The following presents the proceedings of the Einthoven meeting in Leiden, 1-2 November 1979. This meeting aimed at reviewing the historical develop ment of a few selected cardiological topics as a continuous process. Essentially this means reviewing three phases: the early history, the recent past, and the present with an outlook to the future. Mainly because of the chosen fields - clearly our choice of heart catheterization, angiocardiography, and cardiac surgery was not accidental- the emphasis was on recent history, of which its pioneers and their contemporaries can still testify. The...