IN VIEW of discrepancies in the literature concerning incidence, frequency, location, and type of metastases, as well as survival rates, in carcinoma of the colon and rectum, it appeared profitable to review the autopsy material of a large city hospital. This was done in the hope of supplementing and confirming previous findings or of unearthing relations previously not appreciated. The restriction to the use of necropsy material in a charity hospital eliminated, to a great extent, early cases. This was in part, compensated for by the size of the examined sample and by the completeness, as well as the uniformity, of the examination. In analyzing our material, the available findings in the literature were tabulated for comparison. Although this study analyzes the clinical features of autopsy cases, it also includes 128 postmortem cases in which previous definitive surgery had been done. RESULTS The sex incidence of carcinoma of the rectum,