This monograph focuses on splanchnic function in health and disease. It represents a distillate of the communication that took place at the First International Symposium of Applied Physiol­ ogy of the Peripheral Circulation, "Splanchnic Circulation: No Longer a Silent Partner." The individual chapters roughly follow the individual presentations and display in durable form the con­ cepts and importance that this symposium achieved. The concept for this annual symposium was the child of An­ tonio Artigas, who not only recruited sponsorship but also Jean­ Francois Dhainaut and me to help with the organization and work. We chose the splanchnic circulation as the peripheral cir­ culatory system to be presented first for many important