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Using hepatic vein catheterization this study has provided the first direct measurement of morphine hepatic extraction in 8 controls and 8 cirrhotics.

Summary. In patients with hepatitis C who have cirrhosis the rate of sustained response following interferon therapy is less than half that of patients without cirrhosis. It has been suggested, however, that a higher dose regime in patients with cirrhosis may improve response. The results of a recent Australian study of cirrhotic patients who were given an intense interferon programme of 4.5 MIU daily for 24 weeks were compared with previous studies of patients with hepatitis C. In the Australian study, 14% of patients had a sustained response at 6 months after end of therapy. Of 11 studies of interferon response in chronic hepatitis C comparison of pretreatment variables showed considerable differences. Identification of predictors of response by univariate and multivariate analysis regularly indicated the importance of age and fibrosis. Analysis of six studies with either a poor (5% or less) or a reasonable (14–19%) sustained response rate to interferon in patients with cirrhosis suggested that a higher dose or longer duration of therapy was associated with better results. The experience of the Australian study, where 14% of patients had a sustained biochemical response to interferon and side‐effects were reasonably tolerated with careful monitoring, suggests that future studies in cirrhosis should be carried out exploring higher doses and longer durations of therapy.

In a group of 50 patients seen with primary liver cell carcinoma over a period of five years, 38 had cirrhosis. In four patients the cirrhosis was due to autoimmune chronic active hepatitis. None of the patients had markers of hepatitis B virus infection, but in three of the four, serum autoantibodies were present. Coexisting autoimmune disease was present in two. Corticosteroids induced remission in all patients, and the liver disease appeared quiescent at the time primary liver cell carcinoma developed.

Two hatches of crossbred pullet chicks were brooded and reared to 18 weeks of age on diets which conformed to the recommendations of the National Research Council (N.R.C.) of America for calcium and phosphorus. The pullets of each hatch were then divided at random into six laying groups. Three groups were fed diets containing 2.25, 3.14 and 5.0 per cent respectively of calcium without supplementary phosphorus and the other three groups were fed diets of the same graded calcium levels but with supplementary phosphorus to give a total inorganic phosphorus content of 0.45 per cent. When the rate of egg production in the groups receiving 2.25 per cent calcium exceeded 70 per cent an ad libitum supply of limestone grit was provided and the intake recorded. Over the twelve months of lay this resulted in an average total dietary intake level of nearly 2.65 per cent calcium.Egg yield was not significantly influenced by the diets, except that the production of birds fed on the diet containing 5 per cent calcium without supplementary phosphorus was significantly depressed. Food intake was not adversely affected by the higher levels of ground limestone; in fact, there was a positive regression of food consumption on the percentage of calcium in the diet. Because of the greater food intake and the lower egg production, food consumed per dozen eggs and cost of food per dozen eggs were higher in the groups receiving 5 per cent dietary calcium without phosphorus supplementation, compared with groups which received lower dietary levels of calcium. There were, however, no significant differences between the various groups in income or in the margin of income over costs, per bird or per dozen eggs.The data on egg grading showed that over the two experiments and at all levels of calcium there was no evidence of any influence of phosphorus on the combined percentage of large and standard eggs. The average percentage for the two diets with the 5 per cent level of calcium was significantly greater than the combined average for all the other diets.The average percentage of cracked eggs for the groups with diets containing 5 per cent calcium was 9.4 per cent compared with an average of 11.1 per cent for all the other diets, but the difference was not significant.The results suggest that there is no economic advantage in raising the calcium content of the basal diet used in these experiments beyond the level of 3.14 per cent and that at this level there appears to be no need with this basal diet to supplement the phosphorus content.

With pullet chicks during the first 8 weeks of life there were no significant advantages in mortality, growth, feed consumption or in the efficiency of the conversion of food to live-weight through supplementing a basal diet composed of feeding stuffs of plant origin with inorganic phosphorus.During the period 8-18 weeks the results showed a similar pattern. The birds in all groups grew satisfactorily and appeared normal. No consistent or significant differences occurred between the rearing groups in mortality, growth, food consumption of feed efficiency.The results of the present experiments provide further confirmation that pullet chicks can be reared satisfactorily to 18 weeks of age on diets containing neither animal protein nor phosphorus supplements.

Pullets reared to 18 weeks of age on diets containing no feeding stuffs of animal origin and without phosphorus supplementation showed no significant difference in egg yield compared with similar pullets fed rearing diets containing animal protein and added phosphorus.During the laying stage, diets in commercial use at this centre gave significantly higher egg yields, better average egg prices due to superior grading results and a higher margin over food cost than the same diets modified to conform with the nutrient recommendations of the National Research Council of America (1960).Where the supplementary protein in both types of layers' diet was of vegetable origin, egg yield, food cost and margin of income over food cost were all significantly inferior to groups fed comparable diets containing supplementary protein of both vegetable and animal origin.Soyabean meal and sunflower seed meal gave significantly poorer results when used in combination as the sole protein supplement compared with soyabean meal plus methionine.

Pullets reared to 18 weeks of age on diets containing no animal protein supplements and to which no source of inorganic phosphorus was added showed no clinical symptoms of rickets and no significant differences in average body weight, feed consumption, efficiency of feed conversion or livability compared with pullets reared on comparable diets supplemented with inorganic phosphorus.The results indicate that growing pullets are able to use effectively organic sources of dietary phosphorus for growth and bone formation and can be reared satisfactorily on starter diets containing lower levels of total phosphorus than currently recommended.Replacing protein of animal origin in pullet starter and growers' diets by soyabean meal and DL-methionine or by extracted soyabean meal and extracted sunflower seed meal did not result in any adverse effects.

The basis of peripheral blood lymphopenia observed in patients with chronic alcoholism and liver disease was investigated by examining the effect of sera of these patients on in vitro transformation of normal human peripheral blood lymphocytes. A positive correlation was demonstrated between the serum inhibition of phytohaemagglutinin- and pokeweed mitogen-induced transformation and the degree of lymphopenia. Thus serum factors may contribute to the observed lymphopenia by inhibiting lymphocyte production in vivo.

Alarge sample of many varieties of rabbit, fed on diets containing colouring matter, showed a very much higher proportion of yellow fat in true albino (27·2%) than in other (1–9%) rabbits.Yellow fat occurred more frequently in albino males (30·1%) than in albino females (13·2%), but in coloured rabbits yellow fat occurred in about the same proportion for males (1·9%) and females (1·8%).Indoor feeding resulted in greater fat deposition than outdoor grazing but the fat of grazed animals tended to be more deeply pigmented.