1318 system of common waiting-lists. But continued reservations by the medical professions prevented this. So instead it is proposed that the Board be instructed to examine this issue and make recommendations within six months of the Bill’s Royal Assent. If the Goodman compromise succeeds in getting Mrs Castle out of a rough patch, it will pitch her into another one when she brings the legislation before Parliament. For Conservatives remain pledged to fight it tooth and nail; and now Labour tt.P.s are sharpening their resistance to any delay in phasing-out.
a
Notes and News
GETTING HLA RIGHT THE study of HLA antigens in disease is now being pursued with the same vigour that for a time accompanied investigations into unusual blood-group distributions. With one exception the study has been rather academic so far, but the first international symposium on HLA and disease, to be held in Paris in June, 1976, is to emphasise the clinical implications of a topic which in only three years has attracted more than 200 papers. Nomenclature often causes difficulty in the early days of a new science, but some sort of order is creeping into HLA. The four loci formerly known as first (LA), second (Four), third (Ajax), and fourth (LD or MLC-1) are now simply referred to as A,B,C, and D, respectively. The hyphen is dropped from HL-A, but the identification of provisional specificities by the letter W is retained. In many contexts the term HLA will be understood and may be omitted from individual specificities. The new scheme has not yet been published by the W.H.O. committee that has been looking into the matter ; all the same it is already being used in centres all over the world.
LEAD IN FOOD AND DRINK THE intake of lead from food is not thought to constitute a hazard to health in the United Kingdom. This is the main conclusion of the Government’s monitoring body, in a special report on lead in food.’ The average daily intake of lead from food and drink was calculated to be 0-17 mg; this would yield an average weekly intake of about 1.2 mg, the F.A.O./W.H.O. tolerable weekly intake being 3 mg. The lead content of baby foods in cans, which had caused concern in a previous study and resulted in a change in the regulations, is now the same as that for baby food in jars. The report deals with mean figures, normal diets, and the population as a whole. In some areas the proximity of lead works or the use of sewage sludge in the treatment of soil did result in higher amounts, but this would not be a problem provided that vegetables are washed and peeled. In others the drinking-water may contain unacceptably high, though never extreme, concentrations of lead: 11 000 water samples were tested and only 19(0.2%) contained more than 0. 1 mg/l (the W.H.O. limit).
are commonly referred to by an abbreviation or by compound noun which is both a mouthful and a hyphenators’ nightmare. A subcommittee of the IUPAC/IUB Commis-
hormones a
Biochemical Nomenclature has come out with a set of for which medical research-workers, clinicians, and editors will be grateful. The principal change is the use of three suffixes-"-tropin" for the hormones of the adenohypophysis, "-liberin" for hypothalamic releasing hormones, and "-statin" for hypothalamic release-inhibiting hormones. In this system growth hormone becomes somatotropin and human
sion
on
proposals
menopausal gonadotropin becomes urogonadotropin. Ocytocin, it is convincingly argued, is etymologically better than oxytocin, but the subcommittee accepts that the older spelling will survive. Parathyrin is suggested for parathyroid hormone. As an illustration of the nomenclature in practice the clumsy melanocyte-stimulating-hormone release-inhibiting factor becomes melanostatin. Other examples are folliberin, thyroliberin, and lutropin. Comments on the proposals should reach Dr W. E. Cohn, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, U.S.A., by the end of May, 1976. Details may be found in ,. biol. Chem. 1975, 250, 3215 or in the IUPAC Information Bulletin appendix no. 48.
OLD FAITHFUL Whitaker ’76, like its many predecessors, is an invaluable of well-arranged and carefully indexed information which otherwise might be hard to come by. In this discontented winter the reader may determine to set out to explore the 213 470 miles of roads in Britain (p. 1143) or the 11 229 miles of railway route (p. 1145). Alternatively, sailing westward, he will be glad of the intelligence (p. 175) that on April 1 the morning high tide at Dun Laoghaire will touch the 3.7 m mark (though he is not restricted to April 1: figures for 365 other days are included). If, more adventurously, our traveller should fly south and west, he will certainly wish to take account of the news (p. 780) that, on the Island of Nevis, Newcastle airstrip can take small aircraft (e.g., Islanders) but not after dark. If only he will bide his time he can be conveyed by the new, northerly trans-Siberian railway, which, completed, will enable him to gaze eastwards across the Pacific from Sovetskaya Gavan (p. 960). Should our reader after all opt for home he may well decide that the new postal rates (p. 1078) have cut him off from his friends, and settle down to read how the buying power of the pound in 1974 was about a tenth of that in 1914 (p. 1051). At home or abroad, in times good or bad, Whitaker1 is a sound companion.
source
’SECHOLEX’ AN impurity arising from the method of manufacture has been identified in this preparation (polidexide, Pharmacia). Whilst there is no intrinsic defect in the drug itself, the contaminant is thought to present a hazard and, bearing in mind its prolonged usage, the Licencing Authority has directed that the drug be recalled. Holders of stocks of ’Secholex’ are advised to return these promptly to their wholesalers for credit.
THE COMMONWEALTH FUND
The Fund wishes NAMING HORMONES DETERMINATION of the chemical structure of a hormone does make its naming any easier, and trivial names have to be retained. Hypothalamic factors and the pituitary and related
to
make it known that its grants
are
made
exclusively to institutions in the U.S.A. Its recent grant to Yale University for a centre for the study of human genetics was $2.5 million, not$250 000
as we
stated.2
not
1.
on the Monitoring of Foodstuffs for Heavy Metals. Survey of Lead in Food: first supplementary report. H.M. Stationery Office. 50p.
