Deakin (1967b) suggested that flow of blood might obey a law of minimal energy dissipation. The present paper presents a simpler derivation of Deakin’s equations pointing out several previously unrecognized features. It is shown that these equations are unlikely to be applicable. In particular, the solution obtained by Deakin and Jones (1968) does not yield a true minimum for energy dissipation. The solution for which energy dissipation is actually minimized is shown to possess features which render it unlikely to apply to a real flow.