DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTION OF HEMAL NODES 403 



of the exercise of a supposedly nonruil physiological activity. 

 To be sure, this is the ultimate fate of every organ and organism, 

 but it seems unlikely that organs which apparently function 

 for comparati\'ely long periods of time should be subjected to 

 such rapid self-destruction at the very time when according 

 to this assumption, the need for their activity becomes greater. 

 Since, moreover, the quantity of blood in some hemal nodes, 

 is so very insignificant and since it varies so exceedingly in quan- 

 tity and particularly since no signs whatever of destruction of 

 erythrocytes can be noticed in many nodes, it is difficult in- 

 deed to regard such a function as the only or even the chief role 

 which hemal nodes play in the economy of the organism. Hence, 

 for this and also for other important considerations, the designa- 

 tion 'hemolytic organs' suggested by Warthin does not seem 

 wholly justified. In view of the above facts it seems more 

 probable to me that the formation of leucocytes of various 

 types rather than the destruction of erythrocytes is the chief 

 function of the hemal nodes. 



That eosinophiles are formed in hemal nodes one can scarcely 

 doubt. At least if they are not formed there in the sense that 

 all of them are cells which are newly formed within the node 

 itself, there seems to be no escape from the conclusion that 

 eosinophile granules form within these nodes, in large numbers 

 of cells which previously contained none. Moreover, phago- 

 cytes are also undoubtedly formed there. The largest of the 

 latter, the polykaryocytes and some megakaryocytes could, 

 to be sure, not easily leave the node or be transported there 

 because of their great size and must hence have arisen within 

 the nodes themselves or have been transformed there. Since 

 these poly- and megakaryocytes are relatively few, their activ- 

 ity whatever it may be, is probably not a very important or, 

 at least, not a very pronounced one. Most of them look in- 

 deed like dying cells. 



The supposition that formative or conservative rather than 

 destructive processes prevail in hemal nodes receives some sup- 

 port from the observations of Warthin and others to the effect 

 that the hemal nodes of man — if such there be — are enlarged 



