The problems associated with the pharmacologic and physiologic regulation of neuromuscular transmission and of the morphofunctional organization of neuromuscular junctions have attracted a wide range of investigators. Numerous handbooks, monographs, and reviews are devoted to this subject. At the same time, many fundamental and applied aspects of this trend continue to progress succesfully. In recent years, new experimental and clinical data on the structure and function of neuromuscular junctions have been gained, and new, more perfect neuromuscular blocking agents have been designed. It is these data that the present handbook mainly deals with. A considerable number of chapters have been written by authors from eastern Europe. This was done intentionally since much of their work has previously been published only in their own languages, and is thus inaccessible to most Western readers. This is why some of the data included in the volume are not quite the latest, but they contain fruitful ideas or important results and are of value for further progress in the pharmacology of neuromuscular transmission. Naturally, the methodological level of the investigations differs, depending on when they were carried out. The handbook contains a number of selected chapters on the pharmacology of neuromuscular junctions; they comprise data otherwise insufficiently reviewed or not dealt with at all. They furthermore reflect the up-to-date state of the problem and probable directions of further developments in this field. D. A. KHARKEVICH Contents CHAPTER 1 Neuromuscular Blocking Agents: General Considerations D. A. KHARKEVICH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .