The Collected Papers of Paul Ehrlich, Volume I covers topics on histology, biochemistry, and pathology. The book presents topics on practice and theory of staining in histology; cytology of the blood in health and disease; and the staining of bacteria and its application to diagnosis. The text also includes topics on the requirement of the organism for oxygen and other allied biochemical studies; pharmacology, therapeutics and toxicology; and the diazobenzenesulphonic acid and dimethylaminobenzaldehyde reactions.

The concept of specific receptors for drugs, hormones and transmitters lies at the very heart of biomedicine. This book is the first to consider the idea from its 19th century origins in the work of John Newport Langley and Paul Ehrlich, to its development of during the 20th century and its current impact on drug discovery in the 21st century.

Following the testing of therapeutic sera, the quantified evaluation of a pharmaceutical's efficacy became a key feature of medicine in the twentieth century. The case studies in this volume offer comparisons across Europe, from the diphtheria antitoxin in the late 1800s to the introduction of the Salk polio vaccine in the 1950s.