It is well known that both the incidence and the maternal mortality of eclampsia in the United States are declining. During the past decade the incidence of the disease at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, as shown in the accompanying table, has been about one fourth of that observed during the first two decades of the century and less than half that seen during the twenties. At the same time a gratifying decrease in the maternal mortality of eclampsia has occurred, the death rate having fallen from over 20 per cent in the early years of the century to 5 per cent during the past decade. Not only has the incidence of eclampsia in the general clinic population decreased, but today the disease accounts for a much smaller percentage of our total number of cases of toxemia than it did even fifteen years ago. As may be seen in chart 1,