The relationships among the retention time, elution curve shape, and the zeroth and first partial normal moments are evaluated under conditions in which slight, moderate, or severe lateral mass transfer control exists. The elution curve and its moments are characterized by a single dirnen-sionless group, ø, which is a measure of the rate of diffusional mass transfer into the stationary phase relative to the rate of mobile-phase convective mass transfer in the axial direction. Closed form solutions are given for a discrete description (a one-term approximation to the distributed description) of the stationary liquid phase. The dimension-less retention time is derived as a function of ø and the results compared to recently published experimental observations. The first normal moment is not invariant with respect to lateral kinetic phenomena when proper account is taken of the experimental restriction of a finite cutoff time.