One of the most fascinating tools at the disposal of the molecular biologist is the medical clinic. The responsibilities of those who provide health care do not stop when they give optimal care to the individual patient and train their successors adequately. They also are under the obligation to obtain maximal information from every case they treat in order to reach a better understanding of the underlying illness in order to improve therapeutic results in the next patient. Fundamental research in pathological material is therefore a medical must as well as an opportunity for scientific work....

Since 1952, postgraduate courses for practising physicians and speci- alists have been given by the Medical Faculty of the University of Leiden in the Boerhaave Quarter, in which most of its clinics and laboratories are located. During these years, recent advances in a wide variety of m~dical fields and subjects have been discussed by distin- guished speakers from many countries. The steadily increasing atten- dance has shown that, as could be expected from the rapid progress of modern medicine, there is a widely felt need for this form of postgra- duate study. In 1957, therefore, the Leiden...