Sir

Joel E. Cohen's review of John Cairns’ book Matters of Life and Death (Nature 387, 565—566; 1997) refers to “seventeenth-century Breslau in Poland”.

In the seventeenth century, Breslau was the capital of the duchy of Silesia, which was part of the kingdom of Bohemia (and thus part of the Austrian empire). During the first Silesian war (also known as the War of the Austrian Succession) between Prussia (under King Friedrich II) and Austria (under the Empress Maria-Theresa), the duchy of Silesia became part of Prussia and remained so until the end of the Second World War, when the German population of Silesia was either killed or forced to leave and was replaced by Poles who had also been forced to leave their homes in eastern Poland.

• The error was introduced in the Nature office. — Editor, Nature.