abbreviations, s.l. and s.s.) to denote the broader or stricter sense of the circumscription respectively, e.g. Liliaceae s.s..

History
The family Liliaceae was described by Michel Adanson in 1763 and formally named by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789. Jussieu defined this grouping as having a calyx of six equal colored parts, six stamens, a superior ovary, single style, and a trilocular (three-chambered) capsule. By 1845, John Lindley, the first English systematist, unhappily acknowledged the great diversity in the circumscription of the family, and that it had expanded vastly, with many subdivisions. As he saw it, the Liliaceae were already paraphyletic ("catch-all"), being all Liliales not included in the other orders, but hoped that the future would reveal some characteristic that would group them better. He recognized 133 genera and 1200 species. By the time of the next major British classification – that of Bentham and Hooker in 1883 (published in Latin) – several of Lindley's other families had already been absorbed into the Liliaceae. Over time the family became increasingly broad and somewhat arbitrarily defined as all species of plants with six tepals and a superior ovary, eventually coming to encompass about 300 genera and 4,500 species within the order Liliales under the Cronquist system (1981). Cronquist merged the Liliaceae with the Amaryllidaceae, making this one of the largest monocotyledon families.

Many other botanists echoed Lindley's earlier concerns about the phylogeny of the Liliaceae, but various schemes to divide the family gained little traction. Dahlgren (1985) suggested there were in fact forty – not one – families distributed over three orders (predominantly Liliales and Asparagales). In the context of a general review of the classification of angiosperms, the Liliaceae were subjected to more intense scrutiny. Considerable progress in plant phylogeny and phylogenetic theory enabled a phylogenetic tree to be constructed for all of the flowering plants, as elaborated by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (1998).

Modern APG classification and phylogeny
The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) made rapid progress in establishing a modern monophyletic classification of the flowering plants by 2009. Despite establishing this relative degree of monophyly (genetic homogeneity) for the family Liliaceae, their morphology remains diverse and there exists within the Liliaceae clade or grouping, a number of subclades (subgroups). Particularly enigmatic were Clintonia, Medeola, Scoliopus, and Tricyrtis.

Of the fifteen genera within the Liliaceae, the ten genera of the Lilioideae subfamily form one morphological group that is characterised by contractile bulbs and roots, and a Fritillaria-type embryo-sac (megagametophyte with four megaspores). Within the Lilioideae, Clintonia and the closely related Medeola form a subclade, and are now considered a separate tribe (Medeoleae). The other major grouping consists of the five genera constituting the Streptopoideae (including Scoliopus) and Calochortoideae (including Tricyrtis) subfamilies characterised by creeping rhizomes, styles which are divided at their apices, and by megagametophyte development of the Polygonum-type (a simple megaspore and triploid endosperm) embryo-sac.

Evolution and biogeography
The development of a phylogenetic approach to taxonomy suggested the Liliales formed some of the earliest monocots. Molecular analysis indicates that divergence amongst the Liliales probably occurred around 82 million years ago. The closest sister family to the Liliaceae are the Smilacaceae with the Liliaceae separating 52 million years ago. Liliaceae thus arose during the late (Maastrichtian) Cretaceous to early (Paleocene) Paleogene periods. Major evolutionary clades include the Lilieae (Lilium, Fritillaria, Nomocharis, Cardiocrinum, Notholirion) from the Himalayas about 12 mya and the Tulipeae (Erythronium, Tulipa, Gagea) from East Asia at about the same time. The Medeoleae (Clintonia and Medeola) may have appeared in North America but were subsequently dispersed, as may have the Streptopoideae and Calochortoideae. Liliaceae fossils have been dated to the Paleogene and Cretaceous eras in the Antarctic.

The Liliaceae probably arose as shade plants, with subsequent evolution to open areas including deciduous forest in the more open autumnal period, but then a return of some species (e.g. Cardiocrinum). This was accompanied by a shift from rhizomes to bulbs, to more showy flowers, the production of capsular fruit and narrower parallel-veined leaves. Again, some reversal to the broader reticulate-veined leaves occurred (e.g. Cardiocrinum).

