During the fall of 1923, I paid my first official visit, as visiting specialist, to the National Leprosarium at Carville, La. Some time previously I had visited this institution at the invitation of the medical officer in charge. During our conversation on the subject of the patients, he related his impression that mental abnormalities among them were not infrequent.
The statement confirmed similar observations already made, but not reported, by Dr. Ralph Hopkins, who long had visited the home professionally and who for many years has been a close student of leprosy.
My own impression after this initial visit was that the mental attitude of these patients differed somewhat from that of patients in large general hospitals. My visits were bimonthly and consisted largely of observations and examinations of such lepers as presented neurologic and psychiatric symptoms.
It is my purpose on this occasion to deal solely with the mental