As a rule when the terms, "water balance" or "Cwater exchange," occur in clinical literature, the writer has in mind merely a comparison between the water which enters the body as food and drink with the water which leaves it as urine. Sometimes the water of the stool is also included. *A statement that includes merely these increments of water is inaccurate and liable to be misleading, since it fails to take into account (1) the large amount of water that is evaporated from the skin and lungs; (2) the water that is formed by oxidation of the food; (3) water physically held as part of the protoplasm, but set free when the organism derives some of its energy by burning its own tissues.We propose to describe a system which permits the observer to obtain an accurate account of all the sources and the total amount of water that becomes available for the organism on the one hand; and of the amount of water that leaves the organism on the other hand.In working out a plan for dealing with all the increments of water, it is helpful to think of them under two separate headings: (1) Those that may be measured by standard laboratory methods; and (2) those whose value is obtained indirectly by calculation. The first group includes the water that the subject drinks as such, and the water contained in the food, urine and stool. The second group consists of the water evaporated from the skin and lungs, the water that is a byproduct of the combustion of materials, and water made free when body tissue is burned.

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