PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 



This book is written for medical students and for others who 

 have had training in pathogenic bacteriology, inorganic and or- 

 ganic chemistry and who are interested in the underlying prin- 

 ciples involved in infection, resistance, and diagnostic laboratory 

 tests. It has been used in mimeograph form at the universities of 

 Kansas and Montana, respectively, for the past few years. From 

 this experience we have gained the impression that medical students 

 and college students majoring in bacteriology are able to read and 

 discuss intelligently the subject matter as it is here presented. It 

 is assumed that the text will be supplemented by laboratory experi- 

 ments since it is difficult and perhaps impossible to gain a working 

 knowledge of the subject without observing many of the phe- 

 nomena discussed. 



The author has attempted to lead the student to correlate some 

 of the teachings of physiology, pharmacology, organic, biological 

 and physical chemistry as well as anatomy, pathology and general 

 biology and apply these teachings to the elucidation of the mys- 

 teries surrounding infection, resistance, and diagnostic procedures. 

 He has attempted to show that clinical, experimental and pre- 

 ventive medicine contribute a great deal to our knowledge of the 

 subject. In fact it is hoped that the student will acquire enough 

 of the underlying philosophy of immunology to enable him to 

 attack, with reasonable success, the practical problems he will 

 encounter when he cjomes into contact with patients and the com- 

 munity at large in his clinical years in medicine. While empirical 

 knowledge may enable one to perform laboratory or other immu- 

 nological techniques, clinical experience and an understanding of 

 the underlying mechanisms and extraneous factors involved is (juitc 

 necessary to a correct interpretation of the results obtained. 



In view of the fact that the student needs to acquire an ade- 

 quate vocabulary of technical terms used in the text, definitions 

 are given quite freely. A chapter on colloids is introduced just 

 before the chapters that deal with the mechanisms involved in 

 agglutination, opsonification, and complement fixation. This is 

 done for the benefit of those students who are unfamiliar with 

 colloid chemistry. 



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