  During 1997 the ALEPH experiment at LEP gathered 57pb^-1 of data at
centre-of- mass energies near 183 GeV. These data are used to look for possible
signals from the production of the Standard Model Higgs boson in the reaction
e+e- -> HZ. No evidence of a signal is found in the data; seven events are
selected, in agreement with the expectation of 7.2 events from background
processes. This observation results in an improved lower limit on the mass of
the Higgs boson: m_H > 87.9GeV/c^2 at 95% confidence level.
