680 INTERNAL SECRETIONS AND PRESERVATION OF LIFE. 



same view of these special granules. Sherrington has thrown 

 doubt upon it, and Metchnikoff disputes it and regards the 

 eosinophile granules as reserve material/' As viewed from our 

 standpoint, the granules simultaneously represent reserve mate- 

 rial and products of excretion. These processes are not the 

 only ones, however, with which leucocytes are concerned. 



Bail, to whose investigations we have already referred, is 

 also stated by Stokes and Wegefarth 11 to have observed that, 

 after the vacuole "in the nucleus" had formed, "the granules 

 generally disappeared." Furthermore, he noted that upon de- 

 stroying the staphylococci by adding ether, and diluting the 

 centrifugalized sediment, the granules showed a dancing mo- 

 tion, and were seen to leave the periphery of the cell and enter 

 the surrounding medium. Evidently at least some of the gran- 

 ules must have been dropped or ejected by the leucocytes, and 

 their canaliculi thus freed of the impediment their presence 

 constituted. 



This is sustained by a closer examination of the question, 

 the purpose of Stokes and Wegefarth's paper, who used in 

 their researches blood taken from about five hundred persons. 

 The granules, when observed by them with the aid of artificial 

 light, "resembled those of the eosinophilic or neutrophilic leu- 

 cocyte." Kept at the temperature of the room, the latter 

 showed no activity, but exposure for an hour to a temperature 

 of 35 C. caused them to become active. The following lines 

 are quoted from their article: "At times the granular leuco- 

 cytes become actively amoeboid, and the granules within the 

 neutrophile exhibit a characteristic activity which might be 

 compared to the swarming of bees around a hive. The number 

 of fine granules free in the plasma is perceptibly increased. 

 The eosinophilic granulations also show a less vigorous trem- 

 ulous motion, and both" varieties follow the changes in the 

 direction of the pseudopodia, the protoplasm being thrown out 

 first, and the granules following. The characteristic dancing 

 motion of the granules in the neutrophilic leucocyte can be 

 brought out very plainly by simply mixing the drop of blood 

 with an equal amount of distilled water containing 1 per cent. 



u Stokes and Wegefarth: Loc. cit. 



