This textbook has its ongm in a longstanding international profes sional and personal relationship of the authors. The success of the German edition was a result of the interest of the German authors, Dr. K. Knorr and Dr. C. Lauritzen, in synthesizing basic and clinical information in a textbook, the size and scope of which are appropriate to the modern undergraduate medical student. A unique feature of the volume was the addition of American gynecological thinking by Dr. F. K. Beller, who spent 12 years at New York University before returning to Germany. The English edition, which is aimed at the American medical student, has enlisted the services of Dr. R. M. Wynn, whose academic career has been in the United States, although he is thoroughly familiar with principles and practices of German gynecology. The English edition is not merely a translation of the German text. Rather, it incorporates most of the material, but with judiciOUS deletions, additions, and substitutions it brings the teaching into the mainstream of American medical education. We acknowledge with gratitude the expert editional assistance of Dr. Henriette Knorr-Gartner. Dr. R. Schuh mann and Mr. H. Brandt of Springer-Verlag were responsible for the histological sketches. The late Dr. H. Roemer prepared the section on psychosomatic disorders; Dr. F. W. Ahnefeld assisted in the section on shock; and Dr. H. Breinl helped to prepare the chapter on anatomy in the German edition."

Almost a quarter of a century has elapsed since Cellular Biology of the Uterus, the predecessor of the present volume, was planned. During that period, especially in the decade since the publication of the last edition of Biology of the Uterus, new information in the field has been so voluminous as to require major revisions of most of the chapters, the addition of several new chapters, and the collaboration of a second editor to facilitate the selection of appropriate experts as authors. As in prior editions, a balance has been struck between classical biology and modem biochemistry and biophysics. The inclusion of basic histological and embryo logical information provides a necessary, though often lacking, background for the protein chemist and molecular biologist and a bridge between the cell biologist and clinician. Thus, major practical problems in human reproduction, such as the genesis of endometrial carcinoma and the cause of the initiation of labor, may be approached on a firm scientific footing. The current edition deals primarily with the biology of the uterus itself (comparative and human) rather than placentation or pregnancy and thus is a synthesis of data derived from many techniques, both conventional and modem. As it is clearly beyond the competence of anyone scientist to prepare such a text on the basis of personal knowledge and experience, the aid of 22 distinguished scientists was enlisted."