According to the latest census (1950), the population of Jefferson County, Ala., which includes the city of Birmingham, is 558,928. There are basically two racial groups represented, namely, a white segment (59.1%), predominantly of European origin, and a Negro segment (40.9%), of African origin. (The state of Alabama as a whole shows a ratio of 61.8% whites to 38.2% Negroes.) In order to evaluate the health problems of this area properly it is important to delineate the disease patterns of these two races. As a part of this larger project we undertook to investigate the over-all incidence of cholelithiasis in Alabama and, more specifically, to establish the comparative incidence of this disease in the two races. MATERIAL The material for this study was obtained from the routine autopsy service of five Alabama hospitals, four of them in Jefferson County. Three of these four, namely, St. Vincent's, Lloyd Noland, and the