The Mechanisms of Hypersensitivity

In March, 1958, a three-day Symposium at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit brought together a large group of investigators who represented many different areas of contemporary biological and biochemical research. The unifying denominator in this multidisciplinary assemblage was interest in "The Mechanisms of Hypersensitivity," a motto which constitutes the title of the volume under review. The rounding-up of so heterogeneous a group of research workers was surely a calculated risk which entailed the obvious possibility that frustrating difficulties of communication could ruin the effectiveness of the Symposium. Balanced against this threat was the hope that the heterogeneity of the group would provide for an unusual degree of stimulation through exposure of the participants to many different yet related viewpoints and techniques. Doubtless, the total experience was very successful for some individual participants and was a failure for others. These aspects of the meeting are not reflected in the published