Suprageneric subdivisions
Due to the diversity of the originally broadly defined Liliaceae s.l., many attempts have been made to form suprageneric classifications, e.g. subfamilies and tribes. Classifications published since the use of molecular methods in phylogenetics have taken a narrower view of the Liliaceae (Liliaceae s.s.). The Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (APweb) recognizes three subfamilies, one of which is divided into two tribes.

Genera
Various authorities (e.g. ITIS 16, GRIN 27, WCSP, NCBI, DELTA ) differ on the exact number of genera included in Liliaceae s.s., but generally there are about fifteen to sixteen genera, depending on whether or not Amana is included in Tulipa and Lloydia in Gagea.

Currently the APWeb lists fifteen genera, arranged as shown in this table:

The largest genera are Gagea (200), Fritillaria (130), Lilium (110), and Tulipa (75 species), all within the tribe Lilieae.

Etymology and pronunciation
The name "Liliaceae" comes to international scientific vocabulary from Neo-Latin, from Lilium, the type genus, + -aceae, a standardized suffix for plant family names in modern taxonomy. The genus name comes from the Classical Latin word lilium, "lily", which in turn came from the Greek leírion (λείριον).

Distribution and habitat
The Liliaceae are widely distributed, but mainly in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The centre of diversity is from southwest Asia to China. Their distribution is diverse, mainly in plains, steppes, and alpine meadows, but also in deciduous forests, Mediterranean scrub and arctic tundra. Tulipa and Gagea provide examples of ornamental geophyte biomorphological types representing continental thermoperiodic zones (Irano-Turanian region), characterised by cessation of underground growth at high temperatures in early summer and requiring low winter temperatures for spring flowering. While some genera are shade-dwelling, such as the Medeoleae, and Streptopoideae, Tricyrtis, and Cardiocrinum, others prefer a more open habitat.

Ecology
The Liliaceae are ecologically diverse. Species of Liliaceae bloom at various times from spring to late summer. The colorful flowers produce large amounts of nectar and pollen that attract insects which pollinate them (entomophily), particularly bees and wasps (hymenopterophily), butterflies (psychophily) and moths (phalaenophily). The seeds are dispersed by wind and water. Some species (e.g. Scoliopus, Erythronium and Gagea) have seeds with an aril structure that are dispersed by ants (myrmecochory).

The proliferation of deer populations in many areas, due to human factors such as the elimination of their animal predators and introduction to alien environments, is placing considerable herbivory pressure on many of the family's species. Fences as high as 8 feet may be required to prevent them from consuming the plants, an impractical solution for most wild areas. Those of the genus Lilium are particularly palatable, while species in Fritillaria are repellant.

Pests and predators
Liliaceae are subject to a wide variety of diseases and pests, including insects, such as thrips, aphids, beetles and flies. Also fungi, viruses and vertebrate animals such as mice and deer. An important horticultural and garden pest is the scarlet lily beetle (Japanese red lily beetle, Lilioceris lilii) and other Lilioceris species which attack Fritillaria and Lilium. Lilium species may be food plants for the Cosmia trapezina moth. A major pest of Tulips is the fungus, Botrytis tulipae.

Both Lilium and Tulipa are susceptible to a group of five viruses of the family Potyviridae, specifically the potyvirus (named for potato virus Y) group, which includes the tulip-breaking virus (TBV) and the lily streak virus (lily mottle virus, LMoV) resulting in 'breaking' of the color of the flowers. The viruses are transmitted by aphids. This breaking effect was of economic importance during the tulip mania of the seventeenth century, because it appeared to be producing new varieties. In modern times tulip breeders have produced varieties that mimic the effect of the virus, without being infected. One of these varieties is known as 'Rembrandt', after the Dutch artist of that name. Contemporary tulip owners commonly had Rembrandt and other artists paint their flowers to preserve them for posterity, hence the 'broken' tulips were known as Rembrandt tulips at that time. Another modern variety is 'Princess Irene'. One of the tulip breaking viruses is also named the Rembrandt tulip-breaking virus (ReTBV).

