In 19291and in 19322Oppenheim described a "specific" form of disseminated degeneration of the connective tissue of the skin in persons with diabetes. Urbach3reported an apparently similar disease in 1932 and proposed the name necrobiosis lipoidica diabeticorum. He gave the results of staining sections of the skin for fat. The number of reports of cases of necrobiosis lipoidica rapidly accumulated. In 1939 Boldt4reviewed the subject and collected a total of 74 cases that had been reported since 1930. In 1940 Hildebrand, Montgomery and Rynearson5stated that 86 cases had been recognized. Examples of the disease have been reported in nondiabetic patients, in patients with normal sugar tolerance and in patients in whom the values for lipoids, cholesterol and cholesterol esters in the blood were within normal limits. Ulcers developed in some patients with necrobiosis lipoidica; in others there was complete healing with