5.4 Conditions for acquiring biological immunity.
People differ widely as to their sensitivity for antigenic stimulation and their immune responsivity. One condition for acquiring an adequate immune response is that the range of antigenic stimulation be within the limits of an individuals' coping capacity. If the dose of antigen is too low, discriminatory power, recognition and adequate response will fail to develop. The stimulation is recorded, to be sure, but not as a challenge. In consequence false tolerance may develop (non-response). This may cause problems later: when the stimulus ever returns in massive quantity, there is no adequate answer and the individual is left defenceless.
Likewise if the dose is too high the stimulation will not lead to the development of discriminatory power either. When an overwhelming challenge presents itself, the defence system cannot but fall back on violent primitive reactions that defeat any attempt at a differentiated recognition-response (regression). A meaningful feature of the Map 5.2.3 in this respect is the enclave labelled "allergy". It represents a set of non-specific defence-reactions, more primitive than the differentiated antibody responses in the outer layers of the sphere. As a tool for emergencies this intermediate layer is activated when the lymphoid system has not yet learned how to cope with the allergenic substance in a more appropriate way, or when the system is being flooded with larger quantities of the antigen than it can handle.