This volume records the proceedings at the Sixth School of Thoracic Medicine held at the Ettore Majorana School of International Scientific Culture in June 1982. Foregathered there were a heterogeneous group comprising clinicians, pharmacologists, pathologists, ultra­ microscopists, biochemists and immunologists and they presented the eighteen papers seen in the contents list. The discussion which followed each paper was faithfully recorded (and where necessary translated) and may be found after each author's presentation. This free discussion is perhaps the most valuable part of the School of Thoracic Medicine, and most clearly defines the present boundaries of knowledge, and the directions in which enquiry is being pursued. The collaboration of many people made the production of this book possible - for translation and the discussion typescript Miss Guiliana de Ferio; for the final typing and layout Miss Co rinne Wade. The illustrations have been dealt with where necessary by Mr. John Griffiths and the production of the book was done at The Midhurst Medical Research Institute prior to its delivery to Plenum Press.

Central and Peripheral Sites of Action.- Drug Receptors in the Lung, Especially Receptors.- Bronchodilators.- Hormones and the Lung.- Therapeutic Aerosols.- Chronic effects of drugs on airway mucus-secreting cells.- The Action of drugs on the mechanisms which keep the airways clear.- Multi-disciplinary treatment for lung cancer: prospect for increased cure rates in the next decade.- Treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis.- Drugs in the treatment of primary pulmonary arterial hypertension.- Vegetative control of pulmonary vascular compliance and resistance in man.- Assessing the effects of drugs on ventilation/ Perfusion.- The Assessment of drugs acting on interstitial lung diseases.- Pathological ef f ect s of drugs on the lung.- Drugs acting on respiratory muscles.