initial commit of ebook 44194HEADmain

8 files changed, 37272 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/44194-8.txt b/old/44194-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..03632a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44194-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11425 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Life of Elie Metchnikoff, 1845-1916, by Olga
+Metchnikoff
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Life of Elie Metchnikoff, 1845-1916
+
+
+Author: Olga Metchnikoff
+
+
+
+Release Date: November 16, 2013  [eBook #44194]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF,
+1845-1916***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, Norbert Müller, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(https://archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 44194-h.htm or 44194-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44194/44194-h/44194-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44194/44194-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      https://archive.org/details/lifeofeliemetchn00mechiala
+
+
+
+
+
+Authorised Translation from the French
+
+
+[Illustration: DR. METCHNIKOFF IN HIS LABORATORY.]
+
+
+LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF
+1845-1916
+
+by
+
+OLGA METCHNIKOFF
+
+With a Preface by Sir Ray Lankester K.C.B. F.R.S.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London
+Constable and Company Ltd.
+1921
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+It has been a great satisfaction to me to carry out the wish of my
+dear friend Elie Metchnikoff, and arrange for the production of an
+English translation of his biography. The account of his life and work
+written by Olga Metchnikoff is a remarkable and beautiful record of
+the development and activities of a great discoverer. It is remarkable
+because it is seldom that one who undertakes such a task has had so
+constant a share in, and so complete a knowledge and understanding of,
+the life portrayed as in the present case: seldom that the intimate
+thought and mental "adventure" of a discoverer presents so clear and
+consistent a history. It is beautiful because it is put before us with
+perfect candour and simplicity guided by rare intelligence and inspired
+by deep affection. Madame Metchnikoff has drawn the picture of the
+development of a single-minded character absolutely and tenaciously
+devoted to a high purpose--the improvement of human life. It is a
+story of "struggles and adventures," but they are wholly in the field
+of the investigation of Nature. We read here little or nothing of the
+quest for personal advancement, for fortune or official position.
+These things had no attraction for Metchnikoff. He left Russia and
+took an unpaid post in Paris in order to have a place to work in. He
+had many devoted friends in whose company he sought refreshment and
+relaxation, but all his immense energy and industry were concentrated
+on the development and establishment of his great biological theory
+of "Phagocytosis" and its outcome, the philosophy of life called by
+him "Orthobiosis." This volume tells truly of a simple life--a life in
+which the social incidents which fill so large a space in most lives
+were either non-existent or unnoticed because, by the side of the great
+purpose which dominated Metchnikoff's every thought and action--namely,
+the advancement of Science--he was not touched by them. He was
+affectionate, kind-hearted, and truly considerate of others, but was,
+in a way which is traceable to his racial origin, a practical idealist
+concentrating his whole strength and reason on the realisation of what
+he held to be the highest good.
+
+I had as an eager reader of memoirs on biological subjects become
+acquainted with Metchnikoff's earliest publications in 1865, when
+he was twenty years of age and I two years younger. I wrote short
+accounts of them, as they appeared, for a chronicle of progress in the
+_Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science_, then edited by my father.
+Those on a European Land Planarian, on the development of Myzostomum
+(the parasite of the Feather-Star), on Apsilus, a strange new kind of
+wheel-animalcule, and his protest against Rudolf Leuckart's treatment
+of him in the matter of his important discoveries concerning the
+Frog's lung-worm--_Ascaris nigrovenosa_--remain in my memory, and
+later, in 1872, I was especially struck by his important demonstration
+of the true mode of development of the gastrula of the calcareous
+sponges in correction of Professor Ernst Haeckel. Many other papers
+of his became known to me, until in 1881 he published his first
+observations on _Intracellular Digestion in Lower Animals_, which was
+the starting-point of his life's work on "Phagocytosis," to which all
+his subsequent researches--during thirty-five years--were exclusively
+dedicated.
+
+In 1888 I was introduced by my friend Lauder Brunton to the great
+Pasteur, and called on him at his laboratory in the rue d'Ulm. There I
+met Metchnikoff, only lately arrived from Russia, and welcomed as one
+of his staff by Pasteur. The next year, 1889, Pasteur was installed
+in the new "Institut Pasteur" in the rue Dutot, and I met Metchnikoff
+there in his new quarters. Pasteur's assistants were carrying on daily
+his system of inoculation against rabies, and many British subjects
+were amongst those treated. I persuaded the Lord Mayor of that year,
+Sir James Whitehead, to visit the Pasteur Institute with a view to
+taking steps to make some recognition of the services rendered by
+Pasteur to our fellow-countrymen in treating over two hundred of them
+threatened with hydrophobia. Sir James called a meeting on July 1,
+1889, at the Mansion House, and placed the management of it in my
+hands. As a result we obtained subscriptions to a fund which enabled
+us to assist many poor British subjects to visit Paris for the purpose
+of undergoing M. Pasteur's treatment, to make a donation of 30,000
+francs to the Pasteur Institute, and to initiate with a sum of £300 the
+formation of a fund for the purpose of establishing an Institute in
+London similar in purpose and character to the Institut Pasteur. That
+initial fund has step by step received generous additions and given us
+the "Lister Institute" on Chelsea Embankment possessed of buildings,
+site, and capital valued at more than £300,000.
+
+After 1889 it was rare for a year to pass without my visiting Paris
+both in spring and summer, and seeing a great deal of Metchnikoff
+and his friends Roux, Duclaux, Laveran, and the great master of the
+Pastorians, who died in 1895. Metchnikoff took me to his home and
+cemented his friendship with me by bringing to me that of his gifted
+and devoted wife.
+
+Madame Metchnikoff had when a schoolgirl studied zoology under her
+future husband at Odessa, and now was able to give serious help in
+some of his researches. She published some experimental investigation
+on the sterilisation of the alimentary canal of tadpoles and some
+other researches, and having a thorough knowledge of English, which
+Elie did not possess, she helped him in reading and translating from
+that language. But her chief talents were in the arts of painting and
+sculpture, and when they purchased their country house at Sèvres, she
+built a studio in the garden in which to pursue her vocation.
+
+Metchnikoff on several occasions came to England to take part in
+"congresses" or to give special addresses, and often stayed a day or
+two with me in London.[1] I was with him at the Darwin Celebration at
+Cambridge in 1909, and the last occasion when he came was to give the
+Priestley Lecture of the National Health Society in November 1912.
+At my request he selected "The Warfare against Tuberculosis" as his
+subject, and gave a most valuable account of the history and actual
+condition of that enterprise, relating the important results of his
+expedition to the Kalmuk Tartars for the purpose of studying the
+immunity from and the liability to infection by tuberculosis among
+that nomad population. The lecture was delivered in French, and I made
+a translation of it which appeared with numerous illustrations in the
+journal called _Bedrock_, published by Constable & Co. I mention that
+publication here as it is the only one excepting the three lectures on
+"The New Hygiene" (Heinemann, London, 1906) originally published in
+an English form by Metchnikoff, and deserves more attention from the
+English medical public than it has received.
+
+  [1] He received an honorary degree at Cambridge in 1891, and
+      also attended the International Medical Congress in London
+      in that year. In 1901 he gave a lecture at Manchester on the
+      intestinal flora. In 1906 he gave a course of three lectures
+      in London on "The New Hygiene." I translated them for him,
+      and they were published as a little volume by Heinemann.
+
+I found Metchnikoff a delightful companion. He always had something
+new or of special interest to show to me at the laboratory--some
+microscopical preparation, the digestive process in Protozoa,
+the microbian parasite of a water-flea, a new method of dark
+ground illumination with high powers (Commandant's method for film
+production), the newly discovered Treponema of syphilis, or the
+experimental inoculation of a disease under study. Sometimes I
+would lunch at his house, when, although he neither smoked nor took
+alcoholic drinks himself, he made a point of giving me first-rate
+claret and a good cigar. It was about the year 1900 that he arranged
+for the preparation of a pure "sour milk" made by the use of a special
+lactic ferment (selected and cultivated by himself), and this he took
+regularly. I found it a most agreeable food, and for several years made
+it an article of my own diet. He was very careful about the possible
+contamination of uncooked food by bacteria and the eggs of parasitic
+worms, and in consequence had "rolls" sent to him from the bakers each
+in its separate paper bag, whilst he would never eat uncooked salads or
+fruit which could not be rendered safe by "peeling." This was not an
+excess of caution, but resulted from his characteristic determination
+to carry out in practice the directions given by definite scientific
+knowledge, and to make the attempt to lead so far as possible a life
+free from disease. Often when I arrived in Paris he would invite me to
+lunch at one of the leading cafés, and though he ate very simple food
+himself took keen pleasure in ordering the best for me and thoroughly
+enjoyed the change of scene and the amenities of a first-rate
+restaurant. During one of his visits to London, I remember that he was
+invited, and I with him, on two or three occasions, by leading London
+physicians to dinner-parties. He was greatly shocked at the amount of
+strong wine which his hosts and fellow-guests consumed, and assured me
+that in Paris it would be injurious to the reputation of a physician
+were he not to set an example of either abstinence or great moderation.
+
+Metchnikoff was not only exceedingly gentle and courteous in his
+treatment of servants and employés, but he and his wife contrived on
+a very small income to help in a most substantial way poor neighbours
+and those who had met with misfortune whether they were of French or
+Russian nationality. They had many friends in the world of science and
+art, real workers and thinkers, including those who had not and those
+who had "arrived." With them I met and spent a long and interesting
+day with Rodin the sculptor and the son of Léon Tolstoï, who was
+working in a Paris studio. Among the pleasures which I have derived
+from the _Life_ are the accounts of places such as Naples and Messina,
+where I stayed in order to study the embryology of marine animals as
+Metchnikoff did; and also the appearance in these pages from time to
+time of old friends such as Nikolas Kleinenberg, whom Metchnikoff
+met at Messina in 1883. I had formed an intimate acquaintance with
+Kleinenberg at Jena in 1871, when he was working at his classical
+monograph on Hydra, and continued it at Naples in 1875. From Messina,
+where he became Professor in 1875, Kleinenberg sent me for publication
+in the _Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science_ his valuable
+memoir on the embryology of a species of Earthworm, and also rare and
+interesting specimens of Cephalopoda.
+
+Another great and noteworthy figure about whom all zoologists are
+glad to learn as much as possible is Kovalevsky. Metchnikoff made his
+acquaintance at Naples in 1864, and they formed a close friendship
+for one another. Later, in 1867, they shared the Baer Prize of the
+Petersburg Academy for their discoveries in embryology (p. 58). In
+1868 Metchnikoff had a dispute with Kovalevsky as to the origin of the
+nervous system of Ascidia (p. 62), concerning which he subsequently
+admitted that he was wrong and Kovalevsky right. There is no doubt that
+Kovalevsky, by his numerous important investigations of invertebrate
+embryology, and especially of that of Ascidia and Amphioxus, laid
+the foundation of _cellular_ Embryology, and the modern study of the
+embryology of Invertebrates. Metchnikoff's contributions were also of
+great value and importance (pp. 51, 52, 53, and pp. 72 and 73), though
+he has not so great a triumph in animal morphology to his credit as
+Kovalevsky's discovery of the close identities of the development of
+organs in Ascidia and Amphioxus. I had long cherished profound esteem
+for Kovalevsky when in 1896 I met him and his daughter at Wimereux
+with Professor Giard. He came in the autumn of that year to London,
+but left unexpectedly owing to some nervous fear of annoyance by the
+police. The great position of Kovalevsky was deliberately ignored in
+a German history of Zoology,[2] published just before the Great War.
+Metchnikoff describes Kovalevsky as a young man, small and timid, with
+shy but cordial manners and the clear sweet eyes of a child: he had
+(like Metchnikoff) for Science an absolute cult--"no sacrifice was too
+great, no difficulty too repellent for his ardour."
+
+  [2] By Prof. Hertwig of Munich.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is, I think, desirable to assure the reader of this book that the
+actual state of knowledge in regard to various subjects discussed
+in the _Life_ at the time when they were made the subjects of study
+by Metchnikoff is fairly and correctly sketched, and the growth and
+development of his views and original discoveries are correctly given.
+But it must be remembered that this _Life_ is not a critical discussion
+of the steps by which our knowledge of cell-layers, of intracellular
+digestion, and other factors contributory to Metchnikoff's doctrine of
+Phagocytosis and its outcomes were reached. Others played an important
+if a subsidiary part in building up that knowledge. What we have here
+is an account of the growth of Metchnikoff's own observations and
+theoretical inferences, which were so independent, and founded on
+such decisive original observations, as to make him a solitary figure
+contending, and successfully contending, during the best years of
+his lifetime for the recognition of a great generalisation for long
+opposed by most of the medical and physiological authorities of the
+time, and finally established by his lifelong researches and those of
+his faithful pupils and coadjutors. The recognition of the validity
+of _the doctrine of phagocytosis_ in relation to wounds, disease,
+immunity, and normal healthy life is the triumphant result of the
+scientific insight and boundless energy of Elie Metchnikoff.
+
+                                                E. RAY LANKESTER.
