PHAGOCYTIC ACTIVITY OF THE SPLEEN 447 



range of activity of the splenocytes, one must conclude that the 

 splenocytes are just as capable of ingesting schizocytes as of 

 taking up the entire red blood-cells and that phagocytosis must 

 still be regarded as a sufficient general explanation of normal 

 blood destruction. 



Cary ('15) studied the method of disposal of bovine corpuscles 

 when injected into the blood stream of the rabbit. His method 

 of study was by applying the reaction for iron. He found the 

 injected corpuscles to be taken up by hemophages, which he 

 indicates are fixed cells. In contrast to these results, we have 

 found free-swimming cells to be the most active phagocytic 

 agents in the spleen. Muir ('02), studying the rabbit's spleen 

 in infections, found non-granular free cells containing as many 

 as twenty or more red corpuscles and a half-dozen leucocytes in 

 various stages of disintegration. This is a reaction comparable 

 in many ways to that which we have been following. 



Muir also observed myelocytes in the splenic pulp, in infectious 

 conditions, especially when severe. The greatest numbers he 

 found in cases of variola. Once or twice he observed them 

 undergoing mitosis. The bone-marrow crisis is evidently the 

 result of the action of the toxic material set free in the hemolysis 

 of the pigeon blood. That it begins between one and two hours 

 after the injection is indicated by the myelocytes being seen in 

 the spleen at the two-hour stage. This time coincides with that 

 at which the crisis of white cells takes place after acute hemor- 

 rhage, and it is to be noted how promptly the spleen reflects the 

 bone-marrow crises. By four or five hours after injection of 

 the foreign blood, great numbers of the bone-marrow cells have 

 been caught within the spleen. These are detained within the 

 cavernous blood-spaces, and finally ingested by the splenocytes. 



