Cu is an essential nutrient for man, but can be toxic if intakes are too high. In sensitive populations, marginal over- or under-exposure can have detrimental effects. Malnourished children, the elderly, and pregnant or lactating females may be susceptible for Cu deficiency. Cu status and exposure in the population can currently not be easily measured, as neither plasma Cu nor plasma cuproenzymes reflect Cu status precisely. Some blood markers (such as ceruloplasmin) indicate severe Cu depletion, but do not inversely respond to Cu excess, and are not suitable to indicate marginal states. A biomarker of Cu is needed that is sensitive to small changes in Cu status, and that responds to Cu excess as well as deficiency. Such a marker will aid in monitoring Cu status in large populations, and will help to avoid chronic health effects (for example, liver damage in chronic toxicity, osteoporosis, loss of collagen stability, or increased susceptibility to infections in deficiency). The advent of high-throughput technologies has enabled us to screen for potential biomarkers in the whole proteome of a cell, not excluding markers that have no direct link to Cu. Further, this screening allows us to search for a whole group of proteins that, in combination, reflect Cu status. The present review emphasises the need to find sensitive biomarkers for Cu, examines potential markers of Cu status already available, and discusses methods to identify a novel suite of biomarkers.

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SUMMARY A study of the elderly living in the community and in institutional care in the Leeds Metropolitan District is outlined. Four populations of persons aged 65 and over were examined: those living in their own homes; in sheltered housing; in social services aged persons' hostels (Part III accommodation); and in hospitals. Findings on one key concept-coping ability-are discussed. Those living in their own homes were most able to cope. Many living in institutions were well able to cope in the community according to the criteria of mobility and functional ability. The relationship between age, morbidity, and coping ability were examined. Women were more likely to report the presence of a long-term illness than men. Housebound respondents in the community were twice as likely to be suffering from non-traumatic locomotor disorders, eyesight disorders, and cerebrovascular disease than respondents in the community sample taken as a whole.Survival and age at death in Britain have both increased dramatically in this century. At present

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Some apology is due to readers of this Journal for the delay in reviewing what is obviously a work of major importance in the general field. The reviewer has in fact been attempting continuously to assess and reassess this work since it first appeared, while making extensive use of it as a teaching tool. He has found it a stimulating and challenging study; his students have found it on the whole a tough assignment. The periodization on which Dr. Tarling's survey is based provides three timesections: from the early beginnings to about 1760 (91 pages); from 1760 to 1942 (139 pages); and from 1942 to 1965 (69 pages). The last section is particularly well done. The author, as others before him, has attempted the difficult task of combining a regional approach with a country-by-country treatment. "Unity in diversity" is his main theme; it is also his main structural problem, and he can claim some success in tackling it. Dr. Tarling, who has taught at universities in Australia and New Zealand, describes his survey as "an Australasian essay in Southeast Asian history". However, apart from a laudable concern for the development of Australasian interest in Southeast Asian affairs-and some mild play with the idea that Southeast Asia has until recently constituted a kind of terra septentrionalis incognita for the inhabitants of a region itself once generally referred to as terra australis incognita-there is in fact nothing obtrusively Australasiacentric about his approach. The book brings out extremely well some of the familiar main themes of Southeast Asian history, e.g., unity in diversity, the key importance of geographical factors, the frontier character of the region, the interaction between external influences and internal conditions. The author might well have produced a more stimulating and thought provoking work if his major concern had been to develop such themes. As it is, the interpretative side of the work is generally outbalanced by a heavy weight of highly concentrated factual information. One does not criticize an author for not doing what he did not set out to do, but it should be made clear that this is not an introductory concise history for the ordinary reader or the 'beginning' student. It is a highly condensed and compact survey which seems to assume, with its rather allusive style, some previous acquaintance with the subject, while yet presenting the reader with a heavy meal of factual information that is likely to strain the capacity of any normal digestive system. The advanced student will find that there is much in Dr. Tarling's book to make him think, and think again; the beginning student however may find much of it rather overpowering. Certainly the author's treatment and his style do not make for easy reading; they demand a sustained effort of concentration. But this is a work of admirable scholarship, well worth that effort.