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IN an isolated observation, Moore et al.1 found that a new-born infant had a serum iron of 247 y/100 ml., while the mother at the same time had a serum iron of 58 y/100 ml. This finding seemed to us sufficiently interesting to justify collecting further data on serum iron in new-born infants. Venous blood from the mother, and blood from the placental end of the newly cut umbilical cord, were used, and plasma iron was estimated by the thiocyanate method2, using a photo-electric colorimeter for the final colour measurement. The results shown in the accompanying table were obtained from ten full-term infants and their mothers, of whom five were anaemic

A multi-centre controlled trial of steroid treatment of the nephrotic syndrome was carried out on 125 patients. Of these, 64 were controls and 61 received prednisone in a recommended dose range of 20-30 mg./24 hours. The actual initial dose averaged 29 mg./24 hours. Treatment was continued for a variable period, but not less than six months. More than 10 mg./24 hours was given on average for 12 months to all patients, and for longer periods to some. Patients were classified, on the basis of biopsy specimens, into three groups: A, minimal change; B, membranous nephropathy; and C, proliferative glomerulonephritis. In groups B and C prednisone did not have any strikingly favourable effect on proteinuria or on renal function as compared with the control group. In group A, however, prednisone reduced proteinuria to a striking and statistically significant extent. It had little if any effect on long-term renal function in any group. The death rate was higher in the combined prednisone groups (17/61) than in the control groups (12/64). This difference was not statistically significant, but there was a significantly higher number of deaths from cardiovascular disease in the prednisone group, whereas the numbers of deaths from renal failure were not significantly different in the two groups.

ONE of the minor consequences of total war is the resurgence of classical physiological problems, such as the effects of haemorrhage and of dehydration. Although pure dehydration, in the sense of a deficiency of water but not of salt, is rarely met with clinically, it is precisely this disturbance which presents itself in desert warfare, and in lifeboats or on rafts. One aspect of dehydration which has received much less attention than it deserves is the function of the kidney. Very little urine is formed, and it might have been anticipated that there would have been interesting changes in its composition, and possibly in its mode of secretion. There was the possibility, for example, that a shortage of water in the organism might lead to a diminished blood flow to the kidney, or a diminished glomerular filtration rate.