It is for me, as President of the Merseyside Lancashire & Cheshire Council on Alcoholism, a signal privilege to write a brief foreword to these Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. During the week experts, from the world over, in all those disciplines which have a contribution to make to the solution of the problems of alcoholism and drug dependence, surveyed recent advances in our knowledge of the aetiology, epidemiology, early recognition, management, and the social and industrial implications of these twin scourges of the contemporary scene....