148 The Story of the Bacteria 



into soluble or nutrient or harmless form they 

 do so. If it is too intractible for that, it is 

 stowed away on the spot in dormant cells or 

 in the crannies of the node, where it is less 

 harmful than in the thoroughfares or special 

 workshops of the great community. 



These leucocytes are par excellence the 

 wandering cells of the body for not only 

 do they share with the red blood cells in the 

 passive transportation, which the blood and 

 lymph currents afford, but unlike the red 

 cells they have noteworthy locomotive 

 capacities of their own; so that they can 

 crawl about in the minute crannies of the 

 tissues where the tiniest fragment of a useless 

 particle is to be found. A few other cells share 

 in the locomotive powers of the leucocytes. 



The leucocytes and other cells which take 

 foreign particles into their interiors have 

 received a special name Phagocytes which 

 means "devouring cells." This is only a sort 

 of trade name, suggesting one of many occu- 

 pations of the white blood cells, and when 

 other cells share this special task they, too, 

 become for the moment phagocytes. Thus 



