644 



VITAL ACTIONS OF THE LOWER FUNGI. 



Wyssoko- 

 witsch's in- 

 vestigations. 



objection, and a large number of control investigations 

 which were made in the author's laboratory by Wysso- 

 kowitsch led to a totally different result, and showed 

 that after introduction of large quantities of saprophytic 

 and pathogenic bacteria into the blood stream of warm- 

 blooded animals the leucocytes did not take them up. 

 They play no It is only some specific forms of bacteria which are 

 bfooded W n f un( l constantly in large numbers within the colourless 

 animals. blood corpuscles, such as the bacilli of Koch's mouse 

 septicaemia, or of swine erysipelas. In these cases, 

 however, the leucocytes which occur in all stages of 

 degeneration give much more the impression as if they 

 were the attacked and decaying part, and the bacteria, 

 on the other hand, of which large numbers are found in 

 the dying cells, as if they were the victorious agents. 



Certain other cellular elements of the body seem, 

 however, as a matter of fact, to play an important part 

 in the battle with the invading bacteria. According to 

 the more recent investigations by Wyssokowitsch, 

 bacteria, both saprophytic and pathogenic, when intro- 

 duced into the blood of warm-blooded animals are in the 

 first place very rapidly eliminated from the circulating 

 blood, in a similar manner as has formerly been shown 

 in the case of particles of colouring matter. This dis- 

 appearance from the blood stream is not occasioned by 

 excretion of the bacteria in any of the secretions, nor by 

 their destruction in the circulating blood ; but the 

 bacteria are fixed in the capillaries of various organs, 

 chiefly of those where the current of blood is slow ; they 

 adhere to the walls of the capillaries, or are taken up 

 into the interior of the endothelial cells. These bacteria 

 are found in largest numbers in the liver, spleen, and 

 medulla of bone. The fight with the parasites seems to 

 occur at the seat of deposit chiefly in the endothelial 

 Death of non- cells, which results either in death of the bacteria or in 

 bactenaTnthe *^ e destruction of the cells which are immediately con- 

 endotheiiai cerned, and the multiplication of the bacteria. It can 

 be observed that typical saprophytes die at the seat of 

 deposit in a relatively short time within a few hours 

 and bacteria which are pathogenic for other species of 



Fixation of 

 the bacteria 

 on the walls 

 of the 

 capillaries. 



