Leucocytes: Separation, Collection and Transfusion

Volume 6 of the series "The Eye" is a companion to Volume 5, dealing with comparative physiology. Volume 6 concentrates on physiologic optics and retinal anatomy, physiology, and metabolism. Of course it is a herculean task to assemble the mass of published data on these subjects in less than 400 pages. The work cannot be considered as a reference text, however, but rather a collection of subjects of special interest, varying in scope depending on the individual authors. Neither is this book a narrative, but rather a grouping of individual essays, each having an excellence of its own. While lacking integration, the volume provides interesting and stimulating data on its several subjects. For this reason, it will become part of the library of persons working in the field of sensory physiology of the eye who may not believe that comparative physiology is the goal of the treatise. The brief fifth chapter on the organization of the vertebrate retina is not particularly ambitious, but is particularly tight, and therefore will provide a responsive cord to inquiring students and teachers of visual science. The field of leucocyte transfusion of granulocytopenic patients encompasses mainly those individuals with malignancies who have been rendered cytopenic, hopefully transiently and, primarily, iatrogenically, in attempts at cure or remission induction with chemotherapy. As such, it represents one of several modalities in the care of cancer patients (e.g., platelet transfusion, laminar flow rooms) broadly known as "support services." Unlike most such presently utilized techniques, white cell transfusion is very much an experimental therapy, although, with good reason, high hopes are held for it. Since most antineoplastic drugs have relatively low therapeutic indices, the need for cell support services during recovery of effective bone marrow function is critical. Whereas previously many leukemic patients, for example, died of bleeding diatheses, the advent of efficacious hemostatic support from platelet and fresh-frozen plasma transfusions has focused attention on the increasing proportion of such patients whose cure or prolongation of survival is mitigated against by overwhelming sepsis. It is hoped that granulocyte transfusion may play a role in ameliorating this problem. The present work is not primarily notable for its timely coverage of current advances in a field which has practically been created de novo over the last half-decade and in which, in fact, the critical, definitive studies are still in the balance. No volume could hope to achieve this goal. The distinct achievement …