Bacteria: Chapter VII - THE QUESTION OF IMMUNITY AND ANTITOXINS
Too Long; Didn't Read
THE term natural immunity is used to denote natural resistance to some particular specific disease. It may refer to race, or age, or individual idiosyncrasies. We not infrequently meet with examples of this freedom from disease. Certain races of men do not, as a rule, take certain diseases. For example, plague and leprosy, though endemic in some countries, fail to get a footing in England. This, of course, is due in great measure to the sanitary organisation and cleanly customs of the English people. Still, it is also due to the fact that the English appear in some degree to be immune. Some authorities hold that the immunity against leprosy is due to the fact that the disease has exhausted itself in the English race.