292 THE UNIVERSE 



organisms working under the dominion of one 

 human life, and, in other words, man is in his body 

 a vast colony of microbes or protozoans supposed 

 to be endowed with consciousness and volition. 



A battle in germland is described by Dr. Donald 

 Ross in investigating the microbes of malaria. This 

 was a fight between a malaria microbe, and three 

 phagocytes which are said to protect the purity 

 of the blood. He says : " While observing a malaria 

 germ I saw a phagocyte make its way to the malaria 

 germ with the intent of devouring it. Ordinarily 

 this would be easy, but the germ, instead of allow- 

 ing itself to be attacked, attacked the phagocyte in 

 a battle royal that lasted over fifteen minutes. 

 Finally the germ drew off, and hurried to where 

 another phagocyte was wandering aimlessly. 



"It hurled itself on the second phagocyte, push- 

 ing hard against it with its arms, while the phago- 

 cyte tried to rear up and get around and envelope 

 the germ, but finally gave up and flattened itself 

 against an air bubble, while the germ still kept 

 on pummeling it. After fifteen minutes another 

 phagocyte appeared coming rapidly across the 

 field. The germ then left its fallen foe and attacked 

 the newcomer. The third phagocyte got enough 

 of it in about one minute and turned squarely 

 around, fleeing across the whole field, the germ 

 hanging on like a snake on a dog. After five min- 

 utes the germ let go and the phagocyte slunk away. 

 The malaria germ had by this time reached the 

 limits of its endurance in the rapidly weakening 

 blood and finally attached itself to the glass of the 

 slide and died." 



Few people can believe that such scenes as these 



