THE OTHER night, as bedtime literature, I resumed reading in the Evans' Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage and ran across this bit of historiography stimulated by the words "incubus" and "succubus." "In former times," they write, "when demonology was a more exact science, an incubus was a male demon which haunted the sleep of women and was responsible for their bearing witches, demons, and deformed children. The innocent maiden, however, plagued by his advances could protect herself with St. Johnswort and vervain and dill. The succubus was the female counterpart. The offspring of the union of a man and a succubus was demonic, but the proper prayers, spells, or charms recited by the man upon awakening would prevent its conc,eption. These distinctions no longer hold in standard common usage, but the learned preserve them and delight in them." After twinkling briefly over the sly dig at the learned class t,o which the Evanses inescapably belong, I made a mental note to inquire on the following day whether St. Johnswort, vervain, or dill had any medical properties either separately or in combination, and ga,ve a less specific instruction to my subconscious to check on modern analogues of spells and charms. I would consider with you for a few moments this question of spells and charms and the modern counterparts in what we now call mental health. It should be understood that I am not a psychiatrist. My professional career has been devoted almost exclusively to public health administration. In my view this general term includes everything related to the establishment of communitywide health programs, of which, of course, mental health is an important component. In my pursuit of this specialty I have had a number of occasions to observe closely all of the aspects of programs for the detection, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental illness and for the promotion of good mental health. Fortunately, I have been one of that growing number of people who have assailed the problem of integration of mental health and community health from both sides. In the course of accumulating this experience I have developed some strong feelings and a few firm opinions about this matter of community mental health. From the vantage point of this experience I would like to consider a serious problem which is ours as citizens of the modern American community.