Even if the "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) and, among them, stocks of organoph- phorus (OP) agents (also referred to as war gases and nerve gases) were not found in Iraq following the US-Iraq war, the relative ease with which these substances can be made from harmless precursors and the low cost of their manufacture will continue to fascinate pow- hungry, ruthless dictators, as well as multinational and international terrorists, particularly as the close relationship between the OP agents and useful insecticides makes it easy to disguise the importation and purchase of small amounts of the precursors. Indeed, the use by Saddam Hussein of a nerve gas against the Kurds and his possible employment of the OP agents during his war with Iran, and the Sarin attack in the Tokyo underground by an extremist religious set magnetized the world with respect to the OP drugs. As these drugs exert their toxicity via their cholinergic action on the nervous, particularly central nervous, system, it is no wonder that the research in the cholinergic ? eld attracts, and merits, our intense attention. These considerations underlie the signi? cance of this book, as Alex Karczmar devotes an entire chapter of Exploring the Vertebrate Central Cholinergic Nervous System to anticholinest- ases (antiChEs), and as he is an acknowledged expert in the ? eld of cholinergic toxicity as well as a consultant to the Surgeon General of the U. S. Army.

This volume is based on the Symposium on "The Brain and Human Behavior," held in October of 1969 as a part of the centennial observance of the Loyola Uni versity of Chicago. As President of the University, I was pleased to offer the University's support for the organization of this Symposium and to participate in some of its sessions. The volume which I now have the pleasure to introduce employs the materials of the Symposium as a framework. Its chapters constitute updated and greatly expanded versions of the original presentations, edited and organized so as to constitute an integrated picture of Neurosciences and their epistemological aspects. It seems appropriate for me to describe at this time certain features of this Jesuit University and of its Centennial which are particularly pertinent in the context of the present volume. Loyola University of Chicago opened its classes on September 5, 1870 with a faculty of 4 and a student body of 37. Today, Loyola University is the largest in dependent University in Illinois and the largest institution of higher learning under Catholic sponsorship in the United States of America. The University comprises twelve schools and colleges, a faculty of more than 1,600 and a student body of 16,545. As an institution of learning, this University is dedicated to knowledge; but perhaps more particularly than others, it is dedicated to the integration of truth and the knowledge of man as such."

Even if the "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD) and, among them, stocks of organoph- phorus (OP) agents (also referred to as war gases and nerve gases) were not found in Iraq following the US-Iraq war, the relative ease with which these substances can be made from harmless precursors and the low cost of their manufacture will continue to fascinate pow- hungry, ruthless dictators, as well as multinational and international terrorists, particularly as the close relationship between the OP agents and useful insecticides makes it easy to disguise the importation and purchase of small amounts of the precursors. Indeed, the use by Saddam Hussein of a nerve gas against the Kurds and his possible employment of the OP agents during his war with Iran, and the Sarin attack in the Tokyo underground by an extremist religious set magnetized the world with respect to the OP drugs. As these drugs exert their toxicity via their cholinergic action on the nervous, particularly central nervous, system, it is no wonder that the research in the cholinergic ? eld attracts, and merits, our intense attention. These considerations underlie the signi? cance of this book, as Alex Karczmar devotes an entire chapter of Exploring the Vertebrate Central Cholinergic Nervous System to anticholinest- ases (antiChEs), and as he is an acknowledged expert in the ? eld of cholinergic toxicity as well as a consultant to the Surgeon General of the U. S. Army.