Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Joan Demas, who worked extensively with the local, national, and international authors to ensure that their ideas were effectively expressed. She has assisted all of us in checking the facts, finding essential references, and improving the structure and function of our text, while dedicating her efforts to ensuring the precision and rigor of the text for her fifth consecutive edition. She has helped authors new and old achieve their commitment with the skill of an exceptional publishing professional. The authors' and editors' work is better because of her devotion to excellence, calm demeanor in the face of editorial chaos, and consistent presence throughout each stage of the production of this text. We are deeply appreciative of the wonderful effort she provides for our readers and colleagues.

The many letters and verbal communications we have received with the reviews of the previous editions of this book continue to improve our efforts. We are deeply indebted to our friends, associates, residents, fellows, and students, who stimulated us to begin this book with their questions and then faithfully criticized our answers.

We appreciate the assistance of Dorice Vieira, Associate Curator, Medical Library, and Clinical Outreach and Graduate Medical Education Librarian, in her commitment to helping us find essential information.

We thank the many volunteers, students, librarians, and particularly the St. John's University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences students and drug information staff who provide us with vital technical assistance in our daily attempts to deal with toxicologic emergencies.

No words can adequately express our indebtedness to the many authors who worked on earlier editions of many of the chapters in this book. As different authors write and rewrite topics with each new edition, we recognize that without the foundational work of their predecessors this book would not be what it is today.

We appreciate the creative skills in design and scientific art that the McGraw-Hill team, led by Armen Ovsepyan, have added to the text. The devotion to the creation of high-quality art graphics and tables is greatly appreciated. The support for excellence in this edition was facilitated by the constant vigilance of our longstanding collaborator Senior Content Acquisitions Editor Karen Edmonson whose thoughtful, and cooperative spirit persists after all these years. Her intelligence and ever vigilant commitment to our efforts has been wonderful. We are pleased with the creative developmental editorial efforts of Robert Pancotti. The organized project management by Revathi Viswanathan has found errors hiding throughout our pages. Her carefully posed questions have facilitated the process of correcting the text. It has been a pleasure to have her assistance. We greatly appreciate the compulsion that Maria van Beuren has applied to make the index of this edition one of unique value. She demonstrated exceptional rigor with a twist of copy editing to find many unseen errors, saving the reader confusion and us embarrassment. We appreciate the work of Catherine Saggese in ensuring the quality of production in the finished work.