As early as 1918 Luden1reported high cholesterol values, over 200 mg. per hundred cubic centimeters, in the blood of patients with myxedema. Mason, Hunt and Hurxthal,2studying the cholesterol content of the blood in patients with hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism, observed that in hyperthyroidism there was no relation between the basal metabolic rate and the cholesterol content of the blood. However, they admitted that hyperthyroidism tends to diminish the blood cholesterol. In hypothyroidism they found an increase in the cholesterol content of the blood proportional to the decreased metabolic rate. They stated that true myxedema is accompanied by a high cholesterol content of the blood and that the cholesterol value is the important guide in the treating of patients with hypothyroidism. Low basal metabolic rates, without clinical evidence of myxedema, they noted, were accompanied by normal cholesterol values. Rowland,3in listing the lipid constituents of the blood,