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                PAGE
+
+  PREFACE                                                          v
+
+  INTRODUCTION                                                   xxi
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+
+  1845. Panassovka--Metchnikoff's parents--Country life in
+      Little Russia                                                1
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II
+
+  Metchnikoff's brothers and sister--Childish characteristics      8
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+
+  1850. Journey to Slaviansk--The coach attacked by peasants      12
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV
+
+  1851. Departure for Kharkoff--Town life                         16
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+
+  1853-1856. Leo Metchnikoff's illness--Private tutors--
+      Botanical studies--A memorable birthday                     19
+
+                              CHAPTER VI
+
+  Ancestors of the Metchnikoff family--The great "Spatar"--Leo
+      Nevahovitch                                                 23
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+
+  1856-1861. The Kharkoff Lycée--Bogomoloff and Socialism--
+      Atheism--Natural History studies--Private lodgings--
+      Private lessons in histology from Professor Tschelkoff
+      --A borrowed microscope--First article--Italian opera--
+      The gold medal                                              28
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII
+
+  An early love--A schoolfellow's sister--A pretty sister-in-law  35
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX
+
+  1862. Journey to Germany--Leipzig, Würzburg--A hasty return     37
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+
+  1863. Kharkoff University--Physiology--The Vorticella--
+      Controversy with Kühne--_The Origin of Species_--
+      Gastrotricha--University degree                             40
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI
+
+  1864-1866. Heligoland--Giessen Congress--Leuckart--Visit
+      to Leo Metchnikoff at Geneva--Socialist gatherings--
+      Metchnikoff's discovery appropriated by Leuckart--Naples
+      --Kovalevsky--Comparative embryology--Embryonic layers--
+      Bakounine and Setchénoff--Cholera at Naples--Göttingen--
+      Anatomical studies--Munich; von Siebold--Music--Return
+      to Naples--Intracellular digestion                          43
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+
+  1867-1868. Petersburg--Baer Prize--Return home--Friendship
+      with Cienkovsky--Odessa--Naturalists' Congress at
+      Petersburg--Departure from Odessa--Zoological Lecturer's
+      Chair at Petersburg--Messina--Enforced rest--Reggio--
+      Naples--Controversy with Kovalevsky--Visit to the
+      B. family--Mlle. Fédorovitch--Educational questions--
+      Difficulties of life in Petersburg                          58
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII
+
+  1868-1873. Slight illness--Engagement to Mlle. Fédorovitch--
+      Marriage--Illness of the bride--Pecuniary difficulties
+      --Spezzia--Montreux--Work in Petersburg University--The
+      Riviera--Coelomata and Acoelomata--St. Vaast--Panassovka
+      --Madeira--Mertens--Teneriffe--Return to Odessa--Bad news,
+      hurried journey to Madeira--Death of his wife (1872)--
+      Return through Spain--Attempted suicide--Ephemeridæ         65
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+
+  1874. Anthropological expedition to the Kalmuk steppes--
+      Affection of the eyes--Second expedition to the steppes--
+      The eggs of the _Geophilus_                                 82
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV
+
+  1875. Studies on childhood--The family in the upper flat--
+      Lessons in zoology--Second marriage--Private life--Visit
+      and death of Lvovna Nevahovna--Conjugal affection           86
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+
+  1875-1880. Metchnikoff at the age of 30--Lecturing in Odessa
+      University, from 1873 to 1882--Internal difficulties--
+      Assassination of the Tsar, Alexander II.--Further troubles
+      in the University--Resignation--Bad health: cardiac
+      symptoms--Relapsing fever--Choroiditis--Studies on
+      Ephemeridæ--Further studies on intracellular digestion--
+      The _Parenchymella_--Holidays in the country--Experiments
+      on agricultural pests                                       96
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII
+
+  1881-1882. Death of his father- and mother-in-law--Management
+      of country estates--Agitation and difficulties--Departure
+      for Messina with young brothers- and sisters-in-law        112
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII
+
+  1883. Messina--Inception of the phagocyte theory--Encouragement
+      from Virchow and Kleinenberg--First paper on phagocytosis
+      at a Congress at Odessa in 1883--The question of _immunity_
+      --Article in Virchow's _Archiv_, 1884                      115
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX
+
+  1884-1885. Ill-health of his wife and sister-in-law--Journey
+      to Tangiers through Spain--Villefranche--Baumgarten
+      criticises the phagocyte theory                            123
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XX
+
+  1886. A Bacteriological Institute in Odessa--Unsatisfactory
+     conditions--Experiments on erysipelas and on relapsing
+     fever                                                       127
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXI
+
+  1887. Hygiene Congress in Vienna--Wiesbaden--Munich--Paris
+      and Pasteur--Berlin and Koch--Failure of anthrax
+      vaccination of sheep--Decision to leave Russia             131
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII
+
+  1888. The Pasteur Institute--Dreams realised--Metchnikoff
+  at 50--Growing optimism--Attenuated sensitiveness--The
+  Sèvres villa (1898)--Daily routine                             135
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII
+
+  1892. Opposition to the phagocyte theory--Scientific
+  controversies--Experiments in support of the phagocyte
+  theory--Behring and antitoxins--The London Congress--
+  _Inflammation_                                                 147
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV
+
+  Cholera--Experiments on himself and others--Illness of M.
+  Jupille--Death of an epileptic subject--Insufficient results   154
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXV
+
+  1894. Pfeiffer's experiments--The Buda-Pest Congress--
+      Extracellular destruction of microbes--Reaction of the
+      organism against toxins--Dr. Besredka's researches--
+      Macrophages--The Moscow Congress--Bordet's experiments     158
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI
+
+  1900. Immunity--Natural immunity--Artificial immunity          168
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVII
+
+  1893-1905. Private sorrows--Death of Pasteur--Ill-health
+      --Senile atrophies--Premature death--Orthobiosis--
+      Syphilis (1905)--Acquisition of anthropoid apes (1903)     181
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+  Researches on the intestinal flora--Sour milk                  196
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIX
+
+  1908. The Nobel Prize--Journey to Sweden and Russia--A day
+      with Léon Tolstoï                                          199
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXX
+
+  Intestinal flora--Infantile cholera--Typhoid fever--Articles
+      on popular Science                                         206
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXI
+
+  1911. Expedition to the Kalmuk steppes to study tuberculosis
+      --Plague                                                   210
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXII
+
+  Further researches on the intestinal flora--_Forty Years'
+  Search for a Rational Conception of Life_                      220
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+  Unpleasant incidents--The fabrication of lacto-bacilli--St.
+      Léger-en-Yvelines--Return to Paris--First cardiac attack
+      --Evolution of the death instinct--Notes on his symptoms   225
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+  1914. Return to St. Léger-en-Yvelines--Norka--Studies on the
+      death of the silk-worm moth--War declared--Mobilisation    237
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXV
+
+  1915. Return to Paris--The deserted Institute--Memoir on the
+      Founders of Modern Medicine--Metchnikoff's Jubilee--Last
+      holidays at Norka                                          244
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+  1916. Bronchial cold--Aggravated cardiac symptoms--Farewell
+      to Sèvres--Return to the Institute--Protracted sufferings
+      --Intellectual preoccupations--Observations on his own
+      condition--The end--Cremation.                             254
+
+
+  EPILOGUE                                                       276
+
+  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX                                       285
+
+  INDEX                                                          291
+
+
+
+
+                             INTRODUCTION
+
+
+On a calm summer evening we were seated together on our terrace.
+
+On the preceding day, one who hardly knew my husband had come to ask
+him for information concerning his life, with the object of writing
+his biography. We were saying to each other how inevitably superficial
+and incomplete such a biography was bound to be; how difficult such a
+task is for a biographer, even when fully informed; how necessary it
+is to be thoroughly acquainted with a man and with every phase of his
+existence in order to give a truthful picture of his character and of
+his life. The intimate side is bound to remain more or less closed to a
+stranger; in order to decipher it, it is indispensable for the writer
+of a biography to have lived in complete communion of spirit with its
+subject. Our long past, spent together, fulfilled all these conditions.
+
+My husband's whole life was well known to me. My mother-in-law had
+often told me vivid stories of his childhood; he himself willingly
+talked to me about his past. As to the second part of his existence, we
+had lived it together.
+
+In order clearly to understand his character, at once both complex and
+one-sided, it was necessary to possess the key to his psychology. In
+his life, as in his work, everything was so closely knitted that it was
+impossible to understand the whole without knowledge of every link of
+his evolution.
+
+In the soothing calm of that summer evening, I submitted my reflections
+to him; he warmly encouraged me, and I then and there resolved to write
+his biography. He advised me to relate his whole life without any
+reticence, considering that thus alone does a biography justify its
+existence. That advice was to guide me, within limits, for to dissect
+an individual life without touching other lives as well is not always
+possible.
+
+Numerous were the difficulties before me; yet, I considered the task as
+a mission, hoping, in spite of all, that this biography would present a
+true picture of the life and evolution of Elie Metchnikoff.
+
+We talked over this project for a long time. The moon now appeared
+above the trees, the soft light tracing silver designs through the ivy
+leaves. The lawn, the walnut tree in front of the house, and everything
+around us was bathed in peaceful radiance. Under its mysterious charm,
+we ceased to speak, we listened to the inward voices of nature and of
+our own hearts.
+
+In youth, vague reveries fill our minds; after a long life, distant
+memories.... He whose life I describe is no more.... Without his help
+my task could not have been accomplished.
+
+Often, when he was not too tired, he would sit comfortably in his
+armchair and recount to me with his usual spirit and animation some
+period or episode of his past. I read to him a sketch of the first part
+of this biography and a few chapters only of the second, which was
+hardly begun. Thus we spent many evenings, never to be forgotten.
+
+He wanted this biography written, for he held that the evolution of
+a mind, of a character, of a human life is always an interesting
+psychological document. During his long and painful illness, he urged
+me to relate the "last chapter" of his life; he hoped that his attitude
+in the face of death might diminish the fear of it in others. Also
+he considered that men are rare who are conscious until the end;
+even rarer, those who reach the development of the "death-instinct."
+Therefore, according to him, an example would be interesting.
+
+I have tried to accomplish his desire within the measure of my strength.
+
+The only object of this simple and truthful story is to show Elie
+Metchnikoff as he was, a help, a support, and a lesson to others.
+
+I dedicate this book to his dear memory.
+
+                                                OLGA METCHNIKOFF.
+
+  SÈVRES, _15th Dec. 1918_.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+
+  Panassovka--Metchnikoff's parents--Country life in Little Russia.
+
+
+In Little Russia, in the steppe region of the province of Kharkoff,
+is situated the land of Panassovka, which belonged to the Metchnikoff
+family. It is now sold, it has passed into strange hands, but it was
+once the patrimony of Ilia Ivanovitch, father of Elie Metchnikoff.
+
+The country around Panassovka is neither beautiful nor rich: steppes,
+hillocks covered with low grasses and wild wormwood; a poor village,
+meagre vegetation, no river; the whole impression is a melancholy one.
+But what boundless space! What soft, silver grey colouring! And, in the
+mornings and evenings, what fresh, cool air, and what a delicious aroma
+of wormwood leaves!
+
+The house of Panassovka, a little way from the village, is situated
+on a hill which slopes gently towards a pond. It is like that of any
+other middle-class landowner in Little Russia. It has only one storey
+and two flights of steps on the principal façade, opening into a
+deserted courtyard with no view but the high road. On the other side
+a semicircular terrace, with columns and steps, leads to the garden,
+composed of a few meagre flower-beds and fruit trees, reaching to the
+pond. On the bank, a distillery and a very well-kept kitchen garden.
+
+The house is arranged inside in a commonplace manner, with no claim to
+beauty or comfort. The furniture, devoid of style or elegance, neither
+comfortable nor fashionable, is distributed quite inartistically. On
+the other hand, great care is evident in everything that pertains
+to the table: the cellars and larders are full of provisions, and
+obviously constitute the principal preoccupation of the masters of
+the house. And indeed the hospitable table of Panassovka is renowned
+throughout the neighbourhood.
+
+According to a very fine portrait, painted in 1835, Ilia Ivanovitch was
+at that time a handsome young man with regular features, tender blue
+eyes, and curly fair hair. He was very intelligent, but his mind had
+that sceptical turn which prevents men from taking life seriously and
+which paralyses activity. Moreover, he had an Epicurean temperament and
+was in the army.
+
+He had married, when very young, Emilia Lvovna Nevahovna, sister of one
+of his brother officers in the Imperial Guard, a very attractive and
+unusually intelligent girl. Her beauty was of the Jewish type, with
+splendid dark eyes, and she had a bright and lively disposition as well
+as a kind and tender heart. Her friends called her "Milotchka," which,
+in Russian, means "charming"; in her old age she loved to relate that
+the great Russian poet, Pushkin, once said to her at a ball, "How well
+your name suits you, Mademoiselle!"
+
+After his marriage, Ilia Ivanovitch remained in Petersburg, leading
+a merry life with his brothers-in-law, and giving no thought to the
+future; it took him but a few years at that rate to spend the whole of
+his wife's inheritance. And three children were growing up whose future
+had to be thought of. It was then that Ilia Ivanovitch's distant
+estate was remembered, away in a remote part of Little Russia. What
+energy, what perseverance had to be displayed by his wife before she
+could persuade him to take refuge there! and how hard it must have
+seemed to the gay officer to leave the capital for the lonely and
+monotonous life of the country! However, departure was decided upon.
+The two boys, Ivan and Leo, were placed in a school at Petersburg, to
+be prepared for the Lycée and the Law School. Ilia Ivanovitch obtained
+a post as Remount Officer for two Guards regiments, and started with
+his wife, his daughter, an aunt, and a younger brother, to settle down
+in the country.
+
+The family settled at first in the old Ivanovka house, where a son,
+Nicholas, was born. Though they wished to have no more children,
+one more child was born two years later, on the 16th May 1845--Elie
+Metchnikoff.
+
+The Ivanovka house was old and inconvenient; Ilia Ivanovitch decided
+to build a new one at the other end of his estate, in a place called
+Panassovka, which thus became the family home.
+
+Emilia Lvovna threw herself into her domestic occupations with her
+usual energy and ardour. She was anxious to improve the situation,
+which had become precarious, and wished at the same time to create
+for her husband an environment suited to his Epicurean tastes. Ilia
+Ivanovitch loved cards and the table, both tastes easy to satisfy in
+the country, and which became the pivot of life at Panassovka. The
+great daily problem was the question of meals, and long conversations
+had to take place with the cook and with the housekeeper concerning
+catering.
+
+Thanks to serfdom, servants were very numerous and everything could
+be manufactured at home. The "diévitshia" (maid-servants' room) was
+crowded with maids, seamstresses, needle-women, washer-women, etc.,
+under the direction of a fat, middle-aged woman named Duniasha. She
+wore a silk kerchief on her head, and was invariably clothed in a
+white dressing jacket and a brown skirt with white spots. A regular
+autocrat, she ruled her little world with a rod of iron; as soon as her
+heavy, felt-slippered steps were heard, the maids whispered to each
+other, "Avdotia Maximovna!" conversations ceased, and every one became
+absorbed in her work.
+
+Among the male retainers, the first place was held by Petrushka, the
+valet. Careless and often drunk, he was nevertheless a good fellow; he
+was usually to be found asleep behind the screen in the hall. The upper
+servants, the cook, coachman, and others left their work to be done by
+their underlings, the scullery boy, postilion, page-boy, etc. In fact,
+everything followed the routine usual in every Russian household in the
+time of serfdom.
+
+Emilia Lvovna directed the children's education; her personal teaching
+consisted chiefly in tender indulgence, but it was she who chose the
+nurses and teachers. As long as the boys were small, their great-aunt
+Elena Samoïlovna looked after them; afterwards they were handed over to
+tutors and professors. Ilia Ivanovitch's activities consisted in buying
+horses at fairs and in studs and in convoying them to Petersburg.
+These journeys took a long time, by stages and relays of horses. Ilia
+Ivanovitch took advantage of them to gamble heavily and to enjoy
+pleasures which the country did not offer.
+
+Agriculture was very restricted at Panassovka, for the property
+consisted mostly of pasture land for horses and sheep. The younger
+brother, Dmitri Ivanovitch, had undertaken the management of the
+estate. He was entirely devoted to the family of his elder brother,
+whom he had followed into the country. Though only a few years younger,
+he used the respectful second person plural in speaking to Ilia
+Ivanovitch, whilst the latter said "thou" to him. Dmitri Ivanovitch
+was tall, thin, and taciturn, a silent pipe-smoker. The lively Emilia
+Lvovna often said to him, "But why do you never talk, Mitienka?" To
+which he invariably answered, "It is not every one who is as talkative
+as you are, Emilia Lvovna." Yet they were on the best of terms. Dmitri
+Ivanovitch would have gone through fire for his sister-in-law, as she
+well knew. She had the utmost confidence in him, and depended upon his
+support in every difficult circumstance.
