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,

A review is presented of the measurements of blood pressure on admission of 600 patients to the wards in a department of general medicine. Three doctors each examined 200 patients, distributed over two periods with an interval of one year. Large differences were found between the doctors as regards the distribution of the BPs, particularly the diastolic pressures. On the other hand, no differ-ences were observed in the distributions during the two periods as far as the individual doctors were concerned. Great preference was shown for zero as the terminal digit and also for certain BP values. It is concluded that the observer introduces a considerable subjective factor in measuring the BP by auscultation. Correct performance of this simple procedure requires meticulous instruction.

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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.

In a 2-day-old baby with symptoms of respiratory distress a right-sided pleural empyema caused by haemolytic streptococci was found. Possible sources of infection are discussed. The mother had purulent discharge from a tooth a few weeks before delivery, and this may have been the focus. The baby was treated with pleural drainage and ampicillin with good result.