Dr. Dinarello dates the relevant research to 1943, when a Russian scientist who had relocated to the United States found that he could induce fever in rabbits by injecting them with pus. Pus, it turns out, is the detritus of neutrophils, the cells that rush into action at the first sign of insult. They kill what is around them and die in the process. When you observe pus oozing from your body, you’re seeing these dead cells.
