A Brief History of Phagocytosis

This chapter outlines some of the more significant steps in our understanding of the phenomenon and mechanism of phagocytosis. These are mainly historical, ranging from near the advent of microscopy in the seventeenth and eighteenth century up to the period before the Second World War (1930s). During this time, science itself moved from being the domain of the wealthy enthusiast to the professional and funded university scientist. Not surprisingly progress was slow of the first two centuries of phagocytic research, but accelerated around the late nineteenth century and the turn of the twentieth century. Since then progress has accelerated still further. This chapter however aims to put our current progress into a historical context and to explore some of the interesting personalities who have set the ground work for our current understanding of the subject of this book, namely phagocytosis.