LEUCOCYTES

The white At of the blood. There are Sie vances ibe polymorphonuclear, constituting about 70% of the total; the eosinophile, form6. ing about 2%; the lymphocyte, forming | 20d about 20%; the macrocyte, forming 4%;|%0 and the basophyie, which is rare in the by blood of adults. The function of the] Of white corpuscles is to attack and destroy | bacteria which enter the blood, and so| 2nd ‘to defend the body against disease.| War They are far le numerous than the| City red corpuscles, the normal number] ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 per cubic the millimeter. In the case of injury to a until ti ue, however, there is a great increase | Of in the number of leucocytes. This crease is apparently due to the attraction | toTY; exercised by injurious bacteria which |1907 find a footing on the injured ti ue. the The leucocytes behave similarly to amoebae, gliding along by pushing out part of their substance. They move towards bacteria, flow around them until they have them completely en-|2° oo ae ape te eon a pe then 1921, can hold their own against bacteria, the body remains healthy, but when the end pacteria multiply so rapidly that the| Po a a can no ene cone with erly) em, e results. e leucocytes increase in numbers, normally, pug the proce of digestion and during ing pregnancy. A condition where the numaot ber mes exce ive is known as that leucocythaemia or leucaemia, and is by frequently accompanied by anaemia an enlargement of the spleen, and L. is lymphatic glands, An exce of the in eosinophile cells is characteristic of some attend forms of insanity. A marked diminutio built in the number of leucocytes is called the leucopenia. floods. of small town, ceotia, Greece, where The bans defeated Spartans in 371 B.O.