It is a very special honour for me to be able to present this handbook of medical oncology, which under diverse headings and origins covers such a vast spectrum of experience. I be lieve the reader will be struck in particular by the impressive volume of information available, especially with regard to childhood tumours, which represent, today, an immense "lab oratory of hope." It is in this very field that we oncologists have been able to obtain the most consoling results in recent years. I feel sure that all those who read these chapters will find that their oncological competence is...

The fateful days of the great stock market crash entered modem history almost 50 years ago to this day. The cyclic turning point of the U. S. economy oc curred, however, around June 1929, and economic activity receded substantial ly over the subsequent months. The onset of an economic downswing thus became clearly visible before the famous crash. But the October event stays in the public's mind as the symbol of the Great Depression. For nearly four years, until the spring of 1933, the U. S. economy plunged into a deep reces sion. Activity declined, prices fell, and there emerged a massive...

The productive work of widely distributed academic research has contributed substantially, over the postwar period, to important advances in our understanding. It has also offered a clearer recognition of many unresolved problems. Never theless, the progress achieved over the last decades, ex hibited by the systematic application of "theory" to actual issues and observable problems, could not overcome a per vasive sense of dissatisfaction. Some academic endeavors pursued within a traditional range of economic analysis have appeared increasingly remote from broad social issues, motivating the...