ABSTRACT
The science of toxicology has a long and profound history. It has its roots in the ancient Greek and Roman empires where physicians made early attempts to classify plants and distinguish between toxic and therapeutic plants. Toxicologists use the power of science to predict how chemicals and damaging plants and minerals can be harmful. Not only is there individual variability in response, but other variables such as the exposure level, route of exposure, duration of exposure, age, gender, and the environment are used by toxicologists to determine the effect of toxicity. A specific undesirable outcome, such as carcinogenicity or neurotoxicity, is called a toxicological endpoint. Outcomes of toxicology testing experiments can be both continuous such as changes in brain weight and qualitative such as the presence or absence of a specific endpoint like cancer or can be evaluated on an ordinal scale such as low, moderate, or high.
