Sixty-eight samples were removed during autopsy from the right lateral thigh of seven female and ten male deceased persons between the ages of 50 and 82 years. These samples were examined with regard to their mechanical properties. For this purpose, two test series were used. The first series involved natural strips of skin and the second series comprised solvent-dried, gammasterilized and rehydrated strips of skin. The aim of the examinations was -to research the tensile strength of strips of human hide, -the effects of the conservation/sterilization process, -the possibility of a homological transplantation and -the dependency on age and sex. The tensile strength was found to be 29.70 kp mean average in the case of the male natural samples and 28.02 kp mean average for the female samples. The gamma-sterilized samples showed a marked loss in tensile strength of approximately 50%. The remaining tensile strength of 14.53 kp mean average is judged to be reasonably sufficient for use in homological transplants with gamma-sterilized strips of hide. There was found to be no dependency on age or sex.