74 PA THOGENIC BA CTERIA.

Those which had received the drug died earliest—a
result probably dependent upon the destruction of part
of the phagocytic army.

Ruffer found that the " phagocytes evince a distinct
selective tendency between various kinds of organisms.
They will leave the bacillus of tetanus in order to seize
upon the Bacillus prodigiosus if simultaneously intro-
duced ; also the streptococci in diphtheria for the Klebs-
Loffler bacilli. This is illustrated in the diphtheritic
membrane, where at the surface one can see leucocytes
taking in numbers of the bacilli, but leaving the strepto-
cocci almost untouched, with the immediate result that
streptococci are often found in the deeper parts of the
membrane, and with the remote result that secondary
abscesses occurring in the course of diphtheria are never
due to the bacillus of diphtheria, but to some other or-
ganism. ''

Hankin and Hardy found that the three varieties of
leucocytes in the frog's blood play important parts in the
destruction of anthrax bacilli, this destructive process
being accomplished thus:

1. The eosinophile cells are first to approach and swal-
low the bacteria. As this takes place the eosinophile
granules are seen to dissolve and act upon the bacteria.

2. The hyaline cells take up the remains of the bac-
teria destroyed by the eosinophile leucocytes.

3. The basophile cells come to the field loaded with
basophilic granules, supposed to be antidotal to the
poisons of the bacteria, surround the combatants, neu-
tralize the bacterial poisons, and liberate the contesting
cells.

Wyssokowitsch found that saprophytic micro-organ-
isms are quickly eliminated from the blood when in-
jected into the circulation. This elimination is not
by excretion through organs nor by destruction in the
streaming blood, but by collection in the small capil-
laries, where the blood-stream is slow and where the
micro-organisms are taken up by the endothelial cells.