A programme for the future

Abstract

On comparing what I have written in this book with what clinicians and immunologists are currently writing, I find that I am still swimming strongly against the stream. It is not that there are well-organized and argued rival interpretations but rather a general disinclination to go beyond the observable findings. In medicine a theoretical interpretation that gives no lead to effective prevention or treatment has no practical significance. Most writers, when forced by convention to make some remarks on etiology, produce a limited discussion on auto-antibodies, essentially from the old instructive standpoint. Few have so far discussed the role of the T-immune system and there is generally an implicit suggestion that an acceptable ‘cause’ for each important condition will eventually be found; most probably a slow virus.