The first part of this paper will be devoted to an outline of the theory of superconductivity in order to develop sufficient background to appreciate what effects fluctuations have upon super-conductivity. The second part by Dr. H. Gutfreund will discuss in more detail superconductivity and the more general problem of instabilities of one-dimension systems. In the third part we will discuss jointly the excitonic model of superconductivity and the results of a recent analysis of a particular model which we have proposed which appears to offer the possibility of achieving super-conductivity at comparatively high temperatures.