BOOK REVIEW 



Practical Textbook of Infection, Immunity, and Specific Therapy. John 

 A. KoLMER, M.D., Dr. P.H. Octavo of 899 pages with 143 illus- 

 trations, 43 in colors. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Company. 

 1915. $6. Half morocco, $7.50. 



Kolmer's work has not been in print a year, but has already won an 

 important place among the books useful to practitioner and labora- 

 tory worker. 



It is well-planned and, throughout, has the stamp of having been 

 written by one who is actively working in the subject about which he 

 is writing. It therefore avoids the fault, so frequently apparent in 

 textbooks, of consisting largely of the warmed-over teaching gleaned 

 from other writers. Kolmer is active in his subject, and has the judg- 

 ment of the trained worker in selecting his material. 



The discussions of theory are not too extensive and indeed in the 

 probably intentional neglect of detailed presentation of evidence on 

 controversial questions, the book may be somewhat disappointing to 

 the specializing bacteriologist and serologist. However, one has the 

 feeling that it is Kolmer's purpose to furnish a very complete manual 

 for the scholarly practitioner without confusing him by too involved a 

 discussion of principle, and this purpose is excellently served by the 

 book as a whole. 



The work is divided into five parts treating respectively of general 

 immunologic technique, principles of infection, principles of immunity, 

 applied immunity, prophjdaxis and treatment, and a series of experi- 

 ments excellently compiled for teaching purposes. Especially satis- 

 factory are those parts of the book which deal with clinical apphca- 

 tions, for the author seems to possess much judgment in matters in 

 which his own subject has contact with the clinic, an attribute not 

 over-common among laboratory teachers. The style is clear, illustra- 

 tions as a whole are of more than ornamental value, and explanations are 

 concise. 



The book should fulfill an important didactic function in making 

 easily accessible the principles underlying tests and procedures which 

 are used in hospital, clinic, and private practice, and which, unfortu- 

 nately, are too often ordered by the attending physician without 

 adequate knowledge concerning the principles underlying their perform- 

 ance and interpretation. Perhaps there has never been an era in medi- 

 cine in which the physician has relied so much upon the aid of diag- 

 nostic and therapeutic measures of which he possessed so little direct 

 understanding, and many a learned and affluent practitioner sends for 

 typhoid serum when he means vaccine, and thinks that the Wasser- 



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