Inflammation 131 



squeeze out the juice at the base of the tongue. And 

 we need not be ashamed of our inability to explain 

 why salmon take the angler's unearthly lures. Our 

 point at present is that the spawning salmon's feed- 

 ing in fresh water is negligible, and that the food- 

 canal is below its normal vigor. 



Speaking of food-canals, we recall the curious 

 phenomenon of "pigeon's milk," which is produced 

 in both sexes as the result of a degeneration and in- 

 ternal sloughing of the cells lining the crop. The 

 creamy fluid is given by the parents to the young 

 ones — a valuable aid to their gastric education, but 

 it is not a secretion. It is much nearer an internal 

 moulting. It is like a pathological process become 

 normal. And do not the sea-swifts, which make snow- 

 white edible nests from the copious secretions of their 

 mouths, suffer from supra-salivation ? Is it absurd 

 to suggest that chewing the cud may have begun in 

 a normalizing of vomiting? 



In processes of inflammation the wandering amoe- 

 boid cells or phagocytes of the body do their best to 

 deal with intruding microbes or irritant particles or 

 poisons. The phagocytes are reacting to some quite 

 abnormal stimulus, and their activity often saves the 

 animal's life. But it is very difficult to draw a hard- 

 and-fast line between the role of phagocytes in in- 

 flammation and their role in assisting the re-growth 

 of a lost part, or in some process of metamorphosis 

 that leads from one style of architecture to another. 

 In the life-history of many insects the phagocytes 

 play an important part in breaking down the tissues 



