PIGMENTED bands of the fingernails are occasionally seen by the dermatologist, but the lesion must be rare since only three cases occurring in white persons have been reported in the literature. Two cases have also been reported in Negroes, although it would appear that this phenomenon is not uncommon among them. Ochs,1in 1914, described a case of a Negro woman who had multiple pigmented bands in all of the nails of each hand. In 1926, Templeton2reported a similar case in a Negro woman. In 1917, Montgomery3reported the first recorded case occurring in a white person. Two other cases, presumably in white persons, have been reported by Oppenheim and Cohen4in 1942 and by Oliver and Bluefarb5in 1944. These authors designated the lesions as a nevus striatus symmetricus unguis. These longitudinal bands of melanotic pigment may be the origin of malignant