Perhaps no class of patients inflicts so much strain on the time, patience and medical wisdom of the general practitioner and specialist in every branch of the profession as persons with hypochondriac complaints who drift with the tide of every day farther and farther out into a condition of invalidism. On the other hand, it must be admitted with equal regret that no class of patients suffers more at the hands of the general practitioner and specialist than do these unfortunate members of society. If one cares to burrow into the mass of literature that has accumulated about the subject, and to separate case histories from the luxuriance of terminology and classification by which they have become overgrown, he can satisfy himself that the above statements are not exaggerated. The helplessness of efforts to serve this large body of ailing human beings seems due to a persistence in our thinking