When I was asked by the late Professor Wolfgang Bargmann in 1973 to
write the continuation of his review article on the epiphysis cerebri
published in the present Handbuch Series in 1943 I felt greatly
flattered and readily agreed, not knowing that it is virtually
impossible for a single person to cover comprehensively the vast field
of pineal research carried out over the last 35 years. Although I have
done my best to include as much of the relevant work as possible (up to
July 1979), I am constantly haunted by the references I have missed. I
sincerely apologize for these omissions: first, to the authors of these
papers, who, in addition to working on one of the most stony grounds of
biological research, now may experience the additional frustration of
not being quoted; secondly, to my fellow pinealogists or
pinealogists-to-be, who may carry out painstaking experiments only to
find that they have been done before, or who may be led astray because
of lack of information. Nevertheless, I do hope that this monograph will
fulfil its aim, namely to show how pineal research has progressed over
the last 35 years and where it stands today. It is hoped that it will
aid in planning relevant experiments and that it shows which approaches
to the pineal problem would be better avoided.