Floriculture
Many species of Lilieae (in genera Tulipa, Fritillaria, Lilium, and Erythronium) and Calochortoideae (Calochortus and Tricyrtis) are grown as ornamental plants worldwide. Within these genera a wide range of cultivars have been developed by breeding and hybridisation. They are generally used in outdoor gardens and other displays, although in common with many bulbous flowering plants they are often induced to bloom indoors, particularly during the winter months. They also form a significant part of the cut flower market, in particular Tulipa and Lilium.

Tulips
Tulips have been cultivated since at least the tenth century in Persia. Tulip production has two main markets: cut flowers and bulbs. The latter are used, in turn, to meet the demand for bulbs for parks, gardens, and home use and, secondly, to provide the necessary bulbs for cut flower production. International trade in cut flowers has an approximate total value of 11 billion euros, which provides an indication of the economic importance of this activity. The main producer of tulip bulbs is the Netherlands, a country that accounts for 87% of the global cultivated area, with approximately 12,000 hectares. Other leading producers include Japan, France and Poland. Approximately ten other countries produce commercial tulips, largely for the domestic market. By contrast, the Netherlands is the leading international producer, to the extent of 4 billion bulbs per annum. Of these, 53% are used for the cut flower market and the remainder for the dry bulb market. Of the cut flowers, 57% are used for the domestic market in the Netherlands and the remainder exported.

Original Tulipa species can be obtained for ornamental purposes, such as Tulipa tarda and Tulipa turkestanica. These are referred to as species, or botanical, tulips, and tend to be smaller plants but better at naturalising than the cultivated forms. Breeding programs have produced a wide range of tulip types, enabling blooming through a much longer season by creating early, mid- and late spring varieties. Fourteen distinct types are available in addition to botanical tulips, including Lily-flowered, Fringed, Viridiflora, and Rembrandt. In addition to blooming season, tulip varieties differ in shape and height, and exhibit a wide range of colours, both pure and in combination.

Lilies
The largest area of production is also the Netherlands, with 76% of the global cultivated area, followed by France, Chile, Japan, the United States, New Zealand and Australia. Approximately ten countries produce lilies commercially altogether. About half of the commercial production is for cut flowers. Many of these countries export bulbs as well as supplying the domestic market. The Netherlands produces about 2,200 million lily bulbs annually, of which 96% is used domestically and the remainder exported, principally within the European Union. One particularly important crop is the production of Lilium longiflorum, whose white flowers are associated with purity and Easter.

Although many Lilium species such as Lilium martagon and Lilium candidum can be obtained commercially, the majority of commercially available lilies represent the products of a very diverse hybridisation program, which has resulted in a separate horticultural classification, including such groupings as Asian, Oriental and Orienpet. In addition to a very wide variety of heights, lilies can be obtained in many colours and combinations of colours, and if properly selected can produce an extensive blooming season from early summer to autumn. Because of the history of Liliaceae, many species such as Watsonia (bugle lily) that were previously classified in this family bear the name 'lily' but are neither part of the genus Lilium, or the family Liliaceae.

Other
A variety of Fritillaria species are used as early spring ornamental flowers. These vary from the large Fritillaria imperialis (crown imperial) available in a number of colours such as yellow or orange, to much smaller species such as Fritillaria meleagris or Fritillaria uva-vulpis with their chequered patterns. Erythronium is less common but a popular cultivar is 'Pagoda' with its sulphur yellow flowers. Calochortus (mariposa lily) may be sold as a mixture or as cultivars.

Propagation
Methods of propagation include both sexual and asexual reproduction. Commercial cultivars are usually sterile.

Sexual reproduction
Seeds can be used for propagation of the plant or to create hybrids and can take five to eight years to produce flowering plants. Since interspecific cross-pollination occurs, overlapping wild populations can create natural hybrids.

