I am pleased to respond to the wish of the Editors, Drs A. Czeizel, H. G. Benk mann and H. W. Goedde and write the Foreword to this book "Genetics ofthe Hun garian population". This book represents the result of a fruitful international scientif ic cooperation, an endeavour that has been forged and sustained in the midst of a number of difficulties. It bears ample testimony to the fact that the pursuit of science transcends national boundaries and barriers and to what can be achieved through international cooperation. It has now become possible, among other things, to present a more meaningful characterization of the different ethnic groups than had been hitherto possible, thanks to the major advances in the study of human biology through the application of a wide variety of concepts and techniques. Several new disciplines, in particular, ecogenetics, pharmacogenetics and molecular biology have come into being and are flourishing. At the risk of stating the obvious, it is perhaps worth mentioning that the trends and place of migration and urbanization that we are witnessing today are such, that, before long, differences between different human gene pools may be substantially diminished, if not entirely obliterated. This book, therefore, is timely: it provides valuable information on who the Hungarians are, where they come from and where they are heading, in short, their past, present and future, in addition to presenting a broad perspective of some aspects of current research in biomedical sciences in Hungary.

1 Topics, materials and methods

2 The origins of the Hungarian population
3 Ethnic groups in Hungary
4 Anthropometrical traits
5 Blood groups and the results of certain blood group tests in Hungary
6 Genetic markers, serum protein and erythrocyte enzyme polymorphisms
7 Other traits
8 Ecogenetic and pharmacogenetic phenomena
9 The genetic polymorphism of adult intestinal lactase activity
10 Drinking behaviour and alcoholism
11 Psychometric traits
12 Disease spectrum
13 Comparison of allele frequencies in 24 genetic markers for 12 Hungarian ethnic groups and for 8 other non-Hungarian reference populations
14 Conclusions.