Phagocytes. 



Function of 

 Phagocytes 



BACTERIOLOGY IN A NUTSHELL. 



germs ; they have the power either to absorb or 

 destroy disease-producing bacteria. Some of 

 these cells are found in the white corpuscles of 

 the blood, the leucocytes, and are called phago- 

 cytes ; the process of destruction or absorption 

 is known as phagocytosis. The name phago- 

 cytes (from the Gk. phago "I eat") was given 

 to these cells by the man who discovered their 

 province, the scientist, *Elie Metchnikoff, a 

 Russian, one of the most distinguished bac- 

 teriologists of the present day and who is car- 

 rying on his work at Pasteur Institute, Paris, 

 France, as successor to Pasteur. While scien- 

 tists differ as to the method of warfare as waged 

 between the cells of the body, termed phago- 

 cytes, and the germs of disease, most of them 

 agree that the healthy body has the power to 

 overcome and exterminate such foes by their 

 means. Scientists who are not associated with 

 the school of Metchnikoff, teach us that there 

 are properties contained in the serum of the 

 blood known as opsonins, discovered by Sir 

 A.lmoth E. Wright, of England, which assist 

 the phagocytes very materially in their work. 

 They prepare the pathogenic bacteria in some 

 unexplained manner, making them more readily 

 digested and absorbed and then attract them 

 toward the phagocytes. 

 The body which is not healthy, and in which 



* Metchnikoff was born in the government of Kharkoff 

 in 1845. Was professor at Odessa in 1870. 

 42 



