Introduction

Abstract

I was then Director of Biological Research of a pharmaceutical company just west of the Hackensack River swamps when my collaborators presented me with an impressive book. Its gold-embossed title read: “WHAT I KNOW ABOUT BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH by GERHARD ZBINDEN, M.D.”. Those acquainted with the subtleties of American humor will have guessed the book’s content: about 7 00 empty pages. But I liked the idea enough to write down what I knew about my branch of biological research, drug toxicology. With gentle prodding by Dr. Parkhurst Shore of Dallas, Texas, I assembled a review on those experimental and clinical aspects of drug toxicology with which I, as an industrial toxicologist, had been most concerned with. It turned out to be a modest paper, considerably less than 700 pages, but it seemed to fill a need for others who were laboring on similar problems (Zbinden 1963).