Erythroplasia is a comparatively rare disease if the number of cases reported in this country is taken as a criterion. There are no reports in the literature relative to its occurrence in the Negro. Since it is recognized as a precancerous dermatitis, its presence in a Negro enhances interest in the case under consideration because, as is a matter of common knowledge, the incidence of malignant processes of the cutis in the Negro is extremely low. REPORT OF CASE W. M., married, a full-bloded Negro aged 77, was born in the state of Virginia but had resided in New York for the past sixty-eight years. He entered the clinic in September 1934, complaining of a genital lesion that had had its inception four years before and had resisted all types of local therapy. The subjective symptoms were comparatively mild. The patient experienced an occasional sharp twinge