Hypertension, unassociated with cardiac or renal disease, so
common in other countries, is uncommon in China. Attention has
been called to this by Cadbury,1 Cruickshank,2 Kilborn3 and
others, who have also shown that the average blood pressure of
the Chinese is lower than the average for persons in other
countries. In the Hunan-Yale Hospital, of more than 4,000 cases
in the medical service department during the past four years,
there has been only one diagnosed as essential hypertension,
and, including the cases of nephritis and cardiac disease, not
more than twenty with blood pressures over 160. During two
years, 1918 and 1919, of 4,940 patients in the medical service
of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital,4 Boston, there were 236
cases of essential hypertension and 146 cases of chronic
nephritis with hypertension. It has been my impression and that
of others on our staff that less hypertension is seen among the