The Field of Allergy

Abstract

A review based on a dissertation read before the Society on 10th December, 1965.

This article concentrates on (i) the immunological basis, (ii) pathophysiological mechanisms, and (iii) control (theoretical and practical) of the immediate-type allergy.

Antigen-antibody reactions constitute an important group of defences, facilitating phagocytosis and blocking the toxic effects of parasitic poisons. The reaction confers ‘immunity’. The combination of antigen and antibody is, however, not always beneficial. Pathological reactions as severe or more severe than the affect of the antigen alone arc sometimes noticed. Hypersensitivity or allergic reactions form major examples of such conditions. Allergy or hypersensitivity may be defined as a state in which the animal reacts in an excessive way to the introduction of an antigen or a hapten even though the antigen or hapten may be innocuous. Not all instances of hypersensitivity enjoy the identification of the exciting antigens, the mediating antibodies and the mechanisms of tissue damage.