The distribution of absorbed dose in a medium irradiated by broad electron beam has been analyzed from physical and therapeutic points of view. A number of parameters which describe the beam quality and the shape of the absorbed-dose distribution along the central axis are defined. Several comparisons are made of the values of these parameters obtained from measurements made on different therapy accelerators and from theoretically calculated dose distributions for monoenergetic and monodirectional beams. It is found that the major part of the observed differences between experimental and theoretical results can be attributed to the energy distribution of the accelerator beam and to processes in the scattering material, such as energy straggling and the production of secondary electrons and photons. A simple expression is derived relating the slower falloff in dose found for most accelerator beams to the large energy spread found in these beams. Further, a semiempirical relationship is found which makes it possible to obtain the mean electron energy at the phantom surface from the depth where the absorbed dose has decreased to 50% of its maximum value along the central axis.