356 IMMUNITY AND CURATIVE INOCULATIONS 



peppered and vinegared " in no time," and then swallowed 

 by the phagocytes by the dozen. This seems almost too 

 comic a view of the deadly struggle of man and higher 

 animals for health and freedom from the swarming pests 

 which everywhere invade him. Yet it is correct, and in- 

 volves a simple and fundamental truth. Our properties 

 and appetites are but the sum of those of the proto- 

 plasmic organisms the cells of which we are built up. 

 Our need for a relish with oysters is the same thing as the 

 need of the phagocyte for a relish with its microbes, not 

 something " poetically " compared to it. The story of 

 " the oysters and the carpenter " might be replaced by 

 that of " the microbes and the phagocyte." The saying, 

 " Fine words butter no parsnips," finds a parallel in the 

 remark that " The drinking of drugs does not opsonise 

 microbes." 



Half-way between us and the amceba-like unicellular 

 organisms we find the earth-worm preparing his piece of 

 lettuce (as Darwin showed) with a juice exuded from his 

 mouth, a " relish " reminding one of the Kava drink of the 

 South Sea Islanders. To " opsonize " or render attractive 

 by the application of chemical " relish " is a proceeding 

 which we find in operation in the feeding of the minute 

 colourless corpuscles which engorge the still more minute 

 bacteria and also in the preparation of their food by 

 various lower animals, and finally in the elaborate flavour- 

 ing and cooking of his food by civilised man ! 



