84 Chapter IV 



Here also the stromas and the nuclei of all the red blood corpuscles, 

 as well as many of the corpuscles unacted upon by the plasma of 

 the phagolysed exudation, undergo digestion inside the macrophages. 

 [90] When, instead of blood, we inject white corpuscles from the bone 

 marrow, spleen or lymphatic glands of animals into the peritoneal 

 cavity, we may still observe their final disappearance in the macro- 

 phages. The spermatozoa of man or of various mammals (bull, rabbit, 

 guinea-pig, etc.), when injected into the peritoneal cavity of the 

 guinea-pig or rabbit, are well adapted for this line of investigation. 

 Here again the immediate result of injection is the very marked 

 phagolysis of the leucocytes. This phenomenon gives place to an 

 exudative inflammation which brings into the peritoneal cavity 

 a number of phagocytes. These, especially the macrophages and in 

 a much smaller degree the microphages, devour the spermatozoa 

 which in no case are dissolved, even partially, in the plasma of the 

 exudation. The rnacrophage seizes the spermatozoa which sometimes, 

 by the active movements of their flagella, exhibit great vitality. At 

 the end of several hours all the spermatozoa are found inside phago- 

 cytes where they are completely destroyed. The flagellum is digested 

 first, but the head and medial portion soon suffer the same fate. 

 Neutral red reveals the feebly acid reaction, perhaps with even more 

 distinctness than in the case of the red blood corpuscles. 



The r6sum of Langhans' investigation given in this chapter would 

 lead us to expect that resorption in the subcutaneous tissue will 

 follow the same rules as that going on in the peritoneal cavity. As 

 a matter of fact, blood injected at this position sets up a diapedesis 

 of phagocytes which ingest the red blood corpuscles. In some cases 

 only is there a partial solution of these corpuscles in the fluid of 

 the subcutaneous exudation. It is for this reason that goose's blood, 

 injected under the skin of a guinea-pig, gives rise to a fluid exudation 

 coloured a bright rose red by the dissolved haemoglobin. This 

 haemoglobin is derived from red blood corpuscles which are damaged 

 by the goose's blood serum that was added to the plasma of the 

 exudation. The stroma and nuclei of the red blood corpuscles cannot, 

 however, be dissolved in this fluid. They undergo the same fate as 

 the red corpuscles that have remained intact, that is to say they are 

 ingested by the macrophages which immigrate into the subcutaneous 

 tissue and which finally digest all these elements. The cells, less fragile 

 than certain red corpuscles, are, in the subcutaneous tissue, as in the 

 peritoneal cavity, destroyed solely in the interior of the phagocytes. 