Asexual reproduction

 * Bulb offsets: Daughter bulbs that form on the mother bulb and can be detached.
 * Micropropagation techniques including tissue culture.
 * Bulbils, which are adventitious bulbs formed on the parent plant's stem.
 * Scaling and twin-scaling, used to increase production in slower-growing varieties, in which multiple whole scales are detached from a single bulb.

Bulb offsets and tissue culture produce genetic clones of the parent plant and thus maintaining genetic integrity of the cultivars. Bulb offsets usually require at least a year before flowering. Commercially, plants may be propagated in vitro and then planted out to grow into plants large enough to sell.

Toxicology
While members of the Liliaceae s.s. have been used as food sources in humans, the bulbs of some species are poisonous to household pets (bulb toxicosis) if eaten and may cause serious complications, such as kidney failure in cats from Lilies, particularly Lilium longiflorum (Easter Lily). Dogs may develop less serious effects such as gastrointestinal problems and central nervous system depression. Most Fritillaria (e.g. Fritillaria imperialis, Fritillaria meleagris) bulbs contain poisonous neurotoxic alkaloids such as imperialin (peiminine),  which may be deadly if ingested in quantity, while other species such as Fritillaria camschatcensis and Fritillaria affinis are edible. Tulips can cause skin irritation due to the presence of tuliposides and tulipalins,  which are also found in the flowers, leaves and stems of Fritillaria. These are also toxic to a variety of animals.

Uses
Fritillaria extracts are used in traditional Chinese medicine under the name chuan bei mu, and in Latin, bulbus fritillariae cirrhosae. The bulbs of Fritillaria roylei have been used as antipyretics and expectorants. Lilium bulbs, particularly Lanzhou lily (Lilium davidii) are used as food in China and other parts of Asia. During World War II, starvation conditions in the Netherlands (Hongerwinter, hunger winter 1944) led to using Tulipa bulbs as food. Calochortus bulbs were eaten by Native Americans and by the Mormon settlers in Utah during starvation. Other members of the family used for food include Clintonia (leaves), Medeola (roots), Erythronium (corms), and Fritillaria (bulbs).

Lilies
The type genus, Lily (Lilium), has a long history in literature and art, and a tradition of symbolism as well as becoming a popular female name, and a floral emblem, particularly of France (fleur-de-lis). The cultivation of lilies has been described since at least the ninth century, when Charlemagne ordered it to be grown at his imperial palaces. However, the name 'lily' has historically been applied to a wide variety of plants other than the genus Lilium.

The lily appears in ancient literature associated with both sovereignty and virginal innocence, and is mentioned on a number of occasions in the Bible, such as the description in Solomon's Song of Songs (2, 1–2) "I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. Like a lily among thorns is my darling among the young women" or the Gospel of Mathew (6, 28) "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin" to represent beauty. Artistic representations can be found as far back as frescos from the second century BC, at Amnisos and Knossos. Early Christian churches, such as that of the Basilica of Sant' Apollinare in Classe were sometimes decorated with lilies. While predominantly depicted as white, those seen at Akrotiri are red lilies. The white lily has long been seen as a symbol of purity, coming to be associated with the Virgin Mary in the Middle Ages, from which came the name ‘Madonna lily’ (Lilium candidum). A well-known example is Leonardo da Vinci's Annunciation (1472–1475) in which the archangel Gabriel bears a Madonna lily. Other symbolic meanings include glory, love and birth.

Fleur-de-lis
The stylised lily, or fleur-de-lis (lily flower) has long been associated with royalty, although it may originally have been derived from the form of an iris. It has also been associated with the head of a spear. Its three parts have been associated with the three classes of mediaeval society, or alternatively faith, wisdom and chivalry. Whatever its exact derivation, it has come to be associated with France and the French monarchy since the earliest Frankish kings. Consequently, it became incorporated into not only French heraldry but also into many heraldic devices in jurisdictions where there had been historic French influence, such as Quebec and New Orleans. In modern times it appears in many forms, symbolic and decorative, and can be used on compasses to indicate the direction north, as well as the Scouting movement.

