The theory for the evaluation of the effects of geometry in gamma ray absorption is developed for cylindrical scintillation detectors as applicable to borehole gamma spectrometry. The results of a laboratory experiment are shown for comparison. A calibration procedure to determine detector efficiency is given for application to borehole probes. It is shown that the response of a crystal can be separated in terms of geometric effects and instrumentation effects. It is also shown that approximating crystal detectors with point detectors in mathematical theory is grossly oversimplified. (USGS)