Excerpts from Classics in Allergy compiles pioneering contributions to allergy and examines the genesis and evolution of early states-of-the-art derived from concepts and interpretations of observations and descriptions of immune and hypersensitive phenomena.

Viewing the markers along the pathway of progress to a discipline currently characterized by a multiplicity and complexity of molecular mechanisms, the saga of allergy and its scientific and clinical building blocks continues in this volume of expanded scope and coverage of Excerpts from Classics in Allergy. Thirty-five years after the initial publication of Classics, it is still as exciting and intellectually motivating to uncover and examine the pertinent underpinnings and discoveries that provided the substance and route of a fast-moving medical specialty and biomedical discipline.

In the years that followed publication of the original Classics, its appreciation and value as an orientation medium and

reference resource were emphasized by its out-of-print unavailability and the non-duplication or publication of equivalent work. Repeated requests for reprinting were received, but bypassed, in favor of publishing an enlarged edition in 1992. In addition to revisions and updates, the expanded scope of coverage allowed for new selections retro-extending to anti-asthmatic drug usage in ancient China in 2500 B.C. and pertinent observations from Hippocrates and classical Greek and Roman historians and authors.

Sheldon Cohen

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