New Developments in Tissue Culture

THE IMMUNOLOGY OF RHEUMATISM. By Jerzy B. Kwapinski and Marshall L. Synder. New York, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962. xii, 255 pp. $9.00. The immunology of rheumatism is a large field which is rapidly evolving. Any monograph on the subject will almost surely seem somewhat antiquated by the time it appears in print, and this monograph is no exception. Most of the references date from 1958 or earlier, and in dealing with such subjects as the serological changes in rheumatoid arthritis the material seems particularly inadequate. There are other, perhaps more serious drawbacks in that the authors have assumed some rather general theories of basic immune mechanisms, and have attempted to treat "rheumatism" as a unit and to discuss specific experimental data within a large and somewhat loose framework of theory. Perhaps at no time in the modern study of immune mechanisms have experimental data been so hard to fit into a coherent unified concept of immunologic processes. Much of the monograph deals with specific serologic reactions to the streptococcus, and this field is generally well reviewed. Both authors have worked extensively with the streptococcus, and the monograph will be of interest to those working in this specific field. It cannot, however, be recommended as an adequate treatment of immunologic changes in rheumatic diseases. J. W. HOLLINGSWORTH