5 - The Scientific Basis of Immunology

Abstract

This chapter reviews the scientific history that provides a scientific basis of immunology. Pari passu with the development of knowledge of the important part bacteria played in the causation of human disease, an interest began to be taken in the processes by which the body resisted invasion by microorganisms and by which immunity following infection was achieved. The first positive contributions to knowledge of the mechanisms of immunity were those of the Russian zoologist E. Metchnikoff, about the beginning of 1883. He was working on intracellular digestion of food and the origin of the intestine in invertebrates. While observing the life in the mobile cells of a transparent starfish larva with his microscope, a new thought suddenly flashed across his brain. It struck him that similar cells might serve in the defense of the organism against intruders. If this supposition was true, a splinter introduced into the body of a star-fish larva, devoid of blood vessels or of a nervous system, should soon be surrounded by mobile cells as is to be observed in a man who runs a splinter into his finger. Metchnikoff at once introduced a rose thorn under the skin of a star-fish larva, and, after a sleepless night of excitement, found his prediction fulfilled. The credit for developing knowledge of this important mechanism of immunity belongs entirely to Metchnikoff. Metchnikoff is one of the very greatest figures in the history of medical microbiology. In 1891, Metchnikoff gave a series of lectures at the Pasteur Institute under the title of the Comparative pathology of inflammation, which were published the following year and constitute one of the great books of medicine.