+
+At Panassovka the men spent the greater part of the day, and often even
+of the night, in playing cards; games were organised between neighbours
+and relations, and that occupation was considered most important. Meals
+were prolonged indefinitely; everything was served in abundance and
+eaten with a connoisseur's appreciation, each dish being discussed.
+After the meal was over, the cook would make his daily appearance,
+and the next day's _menu_ was drawn up by the whole party. After a
+siesta, gambling was resumed. Thus the days went by in the cult of good
+cheer and of cards, interspersed with conversations about horses and
+sometimes about politics.
+
+By this time Ilia Ivanovitch was beginning to become bald and obese.
+It is difficult to define what was his inner life; not even to his
+wife did he ever speak of it. As to his children, he petted them when
+they were small, but as they grew up, their intercourse with him was
+limited to kissing his hand morning and evening. He was not indifferent
+to their welfare, but left it entirely to his wife's active solicitude.
+The children were on very different terms with their mother; not
+only did she spoil them, but also always eagerly shared all their
+childish interests. Owing to that, and to her bright and affectionate
+disposition, they looked upon her as their intimate friend and
+confidante.
+
+Masters and servants were on good terms, relations between them were
+even remarkably human, according to the ideas of the time, and in spite
+of certain customs inherent to serfdom. For instance, the younger maids
+were punished by having their faces slapped and their hair pulled.
+Even the kindly and peaceable Dmitri Ivanovitch would soundly box his
+valet's ears when he found him drunk. At that time such things were not
+thought cruel or humiliating, but looked upon as a paternal correction.
+The peasants had confidence in their "barin" (master) and consulted him
+or appealed to his generosity when in trouble.
+
+Ilia Ivanovitch never opposed the free choice of his serfs in
+matrimony, a rare tolerance at that time. According to custom every
+betrothed couple came to salute him, the young man in his Sunday
+clothes and a fine, bright-coloured scarf, the girl wearing an
+embroidered bodice and a head-dress of many-coloured ribbons. They
+knelt before him and bowed three times to the ground, then offered him
+sacramental loaves, hard and shaped like pine cones, on beautifully
+worked diapers. Ilia Ivanovitch and Emilia Lvovna blessed the bride and
+bridegroom with "ikons," embraced them, and gave them a sum of money
+for the wedding.
+
+The Metchnikoffs were liked by their peasants and looked upon as good
+masters.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II
+
+  Metchnikoff's brothers and sister--Childish characteristics.
+
+
+The two elder children, Ivan and Leo, were educated at Petersburg,
+whilst Katia, the only daughter, was brought up at home. Like all
+other girls of noble family, she was educated with the object of being
+suitably married. She was a slender, pretty brunette, like her mother,
+but less beautiful. Though sensitive and intelligent, she interested
+herself in nothing but the reading of French novels. There was a great
+difference in age between Katia and her little brothers, whilst there
+were only two years between them. Kolia (Nicholas) was the old aunt's
+favourite, a fine, handsome boy with velvety black eyes; his slow and
+grave movements had earned for him the nickname of "Peaceful Papa."
+
+The youngest of the family, Ilia (Elie), on the contrary, was full of
+life and spirits. Fair and slender, with silky hair and a diaphanous,
+pink and white complexion, he had small, grey-blue eyes, full of
+kindliness and sparkle. Very highly strung and impressionable, his
+temper was easily roused, and he was so restless that he went by the
+name of "quicksilver." He always wished to see everything, to know
+everything, and found his way everywhere. When, after a long silence,
+there was a sudden outburst of many voices around the card-tables, he
+would rush to the drawing-room, saying, "Are they going to fight?"
+He ran about the house all day, following his mother as she attended
+to her various duties; he examined the provisions, tasted everything,
+and even went to the "diévitshia" to see what the maids were doing.
+He tried to sew or to embroider, exasperated everybody, and ended by
+being turned out. He would then look for something else to do, go to
+see whether the table was laid, inquire about the _menu_, and ask the
+queerest questions. He could only be kept quiet when his curiosity was
+awakened by the observation of some natural object such as an insect or
+a butterfly that he was trying to catch, or by watching the "grown-ups"
+at their card games. But, of all things, music fascinated him most,
+and he would remain for hours sitting by the piano listening without
+a movement. He was very much spoilt by his mother, who had a weakness
+for her Benjamin, and who also wished to make up for the very obvious
+preference shown for Kolia by the great-aunt.
+
+Moreover, Ilia was a frail little boy and often suffered from his eyes;
+the doctor advised that he should not be allowed to cry or to rub his
+eyes, and, in order to avoid this, he was permitted to have his own
+way in everything. He was much too intelligent not to understand the
+advantage that the situation offered and was quick to profit by it. In
+the face of the least semblance of refusal or reproach, he would begin
+to rub his eyes and announce in a whining tone that he was going to
+cry. He was therefore very much spoilt and very capricious; his mother
+said he was "neurotic"; his sister, who often had differences with him,
+called him a "little beast." In reality, Ilia was very good-hearted,
+tender, and loving; he was affectionate, especially with his mother,
+and could always be managed by an appeal to his feelings. But if he was
+sensitive to kindness, he was equally so to the least injustice. He
+could not forgive his great-aunt the predilection which she exhibited
+on every occasion for Kolia; for instance, at table, she would choose
+tit-bits for him, and Ilia observed with bitterness that she always
+reserved the chicken's breast for her favourite. Every time a chicken
+was served, poor Ilia followed the dish round the table with anxious
+eyes, and she invariably placed the coveted morsel in his brother's
+plate.
+
+When the day was over, Ilia was put into his little bed and told to
+"say his prayers and go to sleep." But he did not obey at once: after
+a thousand merry tricks, his eyelids would begin to close in spite
+of him; then he would make up his mind to kneel and say his prayers,
+folding his little hands: "Lord, keep and preserve father, mother,
+great----" But suddenly remembering the latter's injustice towards
+him, he would correct himself hastily, "No, not great-aunt, she is too
+unkind!" and continue, "My sister, my brothers, everybody, and myself,
+little Ilia." Still he did not go to sleep immediately; a nervous
+child, he was frightened of being alone; now and then he would lift his
+heavy lids to see if the maid was still there. Sometimes the latter,
+thinking he had gone to sleep, would leave the room on tiptoe. Ilia,
+seeing her no more, would start, raise his head and, stretching his
+thin neck, send an anxious look around the room, faintly lighted by a
+night-light. The vacillating flame threw trembling and dancing shadows.
+Seized with intense terror, he would hide his face in his pillow and
+scream with all his might. Avdotia Maximovna would then rush to soothe
+him and soundly rate the servant girl, "Are you not ashamed to leave
+a noble child all alone?" Ilia would then go on sobbing for a little
+while, but, reassured after all, would presently sink into deep,
+childish sleep.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+
+  Journey to Slaviansk--The coach attacked by peasants.
+
+
+In 1850 the children were taken to the baths of Slaviansk. On a warm
+summer day the heavy "berlin" coach, drawn by six horses with a
+postilion, rolled along the high road, across the steppes, followed at
+a distance by a "tarantass."[3]
+
+  [3] Ungainly open carriage on high wheels and without springs.
+
+In the spacious, antique coach, with its dusty hood, sat Emilia Lvovna,
+with her three children; the valet, Petrushka, dozed on the box, next
+to the coachman. The tarantass was occupied by Dmitri Ivanovitch and a
+cousin.
+
+The heat was oppressive. At the start every one was excited; Emilia
+Lvovna was trying to remember if anything had been forgotten and was
+discussing with Katia the details of their installation at Slaviansk.
+The boys hung out of the windows, gazing at the horses, at the
+tarantass, and making all sorts of comments. Ilia was so restless and
+talkative that he was constantly being told, "Do be quiet! Keep still!"
+
+By degrees, however, children and "grown-ups" began to feel drowsy,
+owing to the monotony of the road, the heat, and the swinging of the
+carriage. The tarantass had disappeared, for Dmitri Ivanovitch wished
+to visit an aunt whose house was not far from the road. The outline
+of a forest was now seen on the horizon; it came nearer and nearer,
+and soon the coach stopped before the forest inn. Everybody woke up,
+the children were delighted to be able to run about and stretch their
+limbs. They begged their mother to let them go into the forest whilst
+the horses were resting, and obtained permission to go, but not too
+far, and with Petrushka.
+
+They ate an appetising lunch at the inn and the children ran off at
+a gallop. Everything delighted them, the underwood, grass patches,
+ravines, and mysterious paths. But they had hardly entered the forest
+when they heard a sinister, confused rumour in the distance; they
+stopped to listen, and recognised the voices of a tumultuous crowd. The
+children's joyous excitement fell; frightened and docile, they hastened
+to return to the inn, from which Emilia Lvovna, looking anxiously out
+of a window, was making urgent signs to them to return. The coach was
+still standing without horses, and, a little farther off, the latter
+were surrounded by a crowd of peasants, of whom many were completely
+drunk. They shouted vociferously, and closely pressed the coachman and
+the postilion, threatening to confiscate the horses and detain the
+travellers if they were not given a ransom of a thousand roubles.
+
+Terrified, the children clung to their distracted mother; Ilia felt
+her trembling, and his own little heart fluttered like a bird that
+has been caught. The drunken peasants appeared to him like monstrous
+ogres or brigands about to capture, perhaps kill, his family and
+himself; he could hardly keep back his tears. Already the peasants
+had bound the coachman and the postilion and were taking away the
+horses. Clinging close to each other, the mother and children listened
+anxiously; they thought again and again that they could hear the bells
+of the tarantass. At last it appeared in the distance, and the children
+joyously whispered, "There they are!" They hastened to inform Dmitri
+Ivanovitch of what had happened. He at once went with his cousin
+towards the crowd, and negotiations were opened, but for a long time
+without result.
+
+At last the cousin had a happy idea; he declared he would go back to
+his aunt's house in the neighbourhood and borrow the thousand roubles
+from her. The peasants consented to let him go alone, keeping the other
+travellers as hostages. After a time, which to the children seemed
+endless, the sound of the tarantass bells was again heard, accompanied
+this time by numerous heavy footsteps, and the vehicle reappeared,
+escorted by a company of soldiers commanded by two officers. Instead
+of going to his aunt's, the cousin had gone to a neighbouring military
+camp and was bringing assistance.
+
+There was a sudden change of scene. Emilia Lvovna and Katia furtively
+made the sign of the cross. Ilia had let go of his mother's hand and
+was no longer clinging to her, but, stretching his head forward and
+opening his eyes wide, eagerly waited to see what was going to happen.
+"Now," he thought, "we shall not be captured; it is their turn; I am
+glad!" And, perhaps for the first time in his life, his little heart
+was moved by feelings of hatred.
+
+In the meanwhile a repulsive scene was going on: a hand-to-hand
+struggle, invectives and screams. The peasants were securely bound.
+Men and women hastened from a neighbouring village; one of the women
+slapped an officer's face. Furious, he ordered the soldiers to fill her
+mouth with earth; she was thrown on the ground; the new arrivals in
+their turn attacked the soldiers, and a regular battle raged.
+
+Ilia was alarmed, shaken, and profoundly disgusted with that exhibition
+of brutality. The coachman and postilion, their bonds unloosed,
+hastened to put the horses in, and whilst reprisals were still going
+on, the family hurried away. They reached Slaviansk without further
+trouble, excitedly talking over their adventure. This episode was the
+first deep and definite impression which remained on little Ilia's
+mind; it struck him so much that he kept the memory of it during his
+whole life.
+
+From that moment he held crowds, violence, and all manifestations of
+brute force in the utmost horror, whatever their cause might be.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV
+
+  Departure for Kharkoff--Town life.
+
+
+The following year was to be spent at Kharkoff. Katia was now seventeen
+and her marriage had to be contemplated.
+
+The boys' life was still quite a childish one, made up chiefly of games
+and mischief. Kolia had been taught to read by the great-aunt; Ilia
+had learnt by himself, asking people now and then for the name of some
+letter. He was able to read fluently quite early.
+
+The departure for Kharkoff was a great event, prepared long beforehand.
+The children, delighted at the prospect of a change, impatiently waited
+for the moment to start. At last every one was seated in the coaches
+and, saying to the coachman, "Off! God keep us," they started to drive
+along the high road through the steppes.
+
+Life at Kharkoff was very much the same as at Panassovka, with
+social elements added. Moreover, the children's liberty was somewhat
+restricted. Already on the journey they were given to understand that,
+in a town, they could not go out alone, nor shout in the streets, nor
+point at people and things with their finger, and that they should
+have to make less noise, even in the house. For the first time they
+unconsciously realised that their family was not the centre of the
+universe, that there were many others who also had to be taken into
+account. Ilia did not welcome this discovery.
+
+The flat occupied by the Metchnikoffs was on the first floor, above
+that of the owner of the house. One day when the children were
+running about, making a fearful noise, some one came up to say that
+the landlady was ill and begged that the noise should cease. Ilia,
+interrupted in the midst of a game, became furiously angry; in his rage
+he seized a whistle, and stooping to a crack in the floor, whistled
+with all his might. It was only with much difficulty that he was
+induced to stop and to calm himself.[4]
+
+  [4] Metchnikoff himself insisted upon the recital of this
+      episode, for which he had felt some remorse. He considered
+      that, in a biography, disagreeable traits were not to be
+      omitted.
+
+The children's horizon soon widened; Dmitri Ivanovitch took them to
+the theatre and a new and fantastic world opened out to them. The very
+next day they attempted a performance of the play they had seen; soon,
+on Kolia's suggestion, they began to compose plays for themselves.
+Kolia wrote a drama entitled "Burning Tea," in which the hero having
+offered his friend tea that was too hot, the latter burnt his tongue;
+a duel ensued, etc., etc. Ilia hastened to follow his brother's
+example. He composed something in the same style, but even more absurd.
+Having realised that it was so, he gave up literature. That period
+was for him a series of disappointments which perhaps helped to lead
+him to the path he was ultimately to follow. His brother, following
+the "grown-ups'" example, played cards with other boys or with the
+maids. Ilia attempted to do the same, but his nervousness left him no
+self-control; he lost continually and games generally ended in quarrels
+and tears; he became disgusted with cards for the rest of his life.
+Kolia was fond of muscular exercises, such as gymnastics, wrestling,
+etc. Ilia, younger and therefore weaker, was constantly humiliated, and
+his pride kept him away from physical amusements. Thus, by means of
+elimination, he became gradually isolated from surrounding influences.
