The Purley train crash mechanism: injuries and prevention.

On the afternoon of Saturday 4th March 1989 two trains, both bound for London Victoria Station, collided. Part of the rear train rolled down a steep railway embankment and jack-knifed against a tree. The mechanism of the crash and the injuries sustained by the 55 victims who were seen in the A&E Department of the Mayday University Hospital are described.

Plant hair dermatitis.

Objective: To survey the ill effects of plant hairs on humans in Australia, incorporating new records.

Design: Retrospective analysis of new records, in some cases confirmed and supplemented by experimental skin contacts, along with a general survey of relevant literature.

Methods: Reports of accidental injuries submitted to the authors, through either medical or other sources, and to the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and State Herbarium of South Australia, were studied and compared with existing literature; in some cases the effects were confirmed experimentally.

Injuries from larval Neuroptera.

Bites from larval Neuroptera (lacewings) in Australia are recorded. This order of insects is among the most primitive of the higher or holometabolous insects, those with a life-history of complete metamorphoses--namely, from egg to larva to pupa to adult. The mobile instars (larva and adult) live by predation.