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In one of the previous studies of this series it was shown that the cardiac and skeletal muscles of patients dying of congestive heart failure were abnormally poor in potassium, Harrison, PMlcher and Ewing (1930). The loss of-potassium from skeletal muscle appeared to be related to edema, as muscles which were not edematous contained normal amounts of potassium. Pieces of skeletal muscles removed during life contained less potassium when the patients were edematous than when they were edema free. It appears therefore that the presence of edema is an important cause of the loss of potassium in skeletal muscle. The present study was undertaken in an attempt to determine the cause of the loss of potassium from the cardiac muscle. METHODTissues were obtained at the postmortem table. Pieces of ventricular muscle weighing 5 to 20 grams were freed of fat, weighed and dried to constant weight at 105 to 110°C. One to two decigrams of the dried muscle were digested with nitric acid as described by Van Slyke (1924) for chloride determinations. The nitric acid was then driven off by evaporation, and the residue was freed of ammonia by boiling with excess sodium hydroxide. The mixture was then neutralized with sulphuric acid. Potassium was precipitated as the cobalti-

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