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In a family with a remarkable aggregation of malignant mesothelioma the father, mother, and a son all died of the condition, whereas two other sons and a daughter were unaffected. From 1944 to 1961 the family produced a material that was used to fix screws in drilled holes and consisted of amosite, gypsum, and sand. It was produced in the basement of their villa and was described as being a dusty job. The father died in 1984 aged 74, the son in 1985 aged 45, and the mother in 1987 aged 79. It is concluded that there is a high risk ofmalignant mesothelioma after massive exposure to amosite and the risk and latency period are independent of age during the exposure. Malignant mesothelioma is rare in Denmark, constituting less than 0-3% of all cases of cancer. ' The association between exposure to asbestos and the development of malignant mesothelioma is well

567tends to be slowest in the active adult years. If infant deaths are common, this difference in mean age is likely to be accentuated.The balance of sexes of an exhumed population is statistically more likely to predominate in male skeletal remains, because of the relatively greater robustness of the male skeleton favouring preservation.It is recommended that any subsequent investigation of a similar nature should be conducted on remains exhumed from a non-acid medium. AcknowledgementWe wish to thank Reverend R. Brown, the Rector of St. Michael's Parish Church, for granting access to the parish registry, and him and his verger for supplying much of the background historical data relating to burial traditions. We are indebted to Dr. B. Davies, Medical Officer of Health for Ashton-under-Lyne, for his help, and to Mr. W. E. Aikin, the superintendent registrar for permission to view the town's burial records. Special thanks are due to the Medical Research Council and to the United Manchester Hospitals for their financial aid, without which the project could not have been made. Finally, we wish to thank Professor J. L. Hardwick and other members of the team for their assistance in collecting the basic records from which the data were drawn. Further ReadingAikin, J., in A Description of the Country from Thirty to Forty miles round Manchester,

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Abstract. During a 38‐month period 1108 cases of acute myocardial infarction have been treated in three medical departments with a joint acute medical admission section containing a coronary care unit (CCU); 285 of them had cardiac arrest (26%). In 209 cases (73% of cardiac arrests) resuscitation was attempted, in 66 cases (23 %) with primary success. Twenty‐five patients (9 %) could be discharged from hospital. Two to four years later 17 were still alive, 14 in heart function class I, 12 with unchanged working ability. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation later than 24 hours after admission to the CCU improved the rate of survival after myocardial infarction by less than 0.5%. In this study the survival after cardiac arrest is somewhat lower than usually reported from CCUs. This is supposed to be due to our treatment of a less selected patient group, and possibly to the untraditional integration of a CCU in an acute medical admission unit. This may lead to a less intensive treatment of the cardiac patients, while it is considered an advantage for the non‐cardiac acute medical patients.