Abstract
IN investigations on the effects produced in the body by invading micro-organisms, much attention has been directed towards an analysis of the defensive reactions of the former, but fewer observations have been made with regard to the offensive powers of the latter. Thus it is well known that the leucocytes or white cells of the blood, the wandering cells of the tissues, and certain of the endothelial cells lining the blood capillaries, are a part of the defensive mechanism of the body against bacteria or other particulate matter, which they ingest, and, if possible, destroy, whilst a further line of defence is represented by the different types of immune bodies which are present in the cells and tissue fluids or are developed therein in response to the invasion. The factors on which the infectivity, or virulence, of an organism depends are, however, less certainly understood, although variations in virulence quite apart from variations in the defensive powers of the host have been frequently observed. The “Report of the Medical Research Council for 1924-1925” lays stress on this aspect of the question, which has assumed considerable importance from the recent work of Gye and Barnard on cancer.
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Problems of Immunity and Infection: the Filter-passing Viruses. Nature 117, 293–295 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/117293a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/117293a0