The Temperature Coefficient of Phagocytosis

number of bacteria ingested at the close of the experlment(instead of the maximum number of bacteria present, which, one is led to infer, was larger than A even at the higher temperatures) and x equal, as usual, to the number of bacteria ingested in time, T. Considering their method of analysis it is not surprising that they found it impossible to calculate the temperature coefficient of phago• cytosis from their figures. Inspection of Fig. 1 shows that the total number of bacteria ingested is smaller at the lower temperatures, i . e . , A is itself a function of temperature, increasing with rise of temperature. Now the accelerating effect of the higher temperatures is evidenced quite as much by the increase in A as by the increase in K, as they calculated it. The former factor they have completely discounted by their procedure, which is equivalent to "telescoping" the curves in Fig. 1 on the ordinate so that they all reach the maximum at the same point, and then comparing the times necessary for the different curves to reach the same ordinate. Moreover, the agreement of the experimental data with the formula for a monomolecular reaction was admittedly unsatisfactory at temperatures above 25°C. where the formula for a bimolecular reaction was usually found to give better results. But even if the results could be expressed 331