An experiment was designed to study in the same animal any preferential absorption of a free fatty acid in the presence of a triglyceride of the same fatty acid. Rats were administered a mixture of free fatty acid and its triglyceride labeled with carbon-13 and carbon-14 respectively. Each isotope in the fed lipid and in the lipid recovered from the gastrointestinal tract was measured. The isotope effect, if any, was studied by administering a mixture of palmitic acid-1-C13 and palmitic acid-1-C14.