The aim of thie following study is to present some modern conceptions in the treatment and control of leprosy, from the view point of, and with special reference to, experience gained while the writer was physician-superintendent to the Lady Willingdon Leper Settlement, the largest of its kind in Southern India. This institution, Government owned, was completed in 1924 and its management was almost immediately thereafter vested in the Mission of the United Free Church, now Church of Scotland. In October 1924 I was priviledged to commence charge os the Settlement during a period when great advances in the treatment and control of the disease were being made. The experience of organising the Institution provided me with every opportunity for studying the leper problem and for taking an active interest int he progress of events during my superintendence of six years. My interest has thus in no small measure been stimulated in the large scale control of leprosy, and my work has furnished administrative ideas, the exposition of which forms an integral part of the thesis. While bearing particular reference to the problem as experienced in India, it is hoped that the conclusions stated will apply equally to other leprotic centres
