What do we mean by the phrase "formulation technology"! The word "formulation" has long been established as a synonym for "recipe". For many people, this term suggests something of a black art rather than an exact scientific discipline. The source of the oldest formulations is probably pharmacy, in which the skills associated with the development and execution of recipes has grown into an independent discipline, galenics. In other fields of chemistry, particularly industrial chemistry, formulations are amongst a company's most closely guarded trade secrets on account of their often considerable economic value. With a few exceptions, such as for pigments, foodstuffs, cosmetics, and agrochemicals, there is no general work covering the whole area of formulation technology; formulation chemists are forced to rely on widely scattered, although admittedly numerous, references in the most varied journals.