EVALUATION of the role of the adrenal cortex in the response of man to stressful situations has long been a problem of major interest to investigators. Early the effects of relatively well defined and isolated environmental events were studied. These included studies of auto race drivers,1college 0arsmen,2medical students taking final exams,3and patients prior to cardiac and pulmonary surgery.4Initially the stress of the event itself was regarded as the only significant variable against which the subjects physiological response was measured. The degree of stress which such events provided for the subjects under study was based entirely on subjective estimates by the investigators. Subsequent studies, especially those of Wolff,5Fox,6and Sachar,7modified this approach by suggesting the importance of individual difference in the psychological and physiological handling of threatening events in the environment,