In recent years the literature on lupus erythematosus has increased decidedly, the disease now occupying a place second to syphilis in the number of contributions to dermatologic publications. Since 1924 attention has been given especially to treatment. More recently, however, as the novelty and variations of therapy subsided and further experience checked early enthusiasm, some physicians in Philadelphia had their attention diverted to the marked increase in incidence of the disease. The number of new cases in recent years would lead to the belief that there is justification for concluding that a virtual epidemic of this malady is present. At the Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church only 6 new cases of lupus erythematosus of all types were listed during 1930, a year in which 830 new cases of cutaneous disease were observed, making an incidence of 0.72 per cent. Until that time the number of cases of lupus erythematosus