In reviewing the care of the mentally ill and the fundamentals of the mental hygiene movement, to wit, the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, one notes a definite role that the mental hospital has always played and always will play in the movement: a role that will not be effaced but, on the contrary, will become more prominent with the passing years. The role of a research and treatment agency cannot be denied the mental hospital of the past. The great mass of knowledge on mental hygiene now possessed came through such institutions. The part played by these institutions in the broader fields of prevention, through mental clinics, social service and educational activities, in more recent years likewise tends to fix them more permanently as the keystone in any physical organization for the practical application of mental hygiene. In rural districts, particularly, these institutions have become such integral