Recent advances in mucosal immunity

The way our sciences keep advancing really is very admirable, as well as being somewhat disquieting for the uninitiated. When first I began research even the briefest sojourn in the library induced a twinge of guilt; flanked by serried ranks of books each one of which announced 'Advances' in this, 'Progress' in that, and 'Stupendous Triumphs' in something else, I felt I should rush back immediately to the bench and get on with it while there was still something left to be discovered. Age and experience have bred a certain relaxed cynicism, even though the bookshelves are longer and more populous than ever. For the most part, the 'Advances' turn out to be of the Western Front variety hard slogs that end up within spitting distance of the start line, with everyone shouting familiar war cries to keep their spirits up. With hindsight, when the discoveries have been made, it is easy to deride this approach. For most of us, though, often there is no alternative and the purpose of these books is really to give a 'situation report' that tells you the state of the art and lets you know what you are up against before you start your own experiments. It is in these terms that the present volume must be judged. Does it cover enough of the ground to give a balanced view to the newcomers and yet manage to tell the expert something he did not know? The short answer to this question is 'Yes'. The book, according to the preface, is based on a symposium held on an unspecified date at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland. Some 22 papers were presented and they are arranged in sections on 'Homing of Lymphoid Cells', 'Endotoxin', 'Oral Tolerance', 'T-B Interactions', 'B-Cell Differentiation', 'Mucosal Antigen Exposure', 'IgA Transport ' , 'Intraepithelial Lymphocytes', 'Mucus, the Attachment of Bacteria', and 'Mammary Secretions'. At the end of each section there is a short discussion and review. The typeface is agreeable and I particularly welcomed the clear and adequately large printing of the legends to tables and figures. On the whole the photomicrographs have reproduced well and the points made in the text about ultrastructure are discernible in the illustrations. Colour prints have not been included and although this may be a bit disappointing to devotees of immunofluorescence one cannot really expect them in this sort of publication. The references are well set out and include full tides and inclusive pagination a useful crib, for the next year or two at any rate. Technically, then, this book is well produced; so it should be, it costs nearly $100. In my opinion this price takes is right out of the personal market; it would be a useful addition to many libraries, though it is not without competitors. As with all books based on individual contributions to a symposium there are some discordant variations in style and approach. The editors sought to modify this by including presentations from individuals working in 'systemic' immunology. This was a mistake for two reasons: first, because the distinction between systemic and regional immunology is a physiological nonsense which derives from the blinkered viewpoint of practitioners of the former; second, because mucosal immunity has severely practical goals which should not be submerged by lofty speculations about T-B interactions, etc. These are nearly always couched in future-conditional constructions, for example 'It may well be that . . .' etc. Pigs might indeed fly if they had wings but merely to make the observation does not advance our understanding either of aerodynamics or of biology. Still, to be fair, the only real howler of a typing error that I found came in a more down-to-earth section. The real difficulty of presenting the topic of mucosal immunity is not the systemic versus regional business but the great variations which exist even between mammals: an important influence is the transmission of immunity from mother to offspring, and this varies according to placentation, mammary 201