At war within the double-edged sword of immunity - Clark, William R. (Oxford University Press, 1995)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-269) and index
Overture to a science unborn: smallpox and the origins of immunology -- The anatomy of an immune response -- Living in the bubble: primary immune deficiency diseases -- hypersensitivity and allergy -- Horror autotoxicus: the immunology of self-destruction -- When the wall comes tumbling down: AIDS -- Organ transplantation: exploring the boundary between technology and ethics -- Minding the immune system's business: the dialogue between the brain and the immune system -- Diversity, tolerance, and memory: the politically correct immune system
In the seventeenth century, smallpox reigned as the world's worst killer. Luck, more than anything else, decided who would live and who would die. That is, until Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, an English aristocrat, moved to Constantinople and noticed the Turkish practice of "ingrafting" or inoculation, which, she wrote, made "the small- pox ... entirely harmless." Convinced by what she witnessed, she allowed her six-year-old son to be ingrafted, and the treatment was a complete success--the young Montagu enjoyed lifelong immunity from smallpox. Lady Montagu's discovery would, ho