Discussion concerning the placental passage of various metabolites has claimed attention for some years. While investigating the behaviour of plasma volume increase due to Macrodex* the present authors thought that it might be of interest to ascertain whether Dextran would pass the placenta into the fetal circulation at the end of pregnancy. Vara (1950) studied the effect of 10 per cent, salt-free Macrodex on toxaemia of late pregnancy. He showed that infused Dextran disappeared from the blood stream in about two days. It might be possible that this high disappearance rate was due to transfer via the fmtal tissues or the amniotic fluid or as seems more probable in toxaemia, the Dextran was stored in the maternal edema fluid. Vara (1950) also studied the Dextran content in the blood from the umbilical cord in two cases of toxaemia of late pregnancy, where the mothers had received Macrodex 3 hours before delivery. No Dextran could be shown to be present in the child’s circulation.