Autoimmunity and disease.

So rapid is the progress in the fields of immunity and autoimmune diseases that the general reader, if he merely stands still, is in fact falling behind by leaps and bounds. Consequently, this new book from England fills a real need. The authors have assembled and organized an enormous group of studies, some isolated, some interrelated, and have produced a coherent, comprehensive review of the present status of autoimmune mechanisms and their actual or possible relationship to many disease states. The first section summarizes the theoretical problems of immunity in general and autoimmunity in particular, giving an unusually lucid account of the protein chemistry involved. Detailed and perceptive discussions of rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus, those classical embodiments of all that is puzzling in the field, emphasize the practical applications of basic science to clinical medicine. In subsequent chapters, the many studies relating to diseases of individual organs are