The Leiden-Edinburgh Boerhaave Course on 'The Gastro-intestinal Tract', held in Leiden on October 29 and 30, 1969, resulted from the renewed co-operation between the Medical Faculties of Edinburgh and Leiden, based on very old ties. As one will know, the Edinburgh Faculty of Medi­ cine was founded in 1726 on the principles guiding the Leiden Faculty of Medicine at that time, on the instigation of John Monro I, who had studied medicine in Leiden under the famous Boerhaave. These old ties were revived some 8 years ago, first by students, later by the Faculties themselves, with the special purpose to facilitate and en­ large the exchange of medical knowledge between two medical centres. One of the results of this was that it was considered whether physicians from both countries could not profit from the knowledge gained specific­ ally in both these faculties by letting the investigators from both faculties tell about their work within the framework of courses for post-academic medical training, in Leiden called the 'Boerhaave Courses'.