Data are presented on the fracture of inoculated-iron thin-wall tubes, investigated under various ratios of axial to tangential stress, ranging from pure tension to pure compression. These data are consistent with published data on gray cast iron. It may be assumed that in cast-iron, plates of friable graphite in an iron matrix, act like solid iron with respect to compressive stresses, but they act as stress-concentrating cavities with respect to tensile stresses. This gives a stress-concentration factor, which is easily determined experimentally. Stress-concentration factors obtained were 3.2–3.3 for gray cast iron, and 2.4–2.5 for inoculated cast iron. A distortion-energy criterion for fracture, modified by this stress-concentration factor, is consistent with the experimental data. It appears that the concentration of the dispersed graphite, and the shape and size of this brittle phase, affect the fracture strength under combined stresses.