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Galacturonic acid is one of the decomposition products of pectin. Manville, Bradway and McMinis have reported results in the rabbit which indicated that, on feeding pectin, galacturonic acid is produced in and absorbed from the intestine and eliminated as a galacturonide in the urine.' Malyoth2 first made such a suggestion, but later' stated, without supplying data and methods, that a high percentage of galacturonic acid, when given by mouth or parenterally to experimental animals, is recovered in the excreta without being conjugated. Our work was done to ascertain to what extent galacturonic acid is absorbed by the human and canine intestine and canine colon.The galacturonic acid used was obtained from the Research Department of the California Fruit Growers Exchange.By the Link Method4 the preparation yielded 21.8% Cog, which is equivalent to 87.2% uronic anhydride. By the A. 0. A. C. method5 for the determination of furfural, one gram of the preparation yielded 0.300 g of phloroglucide.Under nembutal anesthesia, a loop of ileum and colon was prepared by the usual method in 6 dogs. In addition, 3 unanesthetized dogs with permanent Thiery-Vella fistula of the ileum and one with a permanent entirely isolated cofon fistula were used. Two healthy human subjects with an ileostomy and a snugly fitting ileostomy bag volunteered for the study. In all tests a 5% solution of galacturonic acid having a A of -0.56OC and a pH of 2.5 was used; it was isotonic with erythrocytes. In the tests on the anesthetized dogs and on the dog with colon fistula, the absorption period was 2 hours, and 50 cc of the solution was introduced. In the case of the Thiery-Vella loops an absorption period of 1 hour was used, and 25, 40 and 50 cc of the solution was introduced. In all cases the loop was irrigated with Ringer's solution before the Methods.IManville, I. A., Bradway, E. M., and McMinis, A. S., Am.