Summary.Investigation of the content of ascorbic acid in 75 women and 79 children at birth demonstrates: —1. that women in labour generally have a low content of ascorbic acid serum (average 0·36 mgr. %), if the season when the investigations were made is taken into consideration,2. that the content in the umbilical blood is considerably higher, both in maturely and in prematurely born (average 0·90 mgr. %); it is dependent on the content in the mother's blood, and it is possible to produce a further increase (to an average of 1·71 mgr. %) by the administration of ascorbic acid before b