THE LEUCOCYTES IN ORGANIC FUNCTIONS. 671 



and microsomes are the most visible of all, move most rapidly." 

 Again, he says: "It is certain that the length of thread lying 

 between the microsomes varies immensely in different parts of 

 the cell, and the short threads are usually the more deeply 

 stained; so that it looks as though they were contracted and 

 therefore thickened. On the other hand, the microsomes at the 

 periphery are, generally speaking, the largest, and there can be 

 no doubt that it is the circumference of the cell which moves 

 most and moves farthest." As regards the basophile leucocytes, 

 he states that, "as far as one can judge from fixed specimens, 

 the larger basophile cells seem to have more power of move- 

 ment than the smaller ones" a feature easily accounted for, 

 since they are not bactericidal, as are the acidophile leucocytes. 

 It seems evident, however, that in both acidophile and baso- 

 phile cells the fibers take part in the mechanism through which 

 they travel in the plasma, while contraction, thickening, etc., 

 i.e., the elements of a suction or expulsion process, are present 

 to suggest the identity of the mechanism to which they owe 

 their powers of locomotion. 



Basophile leucocytes are not phagocytic; they do not, 

 therefore, ingest foreign substances as do the latter, i.e., by in- 

 globing them. They must, therefore, be provided with a dif- 

 ferent mechanism for this purpose. If, in accord with our view 

 the mitoma represents a system of centrifugal canaliculi, it 

 cannot serve for this purpose. Indeed, the external agencies 

 penetrate the cell to the nucleus itself. Thus "W. R. Stokes and 

 A. Wegefarth, 8 alluding to the researches of Bail, 6 say: "After 

 injecting virulent staphylococci into the pleural cavity of rab- 

 bits he found that the leucocytes underwent, a characteristic 

 change. They formed round, empty bodies, containing several 

 vacuoles in the nucleus." 



How did the virulent staphylococci reach the nucleus's 

 vacuoles? MetchnikofFs plate (opposite page 628 in this vol- 

 ume) will assist us in elucidating this question. It not only 

 forcibly illustrates what this distinguished zoologist sought to 

 show, but likewise, it seems to us, a mechanism of ingestion, 



5 W. R. Stokes and A. Wegefarth: Bulletin of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dec., 

 1897. 



8 Bail: Berliner klin. Wochenschrift, Oct. 11, 1897. 



