EXPERIMENTAL PATHOLOGY. 
571 
EXPERIMENTAL PATHOLOGY. 
ACTUAL CONDITION OF THE QUESTION OF IMMUNITY. 
By E. Metchnikoff. 
The theory according- to which bacteria are destroyed by 
the secretions of eosinophile leucocytes is refuted by positive 
facts. The theory of the phagocytes is in harmony with all 
the facts established since its foundation. The examples 
which have been claimed as exceptions of the function of 
the phagocytes, septicemia in mice, diphtheria, anthrax in 
Crustacea and mollusca, after a close examination, proved to 
belong to the theory of phagocytes after all. The choleric 
peritonitis of guinea-pigs likewise belongs to the category of 
infectious diseases in which the anti-bacterian function of the 
phagocytes is most evident. The phenomena of degeneration 
of the vibrios in the peritoneal liquid of hyper-vaccinated 
guinea-pigs, as described by R. Pfeiffer, are explained by an 
action of the products of the leucocytes, modified by the 
influence of the hyper-vaccination. The destruction of the 
microbes in the interior of phagocytes may take place in an 
acid media, according to the opinion of A. Kossel, upon the 
action of its nucleic acids. But this destruction can also take 
place in an alkaline media, in the contents of the phagocytes. 
Phagocytes do not react only against the invasion of the 
microbes, but also in the intoxication of the organisms by 
various poisons. Their part has been shown (specially by 
the school of Robert) even for such inorganic substances as 
iron and silver. From all the progress made in the last few 
years, immunity must be considered as the result of a cellular 
activity. Among the elements which act in immunity the 
first part must be attributed to the phagocytes.— Ann. de 
l'Inst. Pasteur. 
INOCULATION OF MILK COWS WITH CULTURES OF THE 
BACILLUS DIPHTHERIGE. 
By Klein. 
He has succeeded in inoculating the bacillus of Loefler to 
cows which had calved recently, by injecting a moderate 
quantity of virulent culture in the subcellular tissue of the 
