THE LEUCOCYTES IN ORGANIC FUNCTIONS. 689 



dyes and a slight affinity for acid dyes, and by the concurrence 

 of these histological properties with small granules. 



Kanthack and Hardy, who refer to this leucocyte as a 

 "finely-granular oxyphile cell," speak of it as follows: "It has 

 a very limited and precise distribution, for, under normal con- 

 ditions, it is entirely absent from extravascular spaces, and 

 occurs only in the blood, 19 where it is by far the most numerous 

 corpuscle, forming 20 to 70 per cent, of the total number of 

 white corpuscles. The fluctuation in this percentage is prob- 

 ably due, in the main, to the great periodic variations in the 

 number of lymphocytes present in the blood. Thus, the effect 

 of a meal is to cause a considerable increase in the number of 

 lymphocytes in the blood, and, therefore, a fall in the share 

 of the total white corpuscles due to finely-granular cells. If 

 this disturbing factor be* eliminated," continue these investi- 

 gators, "and the percentage of the finely-granular oxyphile cells 

 be taken of the adult white corpuscle only, then this is found 

 to be always very high: in man, 75 to 90 per cent." 



Metchnikoff, referring to the phagocytic properties of 

 these cells, writes as follows 20 : "Even outside the organism 

 these amoeboid cells readily inglobe a large number of foreign 

 particles with which they may come in contact, and they may 

 often be seen literally crammed with all sorts of granules. Like 

 the amoeba?, they swallow not only inert bodies, such as gran- 

 ules of carmine or other substances that are insoluble in the 

 fluid surrounding the leucocytes, but also a large number of 

 living organisms." This is merely quoted to emphasize the fact 

 that the leucocytes differentiated by Ehrlich from all others by 

 the term "neutrophile" are, irrespective of the form of their 

 nucleus, the wandering cells which Metchnikoff has shown to 

 fulfill the physiological function he has termed "phagocytosis." 



But the property which these cells so strikingly show, i.e., 

 their ability to ingulf or rather ingest substances of all kinds, 

 seems to us to suggest that they are intrusted with another role 

 in the body: i.e., its nutrition. In the second chapter we re- 

 ferred to the fact that Macallum had observed, in sections of 

 intestines taken from animals first starved, then fed upon 



19 All italics are our own. 



20 Metchnikoff: Loc. cit., p. 115. 



