Perhaps the most exciting book encountered in many months is Human Transplantation. Veteran investigator-editors Rapaport and Dausset have recruited a distinguished team of 56 international scientists whose exploits have blazed a new trail in medical history. From the moving introduction by Nobel essayist, Sir Peter Medawar, one is swept through 44 chapters that unfold the incredible panorama of progress in transplantation. The editors have selected the outstanding individuals in each field: Lawrence, immunology; Ceppellini, genetics; Hamburger, ethical problems; Merrill and Hume, kidneys; Starzl, liver; Mathé, bone marrow; Reetsma, renal heterografts; Dausset and Rapaport, antigenic determinants; Medawar, antilymphocytic serum; Good and Gabrielson, genesis of immunological capability; and Huggins, Lillihei, Melgrom, Schwartz, Austin, Scribner, and dozens of other acknowledged experts.
The fascinating essays on transplantation immunity held my interest more than the rest. Presentations overlap somewhat, but iteration of complex mechanisms with their unique lexicon and unfamiliar concepts serve to emphasize and