Fourteen sheep fetuses in the third trimester of gestation were surgically prepared with intravascular catheters and five were nephrectomized. All experiments were done on unanaesthetized fetuses in utero, 3 to 9 days after surgery. Mean arterial blood pressure was recorded while fetal blood volume was changed by injection or withdrawal of blood, or infusion of Ringer's or dextran solutions. Fetal arterial blood gases and pH changed little during the experiments and were shown not to have affected the results. Arterial blood pressure was strongly influenced by changes in fetal blood volume and was also found to depend on haematocrit. There were no detectable differences between the responses of normal and nephrectomized fetuses or between normal fetuses and fetuses treated with hexamethonium. In all preparations central venous pressure depended on blood volume. Heart rate did not depend on blood volume in normal fetuses, but an increase in heart rate with an increase in blood volume was seen after hexamethonium. The open loop gain of baroceptor control of arterial blood pressure could not be proved to differ significantly from zero. Venoconstrictor responses and heart rate responses of reflex origin did not occur when arterial blood pressure was changed. The absence of detectable baroceptor control appears to explain the great sensitivity of arterial blood pressure to blood volume in the unanaesthetized fetal lamb. Previously we found that fetal placental blood flow is almost proportional to fetal blood volume [Faber, Gault, Green and Thornburg, 1973]. Since placental resistance to flow is not known to be under fetal control, changes in placental blood flow were thought to be secondary to changes in arterial blood pressure, an explanation which would require that arterial blood pressure itself is also proportional to blood volume. Studies that demonstrate some control of arterial blood pressure by the baroceptors of the fetus [Brinkman, Ladner, Weston and Assali, 1969] and the neonate [Downing, 1960; Downing, Gardner and Rocamora, 1969] seem to argue against this supposition and we therefore investigated the relationship between arterial blood pressure and blood volume in unanaesthetized fetal lambs under near normal conditions. The contributions of the baroceptors, and of renal mechanisms, to the regulation of arterial blood pressure were assessed by experiments on fetuses with blocked ganglionic transmission or previous bilateral nephrectomy. Recordings of the pH, P02, and PCO2 of fetal arterial blood were made to monitor the condition of the preparations and to eliminate the possibility that the chemo-ceptors affected arterial blood pressure in these experiments. METHODS Animals Pregnant western mixed breed and Dorset ewes were starved for 24 hr prior to surgery and operated on under nitrous oxide-halothane anaesthesia, after induction 241