Who discovered the phenomenon of phagocytosis?

The discovery of phagocytosis belongs to I.I. Mechnikov, who revealed this process, doing experiments with starfish and daphnia, introducing foreign bodies into their organisms. When Mechnikov placed a spore of the fungus in the body of Daphnia, he noticed that special mobile cells attack it. When he introduced too many spores, the cells did not have time to digest them all, and the animal died. Cells that protect the body from bacteria, viruses, spores of fungi, etc. Mechnikov called phagocytes.