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We studied the hemoglobin types of 440 individuals (306 unrelated) cytologically and by paper electrophoresis. These included 334 (252 unrelated) putative "full bloods." No abnormal types were found.

A case of aseptic necrosis of the femoral head is reported in a 10 and 1/2 year old white male with hemoglobin S-D disease. The patient also had functional asplenia and a history of hand-foot syndrome in infancy. The radiographic, clinical, and hematologic similarities, as well as the differences between S-D and S-S hemoglobinopathy are discussed.

An increasing incidence of trachoma in an urban Midland population has been shown to be mainly due to immigration of infected carriers from the Punjab. In areas where trachoma is common special clinics should be established for the treatment and follow-up of patients and contacts. Public health measures should be introduced to prevent the spread of the infection. Laboratory methods should be more widely used in the diagnosis and control of trachoma.

Haemoglobin, serum vitamin B(12), and serum and red cell folate levels have been measured in 322 pregnant immigrant women in London at their first booking and in a proportion at 34 weeks of gestation and postnatally. The Indian, East-African Indian, and Pakistani and Bangladeshi patients showed significantly lower initial mean serum vitamin B(12) levels than the European group, the levels being lower in Hindu and Sikh patients than in Moslems. The patients of West Indian, Indian, and East-African Indian origin showed significantly lower initial mean haemoglobin levels than the immigrants from European countries. Though there was no overall correlation between haemoglobin and serum vitamin B(12) level the incidence of hypersegmented polymorphs and macrocytosis in the peripheral blood was highest in the Indian and East-African Indian patients, and both these features were particularly frequent in patients with subnormal serum vitamin B(12) levels. Only one patient, however, had overt megaloblastic anaemia due to vitamin B(12) deficiency. The Indian patients whose red cell folate levels were less than 200 ng/ml also had a lower mean serum vitamin B(12) level than those with red cell folate levels greater than 200 ng/ml. The Indian patients had smaller babies than the Europeans but this was not related to the differences in vitamin B(12) status between the two groups. However, out of 39 babies of the Indian group 5 (13%) showed subnormal serum vitamin B(12) levels in the first 10 days of life, the lowest level being 120 pg/ml.Though there was an overall statistically significant fall in serum vitamin B(12) between first booking and 34 weeks of pregnancy there was no significant fall in serum vitamin B(12) in those who initially had subnormal levels. Thus many Indian women are vitamin B(12) deficient in pregnancy, and this is associated with morphological blood abnormalities in many cases, but megaloblastic anaemia due to this deficiency is relatively infrequent.

A ten-year follow-up of 886 shoplifters showed clear differences between women and men. Men tended to have previous convictions and to steal books (unknown in women). Of the 532 women nearly one third were foreign-born, and this group comprised 46% of offenders aged 17-30. The peak age among British women was 51-60. First offenders accounted for 80% of the women, and their reconviction rate was 11%; among those with any kind of previous conviction the rate was 50%. The rate of admission to hospital for women shoplifters is three times higher than average.

Twenty members of an immigrant Rwandan kindred were all found to have tropical splenomegaly syndrome compared with 29 out of 50 matched neighbour controls. Splenomegaly among the controls tended to cluster within families. IgM levels were significantly raised in the kindred compared with the control subjects without splenomegaly but were similar to those of neighbours with splenic enlargement. We advance a hypothesis that tropical splenomegaly syndrome results from the production of circulating immune complexes in individuals genetically predisposed to produce an IgM antibody response.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae were cultured from tonsillar swabs in six men and six women out of 161 consecutive, unselected, Danish patients (95 men and 66 women) suffering from urogenital or rectal gonorrhoea. Gonococci were found in the tonsils in only one out of 49 foreign men with gonorrhoea. Eleven of the Danish patients admitted orogenital contact at their most recent intercourse. The gonococcal complement fixation test was negative in all except two cases. Standard singledose treatment cured the urogenital and rectal infections promptly but failed to cure the tonsillar infection in five cases, and in recalcitrant cases the organisms were demonstrable for some months.

A survey was made of 1,384 Malayan aborigines for frequencies of abnormal haemoglobin and hereditary elliptocytosis. The subjects were: 137 healthy adults (93 jungle police and 44 hospital personnel)