+But, at that time, no new element had intervened in his daily life and
+he spent his existence in the gentle warmth of his mother's tenderness,
+absorbed in his childish games and studies.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+
+  Leo Metchnikoff's illness--Private tutors--Botanical studies--A
+  memorable birthday.
+
+
+In 1851, in the middle of the winter, the Metchnikoffs heard that Leo,
+their second son, was suffering from hip-disease, and the doctors
+advised that he should be taken away from Petersburg. Poor Emilia
+Lvovna was in great despair and shed many tears; her brother-in-law,
+Dmitri Ivanovitch, calmly announced that he was going to fetch Leo. He
+took his great fur coat, his fur cap and fur-lined boots, and started
+that very day for Petersburg by coach. He took but the necessary time
+to go and to bring Leo back, only stopping at relays to change horses.
+
+The boy was then thirteen years old, handsome, gifted, and intelligent;
+he walked with crutches, but his general health seemed good, and it was
+decided that he should work at home to prepare for the Lycée, under the
+tuition of students as tutors. Thus a new element was introduced into
+the family life.
+
+In 1853 Leo had as a tutor a student named Hodounof, a very intelligent
+young man, who wished not merely to teach him but to impart to him
+the love of science. Leo was extremely gifted and worked with great
+facility, but he lacked concentration and was therefore somewhat
+superficial. This cooled his tutor's enthusiasm, whilst on the other
+hand he became more and more interested in little Ilia. It was in
+the course of country walks that they were drawn together. Hodounof
+used to take Leo for walks in order to study the local flora, and Ilia
+came out with them, at first for the sake of the exercise. But soon he
+became interested in the flowers and showed so much taste for botany
+that he attracted Hodounof's notice; soon the tutor's interest became
+concentrated on the little boy and he gave him serious attention.
+
+It was with a real enthusiasm that Ilia gathered and studied plants;
+he soon became thoroughly acquainted with the local flora. He thought
+himself very learned already and wrote memoirs on botany. Passionately
+fond of teaching, he used to offer all his pocket-money to his brothers
+and other children to induce them to hear lectures which he gave them.
+His vocation was fixed from that moment. He was then eight years old.
+
+When the family returned to Kharkoff he spent all he had in buying
+books on natural history, which he read with passionate interest. These
+contained many things that he could not understand, but his curiosity
+was all the greater. When he was eleven years old his passion for
+natural history almost cost him his life. While fishing for hydra in
+a small pond he was so eager that he fell into the water and was only
+pulled out with great difficulty.
+
+That particular day, his own and his father's name day, was nearly
+fatal to him, not only through water but through fire. It was a family
+custom to hold a great gathering of friends and relations at Panassovka
+on St. Elias's day. Preparations for the feast began days beforehand;
+the whole household was in a turmoil.
+
+On that particular St. Elias's day, so many guests came to Panassovka
+that there was not enough room in the house to accommodate them all,
+and the children were transferred to a pavilion outside the house.
+
+Whilst in the drawing-room people were talking and playing cards, the
+servants were holding rejoicings of their own. Towards night-time
+the majority of the coachmen and footmen brought by the guests were
+completely drunk; a cigarette imprudently thrown on some hay started
+a fire. Soon the stables were ablaze and many horses perished in the
+flames, in spite of every effort to save them. Presently the wind
+changed in the direction of the pavilion and the thatched roof caught
+fire. There was a rush to save the children, who were with much
+difficulty taken out through a window.
+
+In spite of intense terror, Ilia's first thought was for his baby
+nephew, the son of his sister, who had then been married a year; he ran
+in affright all over the house searching for the child, and only became
+calm again after he had ascertained that it had been carried out into
+the garden.
+
+Katia being married there was now no reason to spend the winter in the
+town. The father and mother therefore remained at Panassovka and Dmitri
+Ivanovitch took the boys to Kharkoff, where they entered the Lycée.
+They had been well prepared by their tutors, and moreover spoke French
+and a little German, having had special teachers for these languages.
+Their French tutor, M. Garnier, was gay, boastful, and pretentious;
+his idea of teaching them French literature was to memorise Béranger's
+_chansons_. He was passionately fond of shooting and gave to that
+sport as much time as he could, greatly to the detriment of his pupils'
+studies, for they were not allowed to accompany him for fear of an
+accident. Their mother, perhaps on account of her weak heart, was so
+nervous that they were discouraged from any sporting tastes. The German
+tutor also neglected the children: his favourite occupation consisted
+in drinking beer. On one occasion he gave so much to little Ilia that
+the boy conceived a lifelong distaste for beer. Ilia took advantage
+of his tutors' indifference to devote himself to his favourite study
+of natural history. His vocation was so obvious that it could not be
+mistaken. It seems a strange thing that a passion for science should
+have developed in so inappropriate an environment. Evidently the first
+impulse was given by Hodounof, but, if his influence stimulated this
+passion, it cannot have created it. This vocation probably had a deeper
+source, and in order to discover it we should perhaps look back into
+the antecedents of the Metchnikoff family.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI
+
+  Ancestors of the Metchnikoff family--The Great Spatar--Leo
+  Nevahovitch.
+
+
+The Metchnikoff family made no show of family pride; one old aunt,
+however, was extremely proud of one of their ancestors, the Great
+"Spatar" (sword-bearer). The following is the account given of this
+ancestor by E. Picot, after a Moldavian chronicle.[5]
+
+  [5] _Chronicle of John Neculua._
+
+  Few men led such an adventurous life or made themselves glorious
+  through such varied gifts as did Nicholas Spatar Milescu.
+
+  His name is connected with the history of Moldavian, Greek, Russian,
+  and Chinese literature. His origin, his talents, his crime, the
+  mutilation he suffered, his audacious journey across the whole of
+  Asia to reach Pekin, the valuable information which he gathered
+  during his embassy at the Court of the "Son of Heaven," everything
+  conspires to excite curiosity concerning him.
+
+Spatar was born in Moldavia in 1625. While yet very young he went
+to Constantinople, where he studied theology, philosophy, history
+ancient and modern, Greek, Latin, Slavonic and Turkish. He afterwards
+went to Italy to study natural science and mathematics. On his return
+to Moldavia he soon became known for his erudition, acquired great
+influence, and became much appreciated at Court. Owing to clever
+political intrigues he preserved the simultaneous favour of several
+enemy princes, one of whom, Stepanita, covered him with benefits and
+honours. Nevertheless, Spatar wrote to Constantine Bassarab, in Poland,
+advising him to come and to overthrow Stepanita's throne. He sent
+his letter inside a hollow cane; Constantine, however, did not wish
+to launch himself into such an adventure, and indignantly sent the
+hollow cane and the letter to Stepanita himself. At first the prince,
+naturally angry, thought of having Spatar executed; he spared his life
+for the sake of his talents, but condemned him to have the tip of his
+nose cut off. Spatar went to Germany, where, says the naïve chronicler,
+a doctor made his nose grow again. He came back to Moldavia for a short
+time and then went to Russia. Thanks to his knowledge of languages, he
+was made an interpreter at the Court of the Tsar Alexis Michailovitch,
+and was the first tutor of his son Peter the Great, whom he taught to
+read and to write.
+
+In 1674 the Tsar Alexis Michailovitch entrusted Spatar with a mission
+in China, where he was to open negotiations with a view to commercial
+and political relations between Russia and China. In the course of his
+journey Spatar carefully collected all possible information concerning
+the countries he traversed. He thus gathered much interesting
+geographical knowledge and highly important data concerning the
+commercial value of Asiatic rivers, and specially the Amour river.
+
+At Pekin, Spatar rapidly learnt the Chinese language, occupied for
+three years the post of ambassador in China, and returned to Russia
+bringing back most valuable information and many rich presents given
+him by the Emperor of China.
+
+All this had excited the jealousy of the Muscovite courtiers; they
+took advantage of the coincidence between the death of the Tsar and
+Spatar's return to deprive him of his treasures and to have him exiled
+to Siberia. But, when Peter the Great ascended the throne, Spatar
+succeeded in making a letter reach him relating his misfortunes,
+and the Tsar recalled him, gave him back his property, and showered
+honours upon him. Spatar again became interpreter of the Embassy; Peter
+consulted him in all Far-Eastern questions, and gave him confidential
+documents to translate into foreign languages.
+
+Spatar's literary activity was vast and varied. He translated the Bible
+from the Greek into Roumanian; he wrote a chronicle on the origin of
+Roumania, articles on theology, a Greco-Latin-Russian dictionary, and a
+work entitled _Arithmetic_, in which he discussed, by means of numbers
+and figures, questions of Theology, Philosophy, and Ethics. He dealt in
+his writings with Art, Archæology, and History; described his Siberian
+travels, China and the Amour river, and made numerous translations of
+diplomatic documents. His erudition was such that his contemporaries
+appealed to his knowledge as they would have consulted an encyclopædia.
+
+He had married a Muscovite and had several sons and grandsons. Three
+of his nephews came from Moldavia to join him and entered the Russian
+army. He died in 1714 at the age of 80. Such is the history of the
+"Great Spatar."
+
+The following notice is to be found in Brockhaus and Effrone's
+_Encyclopædia_: "The Metchnikoffs are a noble family, descended from a
+Moldavian Boyar, the Spatar (sword-bearer) Joury Stepanovitch,[6] who
+came to Russia with Prince Cantemir. Peter the Great gave this Boyar
+large land estates. His son took the name of Metchnikoff (Russian
+translation of Sword-bearer)."
+
+  [6] This Boyar was no doubt a nephew of the Great Spatar.
+
+The following generations included military men chiefly, one sailor,
+one mining engineer, one senator, but no scientific men.
+
+On the mother's side, Elie Metchnikoff had no ancestor as remarkable or
+as romantic as the great Spatar. Yet his grandfather, Leo Nevahovitch,
+was a very intelligent and highly cultivated man. He had been
+Farmer-General for tobacco in Poland. A Jew by race, he took to heart
+the persecutions directed against his co-religionists and defended
+them in literary newspaper articles. Nevertheless he accepted indirect
+advice from Alexander I. and let himself be baptized. He adopted the
+Lutheran religion and his children were brought up in it.
+
+At the beginning of the Polish Revolution in 1830, Nevahovitch was
+warned that his house was about to be sacked; the warning reached him
+as he was peacefully enjoying a theatrical performance. He hurried to
+prepare for departure and left Warsaw with his family for Petersburg,
+where he lived on his income. Having given up business, he took up
+literary work and translated German philosophical works, made friends
+in the literary world, and knew Pushkin and Kriloff. His children,
+Emilia Lvovna amongst others, inherited his intellectual gifts. One
+of his sons was a remarkable caricaturist and edited a caricature
+newspaper which was very well known at the time. The Nevahovitch family
+produced no men of science. Metchnikoff himself considered that he had
+inherited his mother's disposition and turn of mind. In any case, his
+ancestors on both sides included talented individuals, from whom he may
+have inherited his gifts and his innate taste for science.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+
+  The Kharkoff Lycée--Bogomoloff and Socialism--Atheism--Natural
+  History studies--Private lodgings--Private lessons in histology
+  from Professor Tschelkoff--A borrowed microscope--First article
+  --Italian Opera--The gold medal.
+
+
+In 1856 Dmitri Ivanovitch took the boys to Kharkoff in order to make
+them enter the Lycée. They passed their entrance examination quite
+satisfactorily; Kolia was admitted into the fifth class and Ilia into
+the one below it. They were day boarders and lived in the house of one
+of their former tutors.
+
+This was at a time when the new and liberal reign of Alexander II. was
+giving birth to many hopes; the Lycées preserved but insignificant
+traces of the hard regime of Nicholas I. Previous narrow and doctrinal
+teaching was giving way to a current of realistic and rational ideas,
+physical and natural science had become the vogue, and professors were
+trying to come into touch with their pupils and to influence their
+intellectual development. The boys on their side were founding mutual
+instruction clubs, attending popular Sunday lectures, interesting
+themselves in social questions--in fact the revolutionary movement was
+beginning to strike root. Life in general was intense, aspirations
+exalted, and hopes radiant.
+
+During his first school year Elie worked assiduously in all branches of
+the curriculum, and his name soon appeared on the honours list. The
+Russian language teacher became his friend, and greatly contributed to
+his development by choosing for him books of general knowledge. Under
+this direction Elie read, among other things, Buckle's _History of
+Civilisation_, which had at that time a very great influence on the
+young Russian mind. According to the author's principal thesis, the
+progress of humanity depended chiefly upon that of positive science;
+this idea sunk deeply into the boy's mind and confirmed his scientific
+aspirations.
+
+When he reached the fifth class he formed a friendship with one of
+his school-fellows, Bogomoloff, who had great influence over Elie's
+ulterior development; he was the son of a colour manufacturer, and his
+elder brothers were studying chemistry at the Kharkoff University with
+a view to applying it to their industry. They had travelled abroad
+and had brought back novel ideas and books forbidden by the Russian
+censorship; they influenced their young brother, who in his turn
+initiated Elie. It was thus that the latter became acquainted with
+materialistic ideas and social theories; he read the _Popular Star_,
+the _Bell of Herzin_, and other publications prohibited in Russia.
+Little by little he lost the faith which he had held when under his
+mother's influence. Atheism, however, was to him more interesting than
+disappointing; it incited in him a state of general criticism. Ardently
+passionate in this as in all things, he preached atheism to others
+and received the nickname of "God is not." The course of teaching
+at the Lycée did not escape his criticism; when he had reached the
+fourth class he omitted those exercises which seemed to him devoid of
+interest. On the other hand, he plunged with passion into the study of
+natural science, botany, and geology.
+
+He had ceased to be a model student, but his scientific aspirations
+became stronger from day to day.
+
+In order to cultivate foreign languages, the two brothers had been
+placed in a boarding-house where morals were strict and patriarchal,
+the food bad, and the director's sermons long and tedious. None of
+these things suited Elie. This regime, with the addition of dancing
+lessons, inspired him with the deepest aversion; he resolved to obtain
+from his parents permission to take furnished rooms for himself and his
+brother.
+
+In spite of the current of political exaltation which was then
+universal in Russia, Elie was too deeply immersed in his studies to
+be carried away in that direction. He did at one time attend popular
+lectures and the political gatherings of the students, but he felt
+that science was his real vocation. He was so early and so completely
+absorbed by it that he was not interested in the great movement for the
+emancipation of the serfs. It is true that, at Panassovka, the question
+was not acute as elsewhere, the serfs being quite happy; however,
+the fact remains that it was his passion for science which kept him,
+in spite of his exalted ideas and ardent soul, apart from the noble
+movement for liberation.
