Metchnikoff in Messina

IN late September of 1980 an international meeting was held in Sicily to mark the centenary of Metchnikoff's discovery of the role of phagocytosis in the maintenance of health. His experiments were conducted in Messina, Sicily, and they brought revolutionary concepts into the arena of our understanding of the ways in which the body controls infections. An arena indeed it was, with many acrimonious exchanges between the "cellularists," led by Metchnikoff, and the "humoralists," the early immunologists who espoused soluble serum components rather than cells as the key to antimicrobial action. Of course, both factions were ultimately proved right; this . . .