Kurt Stern

Immunology for Students of Medicine

During the last decade it is neither the rate of progress nor the number of significant discoveries that distinguish advances made in immunology from those in other branches of biomedical science. It is rather the speed with which new knowledge has been transferred from the laboratory bench to the bedside. And, vice versa, challenges posed by human disease have been met by successful experimentation. The third edition of this remarkable book supports such a view and, parenthetically, invalidates the alleged conflict between basic and applied research. The growth and change of immunologic concepts in the years since the previous edition is shown by the four new chapters:: the specific immune response; complement; the mechanism of immunoglobulins and disorders of immunoglobulin production; immunology of tumors. Discussion of many other topics has been thoroughly revised and supplemented by recent observations, with new tables, figures, and photomicrographs taken from literature published after 1964.