+
+In the third class he made friends with a group of students who were
+devoted to science and to intellectual culture. Elie, owing to his
+ardour and vivacity, played the part of a ferment in that little
+circle, each member of which was to make a special study of certain
+scientific branches in order that they might together edit a new
+encyclopædia of human knowledge. He studied German so as to read in the
+original the classical materialistic writers, Vogt, Feuerbach, Buchner,
+Moleschott, etc. The Lycée lectures were relegated to the background.
+Nevertheless, owing to his great facility of assimilation, he was
+successful in every branch. Plans for his ulterior activities were soon
+definitely fixed.
+
+At that time of intense intellectual effervescence in Russia, libraries
+were invaded by a number of translations of works on natural science.
+Elie absorbed them with avidity, and read amongst others a Russian
+translation of Bronn's book on the _Classes and Orders of the Animal
+Kingdom_. He saw for the first time in the plates of that work pictures
+of micro-organisms, amoebæ, Infusoria, Rhizopoda, etc. That world of
+lower beings impressed him so strongly that he resolved from that
+moment to devote himself to the study of them, that is, to the study of
+the primitive manifestations of life in its simplest forms.
+
+He was then fifteen years old. The two brothers now obtained from
+their parents permission to live in furnished rooms, an independent
+arrangement which allowed each of them to satisfy his individual
+tastes. Apart from the Lycée, Kolia spent his time in playing cards and
+billiards and in other amusements, whilst Elie worked with ardour, his
+only recreations being music and debates on abstract subjects. When he
+entered the second class he had become completely specialised. In order
+to tackle serious scientific studies, he tried to come into touch with
+one of the University professors. The University of Kharkoff was still
+making use of ancient methods; teaching was given by means of manuals,
+with practical application; but Elie, who did not know that, dreamt of
+finding in laboratories assistance and means of, at least, undertaking
+personal scientific work. He attended a lecture on comparative anatomy,
+and, in order not to appear too young, he wore his ordinary clothes
+instead of the Lycée uniform. After the lecture was over, he shyly
+approached the professor and begged to be allowed to study protoplasm
+under his direction. The professor received him coldly, and told him in
+a pedantic tone that he was in too much of a hurry, and that he should
+first of all finish his course at the Lycée and then get admitted into
+the University.
+
+It was a disappointment for the eager boy; however, he did not lose
+heart but continued to attend divers University lectures, clinging
+to the hope that another professor might be more sympathetic. He was
+pleased with the lectures of a young physiologist, Tschelkoff by name,
+and decided to make another attempt. This time he was successful. The
+professor received him kindly and consented to give him private lessons
+in histology. Then, fired with a passionate desire to produce something
+personal in medical science, and attracted by Virchow's cellular
+theory, he dreamt that he might create a general theory of his own in
+medicine. In order to increase his scientific knowledge, he undertook
+with his friend Zalensky the translation of Grove's work, _The Unity
+of Physical Forces_. The professor of chemistry and natural history
+willingly encouraged the two boys in this work, to which they gave up
+the whole of the school year. Elie wasted no opportunity of learning;
+during those lectures which did not interest him he used to read
+scientific books. One day that he was doing so during catechism he did
+not notice that the priest, wishing to know what he was reading, had
+come up to him. The latter, however, was greatly impressed by the title
+of Radlkoffer's learned work on _The Crystals of Proteic Substances_;
+he returned the book without a word and never interfered with him again.
+
+Through the assistance of some medical students, Elie obtained the loan
+of a microscope; he studied Infusoria and imagined that he had made
+divers discoveries; he hastened to write an article, and sent it to the
+only scientific Russian paper then in existence, the _Bulletin of the
+Moscow Society of Naturalists_. To his great joy his MS. was accepted,
+but before long the young scientist perceived that his deductions
+were erroneous, for he had mistaken phenomena of degenerescence for
+phenomena of development. He was able to stop the publication of this
+article, the first he ever wrote, and it never appeared.
+
+Thanks to Tschelkoff, who lent him a microscope for the duration of the
+holidays, he was able to study the local fauna of inferior animals. At
+the beginning of his last year at the Lycée, he read a text-book of
+geology by a Kharkoff professor and, with juvenile assurance, wrote a
+critical analysis of it. Inserted in the _Journal de Moscou_, this was
+Elie's first publication; he was then sixteen years old. Encouraged
+by this success, he sent several other criticisms, but they were not
+accepted.
+
+The last examinations were coming near: Elie wished to obtain the gold
+medal, not only out of pride, but in order to prove to his parents that
+he deserved their assistance in order to go abroad to continue his
+studies. He therefore provisionally suspended his favourite pursuits
+and resumed the study of the long-neglected school programme. The last
+examinations took place in the spring of 1862. It happened to be the
+Italian Opera season and Elie could not resist the temptations offered
+him by music. In order to make up the time, he often had to work the
+whole night long at the cost of severe fatigue.
+
+In spite of this complication, he passed his examinations brilliantly
+and obtained the gold medal. He now wished for nothing but to devote
+himself to scientific study.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII
+
+  An early love--A schoolfellow's sister--A pretty sister-in-law.
+
+
+In spite of his precocious vocation, Elie was in no wise indifferent
+to his surroundings. His mind was sensitive and impressionable and his
+affections deep and tender, especially where his mother was concerned.
+He never undertook anything without consulting her, a sweet habit which
+he preserved even in his maturity.
+
+It was already at the age of six that he received his first love
+impression: a lady came on a visit to Panassovka with her little girl
+of eight, a lovely curly-headed child, sweet and graceful, a living
+floweret. Ilia could not admire her enough, and was most lavish in his
+attentions, offering her flowers and fruit, inventing games to amuse
+her and trying by every means to make himself agreeable to her. The
+presence of this charming little girl caused him great joy and tender
+emotion; he wished that she might never go away.... But the visit soon
+ended, and this first idyll was short-lived; new impressions were not
+long in replacing it. Nevertheless the picture of the pretty child was
+so deeply impressed in his mind that he never forgot her.
+
+The second time he fell in love was when he was already at the Lycée;
+one of his schoolfellows had a very pretty sister whom Elie used to
+meet on half-holidays. He admired her from afar, and tried to contrive
+opportunities of meeting her; she was the object of his dreams for the
+whole of one term.
+
+But he was presently to be seized by a more serious feeling. When he
+was in the third class at the Lycée he came as usual to Panassovka
+for the summer holidays and found there a new inmate, his elder
+brother's young wife. Soon, to his own astonishment, he found that the
+image of his last winter's passion was being effaced by that of his
+sister-in-law. She, a pretty, fashionable girl, was bored with country
+life; she criticised the simple habits at Panassovka which formed a
+sharp contrast with her tastes; she soon became very unpopular and,
+feeling lonely and bored, tried to attract her young brother-in-law.
+Elie, at first a willing comrade, soon found himself harbouring a more
+tender feeling for his sister-in-law; she complained to him of the
+family's hostility, declared herself misunderstood, and easily excited
+the pity and sympathy of the sensitive boy. He became her ardent
+defender and went so far as to fight her battles, even with his mother,
+whom he reproached with fancied injustice. For nearly four years he
+remained under his sister-in-law's sentimental influence. He afterwards
+freed himself completely from it, but the fact remains that she was the
+first woman who inspired real sentiment in his youthful manhood.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX
+
+  Journey to Germany--Leipzig--Würzburg--A hasty return.
+
+
+During his later years at the Lycée, Elie had attended several courses
+at the Kharkoff University and had realised the inadequacy of the
+teaching and the impossibility of any personal research work in the
+laboratories. His greatest desire, therefore, was to go abroad to
+study. At that time, the German universities, being nearer, chiefly
+attracted Russian students. Their laboratories were widely opened to
+foreigners, and lectures were being given by a pleiad of celebrated
+professors.
+
+In order to attain his object, Elie took care to secure his mother's
+support. It was not very difficult, for she believed in her son's
+scientific future and was anxious to help him; she succeeded in
+convincing his father and, by means of serious sacrifices, the
+necessary sum was procured. Elie, who was especially interested in
+the study of protoplasm, chose the University of Würzburg, where the
+celebrated zoologist Kölliker was lecturing. Thinking that in Germany
+the term began in September, as in Russia, he hastened to depart. The
+journey at that time was long and complicated; yet, in spite of much
+fatigue, Elie only stopped one day in Berlin and hurried to Leipzig,
+the centre of the book trade, in order to procure the necessary books.
+He reached Leipzig in the evening and was greatly embarrassed, not
+knowing where to find a lodging. A young German in the station offered
+him a room in his own family's house and took him there. The next
+morning, very early, Elie ran out to buy his books and, in his haste,
+forgot to note the number of the house and the name of the street; it
+was with the utmost difficulty that he found the place again. Much
+disturbed by this misadventure, he hastened to start for Würzburg and,
+on arriving there, met with a great disappointment; all the professors
+were absent, this being the middle of the holidays, and the lectures
+were not to begin for six weeks. The poor boy, thus alone for the first
+time among strangers, felt completely lost. He was given the address of
+some Russian students and he hastily sought them out, full of joy and
+hope, only to be received coldly and distrustfully by his compatriots.
+After this discouraging reception, he sadly proceeded to look for a
+room, and having found one in the house of a disagreeable old couple,
+he brought his bag there. But, as he began to unpack it, he was seized
+with a feeling of such utter despair that he hastily put his luggage
+together again and announced to his elderly hosts that he was going.
+Surprised and indignant, they abused him so brutally that his distress
+only increased; he rushed to the station, took the first train, and
+returned to Panassovka without a stop. This hurried return disconcerted
+his family, but, seeing the state he was in, nobody reproached him. His
+mother had felt much anxiety on his account, and was in fact not sorry
+to keep him a little longer under her wing. Thus, in dismal failure,
+ended that first journey abroad, so ardently desired. The result might
+have been very different if Elie had reached Würzburg at the right
+moment, or if the Russian students had been more friendly. Too young
+and too impressionable to bear absolute solitude, he could only have
+been saved by his favourite studies or by a friendly environment.
+His plans and fair dreams had been overthrown by a series of simple
+mishaps.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+
+  Kharkoff University--Physiology--The Vorticella--Controversy with
+  Kühne--_The Origin of Species_--The Gastrotricha--University degree.
+
+
+There was now no choice and he had to resign himself to the Kharkoff
+University. There is not much to relate about this period, which was
+but a fugitive episode in the course of Elie Metchnikoff, for the "Alma
+Mater" did not have upon him either the influence or the prestige which
+it generally exerts upon youth.
+
+Whilst the stream of new ideas had already reached the Lycée, the
+University of Kharkoff had remained extremely conservative; this was
+owing to the fact that the Lycée professors were young men, whilst
+those of the University were elderly and old-fashioned. Officials
+rather than scientists, they were content with ancient methods, and
+lectured without practical work, from obsolete and ill-chosen manuals.
+A few of them drank, others neglected their work. In the Medical and
+Natural Science Faculties, only two _agrégés_ were newly appointed,
+Tschelkoff, the physiologist we have already mentioned, and a chemist
+named Békétoff. These two were indeed scientists and master-minds, and
+it was only under their direction that any one did any serious work;
+the other lectures were pure formalities. Elie wished to go in for
+medical studies but his mother dissuaded him. "You are too sensitive,"
+she said, "you could not bear the constant sight of human suffering."
+At the same time, Tschelkoff suggested the Natural Science Faculty as
+being more appropriate to purely scientific activity. Elie accepted his
+opinion and began to study physiology under his direction. His great
+desire was to embark at once on personal research, and his teacher
+advised him to study the mobile stalk of a ciliated Infusorian, the
+Vorticella. The question was to determine whether this stalk presented
+any analogy with muscular tissue and whether it offered the same
+reactions. Elie set to work with ardour and found that the stalk of
+the Vorticella had no muscular character. His memoir on the subject
+appeared in 1863 in _Müller's Archives_. It provoked a severe, even
+brutal, answer from the celebrated physiologist Kühne which deeply
+grieved the young scientist and, stimulating his energy still further,
+incited him to repeat his experiments. He obtained the same results as
+the first time, and answered Kühne in a somewhat bitter manner, the
+latter's tone having stirred his combativity.
+
+Meanwhile, Elie was yearning for independent and more general study.
+During his unsuccessful journey, he had acquired in Leipzig many
+recently published scientific books, and, among them, Darwin's _Origin
+of Species_. The theory of evolution deeply struck the boy's mind and
+his thoughts immediately turned in that direction. He said to himself
+that isolated forms which had found no place in definite animal or
+vegetable orders might perhaps serve as a bond between those orders
+and elucidate their genetic relationships. This leading idea made him
+choose for his researches some very singular fresh-water creatures,
+partly like Rotifera and partly like certain worms of the Nematode
+group. He succeeded in establishing a new intermediate order which he
+named "Gastrotricha," and which was straightway accepted.
+
+The whole of his first year at the University was given up to those
+special studies. As he was fully aware that the teaching of the
+University did not answer to his aspirations, he resolved to remain
+there as short a time as possible, and to get through the course of
+studies in two years instead of the four which were usual. In order
+to succeed in doing so, he provisionally gave up his scientific
+researches, attended the lectures as a free auditor, and spent the
+whole of the second year in cramming for the "candidate" examination,
+which answers to a Licentiate in Western universities. It happened
+again this time that the examinations coincided with the Opera season,
+but, though he indulged in his passion for music, he succeeded, by dint
+of a supreme effort, in passing them very brilliantly.
+
+Having gone through the University at such an accelerated pace,
+he did not come into contact with other students, who, themselves
+chiefly preoccupied with politics, took little interest in a youth so
+exclusively absorbed in science. He therefore formed none of those
+attractive juvenile friendships which he had enjoyed at the Lycée.
+His hasty University studies necessarily left lacunæ in his general
+knowledge, a fact which he afterwards keenly deplored.
+
+With the exception of Tschelkoff, his teachers had had no decisive
+influence on his career, and his two years at the University formed but
+a colourless episode in his life.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI
+
+  Heligoland--Giessen Congress--Leuckart--Visit to Leo Metchnikoff
+  at Geneva--Socialist gatherings--Metchnikoff's discovery
+  appropriated by Leuckart--Naples--Kovalevsky--Comparative
+  embryology--Embryonic layers--Bakounine and Setchénoff--
+  Cholera at Naples--Göttingen--Anatomical studies--Munich;
+  von Siebold--Music--Return to Naples--Intracellular digestion.
+
+
+Elie still had his Licentiate thesis to prepare. In order to do so, he
+decided to spend two months in the island of Heligoland, of which the
+flora and fauna were very attractive to naturalists. In spite of his
+previous failure, his parents made no objection to his departure; they
+gave him the little money they could spare and Elie started, in 1864.
+
+As soon as he arrived in Heligoland he became absorbed in his work.
+He proceeded with his idea of bringing light upon the genealogy
+of organisms through the study of isolated forms outside definite
+groups.[7]
+
+  [7] He made researches on a very singular annulate worm, the
+      _Fabricia_.
