706 INTERNAL SECRETIONS AND PRESERVATION OF LIFE. 



solutions dissolve both types of granules at least partially is 

 not against the view that they are nucleo-proteid in nature, 

 because these bodies are more easily soluble in weak acid solu- 

 tions than almost any other complex proteid. The fact that 

 some granules 'are undissolved, while others are removed, is 

 probably due to the fact that the former have undergone coagu- 

 lation, while the latter have been rapidly fixed, although it may 

 be also due to the nature of the salts which are combined with 

 the proteid." 



Still, the very high refractive index to which Kanthack 

 and Hardy and Gulland refer is not characteristic of the neu- 

 trophile granules, and this seems to us to testify against an 

 absolute functional similarity between them and the granules 

 of the eosinophiles. Indeed, with the plasma as excipient for 

 the oxidizing substance, we can as readily account for the 

 presence of the "brilliant, greenish luster" witnessed by the 

 above authors as we can for the phosphorescence of the pho- 

 togenic organs of lightning-bugs: i.e., by the simultaneous 

 presence of phosphorus and oxygen. This seems to us to indi- 

 cate that we are dealing with a nucleo-proteid body, as Milroy 

 and Malcolm contend, but with one richer in phosphorus than 

 that forming the neutrophile granules. 



What are the functions of the eosinophile leucocytes in the 

 organism? The high percentage of phosphorus in their gran- 

 ules suggests the possibility of their being lecithin-carriers; 

 but we have seen that the investigations of Milroy and Mal- 

 colm clearly show that this organic body is absent. L. F. 

 Barker, 35 of Baltimore, noted the presence of iron in the gran- 

 ules of the eosinophile leucocytes, a point which he thinks 

 may be of some value in determining the significance of the 

 leucocytic granulations, but we cannot consider them as the 

 cells intrusted with transportation of iron from the intestine, 

 for they are not phagocytic. Indeed, it has now become evi- 

 dent that the neutrophiles are intrusted with this function, for 

 Macallum used albuminate of iron. The intestinal leucocytes 

 of his previously starved animals evidently took this substance 

 up as they would the proteids of their usual food. Barker's 



85 L. F. Barker: Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, Oct., 1894. 



