We are living in an epoch when numerous secrets of nature are being discovered and natural resources are being reclaimed by humans. At the same time, however, this is an epoch of considerable human efforts to protect their health against an increasingly destructive anthropogenic activity. According to the accomplishments of various sciences and scien• tific disciplines, newways in that direction have been found. Geology, one of the basic natural sciences, is becoming one of outstanding importance in solving problems referring to agriculture, exploitation of the Earth's
• mineral resources, protection of the nature and environment, preserving
soil, water, energetic and other resources, protection against natural disa• sters (landslides, floods, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes), as well as problems of health protection.
It was a great pleasure to the author to study geosciences during a significant part of his life, to have opportunity to participate actively in solving different practical tasks in that domain, to explore numerous ar• eas of the Planet and finally to examine various geological concepts. As a result of the mentioned activities, the author's need has arised to give a contribution at the interface of geology and medical sciences, which has
. not so far been the subject of a sufficient attention, and 'to try as well to establish basic principles of a new, indeed necessary discipline. It may tum out to be useful to mention a discussion that took place during an important international meeting (XXI International Geological Congress, Rio de Janeiro, August, 2000), where the author reported fundamentals of medical geology, when one colleague put a question: "How have you come to idea to think and write about that subject?" The answer was based on the assumption that the whole life is being performed on the Earth, in the part of geological. environment which plays an essential role for the life activity, and it is therefore certainly understandable that there must exist strong influences of various geological factors onto the human health and that is indeed the medical geology which is to be extremely exploitated in investigating causes of the disease appearance. That is why another ques• tion is worth of thinking about - namely, why such a book has not been written so far.

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