The real role of the immune system

[Dr M.R. Clark]

In article <3otmsc$jsf at jhunix1.hcf.jhu.edu>,
cthoburn at welchlink.welch.jhu.edu <Chris Thoburn> wrote:
[snip]
>
>I never said that I felt the immune system was unnecessary, rather I said that 
>I don't beleive that the 'function' of the immune system is to 'protect' the 
>individual from 'undesirables'.  This is quite different.  I think that the 
>role may be closer to 'providing a mechanism of control over the interaction of 
>an individual with other organsims'.
>
I think that we are straying into different semantic uses of terms here.
Please could you outline precisely what you mean by the difference in the
statements.
1) the function of the immune system is to protect the individual from
undesirables
and
2) the role is closer to providing a mechanism of control over the 
interaction of an individual with other organisms.

You see I can interpret these as being very much the same thing.


Mike Clark, mrc7 at cam.ac.uk          http://www.path.cam.ac.uk/MikeClark/
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