74 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA. 



Those which had received the drug died earliest a 

 result probably dependent upon the destruction of part 

 of the phagocytic army. 



Ruffer found that the "phagocytes evince a distinct 

 selective tendency between various kinds of organisms. 

 They will leave the bacillus of tetanus in order to seize 

 upon the Bacillus prodigiosus if simultaneously intro- 

 duced ; also the streptococci in diphtheria for the Klebs- 

 Loffler bacilli. This is illustrated in the diphtheritic 

 membrane, where at the surface one can see leucocytes 

 taking in numbers of the bacilli, but leaving the strepto- 

 cocci almost untouched, with the immediate result that 

 streptococci are often found in the deeper parts of the 

 membrane, and with the remote result that secondary 

 abscesses occurring in the course of diphtheria are never 

 due to the bacillus of diphtheria, but to some other or- 

 ganism." 



Hankin and Hardy found that the three varieties of 

 leucocytes in the frog's blood play important parts in the 

 destruction of anthrax bacilli, this destructive process 

 being accomplished thus : 



1. The eosinophile cells are first to approach and swal- 

 low the bacteria. As this takes place the eosinophile 

 granules are seen to dissolve and act upon the bacteria. 



2. The hyaline cells take up the remains of the bac- 

 teria destroyed by the eosinophile leucocytes. 



3. The basophile cells come to the field loaded with 

 basophilic granules, supposed to be antidotal to the 

 poisons of the bacteria, surround the combatants, neu- 

 tralize the bacterial poisons, and liberate the contesting 

 cells. 



Wyssokowitsch found that saprophytic micro-organ. 

 i>ms are quickly eliminated from the blood when in- 

 jected into the circulation. This elimination is not 

 by excretion through organs nor by destruction in the 

 streaming blood, but by collection in the small capil- 

 laries, where the blood-stream is slow and where the 

 micro-organisms are taken up by the endothelial cells. 



