Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2079

IL'IA IL'ICH MECHNIKOV (1845-1916) Leçons sur la pathologie comparée de l'inflammation. G. Masson 1892 xi, 239 pp., 3 col. plates, 65 illus. (part col.). 22 cm.

Mechnikov, a Russian born zoologist and pathologist, was appointed sub-director of the Institut Pasteur at Paris in 1887 and spent the remainder of his career there. His studies on the process of intracellular digestion in invertebrates led him, step by step, to the discovery that certain white blood cells, which he called phagocytes, have the capability of destroying bacteria in the blood stream. This was the basis of his theory of phagocytosis and provided the first definite proof of the soundness of the theory of immunity and of the practice of vaccination. In 1908 Mechnikov shared the Nobel prize in medicine and physiology with Paul Ehrlich (see No. 2158) for his investigations of immunity and inflammation. This series of lectures, given at the Institut Pasteur in 1891, is a treatise on the role of phagocytosis in inflammation. Mechnikov states that, even though phagocytosis in man and higher animals has been the focus of study, a similar process also takes place in lower forms of life, both plant and animal. Therefore, it is important to make a comparative study of inflammation because it will yield a fuller explanation of the process than if it were limited to man and the higher vertebrates. Mechnikov also noted that the four classical signs of inflammation--rubor, dolor, color, and tumor--are not true for all species, especially for poikilotherms, because heat is not generated at the site of inflammation in cold-blooded animals.

See Related Record(s): 2158

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 2307 (Russian ed., 1892); Waller 6413

Gift of John Martin, M.D.