1892.] Natural Analogies. 199 



To illustrate that analogies have a deeper significance than 

 is usually assigned them, let us take the instance of what lias 

 been called a " bread riot." People are starving : they are tur- 

 bulent, rushing here and there, finally gathering at some ware- 

 house where food is stored, which is soon seramblingly dis- 

 tributed and eaten. This proceeding on the part of the popu- 

 lace is instigated by analogous ami in many respects identical 

 conditions existing in each individual of the mob. The col- 

 lection of cells composing each person are in revolt ; they are 

 badly nourished; the intestines, muscles, nerves and their 

 cells are hungry ; the blood corpuscles surge through the ves- 

 sels irregularly and riotously. The white blood corpuscles 

 particularly are more active than usual, exactly as the free 

 aneeba moves more rapidlv when hungry than when ted. 

 There is starvation excitement throughout the body. The 

 lymph and vascular channels are ransacked tor food, and what 

 previously would have been rejected is now assimilated exactly 

 as the starving rabble gather offal from the streets and alleys. 

 The fat repositories are drawn upon with resulting emacia- 

 tion ; the cellular elements are enfeebled, and multitudes of 

 them die, as occurs among the starving populace. 



A single cell may become a source of irritation to the colony 

 ' cells by provoking action, and individuals seek ' 



themselves upon a community by orating, : 





ing, quarreling, fighting ; all more or less lgnc 

 ing gain. 



A modicum of such excitement may result in benefit to the 

 colony of cells, as an individual's action may result in the 

 common good. Great national activity may eventuate in ben- 

 efit to the world. In all these cases the good done may he 

 accidentally accomplished. An epidemic of msaniu n..t\ 

 become as wide-spread as during the crusades, as crazy phys- 

 iological processes may be induced by a fever. 



Metzehnikon's description of phagocytosis, interestingly 

 reviewed by J. L. Kellogg in The American Naturalist. 

 June, 1891, quotes Osier's summation as follows: "He says 

 that Metzchnikoff has likened specific inflammation to a war- 

 fare in which the invading forces are represented by micro- 