Tulips
Tulips (Tulipa) also have a long cultural tradition, particularly in the Islamic world. The Persian word for tulips, lâleh (لاله), was borrowed into Turkish and Arabic as lale. In Arabic letters, lale is written with the same letters as Allah, and is used to denote God symbolically. Tulips became widely used in decorative motifs on tiles, fabrics, and ceramics in Islamic art and the Ottoman Empire in particular, and were revered in poetry, such as that of Omar Khayam in the twelfth century.

Tulips were an essential part of the gardens of Persia, having been cultivated from the Steppes. As the Seljuks – Oghuz-Turkic leaders originated from the steppes – moved to Persia, and then west, they took tulips with them to Turkey, where many escaped cultivation and became naturalised. Today there are a number of places in Turkey called Laleli (‘with tulips’). Tulips first appeared in the decorative arts in Turkey in the thirteenth century and flourished under the Ottomans, in particular in the royal palaces, and was adopted by the Osmans as their symbol. Further species were collected from Persia and the spreading Ottoman Empire saw to it that tulip culture also spread. By the sixteenth century it was a national symbol, hence the designation "Tulip era", by which time they were becoming of economic importance.

By 1562 the tulip trade had reached Europe with the first shipment to Antwerp, where they were mistaken for vegetables, although they had been cultivated in Portugal since 1530, and first appeared in illustration in 1559, and the first tulip flowers were seen in the Netherlands in 1625. Tulips spread rapidly across Europe in the seventeenth century, and became an important trading item, initially in France before concentrating in the Netherlands. Eventually speculative trading in tulips became so intense as to cause a financial bubble which eventually collapsed, a period known as tulip mania (tulipomania), from 1634 to 1637, similar to the Ottoman Empire's Tulip era.

Nevertheless, since then the tulip has become indelibly associated with the Netherlands and all things Dutch. it was during this period that the tulipiere, a ceramic vase for growing tulips indoors was devised, and the Golden Age of Dutch Painting was replete with images of tulips. Although tulip festivals are held around the world in the spring, the most famous of these is the display at Keukenhof. One of the better-known novels on tulips is The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas, père in 1850, dealing with a contest to grow a black tulip in late seventeenth-century Haarlem.

Other
Fritillaria are also often used as floral emblems, for instance as the county flower of Oxfordshire, UK. Calochortus nuttallii, the sego lily, is the official state flower of Utah.

Taxonomic classifications

 * Table of 58 families, Part II: Page 1
 * Table of 1615 genera, Part II: Page 8
 * Table of 1615 genera, Part II: Page 8

Other

 * See also HTML version
 * See also HTML version
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Other

title: Liliaceae


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69 (sex position)

Sixty-nine or 69 is a sex position in which two people align themselves so that each person's mouth is near the other's genitals so that each partner can simultaneously perform oral sex on the other. The participants are thus mutually inverted like in the number 69, hence the code name. In this case, the numerals 6 and 9 are treated more as pictographic symbols than as numerical representations, with the bulbous part representing the heads of the performers.

The name is a translation of the original French, soixante-neuf, which is also sometimes borrowed directly into English. The concept is that both partners can experience sexual stimulation and oral sensation simultaneously, but this can also distract those who try to focus solely on their own pleasure from giving oral sex well. The position can also be awkward for partners who are not similar in height.

History
The term sixty-nine or soixante-neuf for mutual simultaneous oral-genital stimulation is an English translation of the euphemistic French term, "soixante-neuf." The term "soixante-neuf" has not been traced any earlier than the Whore's Catechisms published in the 1790s in France, usually attributed to the early leader of the French Revolution, Mlle. Théroigne de Méricourt.

"The earliest unequivocal representation of the sixty-nine appears to be that on an oil-lamp preserved in the Munich Museum (Deutsches Museum), and first reproduced in Dr. Gaston Vorberg's ... portfolio, Die Erotik der Antiken in Kleinkunst und Keramik (Munich, 1921) plate 58, showing the woman lying on top of the man. Dr. Vorberg gives this ... to be of the period of the Roman Caesars ... . However, another oil-lamp of the same kind, showing the sixty-nine almost identically ... is more recently reproduced as a full-color plate, in Prof. Jean Marcadé's Eros Kalos (English-language edition, Geneva : Nagel, 1965), facing page 58, in ... lamps preserved in the Heracleion Museum in Greece."

