INTRODUCTION 



THE course here outlined is given by the authors at Colum- 

 bia University. The prerequisite theoretical knowledge is pre- 

 sented in a series of lectures based on the textbook " Infection 

 and Resistance/' by the senior author. 



Immunity, like other branches of science, cannot be taught 

 without experiment and demonstration. For this reason we 

 have, for several years, supplemented our lecture course on 

 Infection and Resistance by an optional course on Serum Tech- 

 nique. Our purpose in this has been not so much to teach 

 beginners to carry out practical diagnostic tests as to allow the 

 student to carry out fundamental experiments, and, in drawing 

 conclusions from his results, to learn to reason from protocols 

 and in this way discover the basic principles for himself. 



It has been our contention for a number of years that 

 thorough instruction in the phenomena of immunity consti- 

 tuted a logically necessary preparation for the clinic on infec- 

 tious diseases. For this reason our courses have been offered 

 as optionals to second and third year medical students. Con- 

 trary to ordinary belief, students at this stage of preparation 

 have found no difficulty in comprehending the work, and have, 

 we think, derived benefits in experimental methods and reason- 

 ing far beyond the actual gain in new facts. Though optional 

 now, these courses we hope may eventually become integral, 

 required parts of the regular medical curriculum the lectures 

 and demonstrations correlated with the laboratory course fol- 

 lowing the course in Bacteriology. This, however, we realize 

 may have to await the lengthening of the medical course as 

 a whole. Meanwhile such a course can certainly be optionally 



