diff --git a/org.hl7.fhir.utilities/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/utilities/xhtml/XhtmlNode.java b/org.hl7.fhir.utilities/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/utilities/xhtml/XhtmlNode.java
index c8dfd6105..a47df8aea 100644
--- a/org.hl7.fhir.utilities/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/utilities/xhtml/XhtmlNode.java
+++ b/org.hl7.fhir.utilities/src/main/java/org/hl7/fhir/utilities/xhtml/XhtmlNode.java
@@ -362,7 +362,7 @@ public class XhtmlNode implements IBaseXhtml {
       return null;
     }
     try {
-      String retVal = new XhtmlComposer(XhtmlComposer.HTML).compose(this);
+      String retVal = new XhtmlComposer(XhtmlComposer.XML).compose(this);
       retVal = XhtmlDt.preprocessXhtmlNamespaceDeclaration(retVal);
       return retVal;
     } catch (Exception e) {
diff --git a/org.hl7.fhir.utilities/src/test/java/org/hl7/fhir/utilities/xhtml/XhtmlNodeTest.java b/org.hl7.fhir.utilities/src/test/java/org/hl7/fhir/utilities/xhtml/XhtmlNodeTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c5871b2c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.hl7.fhir.utilities/src/test/java/org/hl7/fhir/utilities/xhtml/XhtmlNodeTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+package org.hl7.fhir.utilities.xhtml;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.*;
+
+public class XhtmlNodeTest {
+
+  /**
+   * See https://github.com/jamesagnew/hapi-fhir/issues/1488
+   */
+  @Test
+  public void testDontEncodeHtmlOnlyEntities() {
+
+    // Entity that appears in XHTML not not in XML
+    XhtmlNode node = new XhtmlNode();
+    node.setValueAsString("<div>&reg;</div>");
+    assertEquals("<div xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml\">®</div>", node.getValueAsString());
+
+    // Entity that appears in both
+    node = new XhtmlNode();
+    node.setValueAsString("<div>&lt;</div>");
+    assertEquals("<div xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml\">&lt;</div>", node.getValueAsString());
+
+  }
+
+
+}
\ No newline at end of file