At each meeting of the Pan American Health Organization Advisory Committee on Medical Research, a special 1-day session is held on a topic chosen by the committee as being of particular interest. At the 7th meeting, which convened in June of 1968 in Washington, D.C., the session surveyed the origin, present distribution, and principal biological and medical issues of the American Indian--including the problems of newly contacted Indian groups and those of groups well along in transition. Recorded in this volume are the following papers and ensuing discussions: (1) The Origin and Dispersion of American Indians in North America; (2) Theses for Meditation on the Origin and Dispersion of Man in South America; (3) Biological Subdivisions of the Indian on the Basis of Physical Anthropology; (4) Biological Subdivisions of the Indian on the Basis of Genetic Traits; (5) The American Indian in the International Biological Program; (6) Survey of the Unacculturated Indians of Central and South America; (7) Medical Problems of Newly Contacted Indian Groups; (8) The Problem of Gallbladder Disease among Pima Indians; (9) Hyperglycemia in Pima Indians; (10) Malaria in the American Indian; (11) Food and Nutrition of the Maya Before the Conquest and at the Present Time; (12) Iodine Deficiency Without Goiter in Isolated Yanomama Indians; and (13) Study of Endemic Goiter in the American Indian. (Author/LS)