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Zusammenfassung In the first hundred years of its history! the problems of species and specificity were the core problems of research and practice in immunology. Professor Mazumdar recounts the scientific debates that have taken place over these problems among bacteriologists! immunologists! immunochemists and blood group geneticists. Inhaltsverzeichnis Part I. Specificity and Unitarianism in XIX Century Botany and Bacteriology: 1. The Unitarians; 2. The Linnaeans; 3. The dominance of specificity; 4. The history of XIX century bacteriology from this point of view; Part II. The Inherited Controversy: Specificity and Unitarianism in Immunology: 5. Dichotomy and classification in the thought of Paul Erlich; 6. Max von Gruber and Paul Erlich; 7. Max von Gruber and Karl Landsteiner; 8. Unity, simplicity, continuity: the philosophy of Ernst Mach; Part III. Chemical Affinity and Immune Specificity: The Argument in Chemical Terms: 9. Structural and physical chemistry in the late XIX century; 10. Erlich's chemistry and its opponents: the dissociation theory of Arrhenius and Madsen; 11. Erlich's chemistry and its opponents: the colloid theory of Landsteiner and Pauli; 12. Erlich's chemistry and its opponents: the new structural chemistry of Landsteiner and Pick; 13. The decline and persistence of Erlich's chemical theory; Part IV. Absolute Specificity in Blood Group Genetics: 14. Immunology and genetics in the early XX century; 15. The specificity of cells and the specificity of proteins; 16. The last confrontation; Conclusion.