CHARLES DARWIN 



411 



Another name associated with the blood is that of Elias Metch- 

 nikoff, a Russian born in 1845. He first advanced the belief that 

 colorless blood corpuscles, or phagocytes, do service as the sanitary 

 police of the body. He has found that there are several different 

 kinds of colorless corpuscles, each having different work to do. 

 Much of the more modern work done on the blood is founded 

 directly on the discoveries of Metchnikoff . 



Scores of other names also should be remembered. Walter 

 Reed, the leader of the fight 

 against yellow fever; Major 

 Ross, who discovered the ma- 

 larial parasite ; Carrell, who 

 was responsible for the Carrell- 

 Daiken treatment of wounds 

 during the war ; Noguchi, the 

 Japanese who made antitoxins 

 against snake venom and yel- 

 low fever ; Flexner, for his dis- 

 coveries in connection with 

 infantile paralysis ; the Dicks, 

 husband and wife, who are 

 working on a method of treat- 

 ment for scarlet fever; and 

 many others. 



Charles Darwin. — Another 

 important line of biological 

 investigation is the study of 

 heredity and of the develop- 

 ment of life on the earth. The name of Darwin is most indelibly 

 associated with this branch of biology. 



Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, a son of well- 

 to-do parents, in the pretty English village of Shrewsbury. As a 

 boy he was very fond of out-of-door life, was a collector of birds* 

 eggs, stamps, coins, shells, and minerals. He was sent to Edin- 

 burgh University to study medicine, but the dull lectures, coupled 

 with his intense dislike for operations, made him determine never to 

 become a physician. Instead, he was greatly interested in natural 

 history, and in the proceedings of a student zoological society. 



Charles Darwin. 