+
+His ardour in his work attracted the attention of several German
+scientists, one of whom introduced him to the celebrated botanist
+Cohn, who soon became interested in him. During the walks which they
+took together, they held scientific conversations full of interest for
+the youth. Cohn advised him to work under the celebrated zoologist
+Leuckart. Elie received this counsel with enthusiasm, but there was
+a great difficulty, which was the lack of money to prolong his stay
+abroad. He did not wish to ask for more from his parents and decided on
+the following plan, which he expounded in the following letter to his
+mother, the constant confidante of all his aspirations:
+
+                                     HELIGOLAND, _Aug. 12, 1864_.
+
+  DEAR MAMMA, ... I am thinking of staying here another month, after
+  which I shall go (at least that is my desire) for ten days to
+  Giessen, where there will be a General Congress of naturalists and
+  physicians from the whole of Europe. This Congress tempts me so much
+  that I want to do my utmost to attend it.
+
+  Besides all the scientific benefit that I shall reap from
+  conversations with scientists, I can also study Professor Leuckart's
+  rich collections. This would complete the studies which I am
+  successfully pursuing at the seaside.
+
+  In order to realise my ardent wish to profit by such treasures, I
+  must remain three weeks longer at Heligoland, travel to Giessen and
+  live there for ten days; all that out of the money which was to keep
+  me here until the 26 Aug. only.... Therefore, instead of living in
+  the hotel, I have taken a room at a fisherman's, for half the price;
+  instead of a dinner and coffee I eat what I can get and I only spend
+  90 centimes a day for my food. (Food is dear, as all the provisions
+  come from Hamburg and from England.) Instead of changing my linen two
+  or three times a week, I only do so once or twice, which allows me to
+  spend less on laundry.
+
+  The money thus economised, together with the sum which I had put
+  aside for my first installation at Petersburg, constitutes a
+  sufficient capital to provide the following joys and advantages: 1°,
+  I shall stay three weeks longer at the seaside, which will allow me
+  to get on with my researches and to increase my collections; 2°, I
+  shall attend the Congress; 3°, I shall be able to study Leuckart's
+  collections and take advantage of his books and counsel.
+
+  I beseech you not to look upon this description of my present life as
+  a complaint or a murmur; on the contrary I am delighted to procure
+  so many advantages at so small a cost; I am happy, too, to be able
+  to assure you in all conscience that I am not wasting the money that
+  you have found for me with so much care and affection. I only wish I
+  could find myself oftener in the same conditions.
+
+  Please also believe that my health is in no way suffering from my
+  work. I give you my word that until now I have not had a single
+  headache.
+
+  Moreover, I do not think work is at all detrimental to health; I see
+  here several German scientists who could fell an ox with their fist!
+  Altogether I beseech you not to be anxious on my account; you have
+  quite enough painful preoccupations without that, and I am in such
+  excellent circumstances that there really is nothing to worry about.
+  I kiss your hands many times.
+
+                             Yours affectionately,
+
+                                          ELIE METCHNIKOFF.
+
+  _P.S._--Write to me oftener. Every word from you is so precious to me!
+
+He did not tell his mother that he never had enough to eat. Neither did
+he wish Cohn and his other acquaintances at Heligoland to notice it,
+and he carefully concealed his style of living.
+
+He went to Giessen for the opening of the Naturalists' Congress and
+read with success two papers dealing with his researches at Heligoland.
+Engelmann (who was to become well known as a physiologist) and he
+were the youngest members of the Congress, and their extreme youth
+attracted general attention. Elie at last made Leuckart's acquaintance;
+he was charmed by him and definitely decided to begin at once to work
+under his direction, and, as his stay abroad had thus to be prolonged,
+he asked and obtained a _bursa_ from the Russian Ministry of Public
+Education.
+
+The results of his researches at Heligoland had led him to suppose
+that the Nematodes (of the worm type) formed an independent group; he
+now proposed to settle that question. Leuckart allowed him to work in
+his laboratory during his absence for the holidays; Elie immediately
+set to work and discovered a very curious and quite novel case of
+alternation of generations; hermaphrodite and parasitic Nematodes
+giving birth to a free bisexual generation.
+
+Delighted with his discovery, he hastened to communicate it to
+Leuckart, who was incredulous at first but had to give way to evidence
+when Elie showed him all the intermediary stages. Still the German
+scientist was obviously annoyed that this discovery should have been
+made in his absence and independently from him. He proposed to the
+young man that they should continue researches in collaboration and
+publish a joint memoir. Elie accepted joyfully. In his ardour he worked
+too much, and fatigued his eyesight so that he was forced to limit his
+microscopical researches to a few hours a day, and Leuckart advised him
+to take a rest.
+
+It happened that Elie's brother Leo had just settled in Geneva and
+invited him to stay with him; Elie started to join him. The brothers
+had not met for a long time. Leo had been travelling and had resided
+in many different places. He was an extraordinarily gifted man,
+impulsive, brilliant, and artistic, but restless and incapable of
+adhering to a steady course of action; he scattered his activities and
+did not therefore produce all that his rich nature was capable of.
+He had a remarkable gift for languages; he knew not only a number of
+European languages but also several Oriental languages, having been
+in the East, where he had occupied a post of agent in navigation and
+commerce. He afterwards lived in Italy, took an active part in the
+Garibaldi movement and was wounded. A clever painter, he also had real
+literary talent; handsome, witty, agreeable, he was a most attractive
+personality. Elie had great affection for him.
+
+He found him surrounded with young men and studying a map. They were
+discussing the acquisition of a piece of ground in Italy in order to
+found a socialistic community, and Leo, who knew the country, was
+to choose the locality. Elie was at once made acquainted with the
+political questions of the day; the young scientist was unfavourably
+impressed, for the whole reduced itself to party questions and dogmatic
+discussions founded on hollow grounds. Accustomed as he already was to
+positive scientific methods, vague and arbitrary theories could not
+satisfy him.
+
+On the other hand, he was deeply impressed by the personality of the
+celebrated socialistic Russian writer, Herzen, who resided in Geneva at
+that time. The young revolutionaries considered him as too literary and
+too much of a theoretician; they themselves yearned for a direct-action
+policy. Leo Metchnikoff, however, admired him fervently. Meetings
+often took place in Herzen's rooms; he used to read to his guests with
+wonderful effect his yet unpublished manuscript _Passé et pensées_.
+A great and powerful figure, the superiority of his intelligence was
+almost crushing, while his sparkling wit and the nobility of his whole
+being endowed him with an incomparable and irresistible personal charm.
+Metchnikoff often said that no man had left a deeper impression on his
+life. As a politician, however, he had not the same prestige in his
+sight.
+
+This sojourn in a revolutionary centre interested him much, but had
+the result of confirming his conviction that science was immeasurably
+superior to politics, and he congratulated himself on the path he
+had chosen. After he had rested, he started to return to Giessen and
+stopped at Heidelberg, a centre for Russian students who gathered
+around Helmholtz, Virchow, and Bunsen. He hurried to the library
+in order to see scientific periodicals; one of the first that came
+under his eyes was a number of the _Göttingen News_, containing a
+memoir by Leuckart on the Nematodes which they had studied together;
+Leuckart described, in his own name, their common researches and also
+those personal to the young man, whom he only mentioned incidentally.
+Elie was shocked and indignant. On his return to Giessen he tried to
+obtain an explanation from Leuckart but in vain; the latter eluded his
+questions and gave him no answer.[8]
+
+  [8] All this episode was described by Metchnikoff in 1866 in
+      a separate publication with great restraint and in a very
+      moderate tone.
+
+In his despair, the youth confided in Claus, a professor of zoology
+whose acquaintance he had made at the Congress, who told him that
+Leuckart was in the habit of such dealings, and urged Elie, as an
+independent stranger, to reveal the fact. He pressed this with so much
+insistence that Elie ended in following his advice; he sent an article
+stating the case to Dubois-Reymond's journal. He then departed from
+Giessen without taking leave of Leuckart.
+
+Having had a _bursa_ of 1600 roubles a year granted him for two years
+by the Russian Ministry of Public Instruction, he was able to undertake
+a journey to the shores of the Mediterranean in order to pursue his
+researches.
+
+He had heard of a very talented young zoologist, Alexander Kovalevsky,
+who also knew him by hearsay and had written him a letter full of
+enthusiasm concerning the rich Mediterranean fauna and the facilities
+for work in Italy. He therefore went to Naples on leaving Giessen.
+Though the journey in itself had but a secondary attraction for him, he
+had expected to receive a strong impression; but his imagination had
+painted such grandiose pictures of the country that he had to cross,
+that the reality disappointed him, and Italy, like Switzerland on a
+former occasion, fell very far short of his expectations. He stopped
+at Florence, which made but a poor impression on him. Museums fatigued
+him, for he saw a great deal too many works of art all at once without
+any previous preparation. Architecture and the plastic arts in general
+did not take any hold of him. During his rapid journey he only saw the
+country quite superficially and had no time to become impregnated with
+its beauty. He therefore hastened towards Naples, where his work and
+Kovalevsky attracted him far more.
+
+He found in Kovalevsky a young man with shy but cordial manners and
+the clear sweet eyes of a pure child, obviously an idealist. He had
+for science an absolute cult, the sacred fire of the worshipper; no
+sacrifice was too great, no difficulty too repellent for his ardour.
+On a closer acquaintance, the small, timid young man proved to be a
+hard fighter where science was concerned. The two young men formed
+an excellent impression of each other, and a friendship was started
+between them which was to last a lifetime. Though very different
+from each other, they met on common ground, a passion for science.
+They worked with the greatest energy, going together on zoological
+excursions, exchanging their ideas, discussing their aspirations; a
+similarity of tastes lent great attraction to their friendship.
+
+At Giessen, Elie had read Fritz Müller's _For Darwin_, a book which
+had a decisive influence on the future direction of his researches.
+Fritz Müller, in his embryological works on certain crustaceans, had
+been the first to confirm in a concrete manner Darwin's evolutionist
+theories; he had thus demonstrated that it was chiefly in embryology
+that precious indications were to be found concerning the genealogy of
+organisms.[9] Under the influence of this work, Elie, who until now had
+limited himself to introductory researches, resolved to concentrate
+all his efforts on the comparative embryology of animals. He started
+to work in that direction, and his researches confirmed him more and
+more in the opinion that the key of animal evolution and genealogy was
+to be sought for in the most primitive stages, in those simple phases
+of development where no secondary element has yet been introduced from
+external conditions. In those primordial stages, essential characters,
+common to all, reveal the analogy and connections between animals from
+different groups.
+
+  [9] In later years Metchnikoff often dwelt on the fact that Fritz
+      Müller was not fully appreciated and that it was he who
+      had most efficaciously contributed to the confirmation of
+      Darwinian theories.
+
+Every animal begins by being _unicellular_, for the egg-cell, the
+reproducing cell, common to all, corresponds to a unicellular being.
+It is only after fecundation, when it has become an ovum, that this
+first cell evolves by dividing itself into consecutive segments,
+each of which is a new cell. This phenomenon is analogous with the
+multiplication of unicellular beings through division; only, those
+segments of the ovum do not separate but constitute a whole under the
+aspect of a hollow sphere, called a _blastula_, which is the first
+manifestation of a multicellular being. This blastula is formed of
+superposed layers, each of which gives birth to specialised organs in
+the embryo. The outside layer, or _ectoderm_, produces teguments and
+the nervous system; the internal layer, or _endoderm_, gives birth to
+endothelial cells, the digestive and internal organs; between those two
+layers comes a third, intermediary layer, the _mesoderm_, from which
+the skeleton is developed and also the muscle and blood tissues.
+
+The evolution of these layers in Vertebrates was well known, but very
+little so in Invertebrates, though it is only through the development
+of inferior forms that the origin and general evolution of living
+beings can be elucidated. That is why, during many years, the principal
+theme of Metchnikoff's researches was the comparative study of the
+embryonic layers of inferior animals and the ulterior fate of their
+constituting elements. By following this train of thought, he was able
+to demonstrate that the development of lower animals takes place on the
+same plan and follows the same laws as that of higher animals; thus,
+that there is a real communion between all living beings, which is the
+concrete confirmation of the theory of evolution.
+
+By their work, Kovalevsky and Metchnikoff contributed to the foundation
+of Comparative Embryology. The comparative study of cells produced
+from the divers embryonic layers, and observations on the ulterior
+development of the functions of those cells, gradually led Metchnikoff
+to his theory of phagocytes and to pathological biology. An
+uninterrupted thread can be followed right through his life-work, from
+the beginning until the end.
+
+In spite of his absorbing work he took great interest in his
+surroundings, and during this first stay in Italy he became acquainted
+with two interesting personalities, Bakounine the anarchist and
+the celebrated physiologist Setchénoff. Both resided at Sorrento.
+Kovalevsky and Metchnikoff, who greatly desired to know them, decided
+to call on them, after much hesitation.
+
+Bakounine, a giant with a leonine head and a thick mane of grey hair,
+struck them as being a fiery enthusiast but an intolerant sectarian,
+easily roused; for instance, any small and unimportant local meeting
+was enough for him to predict an imminent revolution in Russia. His
+theories were epitomised in these words, "We must not leave stone
+upon stone"; but when asked what should be built up on those ruins
+he could only say, "We shall see later." Elie looked upon him as a
+force powerful by its fire and vitality, but thought his mind neither
+judicial nor profound.
+
+Very different was the impression produced on him by Setchénoff.
+He carried great weight through the depth of his intelligence, his
+persuasive eloquence and general thoroughness. He was of a Mongol
+type and his features were plain, but his splendid eyes, deep and
+intelligent, shrewd and yet kindly, illumined his face with an
+unforgettable inward beauty. When Elie went to see him, it was with the
+uneasy feeling that his own knowledge of chemistry and physics was very
+restricted, having been very superficially acquired during his rapid
+passage through the University. In spite of this cause for bashfulness,
+a mental compact and exchange of ideas was immediately established
+between the two, and a sympathy was born between them which developed
+into a lifelong friendship. Elie expatiated upon his plans for the
+study of the embryology of inferior animals from the evolution point
+of view, and received from the older scientist much encouragement, for
+which he never ceased to be grateful.
+
+He worked a great deal during this first stay at Naples, in spite
+of periods of great fatigue. As a relaxation, he plunged into
+philosophical reading. After Kovalevsky's departure, he joined
+Bakounine's circle, the members of which took their meals in a
+restaurant which rejoiced in the sonorous name of _Trattoria della
+Harmonia_. In the autumn of the year 1865, a cholera epidemic broke
+out in Naples. Every one was nervous and depressed, and this general
+depression was increased still more by some of the customs of the
+country--continuous lugubrious church bells, funeral processions
+in which penitents took part, carrying smoking torches and wearing
+hoods over their heads with holes for their eyes, etc. Elie, on whom
+the epidemic had made a great impression, was even more disturbed by
+the death of one of the members of their little circle, a popular
+Englishwoman, liked by everybody. She had no fear of cholera and was
+bright and merry. But one day she did not come to the _Trattoria della
+Harmonia_; she had been struck by the scourge and was dead the next day.
