History of Immunology

Arthur M Silverstein, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Published online: April 2001

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0003078

Immunity to disease has long been recognized, but only during the late nineteenth century, thanks to Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, Elie Metchnikoff and Paul Ehrlich, did immunology become a true science able to explain mechanisms and to develop preventive vaccines. Originally medically oriented (1880–1910), the field passed through a stage of chemical domination (1910–1960) and then became biologically and, once again, medically oriented.

Keywords: immunology; allergy; vaccination; antibodies

 Further Reading
    book Arrhenius S (1970) Immunochemistry. New York: Macmillan.
    book Bibel DJ (1988) Milestones in Immunology. New York: Springer.
    book Bordet J (1909) Studies on Immunity, Gay F (transl.). New York: John Wiley.
    book Burnet FM (1959) The Clonal Selection Theory of Acquired Immunity. Cambridge: The University Press.
    book Burnet FM and Fenner F (1949) The Production of Antibodies, 2nd edn. Melbourne: Macmillan.
    book Ehrlich P (1905) Collected Studies in Immunity. New York: John Wiley.
    book Landsteiner K (1945) The Specificity of Serological Reactions. Boston: Harvard University Press.
    book Metchnikoff E (1905) Immunity in the Infectious Diseases. New York: Macmillan.
    book Parrish HJ (1965) A History of Immunization. Edinburgh: Livingstone.
    book Silverstein AM (1989) A History of Immunology. New York: Academic Press.
    book Tauber AI and Chernyak L (1991) Metchnikoff and the Origins of Immunology. New York: Oxford University Press.

Related Sub-Topics:

General Immunology | History
Contact Editor close
Submit a note to the editor about this article by filling in the form below.

* Required Field

Article Title: History of Immunology
 
How to Cite close
Silverstein, Arthur M(Apr 2001) History of Immunology. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0003078]