In 1909 Marburg1 suggested the possibility of an abnormal lipolytic ferment in the blood acting destructively on the myelin sheaths in multiple sclerosis. This possibility received added weight when Brickner2 reported that the plasma of patients with multiple sclerosis produces a greater degree of myelolysis of the spinal cords of rats in vitro than does normal plasma. Weil and Cleveland3 expressed the belief that the reaction is not sufficiently marked to be of etiologic significance. Crandall and Cherry4 found that 78 per cent of patients with multiple sclerosis had in their serums an abnormal lipase which would split olive oil. The serums of an equally high percentage of patients with hepatic or pancreatic disease split olive oil, with even greater facility. This abnormal lipolytic activity could be produced experimentally in dogs by damage to the liver or pancreas. Brickner5 reported that the values for serum