The study of the enzymatic activity in duodenal contents of 40 patients affected with third degree malnutrition shows that this activity was decreased with specially low figures for lipase. A definite increase in enzymatic activity was discovered when the nutritional state of the patient improved, but no correlation was found between the figures for serum albumin and the amounts of pancreatic enzymes. Neither was there any correlation found among enzymatic activity, appetite, and diarrhea. This study seems to prove there is a delay in the absorption of nonmodified protein in patients affected with third degree malnutrition. The finding of decreased enzymatic activity in both Kwashiorkor and third degree malnutrition is another reason to consider that both illnesses are only a group of syndromes caused in most instances by the same common factor which is chronic undernourishment.