+
+Elie was so struck by her death that his nerves, already very tense,
+gave way and he left Naples, being, moreover, worn out with overwork.
+
+He started for Göttingen, for he wanted to begin the study of
+Vertebrates under the direction of Professor Keferstein. Keferstein
+straightway gave him a valuable lizard specimen to anatomise. Elie was
+not good at technique, on account of his nervous temperament; he used
+occasionally to lose his patience and his temper, to that point that he
+flung his material across the room. It happened so on this occasion;
+having completely wasted the valuable lizard, he conceived a still
+greater horror of technique and soon left Professor Keferstein for
+Henle, the celebrated anatomist. He worked with him for a short time
+at the histology of frogs' kidneys, a subject chosen by the Professor.
+Soon the young man realised that he was no longer capable of submitting
+to school discipline and resumed his independent researches. When he
+had to do with those problems which absorbed him he was always able
+to conquer his aversion for technique and to do what was required. He
+studied the embryology of the green-fly from the genealogical point
+of view, and went to Munich for the summer term in order to work with
+the celebrated zoologist von Siebold, a typical and venerable old
+German scientist. The latter was too old already to be troubled with
+pupils, and Elie studied his insect embryology independently; however,
+he visited the old man assiduously, and they had long scientific
+conversations. Their relations were always extremely cordial, and they
+even kept up a regular correspondence for many years.
+
+During his stay in Germany, music was the young man's only recreation.
+He did not play any instrument; his parents, discouraged by the failure
+of their elder children, had not had him taught, and besides, his
+precocious vocation would have left him no time. Yet he certainly had
+a natural talent for music, which he passionately loved. He could
+only whistle, but with that feeble means succeeded in reproducing
+complicated compositions. Having assiduously attended excellent
+concerts, he had made himself thoroughly acquainted with classical
+music, and Beethoven and Mozart always remained his favourite
+composers. His stay in Germany taught him to appreciate the great
+capacity for work of the scientists of that country; he admired the
+organisation of their laboratories, allowing every force, great or
+small, to be utilised and making useful collective work possible in
+those complicated researches which demand the collaboration of divers
+specialists. On the other hand, he felt a great aversion for the
+manners and customs of German students. Their corporations, duels, and
+long sittings in beer-houses were distasteful to him; he could not
+understand how these coarse "Burschen" could become transformed into
+cultivated intellectuals and respectable scientists. People to whom
+he expressed this wonder merely said, "Youth must have its fling...."
+Moreover, scientists themselves were not particularly courteous to
+each other. More than anywhere else personal questions held a foremost
+place, and kindliness was rare between colleagues.
+
+After staying some time in Munich, Elie returned to Naples, war having
+broken out between Northern and Southern Germany. This time, in order
+to spend less on the journey, he took a steamer at Genoa, but with
+fatal results, for a storm was raging; he suffered a great deal, and,
+when he reached Naples, violent fits of giddiness made him incapable
+of doing any work at all for some time. Cholera reappeared, and the
+landlady of the rooms he shared with Kovalevsky died of it. Much
+depressed, the two started for Ischia, but Elie soon realised with
+terror that he was not yet well enough to work; in order to recover
+quickly, he went to Cava, a pretty little place, renowned for its
+salubrious climate.
+
+There he met Bakounine again, and they saw a good deal of each other in
+a friendly way. Bakounine nicknamed him "Mamma" because of his almost
+maternal attentions, a nickname which, for the same reason, was given
+him later, quite independently, by other intimates. Yet, though their
+relations were cordial and even affectionate, there was not really much
+in common between the two. Elie thought Bakounine's ideas superficial,
+and disliked his sectarian mentality; they ultimately drifted apart.
+
+His health having gradually recovered owing to the rest, he returned
+to Naples in the autumn, after the epidemic had abated, and at last
+resumed his work.
+
+Whilst studying the history of the development of Cephalopoda he found
+that they had embryonic layers similar to those of Vertebrates; this
+was the first time that the fact was established. It was extremely
+important, for it constituted a concrete and indisputable proof of
+the existence of a genetic connection between inferior and superior
+animals. Metchnikoff chose this subject for his thesis, and, having
+completed his researches, he returned to Russia in 1867.
+
+By this time he had made great use of his three years' stay abroad.
+Though he had not showed himself a docile pupil, yet he had become
+initiated into the organisation of scientific work in Germany; he had
+carried out independent researches and had been able to choose with
+full knowledge the future path of investigations which he was to pursue
+for many years in the field of Comparative Embryology.
+
+Already the observations he had made had in themselves a real
+importance. For instance, his studies in divers specimens of the worm
+type, a type which offers very heterogeneous forms, had permitted him
+to establish links of continuity between certain groups among them.
+Whilst studying those animals at Giessen in 1865, he had discovered
+the capital fact which proved to be the starting-point of all his
+future work--the _intercellular digestion_ of an inferior worm, a land
+planarian, the _Geodesmus bilineatus_. He had compared this digestion
+with that of the superior Infusoria and had seen in it one more proof
+of the genetic connection between the type of the Protozoa and that of
+worms.
+
+He did not then realise the full bearing of this observation, which
+really constituted the basis of his future phagocyte theory; this was
+only to appear eighteen years later.
+
+He had also made researches on numerous specimens of insects and on the
+scorpion, establishing the fact that they all had embryonic layers;
+he concluded that he was "entitled to extend the theory of embryonic
+layers to Arthropoda."
+
+Finally, he had discovered embryonic layers similar to those of the
+Vertebrates in inferior Invertebrates, the Cephalopoda (Sepiola). This
+established a link of continuity between the higher and lower animals.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+
+  Petersburg--Baer prize--Return home--Friendship with Cienkovsky
+  --Odessa--Naturalists' Congress at Petersburg--Departure from
+  Odessa--Zoological Lecturer's Chair at Petersburg--Messina--Enforced
+  rest--Reggio--Naples--Controversy with Kovalevsky--Visit to the
+  B. family--Mlle. Fédorovitch--Educational questions--Difficulties
+  of life in Petersburg.
+
+
+During his stay abroad, Metchnikoff had successfully carried out
+several researches, and this allowed him to apply for a post of
+_docent_ at the new University of Odessa, which he had chosen on
+account of its proximity with the sea and its marine fauna. Whilst
+awaiting the result he went to Petersburg in order to pass his thesis
+and to prepare himself to become a professor. He received a pleasant
+welcome, for his lively and sociable disposition had made him many
+friends. The brothers Kovalevsky, with whom he was already on friendly
+terms, offered him hospitality; he also made the acquaintance of
+Professor Békétoff, and soon became a member of his family circle.
+
+He was well received everywhere, for his scientific precocity excited
+general interest. He was even elected _magister_[10] by the Faculty,
+without having to pass an examination, on account of the work he
+had done. He and Kovalevsky halved Baer's first prize, and they
+were invited and treated with the utmost kindness by Baer himself.
+Metchnikoff had certainly entered upon a successful phase; his friends
+nicknamed him "the star." As soon as he was made a _magister_, he
+received his appointment at the Odessa University, and, the holidays
+drawing near, he was at last able to return to his home. Needless to
+say how joyfully and lovingly he was received by his family. He spent
+two months with them, utilising his leisure in preparing himself to
+teach.
+
+  [10] A degree preceding that of Doc.Sc.
+
+In his hurry to arrive in Odessa in good time in order to take his
+bearings before starting his lectures, he went there much too soon and
+found nobody at the University; he then decided to go to the Crimea for
+some preliminary studies on the fauna of the Black Sea. Before long,
+he made the acquaintance of the celebrated botanist Cienkovsky, who
+invited him to stay in his villa. Though the scientist was already 46
+years old and Elie only 22, they soon became fast friends. Cienkovsky
+was a man of great European culture; passionately fond of science as
+he was, his critical mind submitted everything to a close analysis.
+He took great interest in young Metchnikoff and showed him a marked
+predilection, but that did not prevent him from criticising him
+severely. He reproached him with a lack of self-control, and undertook
+the paternal task of civilising the impulsive, fiery, sometimes even
+violent young man. He preached to him tolerance towards the opinions of
+others, a strict self-discipline, and the absolute necessity of bowing
+to certain social conventions against which Elie blindly rebelled.
+Cienkovsky acquired great prestige in his young friend's eyes; years
+later, even, Metchnikoff took pleasure in quoting his axioms and in
+trying to conform with them.
+
+He worked with ardour during his stay in the Crimea; though the
+heat was great, 50° C. (122° F.) in the sun, he undertook zoological
+excursions and surprised every one by his endurance and energy.
+
+At the end of the holidays, he returned to Odessa and began his
+professorate with much zeal and success. His lucid, living lectures
+stimulated his pupils, third-year students, who were all older than
+himself. Friendly relations soon reigned between them and their young
+lecturer; he organised practical studies, and his laboratory became a
+very active centre of work.
+
+Thus everything was going well, and perhaps he might have remained at
+Odessa for a long time if it had not been for the following incident,
+due to his passionate and intolerant disposition. A Congress of Russian
+naturalists was to take place in Petersburg at the end of the year
+1867. Elie eagerly wished to attend it as a delegate and took steps
+for that purpose; this brought him into conflict with his chief, who
+desired the mission for himself. Knowing that the old Professor had no
+real scientific interests, Elie thought himself justified in insisting,
+and counted upon Cienkovsky's support, but the latter was of opinion
+that the younger man should give way. Elie, becoming more and more
+excited, lost all sense of proportion and committed the grave error
+of telling his pupils about what he considered a serious injustice.
+The latter, out of sympathy for their young lecturer, hooted the old
+Professor, which naturally embittered the quarrel. However, all the
+agitation ended in both zoologists being sent to the Congress in the
+quality of delegates.
+
+When he reached Petersburg, Elie hurried to the house of his friends
+B----, who received him with open arms; it was a great joy to him
+to find himself in friendly surroundings after the recent strife.
+Impulsive and impressionable as he was, the disagreeable incidents
+he had traversed made him yearn to leave Odessa, a desire which was
+to be promptly realised. His communications had great success at the
+Congress; the President even invited him to read a paper at the general
+meeting; but, though strongly attracted by this proposal, which would
+have allowed the young scientist to expose his ideas on the comparative
+development of the embryonic layers, he refused it, considering that
+that complicated question was not yet sufficiently matured.
+
+Nevertheless, the Congress had brought him into prominence and was
+the cause of his obtaining a Professorship of Zoology at Petersburg.
+Moreover, he had the additional good fortune of being given a
+scientific mission and went abroad to work until the autumn term.
+
+He went to Naples in the spring of 1868, thinking to find Kovalevsky
+there, instead of which he found a letter from his friend awaiting him.
+The latter had had to go to Messina for urgent embryological work and
+begged Elie to look after his wife and new-born child. Metchnikoff did
+so most willingly until he was able to send them off to Messina. He
+himself followed soon after, for Kovalevsky wrote him that zoological
+specimens and conditions of work were far better at Messina than
+Naples. This time, Metchnikoff undertook the study of Sponges and
+Echinodermata. The two friends worked unceasingly, but Elie's sight was
+too weak for such excessive fatigue; he was again obliged to interrupt
+his studies for a while, and during that period of enforced rest he
+felt for the first time the need of a sentimental affection in his life.
+
+He dreamed of a helpmeet who would conform with his tastes. At
+Petersburg he had become very fond of Professor B.'s young daughters,
+the eldest of whom was about thirteen years old, and he wondered if he
+could not train one of those little girls to become the realisation of
+his ideal. He was too active by nature, however, to linger very long
+over reveries or over a prolonged rest; he therefore undertook a short
+journey through Reggio and Calabria, on his way towards Naples.
+
+His eyesight being now restored, he began work again as soon as he
+arrived. This period, however, was not a pleasant one: to begin
+with, he obtained in the study of Ascidia a result which differed
+considerably from that obtained by Kovalevsky,[11] and this scientific
+controversy grieved and preoccupied them both. Besides, Elie's nerves
+suffered from his constant anxiety about his eyes, the tropical heat
+and the noisy life of Naples. Incessant serenades used to keep him
+awake at night, and, on one occasion, his exasperation reached such a
+point that he poured a bucket of water over the head of some persistent
+musicians. Tired with all these things, he left Naples for Trieste,
+where he carried out successful researches into the transformations of
+Echinodermata, from the point of view of Comparative Embryology and
+genetic connections between inferior animals.
+
+  [11] The latter affirmed that the nervous system of Ascidia
+       originated from the upper layer, whilst Elie believed that
+       it was the lower layer which gave birth to it. It was
+       Kovalevsky who was right, as Elie himself declared later.
+
+Having obtained results which interested him, he returned to Russia and
+joined the B. family in the country, near Moscow. Their young friend
+Mlle. Fédorovitch, whom he had already met in Petersburg, was staying
+with them, and she and Elie became very good friends. His affection for
+the B. children led him to ponder over general educational questions.
+He was struck for the first time by the lack of harmony in human
+nature, which was due, he thought, to the considerable difference
+between the organism of the child and that of the adult, a difference
+which does not exist in animals to the same degree.[12] As soon as
+he returned to Petersburg he tried to study this subject, and made
+comparisons between the brain of a man and that of a dog at various
+ages, but without result.
+
+  [12] He ultimately developed these considerations in a paper
+       entitled _Education from an Anthropological Point of View_,
+       of which mention will be made hereafter.
+
+He was not long in realising that the conditions of work in his new
+post were extremely unsatisfactory. He had no proper laboratory and
+had to work between two specimen cases in a non-heated zoological
+museum; there was no room for practical work. All his enthusiasm, all
+his aspirations towards scientific activity and rational teaching
+struck against indifference, lack of organisation, and lack of means.
+He protested with his usual vehemence, but could obtain nothing; being
+equally unable to adapt himself to his uncongenial surroundings,
+he found himself getting more and more discontented and unnerved.
+Moreover, his everyday life was most uncomfortable, for he wished to
+do without servants, on principle and in order to economise, and to do
+his household work himself; but he soon tired of taking the necessary
+care of his rooms, which became a regular chaos. He left off preparing
+his own meals and went out for them to an inferior restaurant in the
+neighbourhood. Yet, in spite of all his efforts and privations, he
+never seemed to make both ends meet. He resigned himself to giving
+lessons at the School of Mines in order to increase his resources; the
+school was a long way off, he had to walk the distance in the coldest
+weather in order to lecture to students who did not interest him. The
+work wearied him without giving him any moral compensation. Altogether,
+the life in Petersburg, on which he had founded great hopes, brought
+him nothing but disappointments and made him become more and more
+pessimistic and misanthropical.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII
+
+  Slight illness--Engagement to Mlle. Fédorovitch--Marriage--Illness
+  of the bride--Pecuniary difficulties--Spezzia--Montreux--Work in
+  Petersburg University--The Riviera--Coelomata and Acoelomata--St.
