A workshop on Dynamic Aspects of Cerebral Edema was organized to pro vide an opport nitY, for interdisciplinary and detailed consideration of this subject, so crucial in neurology and neurosurgery. The previ ous workshops were held in Vienna in 1965 and in Mainz in 1972. In the meantime, our ideas on mechanisms of resolution of cerebral edema had been changing drastically. Controversy had arisen regarding the role of biogenic amines in the development of edema. Active work in several centers had indicated the possibility of a reversible compo nent in edematous changes associated with ischemia, the control of which could be of therapeutic significance in the problem of stroke. It was felt that a thorough discussion, at this time, by those involv ed in these various studies should help to resolve the controversies, to crystallize the implications of the new findings, and to evaluate their application for patient care. In preparing the proceedings for publication we have edited the manu scripts and selected the discussions with an aim to highlight new find ings, to make this volume readable, and to eliminate duplication. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the institutions and organizations previously listed. Many individuals contributed to the success of the workshop and the preparation of the proceedings for publication. Doctors J.B. Brierley, I. Klatzo, H.J. Reulen, and A.G."

The symposium was arranged with the purpose of cutting across some of the lines dividing various disciplines all having a common interest in different aspects of the functioning of the brain. The essays, given originally as lectures at one of the Jubilee celebrations of the University of Saskatchewan, were deliberately designed to be of interest to laymen concerned with the problem of education as well as to academics dealing daily with products of the brain's activity in teaching and learning. One of the main themes of the book is that the human brain has far greater potentialities than our present methods of education are exploiting; another is that, although our universities can be said to owe their very existence to the multiplex activities of the human mind, the subject of how the brain functions and the application of even our rather meagre knowledge of this field to the sphere of teaching and learning remains greatly neglected in university programmes. The subject of brain function, studied daily by the neurologist and neuro-surgeon, should gain the interest of non-medical fields concerned with utilizing the mechanism of the mind.