The studies presented here were all undertaken in the labor- atories of Dr. W. James Irvine, Reader in Medicine, University of Edinburgh. Dr. Irvine kindly permitted me access to his technical facilities and arranged for help and tuition in laboratory techniques from his permanent staff. He suggested avenues along which new research should be directed and gave active help and support in submitting applications for research grants. Above all, he gave me the benefit of his own immense expertise in the field of medical immunology, in which he is an international authority. It was a privilege to work with him and I owe him an enormous debt of gratitude.Professor K.W. Donald, University of Edinburgh, was good enough to allow me to spend a prolonged period in laboratory -based research during my tenure of a senior registrarship in his department. More- over he actively encouraged the work and lent the weight of his support to applications for research grants. I could not have engaged in work of this nature without his assistance and advice and I am grateful to him for all his kindness.Substantial finance assistance for many of the studies presented here was obtained from research grants made (jointly or separately) to Dr. Irvine and myself by the Medical Research Council, the Scottish Home and Health Department and the South- Eastern Regional Hospital Board. These grants were quite invaluable in allowing the purchase of expensive equipment and reagents and in providing finance for trained technical help. To all these bodies I extend my thanks and my gratitude for their support.e studies of immunology in diabetes mellitus which form the basis of this thesis were performed upon patients attending the Diabetic Department, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, under the care of Dr. L.J.P. Duncan and Dr. B.F. Clarke. Drs. Duncan and Clarke spent many years in teaching me the rudiments of clinical diabetes mellitus and were good enough to allow me an unlimited facility to study the patients under their care. Meaningful studies of immuno- logy in diabetes could not have been undertaken without access to their patients and I am extremely grateful for their help and support as well as their tuitionMany other friends and colleagues collaborated in some of the studies presented here. Their contributions are acknowledged individually in the relevant chapters but I would extend particular thanks to Dr. W.J. Penhale, Senior MRC Research Worker, who taught me a great deal of basic immunology, initiated and directed the development of one particular assay system used in the work and was an authoritative source of information on difficult technical questions
