48 Chapter III 



number of the globules do not pass directly into the circulation but 

 are first ingested by the amoeboid elements. This fact is insisted upon 

 by Lesage. In inflammatory exudations the leucocytes also become 

 the prey of their fellows. The ingested white corpuscles may be 

 recognised for some time lying in the interior of other leucocytes ; 

 they are soon broken up, however, and finally disappear completely. 

 When, instead of isolated cells such as leucocytes, we introduce 

 fragments of tissues or of organs into any part of the organism, the 

 same mode of resorption may always be observed. The introduced 

 fragments are first surrounded and infiltrated by amoeboid cells and 

 are then taken up into their interior.' 



The mode of absorption just described is very general. It applies 

 to all kinds of cells and is observed in the absolutely normal organism, 

 as well as in a large number of pathological conditions. For more 

 than fifty years, the existence of cells which contain red blood cor- 

 puscles ("blutkbrperchenhaltige Zellen" of German writers) has 

 been recognised ; they were met with in the spleen, the lymphatic 

 glands and in many pathological products. For long we could not 

 explain how the red corpuscles come to be inside other cells. 

 Virchow^ thought that they got there as the result of a mechanical 

 pressure. Later histologists succeeded in determining the true 

 nature of cells containing red blood corpuscles and in recognising 

 that the leucocytes had really ingested the corpuscles. There has 

 been much discussion, also, on the presence of leucocytes in the 

 interior of large cells in exudations. It was thought that these were 

 mother-cells which contained a new generation of small cells. Writers 

 even described a fusion between the large cell and those found inside 

 it ; but Bizzozero- first recognised that the former was an amoeboid 

 [52] cell which had ingested pus corpuscles. Since this observation was 

 made numerous cases have been described in which different cell 

 elements have been found in the large cells. There could no longer 

 be any hesitation in interpreting these cases as instances of ingestion 

 by leucocytes or similar cells. 



The changes that the ingested elements undergo within amoeboid 

 cells may be compared with those that take place in intracellular 

 digestion. If the modifications of the particles ingested by the Amoebae 

 be studied side by side with those which take place in ingested 



1 Virchow's Archie, 1852, Bd. iv, S. 536. 



2 "Handb. d. klin. Mikroskopie," 1887, S. 108; Gaz. med. lornbarda, 1871 and 

 1872 ; Wien. medic. Jahrbuchet\ 1872, S. 160. 



