Murray Jarvik, inventor of the nicotine patch, died recently. I learned:
When the researchers could not get approval to run experiments on any subjects, they tested their idea on themselves. “We put the tobacco on our skin and waited to see what would happen,” Jarvik recalls. “Our heart rates increased, adrenaline began pumping, all the things that happen to smokers.”
Why, I wonder, didn’t they start with self-experimentation?