Ambrose Charles T
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA.
J Med Biogr. 2007;15 Suppl 1:39-45. doi: 10.1258/j.jmb.2007.s-1-06-08.
The discovery of phagocytosis is associated indelibly with Elie Metchnikoff, who coined the term, but more than 30 persons had observed the phenomenon (or inferred its existence) before Metchnikoff came to dominate the field. Two of these early investigators were William Osler and George Miller Sternberg. Osler recognized carbon particles within the phagocytes of patients with miner's lung and carried out experiments in kittens. Sternberg only theorized about phagocytosis but, unlike Osler, bitterly contested Metchnikoff's priority of discovery.
吞噬作用的发现与埃利·梅契尼科夫紧密相连，是他创造了这个术语，但在梅契尼科夫主导该领域之前，已有30多人观察到了这一现象（或推断其存在）。其中两位早期研究者是威廉·奥斯勒和乔治·米勒·斯特恩伯格。奥斯勒在矿工肺患者的吞噬细胞中识别出碳颗粒，并在小猫身上进行了实验。斯特恩伯格只是对吞噬作用进行了理论推测，但与奥斯勒不同的是，他激烈地争夺梅契尼科夫的发现优先权。
