Immunity : with special reference to specificity and the influence of non-specific factors / by R.A. O'Brien.

  • O'Brien, Richard Alfred, 1878-1970.
Date:
[1924?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Immunity : with special reference to specificity and the influence of non-specific factors / by R.A. O'Brien. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprinted from the British Medical Journal, December 13th, 1924. IMMUNITY, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SPECIFICITY AND THE INFLUENCE OF NON-SPECIFIC FACTORS.* R. A. O’BRIEN, C.B.E., M.D. (Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories.) If 1 can contribute anything of interest to the discussion to-day it will be based upon work which has been carried out during the past twenty-five years in a large laboratory where, in addition to a considerable amount of research work, probably 100,000 closely controlled experiments have been done in connexion with the production and testing of serums, vaccines, tuberculins, and laboratory reagents. For the purpose of this paper my colleagues have generously placed at my disposal the whole of their work, both pub¬ lished and unpublished. When carrying out the large number of tests mentioned the various laboratory workers have been constantly on the watch for the appearance of any factors that might affect the accuracy of the test or produce unexpected results. Apart from one exception, referred to later, we have never had any evidence that any “ non-specific ” factor—in the sense in which this word is ordinarily used—has affected our results. My apology for emphasizing these laboratory expe¬ riences is that they must influence my point of view; in this discussion I can represent mainly and almost solely the point of view of the laboratory worker. When faced with a new method which appears to promise prevention or cure, the strong tendency of the laboratory worker is to say in effect, “ By a certain injec¬ tion or treatment I can produce in every animal certain accurately measurable symptoms or lesions, or, it may be, death. Will this new method prevent these lesions or cure the animal in an experiment repeated one hundred times? ” This point of view has been present throughout my consideration of the whole problem. It is expedient to try to define the subject we are con¬ sidering. It seems to be impossible to define “ specificity ” concisely, because the word has been used in therapeutics * A paper read in opening a discussion in the Section of Pathology and Bacteriology at the Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association, Bradford, 1924. [303/24]