THEORIES OF IMMUNITY. 



case, and the most active opponents of the 

 theory were those he had supposed would find 

 reason to support it. 



Baumgarten was the first of these and perhaps 

 the most important, his most forcible theoretical 

 objection being that just when the danger is the 

 greatest the leucocytes are conspicuous by their 

 absence, and that this is a fatal objection to any 

 assumption that they can play an active oppos- 

 ing part to the growth of bacteria in the tissues. 

 Metchnikoff devoted several years (Yirch. 

 Arch., 1888, T. CXIY., p. 465; Ann. de l'ln- 

 stitut Pasteur, 1890, IV., p. 35) to taking up, 

 point by point, the objections raised by Baum- 

 garten and his students, and according to his 

 thought succeeded in answering them. In the 

 latter communication he makes the remark (p. 

 84) that he has often been accused of claiming 

 for phagocytosis the entire influence in the pro- 

 duction of immunity, denying any other as as- 

 sisting the organism to disembarrass itself of the 

 bacteria. He repeats again that the part of the 

 phagocytes is a very important one in the pro- 

 duction of immunity in general (and of anthrax 

 in pigeons especially), but this does not in any 



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