332 



TEMPERATURE COEFFICIENT OF PHAGOCYTOSIS 



by the formula for a monomolecular reaction it could hardly be more 

 than a meaningless coincidence. It could not indicate a rate pro- 

 portional to the diminishing numbers of free bacteria because many 

 bacteria were still present, at least at the lower temperatures, when 

 phagocytosis had decreased to zero.^ Nevertheless, the approximate 

 empirical applicability of this formula to their results impressed the 

 authors with the fact that phagocytosis obeys known physico-chemical 



150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 500 650 700 750 800 



Fig. 1. Reproduction of curves from data of Madsen and Watabiki^ showing 

 the number of bacteria taken up per leucocyte (ordinates) as a function of time 

 (abscissae) at different temperatures. Note the shorter latent period, higher maxi- 

 mum and shorter duration of the experiment at higher temperatures. 



laws. Actually, the attempt to force the experimental results to fit 

 a known formula has merely beclouded the issue. It is worth while 

 trying whether a more rational analysis of these curves will yield a 

 more significant result. 



Osterhout (3), in discussing the analysis of time curves, has pointed 



^ In a prevous paper on phagocytosis (2) the writer found that the rate of inges- 

 tion of solid particles by leucocytes was proportional to the decreasing number 

 of available particles, thus giving a constant K when calculated by the formula 

 for a monomolecular reaction. 



