impressive. Spain, Italy, France, Germany, and Sweden all lost reigning monarchs, in the days when monarchs really reigned, to the disease. Dr Hopkins has not been satisfied with tracing the European history or even the Western history of the disease; he takes in the Asian dimension, and the African one, and details the effects of smallpox on the ruling houses of China and Japan, and among the ...

Many have argued that anthropology, as a four-field discipline, lacks intellectual coherence. Recent developments in the field of biotechnology and the possibility of producing chimeras with recognizable human characteristics make it necessary to think in terms of a new kind of “old” four-field holism. The production of a human/nonhuman chimera raises theoretical questions about the nature of t...

I read the commentary1 on ‘Abortion law: campaign groups and the quest for change’ in the October 2006 issue of the Journal with interest. In general, it provides a very balanced overview of the different groups seeking change in UK abortion legislation, summarising the concerns of both pro-life and pro-choice organisations. However, in his discussion and conclusions, Dr Vincent Argent ceases t...

background: in addition to human leukocyte antigens (hla) compatibility, gene polymorphisms in cytokines might also be important in the quality of allogeneic immune response. objective: to evaluate the influence of hla-dr matching and a number of cytokine gene polymorphisms on acute rejection after living-unrelated donor (lurd) kidney transplantation. methods: a total of 42 renal transplants pe...