PREFACE 



The reader of this book will understand from its contents, and 

 particularly from its concluding chapter, why it has remained for 

 one of Bordet's pupils to present his work as a whole to the scientific 

 world. Although for more than fifteen years a protagonist in the 

 modern development of Immunity, Bordet has continued an in- 

 vestigator instead of becoming a generalizer; he has been led by 

 thoroughness of observation and brilliancy of inductive reason to 

 the collection of successive significant facts rather than to the 

 assimilation of scattered data in support of a preconceived theory. 

 Whereas others have been willing to venture more fully explanatory 

 theories of Immunity, Bordet, although contributing a dispropor- 

 tionate number of important facts, has contented himself with the 

 hypotheses which bridge from one experiment to another, and has 

 fully realized the necessarily fragmentary nature of our present 

 knowledge in this field of science. 



This compilation was undertaken, not so much owing to the 

 apparent demand for similar examples of monographic collection, 

 as from a sincere conviction of the fundamental importance of each 

 contribution which Jules Bordet has directly or indirectly given us. 

 The somewhat extensive task has been welcomed as a means of 

 expressing gratitude for a personal inspiration in scientific thought 

 and method. 



It would seem of particular importance, in view of the over- 

 Germanizing of American science, that this collection of monographs 

 should appear in this country. 



The volume includes all of Bordet's scientific contributions with 

 a few exceptions. Among the latter may be mentioned the article 

 with Danysz on the method of combined active and passive im- 

 munization against Rinderpest, a series of four articles on Coagula- 

 tion of Blood (with Gengou), and a note on the Spirocheta pallida, 



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