Working Party
1. Complete edition (1220 paper bound, £1.60; library
pp.), cloth bound, £3.50; shorter edition (692 pp.), edition, half-bound in leather with coloured maps,
£4.75. 2. Lancet,
Nov. 29, p. 1104.
a
Notes and News
GETTING HLA RIGHT THE study of HLA antigens in disease is now being pursued with the same vigour that for a time accompanied investigations into unusual blood-group distributions. With one exception the study has been rather academic so far, but the first international symposium on HLA and disease, to be held in Paris in June, 1976, is to emphasise the clinical implications of a topic which in only three years has attracted more than 200 papers. Nomenclature often causes difficulty in the early days of a new science, but some sort of order is creeping into HLA. The four loci formerly known as first (LA), second (Four), third (Ajax), and fourth (LD or MLC-1) are now simply referred to as A,B,C, and D, respectively. The hyphen is dropped from HL-A, but the identification of provisional specificities by the letter W is retained. In many contexts the term HLA will be understood and may be omitted from individual specificities. The new scheme has not yet been published by the W.H.O. committee that has been looking into the matter ; all the same it is already being used in centres all over the world.
LEAD IN FOOD AND DRINK THE intake of lead from food is not thought to constitute a hazard to health in the United Kingdom. This is the main conclusion of the Government’s monitoring body, in a special report on lead in food.’ The average daily intake of lead from food and drink was calculated to be 0-17 mg; this would yield an average weekly intake of about 1.2 mg, the F.A.O./W.H.O. tolerable weekly intake being 3 mg. The lead content of baby foods in cans, which had caused concern in a previous study and resulted in a change in the regulations, is now the same as that for baby food in jars. The report deals with mean figures, normal diets, and the population as a whole. In some areas the proximity of lead works or the use of sewage sludge in the treatment of soil did result in higher amounts, but this would not be a problem provided that vegetables are washed and peeled. In others the drinking-water may contain unacceptably high, though never extreme, concentrations of lead: 11 000 water samples were tested and only 19(0.2%) contained more than 0. 1 mg/l (the W.H.O. limit).
are commonly referred to by an abbreviation or by compound noun which is both a mouthful and a hyphenators’ nightmare. A subcommittee of the IUPAC/IUB Commis-
hormones a
Biochemical Nomenclature has come out with a set of for which medical research-workers, clinicians, and editors will be grateful. The principal change is the use of three suffixes-"-tropin" for the hormones of the adenohypophysis, "-liberin" for hypothalamic releasing hormones, and "-statin" for hypothalamic release-inhibiting hormones. In this system growth hormone becomes somatotropin and human
sion
on
proposals
menopausal gonadotropin becomes urogonadotropin. Ocytocin, it is convincingly argued, is etymologically better than oxytocin, but the subcommittee accepts that the older spelling will survive. Parathyrin is suggested for parathyroid hormone. As an illustration of the nomenclature in practice the clumsy melanocyte-stimulating-hormone release-inhibiting factor becomes melanostatin. Other examples are folliberin, thyroliberin, and lutropin. Comments on the proposals should reach Dr W. E. Cohn, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, U.S.A., by the end of May, 1976. Details may be found in ,. biol. Chem. 1975, 250, 3215 or in the IUPAC Information Bulletin appendix no. 48.
OLD FAITHFUL Whitaker ’76, like its many predecessors, is an invaluable of well-arranged and carefully indexed information which otherwise might be hard to come by. In this discontented winter the reader may determine to set out to explore the 213 470 miles of roads in Britain (p. 1143) or the 11 229 miles of railway route (p. 1145). Alternatively, sailing westward, he will be glad of the intelligence (p. 175) that on April 1 the morning high tide at Dun Laoghaire will touch the 3.7 m mark (though he is not restricted to April 1: figures for 365 other days are included). If, more adventurously, our traveller should fly south and west, he will certainly wish to take account of the news (p. 780) that, on the Island of Nevis, Newcastle airstrip can take small aircraft (e.g., Islanders) but not after dark. If only he will bide his time he can be conveyed by the new, northerly trans-Siberian railway, which, completed, will enable him to gaze eastwards across the Pacific from Sovetskaya Gavan (p. 960). Should our reader after all opt for home he may well decide that the new postal rates (p. 1078) have cut him off from his friends, and settle down to read how the buying power of the pound in 1974 was about a tenth of that in 1914 (p. 1051). At home or abroad, in times good or bad, Whitaker1 is a sound companion.
source
’SECHOLEX’ AN impurity arising from the method of manufacture has been identified in this preparation (polidexide, Pharmacia). Whilst there is no intrinsic defect in the drug itself, the contaminant is thought to present a hazard and, bearing in mind its prolonged usage, the Licencing Authority has directed that the drug be recalled. Holders of stocks of ’Secholex’ are advised to return these promptly to their wholesalers for credit.
THE COMMONWEALTH FUND
The Fund wishes NAMING HORMONES DETERMINATION of the chemical structure of a hormone does make its naming any easier, and trivial names have to be retained. Hypothalamic factors and the pituitary and related
to
make it known that its grants
are
made
exclusively to institutions in the U.S.A. Its recent grant to Yale University for a centre for the study of human genetics was $2.5 million, not$250 000
as we
stated.2
not
1.
on the Monitoring of Foodstuffs for Heavy Metals. Survey of Lead in Food: first supplementary report. H.M. Stationery Office. 50p.
Working Party
1. Complete edition (1220 paper bound, £1.60; library
pp.), cloth bound, £3.50; shorter edition (692 pp.), edition, half-bound in leather with coloured maps,
£4.75. 2. Lancet,
Nov. 29, p. 1104.
