microphagen.

1887 Lancet 5 Mar. 483/1 The phenomena of local infection, inflammatory reaction, resolution, and absorption of the inflammatory products, can all be expressed in the terms of streptococcus, microphage, and macrophage.

1893 F. A. Starling & E. H. Starling tr. E. Metchnikoff Lect. Compar. Pathol. Inflammation 191 In..acute inflammations it is mainly the microphages, or neutrophile polynuclear leucocytes, that are involved.

1903 J. Coats Man. Pathol. (ed. 5) 148 Polymorphonuclear leucocytes are called Microphags, and the cells derived from the fixed cells of the tissues, which are larger, and have large oval nuclei, are macrophags.

1953 R. W. Fairbrother Text-bk. Bacteriol. (ed. 7) x. 115 The large mononuclear cells were termed macrophages and polymorphonuclear leucocytes the microphages.

1971 J. Z. Young Introd. Study Man xii. 153 The first [white blood corpuscles] are small microphages (polymorphs), able to remove debris and infective agents; later, larger macrophages move in.

1992 Saudi Med. Jrnl. 12 499/1 The phagocytic cells which ingest and kill microorganisms comprise the ‘microphages’ better known as the polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs) and the ‘macrophages’ that arise from monocytes.

1927 Jrnl. Ecol. 15 38 The mud-burrowing habit is characteristic of sluggish microphages, such as the little bivalve Pisidium.

1972 Ann. Rev. Ecol. & Systematics 3 282 Adults and larvae [of Drosophila] are both microphages.

1984 Amer. Naturalist 123 867 Predictions of the relationship between feeding rate and food value for deposit feeders and other microphages (animals that handle food items in bulk rather than manipulating them individually).

1994 P. J. Gullan & P. S. Cranston Insects viii. 208/1 Two feeding strategies can be identified [in fungivorous insects]: microphages gather small particles such as spores and hyphal fragments.