Present address : Bacteriology Department, The Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle.upon-Tyne 1. Materials and Methods(a) Sources and isolation of strains The new isolates were obtained from a garden soil (pH 6.7), a field soil (pH 6.5) and freshly cut herbage from a lawn. Each sample was a composite of several taken from different parts of the field or plot and was plated on various 'nonselective' media chosen to give the highest possible viable counts. About 50 colonies were picked from suitable high dilution plates of each medium so that a representative collection of the Merent nutritional types p r m n t would be obtained. Three kin& of plating media were used. Medium TA WM similar to that used by Topping (1937) and contained: peptone, 2-5 g; yeast extract, 2.5 g ; agar, 20 g ; demineralizedwater, 11. Medium TSXA was similar in composition to medium TA but contained 25% (v/v) of soil extract. Plain soil extract agar medium was also used. At an early stage of the work Evans peptone and Yeastrel (yeast extract) were used in media; these products were later replaced by Bacto-peptone (Difco) and Bacto-yeast extract (Difco). All media were sterilized at 121" for 15 min and had a h a 1 pH value of 6.8.Decimal dilutions of the soil samples and of a suitable macerate in the caae of Coryneform bacteria : cell walls and nutrition '9 herbage were made in quarter strength Ringer's solution. Pour plates were prepared in triplicate and incubated at 25" for 21 days in air.Colonies were transferred into a semisolid agar medium (TSXss) similar in composition to medium TSXA but with an agar concentration of 0.2%

This paper reports the distribution of yeast-like fungi in 1538 of 6629 vaginal swabs sent for diagnosis of vulvovaginitis over a five-year period, and compares it with the distribution obtaining in two groups of 1031 and 1085 women studied prospectively. C. albicans was isolated from approximately 95 per cent of yeast-containing swabs taken from patients with symptoms or signs of vulvovaginitis and from 75 to 80 per cent of yeast-containing swabs taken from patients being screened in an antenatal booking clinic. Torulopsis glabrata was isolated next most frequently. Only C. albicans and T. glabrata were associated with pruritus. The possible role of T. glabrata in the pathogenesis of mycotic vulvovaginitis is discussed. Six per cent of 1031 women were found to harbour Trichomonas vaginalis and the Trichomonas : yeast ratio was 1 : 3. Trichomonas infection occurred more frequently in winter than in spring. The incidence of simultaneous infection with yeasts and trichomonads was 0.8 per cent.* Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Tel-swabs were taken at the first antenatal visit from all 511 women attending the booking clinic 520 attending between March and May. The

SUMMARY Seventy one patients underwent bone marrow transplantation for aplastic anaemia or haematological malignancy, 39 as allografts and 32 as autografts. All patients who were seronegative to cytomegalovirus received blood product support exclusively from seronegative community blood donors; seropositive patients received unscreened products. In no patients was there any attempt to reduce cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection by giving prophylaxis with immunoglobulin, and granulocyte transfusions were not given. The incidence of cytomegalovirus infection in the seronegative recipients (22 allograft, 15 autograft) was 0%; in the seropositive recipients 16 (63%) in allografts and 17 (18%) in autografts. These results suggest that provision ofexclusively seronegative blood products is an important contribution for seronegative transplant recipients, but make little impact in autologous transplantation where the incidence of infection is low.

A postal questionnaire sent to all consultant geriatricians in Great Britain and Northern Ireland determined that less than one consultant in five offered influenza vaccine to patients in continuing-care wards. The main reasons given were that vaccine was inappropriate or unnecessary. This information prompted a prospective study of viral illness during the winter months of 1986-87 in eight continuing-care wards with a population of 196 patients. There were 70 episodes of influenza-like illness (ILI), but only 17 viruses were isolated, the commonest being rhinovirus (seven patients). As most cases of ILI in this population were caused by viruses other than influenza, the reluctance of most geriatricians to give influenza vaccine to continuing-care patients appears justified.