"A Hindu temple-sculpture from the sacred caverns of the island of Elephanta, near Mumbai in India, showing this position with the man actually standing, and holding the woman hanging down in this from his shoulders, was ... brought to England in the late eighteenth century ... . ... this sculptured fragment ... is both discussed and illustrated in Richard Payne Knight's A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus, privately issued for the Dilettanti Society of London in 1786 ... . The illustration in question is a detail engraving given in Payne Knight's plate XI; and the full form of this sculptured group is ... given as plate XXIV."

The Kama Sutra mentions this sex position, albeit by a different name: "When a man and woman lie down in an inverted order, i.e. with the head of the one towards the feet of the other and carry on [mouth] congress, it is called the 'congress of a crow'."

Internet meme
In reference to the sex position, "69" has become an internet meme, where users will respond to any occurrence of the number with the word "nice" and draw specific attention to it. This means to sarcastically imply that the reference to the sex position was intentional. Because of its association with the sex position and resulting meme, "69" has become known as "the sex number" in these communities, similar to the number 420, which is known as "the weed number."

Variations
Variations of the 69 position include mutual anilingus or "double rimming", and digital penetration of either partner's anus or vagina.

title: 69 (sex position)


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Talk:1955

Factual disparity regarding nuclear power
This page alleges the following: "*July 18 - The first atomic-generated electrical power is sold commercially" And yet another wiki page alleges that the first commercial nuclear reactor was calder Hall which wasn't opened, according to that page, until 1956.

Page layout years
There is a discussion on my talk page on page layout.

For most of the last three hundred years there is inconsistency and duplication between the year in topic paragraph, the "see also" box and what is on the year by topic pages. Prior to 1950 I am pretty convinced we can painlessly (except for sore fingers) delete all of the year in topic paragraphs and ensure that the material goes into a "see also" box, creating such a box where none exists. Post 1950, particularly from the "year in US television" link a lot of material has been added to this paragraph as highlights (sometimes making up most of the page content pointed at).

Personally I think we should still delete the paragraph, keep the box linking to the topic sites and move any particularly important parts of the year in topic paragraph to the main chronological list. This does involve undoing quite a bit of work which someone has done.

Therefore, unlike for prior to 1950 (where I've said no objection= I do it) for post 1950 I won't touch these pages unless a significant number of people agree with the change. (I am also unlikely to get the pre 1950 stuff done before summer unless the service speed improves dramatically). (talk)--BozMo 14:25, 7 May 2004 (UTC)

Back to the Future
Should that really be there? Part of the film takes place in 1955 but I think it might be misleading to have it there. --Sholtar | talk 20:12, May 30, 2005 (UTC)

I'm all for removing the references (a reference also appears in the November headline). It's fiction, and not historic.
 * I agree; I'd remove the one from the November headline and place the whole thing in "Fictional References". But whoever does so, please remember to do the same for 1985 and 1885!  ekedolphin 06:27, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:VladimirNabokov lolita1.jpg
Image:VladimirNabokov lolita1.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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1955 in fiction
Whatever happened to the "1955 in Fiction" section? I thought all year articles had one of those. —Preceding unsigned comment added by DanMat6288 (talk • contribs) 17:14, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Bill Haley and the Comets1956.jpg
Image:Bill Haley and the Comets1956.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you. BetacommandBot (talk) 04:32, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

title: Talk:1955


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List of Liliaceae genera

The List of Liliaceae genera has been much reduced by modern molecular phylogenetic based taxonomy. The current taxonomy of Liliaceae treats the family Liliaceae as having three subfamilies, with the Liliodeae being further subdivided into two tribes, the Medeoleae and Lilieae. The family Liliaceae consists of fifteen genera and approximately 600 species in all.

title: List of Liliaceae genera