Every specialist, at present, is confronted with the fact that it is continually becoming more difficult to remain 'up to date'. The areas in which he must read are expanding while the individual publications are becoming greater in number, larger in content and appear more frequently. The choice of the subject was not easy. This time we have selected the pharmacological aspects of anaesthesiology as our main topic, as a continu­ ation of the Boerhaave course in 1971. Although we know that a drug works, the mechanism behind this action is of great importance. The pharmacokinetics and side effects of the drugs we administer affect not only our patients, but also ourselves, our children, and the personnel under our care. In a special section we draw attention to this subject. We fervently hope that this symposium will further enrich your knowledge of anaesthesia and that through this enrichment you will derive more pleasure from the profession you have chosen and that in the end this will lead to even better care and treatment of the patients entrusted to us. We wish to express our thanks to Prof. C. M. Conway, Dr. D. T. Popescu, and Prof. D. M. E. Vermeulen-Cranch for their assistance in the editing of some of the chapters in this book.