Aodán Breathnach, Emeritus Professor of Anatomy at the University of London at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, and Honorary Senior Research Fellow Division of Physiology and Institute of Dermatology, UMDS, St Thomas' Hospital, died in London after a prolonged illness on 17 April 2000, at the age of 77. He had been a member of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland since 1949, of the Societas Dermatologica Italica from 1978, of La Société Française de Dermatologie Syphiligraphie since 1979, and of the Society for Investigative Dermatology since 1984. He is survived by his wife Babs, his two sons Stephen and Richard, and their families, to whom our deepest sympathy is extended.