A review of about 120 papers indicates that hypertension is a 'constitutional disorder in which both hereditary and environmental (vasospastic) factors' are of importance. In an attempt to assign a proper relationship to the three systems of the body and to the various factors that play a part in the pathogenesis of hypertension, a scheme has been constructed by the author which

indicates the relative importance of constitutional and hereditary factors, the endocrines and the vegetative nervous system. Another system includes the psyche with 'anxiety, unconscious conflict and emotional stress' as hypertensive factors. In the text of the paper the psychological considerations are cut very short and the author mentioned only one publication of the psychoanalytic journals, so that the reviewer gets the impression that the paper is written from a one-sided point of view. It gives clear information about the present knowledge of the problem in question, as the physiologist sees it.