THERE is an urgent need for exact figures about the ultimate fate of patients with high blood pressure. It is indeed surprising how few reliable statistics on this subject have been published. As a result, it is often almost impossible to give an estimate about the probable duration of life in patients with hypertensive disease. This paucity of data is due to several causes: 1. In most cases the onset of hypertension is insidious and cannot be established. As a rule, several years elapse before the symptoms become severe enough to impel the patient to seek medical advice. The physician who first makes the diagnosis usually has no idea how long hypertension has already been present. 2. Because the disease often runs a course of many years, few physicians have the opportunity to observe a large number of cases from beginning to end. 3. The nature of the disease is