The serum protein pattern of West Africans in Britain

(1) Thirty West African men have been divided into three groups according to the length of time they have spent continuously in Britain. The serum protein patterns of the groups are described, and the differences studied statistically. (2) The pattern in recent arrivals is that usually found in tropical Africans. Over the course of more than 6 years the pattern approaches close to, but does not completely reach, that of normal Europeans. (3) It is concluded that the pattern found in Africans in Africa is not due to genetic or physiological factors, but is due to pathological changes which are at least partly reversible if the environment can be altered. (4) These pathological changes are in the liver and, in Africans from the tropics, are thought to be due to malaria as well as to malnutrition.