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While global patterns of human genetic diversity are increasingly well characterized, the diversity of human languages remains less systematically described. Here, we outline the Grambank database. With over 400,000 data points and 2400 languages, Grambank is the largest comparative grammatical database available. The comprehensiveness of Grambank allows us to quantify the relative effects of genealogical inheritance and geographic proximity on the structural diversity of the world's languages, evaluate constraints on linguistic diversity, and identify the world's most unusual languages. An analysis of the consequences of language loss reveals that the reduction in diversity will be strikingly uneven across the major linguistic regions of the world. Without sustained efforts to document and revitalize endangered languages, our linguistic window into human history, cognition, and culture will be seriously fragmented.

Allozyme variation in species of the mangrove genus Avicennia was screened in 25 populations collected from 22 locations in the Indo-West Pacific and eastern North America using 11 loci. Several fixed gene differences supported the specific status of Avicennia alba, A. integra, A. marina, and A. rumphiana from the Indo-West Pacific, and A. germinans from the Atlantic-East Pacific. The three varieties of A. marina, var. marina, var. eucalyptifolia, and van australasica, had higher genetic similarities (Nei's I) and no fixed gene differences, confirming their conspecific status. Strong genetic structuring was observed in A. marina, with sharp changes in gene frequencies at the geographical margins of varietal distributions. The occurrence of alleles found otherwise in only one variety, in only immediately adjacent populations of another variety, provided evidence of introgession between varieties. The varieties appear to have diverged recently in the Pleistocene and are apparently not of ancient Cretaceous origin, as suggested earlier. Despite evidence of high degrees of outcrossing, gene flow among populations was relatively low (N e m < 1-2), except where populations were geographically continuous, questioning assumptions that these widespread mangrove species achieve high levels of long-distance dispersal., (© 1998 The Society for the Study of Evolution.)

The annual incidence of clinically apparent cirrhosis of the liver from all causes in the islands of Lewis and Harris has been found to be 5.5 cases per 100,000 and alcoholic cirrhosis to be 2.76 per 100,000. Sales of alcohol in the island amount to 6.85 million pounds giving a per capita spending on alcohol of 283 pounds in 1984. The incidence of alcoholic cardiomyopathy was found to be 3.7 cases per 100,000 and there were 120 admissions per 100,000 with illnesses directly related to alcoholism. It was suggested that the very low incidence of alcoholic cirrhosis despite the high per capita spending on alcohol could be due to inherited factors, the pattern of drinking and the type of alcohol consumed.

Fifty patients suffering from infections caused by various salmonella species were treated with trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole compound. Twenty-three had enteric fever and two were biliary carriers of Salmonella typhi. The other 25 suffered from infections caused by salmonella species other than S. typhi or S. paratyphi B. Twenty-one of the patients with enteric fever responded clinically to the drug, one failed treatment, and one died. Two patients suffering from typhoid fever relapsed and three temporarily excreted S. typhi in stools following treatment. One of the typhoid carriers was successfully treated. All patients with infections caused by salmonella species other than S. typhi or S. paratyphi B responded to treatment but 17 continued to excrete the organism in their stools after the course of trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole compound. Four patients developed rashes during therapy and two became anaemic.

Twenty-five patients suffering from gross refractory obesity agreed to be starved in hospital until they weighed not more than 25% over their ideal weight. Two discharged themselves prematurely, four defaulted from follow-up, and seven who for various reasons were discharged before completing their treatment have since regained weight. After a mean follow-up period of nearly 18 months 8 of the remaining 12 remained near their weight on discharge. Some kind of initial psychological assessment might improve these results, but prolonged therapeutic starvation may be of value in young patients with gross refractory obesity who are psychologically suitable and socially able to undergo such treatment.