In a trial lasting six months disodium cromoglycate (800 mg daily), sulphasalazine (2 g daily), and these two agents in combination were compared in 120 patients as maintenance treatment for ulcerative colitis. Relapse was defined as recurrence of colitic symptoms accompanied by sigmoidoscopic evidence of inflammation. The patients receiving disodium cromoglycate had a much higher relapse-rate than those taking sulphasalazine and the results with the two agents combined were little different from those with sulphasalazine alone. Disodium cromoglycate in the dose employed is greatly inferior to sulphasalazine as maintenance treatment for the prevention of relapse in ulcerative colitis.

A randomised double-blind trial was done to determine the effect on cervical ripening of 50 mg intravaginal prostaglandin F2 alpha (P.G.F.2 alpha) in a methyl cellulose gel given on the evening before surgical induction of labour. Patients were given either placebo or P.G.F.2 alpha and in both groups cervical stretching and sweeping of the fetal membranes was attempted. Of the 40 control patients, 3 had gone into labour and the mean improvement in the cervical score was 1.6 before surgical induction the next morning. However, 20 of the 40 patients receiving P.G.F.2 alpha went into labour before the proposed induction and the mean change in cervical score (5.1) was significantly greater than that in the placebo group. Of the 40 patients pretreated with P.G.F.2 alpha, 37 had improved cervical scores and significantly fewer required augmentation in labour with intravenous oxytocin than in the control group. No side-effects were experienced and the patients found the treatment acceptable.

The boys of Christ's Hospital experienced outbreaks of influenza A in 1972 (A/England/42/72), in 1974 (A/Port Chalmers), and in 1976 (A/Victoria). In each outbreak, the protective effect of inactivated influenza-A vaccine was limited to those boys, not already immune, who were vaccinated for the first time with the most up-to-date strain. Revaccination with the same strain did not increase the degree of protection, and revaccination with a later strain did not afford protection against subsequent challenge. The cummulative attack-rate in the three outbreaks was similar in all groups irrespective of vaccination history. These observations suggest that annual revaccination with inactivated influenza-A vaccine confers no long-term advantage.

The resting metabolic rate (R.M.R.) falls on energy restriction in association with a fall in the circulating calorigenic hormones, triiodothyronine (T3) and noradrenaline. Levodopa, a precursor of catecholamines, was given to obese subjects receiving a low-energy diet in an attempt to prevent the reduction in catecholamine turnover and noradrenaline levels. Levodopa prevented the fall in R.M.R. despite the expected decline in T3 levels on semistarvation. These results suggest that changes in catecholamine metabolism are important in determining adaptive changes in metabolic rate.

In an unrandomised uncontrolled study on boats and trains, capsules of flurazepam (30 mg) and temazepam (20 mg), when chewed, but not when swallowed whole (even with the ends pricked), gave a better night's sleep than 'Mandrax' (methaqualone 250 mg/diphenhydramine 50 mg) and a better night's sleep than nitrazepam 7.5 mg.

During the past 5 years, a great deal of public attention has been paid in the Federal Republic of Germany to legal and ethical implications of controlled clinical trials. If a physician is bound by a contract for treatment, the ethics of individual benefit have to be applied and this might inhibit a controlled trial. To avoid ethical and legal difficulties, a contract for experimentation may have to be introduced.