hey observed that after a time these
same leucocytes became accustomed to the presence of these
poisons, gradually becoming 'acclimatized' as it were. At first
paralyzed or repelled, they after a time pluck up courage to
attack the invading substances and carry on or renew their
accustomed work of scavenging; they try to get rid of both
poisons and poison-producers, and even acquire the power of
forming substances (anti-toxins) which can neutralize the poison
and allow the cells to devote their energy to doing their own
proper work.

"Here are drawings of minute abscesses that have formed in the
wall of the heart. We see at once the part that the leucocytes
play in attacking micro-organisms, and of localizing their
action. Look at the blood-vessel in the wall of the heart with
its plug of micro-organism (staphylococci) in the centre of a
clear space; here the leucocytes are not numerous, indeed they
are very sparsely scattered, and appear to have been driven back
by the organisms or their toxics. Then a little distance away
from the toxin and toxin-forming organisms, the leucocytes are
coming up in large numbers, forming a sort of protecting army,
as it were. This is known as leucocytosis. In the small patent
vessels around this commencing abscess numerous leucocytes, far
in excess of the usual proportion, may be seen--the nearer the
abscess, the more numerous they become. Thus the leucocytes make
their way to what is to become the wall of the abscess, and form
a layer around a mass of micro-organisms, localizing, or
attempting to localize, such mass. So long as the leucocytes can
make their way to this mass, and shut it off from the
surrounding tissue, so long we shall have no extension of the
abscess.

"Now, if you add something--alcohol in the case we are
considering--which not only exerts a negative chemiotaxic
action--i. e., which drives the leucocyte away--but which, as we
have seen, also causes degeneration of nerve, muscle and
epithelial cells, shall we not injure the infected patient both
directly and indirectly by interfering with the return of the
leucocytes driven away, by diminishing or altering the
functional activity of these cells, and indirectly by
interfering with the excretion of the poisons (owing, as we have
seen, to a degenerated condition o