Seven quite distinct papers are bound together in this book, the first of a series from the Committee on an Aging Society of the Institute of Medicine. The papers are treatises on the array of demographic changes that result from an aging society and that will soon affect health care policy; the concept of active life expectancy, which is to be distinguished from simple life expectancy; the results of current research on cardiovascular aging, which will have a remarkable effect on both clinical medicine and health policy; depressive illness in later life; the clinically relevant aspects of dementia and current . . .