Renal clearances of inulin and diodone, and hence certain important aspects of renal function, have hitherto only been incompletely studied in small laboratory animals. Kaplan & Smith (1935) estimated inulin clearances in rabbits and found that, in contrast to certain other mammalian species like the dog and human adults, inulin clearances increased with increasing urine flow. Diodone clearances in rabbits do not seem to have been recorded. Determination of inulin and diodone clearances in rats have recently been reported (Friedman & Livingstone, 1942). However, there are several features of the experimental technique used by these investigators which would seem to limit the usefulness of their results. (1) The urine samples were obtained from anaesthetized animals (type of anaesthetic not stated). (2) Owing probably to the use of an anaesthetic, the urine flow of their animals was uniformly very low (M. = 0-0033 ml./100 g./min., S.D. = + 0.00157) and this in spite of the fact that a saline diuretic (2 % sodium sulphate) had been administered some time before the experiment started. (3) Friedman & Livingstone's results, based on experiments on animals with a very limited range of urine flow, do not make it clear whether inulin clearances, and thus glomerular filtration rates, of rats change with alterations in urine flow. That is to say, it is not possible to see from their experiments whether, with reference to this important feature, renal function in the rat conforms to the 'rabbit type' or to the 'human type' of kidney.It is clear that the interrelation between inulin and diodone clearances and rate of urine flow had to be ascertained if, as in the present case, clearance determinations on normal rats and rabbits were meant to precede work which would involve experimental changes of renal function. A study of the renal mechanism of water diuresis was implicit in such an investigation.