Abstract
THIS most readable and interesting book is divided into three parts. The first discusses the general principles underlying natural resistance and acquired immunity to parasitic infections. The factors influencing natural resistance to parasitic infection are numerous and no one of them applies to all examples. The importance of the genetic constitution of the host is clearly shown in the differing racial resistance to malaria ; negroes-even the very young before natural infection can confuse the issue-sometimes resist all efforts to infect them with P. vivax, whereas white persons are uniformly susceptible. Age also plays its part in resistance, and a complete chapter is devoted to the discussion of the various ways in which age influences immunity to parasites. Sex appears relatively unimportant although resistance to a few diseases is apparently influenced by this factor. Intercurrent infections usually result in depression of resistance but in some instances resistance to one parasite may be increased by simultaneous infection by another, as is demonstrated by the diminished pathogenicity of certain trypanosomes in mice infected with spirochætes compared to the same trypanosomal infection alone, and by the behaviour of different species of malarial parasites simultaneously infecting man. The character of the diet also influences profoundly certain parasitic infections; and although the most conspicuous effects are seen upon parasites residing in the alimentary canal, yet there is evidence of dietary influences on some somatic infections. The various organs and tissues also play their own special part in resistance to parasitic infection ; the action of the reticulo endothelial system is well recognized, but the effect of special defensive factors associated with other cells of the host and the influence of various invasive factors of the parasites themselves are not so commonly taken into account.
Immunity against Animal Parasites
By Prof. James T. Culbertson. Pp. x + 274. (New York: Columbia University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1941.) 36s. 6d. net.
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MURGATROYD, F. IMMUNITY AGAINST ANIMAL PARASITES. Nature 150, 360 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/150360a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/150360a0