The necropsy rate in the United Birmingham Hospitals has fallen from 744% in 1958 to 46 0% in 1972. In the Birmingham region as a whole the rate is 27 3%, approximately equal to the national rate. Most clinicians in the group who replied to a standard questionary considered that the necropsy still has an important part to play in their own practice and in undergraduate training, and they viewed the declining rate as a matter for concern. Some measure of disagreement was found between the ante-mortem and post-mortem diagnoses of patients in the two largest hospitals in the group. This suggests that the necropsy has a role to play in medical audit and that attempts to reverse the declining trend should be encouraged.

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