Summary. Using isolated head perfnsed at constant flow rates, close to those occurring in vivo, the movement of tritiated water through the gill epithelium of the trout, Salmo gairdneri was studied.The analysis of the curves of loading and unloading of tritiated water between the gill epithelium and the external and internal media shows two exponentials with different slopes in each medium. As the rapid exponentials have identical slopes, the external medium, the gill epithelium, and the perfusion medium constitute a system of three compartments in series for water exchanges. The kinetic analysis of rapid exponentials allowed us to calculate the characteristics of water movement through the apical and basal membrane and the size of the pool of water participating in the exchange mechanism.When the trout head is perfused without adrenaline, the permeability of the apical membrane to water is about 8 times higher than that of the basal membrane, the latter constituting the limiting factor for water diffusion.When ~the trout head is perfused with a perfusion medium containing 10-5M adrenaline this hormone produces a double action: it leads to a comparable increase in the permeability of both the apical and basal membranes and also increases the size of the water transport pool by a factor of four.