A comprehensive review of the toxicity of the cationic surfactants was provided in 1970 in a book entitled Cationic Surfactants, edited by Eric Jungermann. To the author’s knowledge, at the time it was the first treatise on this subject in the literature, and apparently, it has remained so. The term systemic in reference to a type of toxic effect or toxicity study has become common parlance. A typical dictionary definition is “pertaining specifically, in physiology, to affecting the entire bodily system.” There appears to have been very little research interest in the potential for the quaternary ammonium compounds to influence the reproductive process or the development of fetuses. Interest in the ocular irritation of cationic surfactants dates back into the 1950s, when investigators became aware of the testing procedure devised by J. H. Draize et al. in 1944. The standard rabbit eye test has come under close review in regard to its accuracy and reproducibility.