Chapter 7 



Immunology and Self-Saving Catalysts 



Immunity itself must have begun with the development of the 

 mechanism whereby organisms respond to the presence of infec- 

 tious organisms by forming antibodies. But the science of im- 

 munology, which studies the extent, nature and mechanism of 

 immunity, is of relatively recent development, and has been given 

 extensive study by specialized groups of physicians, bacteriologists 

 and chemists. As early as the 7th century A.D. person-to-person 

 inoculation was used in China to protect against smallpox — a 

 practice also known in Arabia. A full century before Jenner 

 introduced vaccination in England, the Chinese were using cow- 

 fleas, an insect carrier, to give a protective attack of cowpox. 1 As 

 a practical method, immunology dates from Louis Pasteur, who 

 developed methods of protection against the dreaded anthrax and 

 rabies by the use of weakened or attenuated infective agents. I 

 reproduce here the signature of 



^z-^ 



As a small boy, he was the first person saved by Pasteur from 

 rabies. This signature was obtained in 1926 at Institut Pasteur 

 in Paris, where Meister was concierge, a living monument to the 

 great chemist-bacteriologist-immunologist. 



Since the precise chemical nature of the colloidal substances 

 involved in immunological reactions was unknown, they were 

 given names corresponding to their observable effects. The spe- 

 cial nomenclature which developed is here outlined. 



Substances are termed antigens if they can stimulate or cause a 

 plant or animal to produce other substances, termed antibodies, 

 which are able to react specifically with the inciting antigen. 

 Time is required for the formation of the antibody, or immuniza- 

 tion, as it is called; and an organism may inherit immunity to 

 many antigens or may develop immunity to them, e.g., either by 



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