Hypertension, chronic nephritis and their related heart conditions are subjects of increasing interest because they are causing more deaths than any other disease process. This may be due, in part, to the prolongation of life. A larger number of persons are thus allowed to enter the decade of life when degenerative cardiovascular and renal conditions are most prone to occur. If the span of life is further increased, as seems likely, degenerative lesions will affect a still larger number of persons.
In spite of the great amount of work that has been done, the cause of high blood pressure and its frequently associated chronic nephritis has not been determined. The clinical importance of this subject warrants continued search for the causes of these conditions.
The rôle of excessive protein metabolism as an etiologic factor in arteriosclerosis and chronic nephritis has long been a matter of debate. There are many students