IT is a well established observation that Rauwolfia therapy causes an increase in body weight in some hypertensive subjects. Certain clinical observations have suggested that this weight increase might be the result of fluid retention. McGregor and Segel,1 Perera,2 Smirk and McQueen3 and Marley and Pare4 have described edema, breathlessness and raised venous pressure after Rauwolfia therapy for hypertension; Marley and Pare also reported a weight increase and a fall in hematocrit in nonhypertensive subjects on reserpine. Sarwer-Foner5 and Ferguson6 have noted edema in psychiatric patients given reserpine, and Greenblatt7 found that the edema of premenstrual tension became more pronounced . . .