Progress in Toxicology: Special Topics Volume 1

SPECIAL TOPICS I was then Director of Biological Research of a pharmaceutical company just west of the Hackensack River swamps when my collabora- tors 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 700 empty pages. But I liked the idea enough to write down what I knew about my branch of biologi- Ical research, drug toxicology. With gentle prodding by Dr. Parkhurst IShore 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). Drug toxicology has changed much since 1963 when the review ap- peared. Its problems have certainly not become smaller. Scientists of many biological specialties have become interested in questions of harmful drug effects. Their input has greatly enriched the knowledge of the basic processes underlying certain forms of toxic drug reac- tions. With this surge of interest and effort, extreme specialization has occurred which sometimes tended to dominate the toxicological scene.