266 "SPECIFIC TREATMENT" OF DISEASE 



and digesting the offending intruder, and he likened 

 their increase in the blood to the gathering of 

 soldiers to meet invasion. According to Metchni- 

 koff, then, the resistance of an animal to infection 

 depends upon the power of its wandering cells to 

 take up and digest the intruding microorganism. 

 " Metchnikoff 's phagocyte theory," as it was called, 

 gained many adherents, for it offered what ap- 

 peared to be a tangible explanation and it was 

 defended with much ingenuity and persistence by 

 its author. We shall see that the view propounded 

 by Metchnikoff has undergone considerable modifi- 

 cation although the term "phagocytosis" has 

 firmly established itself in the terminology of bio- 

 logists and pathologists for the phenomena he 

 observed. Metchnikoff's views gave rise to active 

 controversies which greatly stimulated research 

 into the phenomena of immunity and disease. 



Whilst carrying on research in Fliigge's labora- 

 tory in 1886, the writer resolved to repeat the 

 classical experiments of Metchnikoff upon the frog 

 and anthrax bacilli. He observed the identical 

 phenomena recorded by Metchnikoff, but he was 

 led to put an entirely different interpretation upon 

 them for he found that the bacilli rapidly de- 

 generated and died in the fresh blood of the frog 

 without the intervention of wandering cells. The 

 explanation offered was that the cells take up bacilli 

 that are degenerating and dying owing to the bac- 

 teria-killing power of the frog's blood, fluid or 



