Preface by Allen W Cowley, Jr. Professor and Chairman. Department of Physiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA. „This university booklet written by Professor Emil Monos, revised from its first edition published in 1999, indeed represents an authoritative monograph of the physiology of veins. It is a unique and welcome contribution to our understanding of the physiology and pathophysiology of the venous component of the circulation... In the present monograph, Professor Monos brings together a lifetime of research experience and a consolidation of the literature specific to the physiology of the venous system that can currently be found in no other place... Professor Monos is to be congratulated for developing not only an authoritative booklet that will be of great interest to professional physiologists, but also an interesting and very readable text full of important examples of what happens in pathological states of venous dysfunction... In this preface I wish to emphasize the significance of a subject whose awareness has received inadequate attention in the medical literature. This well written monograph by Professor Monos simultaneously provides both an introduction to the subject of the physiology of veins,  as well as a comprehensive review that will be of great interest to even experts in the field of cardiovascular physiology. Such a learned treatise on the veins fills an important gap in the current medical literature."