The Infant Primate Research Laboratory at the University of Washington
was conceived in 1970 as a small research Wlit primarily for support of
two individual's interests in early develop- ment of nonhuman primates.
Because of their research emphasis, a modest nursery was required to
support a small population of animals for specific experimental studies.
The laboratory experi- enced rapid growth when others at the University
became interested in the use of monkeys as models for early development
and mental retardation in humans. In 1972 the Wlit was formally
established as a core facility of the Child Development and Mental
Retardation Center and the Regional Primate Research Center. This joint
administrative and financial support allowed us to invest considerable
effort in the development of normative data for rearing animals in our
nursery as well as for identifying, documenting, and rearing subjects at
high risk for neonatal death. As part of that effort, every attempt has
been made to promote a multidisciplinary approach to ques- tions
associated with rearing nonhuman primates. This volume includes much of
the information thus gathered. I feel that such an approach is essential
to the promotion of scientific principles in rearing and has allowed the
laboratory to contribute to prima- tology.