The association of edema and starvation, particularly in epidemics, has been recognized for centuries. The commoner causes of the undernutrition are reflected in the terms "famine edema," "war edema," "prison edema," etc., which have been applied to this condition. During the World War edema attracted a great deal of attention, especially in Germany and the Central Powers where the reduction in food supplies made it extremely common. Still more recently it has been studied and reported among the population of certain famine districts in China.1The German studies, especially those of Schittenhelm and Schlecht,2Jansen,3Schittenhelm4and Knack and Neumann,5are of special interest, since it was shown that this type of edema was associated with a hypoproteinemia, owing presumably to an insufficient supply of protein in the diet. Since then other studies have shown that cases not only of war edema but of other types of