+  Vaast--Panassovka--Madeira--Mertens--Teneriffe--Return to Odessa--Bad
+  news, hurried journey to Madeira--Death of his wife--Return through
+  Spain--Attempted suicide--Ephemeridæ.
+
+
+It was only in the house of his friends the B.'s that Elie felt at his
+ease. He was devotedly fond of their children, whom he used to take for
+walks on Sundays and to the theatre now and then; he was always ready
+to read to them and to indulge them in every possible way.
+
+He continued to entertain the dream of marrying one of them some day,
+and was particularly interested in the eldest, a girl of thirteen,
+intelligent, gifted, and lively; however, as he knew her better,
+he realised the incompatibility of their respective tempers, an
+incompatibility which brought about frequent disputes. These were
+generally smoothed down by a mutual friend, Mlle. Fédorovitch, who
+invariably showed Elie a marked and cordial sympathy. He became ill at
+this juncture and she nursed him with a devotion which brought them
+together even more, as will be seen from the following letter to his
+mother:
+
+  DEAR MOTHER--I have just had an inflammation of the throat which
+  lasted two weeks; it is quite gone now and I would not even have
+  mentioned it to you if it had not been connected with what follows.
+
+  When I fell ill, the B.'s, knowing me to be alone and uncared for,
+  brought me to their house. During my stay with them, I acquired the
+  conviction that my darling little girls did not love me, especially
+  the eldest, who interested me even more than her three sisters....
+  The dreams I told you of have vanished!
+
+  It was a grief to me, for, apart from my scientific interests, I
+  cherished them more than anything. I have no acquaintances and do
+  not require any, but I long to have some one with me to whom I could
+  become attached and who could share my pleasures and leisure.
+
+  My grief would have been greater still if I had not seen that
+  Ludmilla Fédorovitch, whom I mentioned to you this summer, showed me
+  much sympathy in all my troubles.
+
+  We were already very good friends, and have now drawn nearer
+  together; who knows? perhaps the 800 roubles which are going to be
+  added to my salary will be very useful.
+
+  I will keep you informed of everything, dear Mother, for I am sure of
+  your sympathy; I love you better than the whole world and I have full
+  confidence in you.
+
+  Au revoir, dear Mother, I kiss your hands.--Your
+
+                                                ELIE METCHNIKOFF.
+
+Mlle. Fédorovitch became ill in her turn; the sympathy which Elie
+showed her on this occasion brought them still nearer to each other,
+and he soon decided to marry her. He informed his mother of this; much
+alarmed, she tried to dissuade him, for she feared that by marrying a
+girl in delicate health, her son would be assuming too heavy a task in
+his difficult circumstances.
+
+He answered as follows:
+
+  I received your letter to-day, dear Mother. It grieves me very much.
+  My project inspires you with doubt, you counsel prudence and, though
+  you say you believe me to be reasonable, yet you fear that I am
+  acting on an impulse. If I really am reasonable, why fear a blind
+  impulse? On the other hand, if I am blindly carried away, it is not
+  likely that I shall listen to reason.
+
+  I did tell you that I had great affection for the B. girls, and it
+  was true. But did I ever tell you that they had the same for me? You
+  are mistaken in thinking that I did not like Ludmilla Fédorovitch at
+  first. I was not in love with her but we were very good friends, and
+  whilst I did not consider her as my feminine ideal, I was sure of her
+  absolutely honest, loyal, and kindly disposition. The very fact that
+  I knew Ludmilla for a long time before I thought of marrying her,
+  should prove to you that there is some chance of my being neither
+  blind nor partial.
+
+  Her love for me is beyond doubt, as you will see when you know her.
+
+  I also am very fond of her, and that is a solid basis for future
+  happiness.
+
+  Yet I will not answer for it that we shall spend our life like a
+  pair of turtledoves. A rosy, boundless beatitude forms no part of my
+  conception of the distant future.
+
+  Yet I do not see the necessity of waiting till I become a thorough
+  misanthrope, and I am already inclined that way.
+
+  Please do not believe that, if I do not dream of a rosy happiness it
+  is that I feel none at all; that is not the case; I am in a happy
+  medium.
+
+  I like Ludmilla and I feel comfortable with her; but at the same
+  time I preserve the faculty of feeling every trouble and worry in
+  life. I do not at all think that it is enough to love in order to be
+  happy. Therefore I have begun to take steps to obtain a Professor's
+  chair, and I am very desirous of being successful in that financial
+  operation.
+
+Soon after that, he wrote the following letter to his mother:
+
+  DEAR MOTHER--In my last letter I had already spoken to you of
+  Ludmilla Fédorovitch. I can now give you information about her which
+  will surely interest you.
+
+  She is not bad-looking, but that is all. She has fine hair; her
+  complexion is not pretty. We are about the same age, she is a little
+  over 23. She was born at Orenburg; then she lived for a long time
+  with her family at Kiahta (Siberia), after which she was abroad for
+  nearly two years and finally settled in Moscow. Ludmilla, or Lussia,
+  was, as you remember, a very zealous intermediary between me and the
+  B. girls to whom I was so attached.
+
+  She loved me already then, though she said to herself that I had too
+  much affection for the B. children ever to return her feelings.
+
+  And she was perfectly right, as long as my affection for those
+  children lasted.
+
+  But, when it ceased, I naturally took more notice of Lussia's
+  sympathy for me, and I am not surprised that I have acquired much
+  affection for her.
+
+  She has faults which must seem graver to me than to you, but what is
+  to be done?
+
+  Fortunately she herself sees them. The greatest of her faults is a
+  too great placidity, a lack of vivacity and initiative; she adapts
+  herself too easily to her surroundings. But, being placid, she is
+  also firm; she can bear a great deal whilst preserving complete
+  self-control. She is extremely kind and good-natured; I have not yet
+  found a vulgar trait in her character.
+
+  I have told you of her faults, you must therefore not think me
+  partial if I find qualities in her.
+
+  The fact is--and I cannot forget it--that always, when I had any kind
+  of trouble, she soothed me by her attitude towards me.
+
+  Even though I have dark previsions for the future (as you know, I am
+  not given to seeing life through rose-coloured glasses), I cannot
+  help thinking that by living with Lussia I should become calmer, at
+  least for a fairly long time.
+
+  I should cease to suffer from the misanthropy which has invaded me
+  lately.
+
+  I intend to have no children--it is an embryologist who is speaking.
+  On the contrary, I want to preserve the utmost liberty. Nevertheless,
+  one must conform with certain legal conventions, which will probably
+  take place in January.
+
+  Lussia has no fortune, but we shall be entirely guaranteed by the
+  increase in my salary.
+
+  It is very regrettable that the event should be retarded by the
+  customary formalities; in any case it will certainly end by taking
+  place.
+
+  I beg you to write to me, dear mother that I love, anything that
+  comes into your head _à propos_ of my affair.
+
+  Rejoice that I am now very happy and wish that it may last.
+
+  I ask the same of Papa, whom I beg you to salute from me. I embrace
+  you, dear Mamma, and I remain your very affectionate son,
+
+                                                  E. METCHNIKOFF.
+
+As Elie learnt to know his fiancée better, he became more and more
+attached to her. Their happiness seemed likely to be complete, but a
+cruel Fate had decided otherwise. The girl's health was not improving:
+her supposed bronchitis was assuming a chronic character. Yet the
+marriage was not postponed, and the bride had to be carried to the
+church in a chair for the ceremony, being too breathless and too weak
+to walk so far.
+
+Elie did his utmost to procure comforts for his wife, and hoped that
+she could still be saved by care and a rational treatment. It was the
+beginning of an hourly struggle against disease and poverty; his means
+being insufficient, he tried to eke them out by writing translations.
+His eyesight weakened again from overwork, and it was with atropin
+in his eyes that he sat up night after night, translating. There was
+but one well-lighted room in his flat, and he turned it into a small
+laboratory for the use of his pupils; his own researches he had to give
+up, his time being entirely taken up by teaching and translations.
+
+He hid his precarious position from his parents in order not to add
+to their heavy expenses nor to confirm their previsions concerning
+his marriage. His wife's illness, the impossibility of carrying on
+scientific work, the lack of friendly sympathy to which he thought
+himself entitled, all this weighed on him, making him bitter,
+suspicious, and distrustful; he thought himself persecuted. The
+situation became intolerable and, in spite of his pride, he forced
+himself to apply for a subsidy to take his wife abroad and to go on
+with his researches. Having obtained it in 1869, he immediately left
+Petersburg, which he now hated.
+
+Youth is elastic: the young couple started full of joy, gay as
+children, and ready to forget all their trials. Alas, it was not for
+long: having halted at Vilna in order that the patient should have a
+rest, she had an attack of hæmorrhage of the lungs, to the great alarm
+of her husband, who nevertheless did his best to reassure her. They
+continued the journey as soon as her condition allowed it, only to be
+interrupted by another relapse. At last they reached Spezzia, chosen on
+account of the climate and the marine fauna.
+
+Little by little, Ludmilla Metchnikoff's health improved and her
+husband was able to resume work. He studied aquatic animals in view
+of the genealogy of inferior groups, and, amongst others, studied the
+Tornaria, which was believed to be the larva of the star-fish. However,
+to his astonishment, he ascertained that, in spite of great similarity,
+it was not the larva of an Echinoderm, but that of one of the
+Balanoglossi, of the worm type. This fact established a link between
+the Echinodermata and worms, a very important result from the point of
+view of the continuity of animal types.
+
+Metchnikoff felt his courage returning and also his natural high
+spirits. His wife, who was a clever draughtswoman, helped him with the
+drawings for his memoir, and both felt happy and contented; this stay
+at Spezzia was a real oasis in their life.
+
+When the heat became excessive they went to Reichenhall, a summer
+resort prescribed by the doctor. There, Metchnikoff completed his
+previous researches on the development of the scorpion, and finally
+established the fact that this animal possesses the three embryonic
+layers which correspond to those of the Vertebrates.
+
+As his young wife's health was still too precarious to allow her
+to spend the winter in Russia, Metchnikoff, obliged to return to
+Petersburg, installed her at Montreux and asked his sister-in-law,
+Mlle. Fédorovitch, to stay with her. The enforced separation
+deeply grieved the young couple, whose only consolation was daily
+correspondence.
+
+Metchnikoff resumed a life of hard work; he was now an _agrégé_ at
+the Petersburg University and had to leave the School of Mines; this
+diminished his resources, but at the same time he obtained an extra
+salary of 800 roubles as Extraordinary Professor. His position in the
+University was nevertheless very difficult, for his situation was
+coveted by different parties with which he had nothing to do. They
+wanted it for one of their adherents. His devoted friend Setchénoff,
+Professor of Physiology, then thought of proposing him to the Faculty
+of Medicine as a Lecturer in Zoology, and whilst Metchnikoff awaited
+the result of his efforts, he obtained leave to go to the seaside to do
+research work.
+
+He joined his wife and took her to San Remo and to Villafranca. Her
+health had improved and she was even able to take part in his work.
+He was engaged in studying Medusæ and Siphonophora, animals which
+interested him, not only from the point of view of the origin of
+embryonic layers, but also from that of general morphology, for he
+was still pursuing the problem of genetic links between animals. He
+had already been able to prove the presence of embryonic layers in
+many inferior animals; moreover, he had found, while studying the
+metamorphoses of Echinodermata, the proof that the _structural plan_,
+hitherto considered immutable, could become transformed in course
+of development. Thus the bilateral plan of the larva of Echinoderma
+becomes a radial plan in the adult. The structural plan therefore
+is not an absolutely differentiating character, since specimens of
+the same type can show a different plan according to their stage of
+development. One of the genetic questions still unsolved was that of
+the body cavity. Always present in higher animals, it is totally absent
+in certain lower groups, such as Sponges, Polypi, and Medusæ. It was
+being questioned whether their dissimilar morphological characters
+did not correspond with a duality of origin separating animals which
+possessed a body cavity (Coelomata) from those which did not
+(Acoelomata).
+
+Kovalevsky, it is true, had observed that the body cavity of many
+animals (Amphioxus, Sagitta, Brachiopoda) took its origin in the
+_lateral sacs_ of the digestive cavity, sacs which detach themselves
+from it in order to form the body cavity. But, in order to establish a
+genetic connection between those animals that have a body cavity and
+those which are devoid of it, it was necessary to show the homology of
+corresponding organs in both groups.
+
+Through his researches on the development of Coelomata
+(Echinodermata) on the one hand and Acoelomata (Ctenophora and
+Medusæ) on the other, Metchnikoff succeeded in proving that the lateral
+sacs of the digestive cavity which give birth to the body cavity of the
+Coelomata (Echinodermata) correspond to the canals and vaso-digestive
+sacs of the Acoelomata (Ctenophora and Medusæ). The difference
+consists in that the latter do not detach themselves in order to form a
+body cavity, which is therefore lacking.
+
+The result of his researches satisfied Metchnikoff; moreover, he began
+to feel again hopeful of his wife's recovery. The only dark spot was
+that Setchénoff's efforts had failed. Metchnikoff was not appointed
+by the Faculty of Medicine, for it was found advisable to replace the
+Chair of Zoology by one on Venereal Diseases. On the other hand, he
+was nominated for the Odessa University, supported by Cienkovsky and
+unanimously elected.
+
+As he only had to go to his new post in the autumn, he went for the
+summer to St. Vaast in Normandy to study Lucernaria; unfortunately the
+stay was not a success; the weather was cold and the sea very rough,
+which made the Lucernaria impossible to find. Life conditions were very
+difficult, all the male population being at sea and the women being in
+the fields. In order not to waste this journey he studied Ascidians,
+and found that he had previously been mistaken at Naples when he
+thought that the nervous system of those animals originated from the
+lower embryonic layer. Kovalevsky had been right in affirming the
+contrary, and Elie hastened to write to tell him so.
+
+St. Vaast, open to every wind, was not favourable to the patient, and
+Metchnikoff had to take her away. They went to Russia to stay with her
+parents and then to Panassovka. The doctors having advised a course of
+treatment by "koumiss," or fermented mare's milk prepared in a special
+way by the Tartars, Elie engaged a Tartar servant specially for that
+purpose, but in vain. In spite of every treatment, his wife's health
+was steadily growing worse. The cold at St. Vaast had been followed
+by such a dry heat in Russia that, in order to procure a little
+coolness for the patient, they had to spread wet sheets around her. She
+constantly had high temperatures and frequent attacks of hæmorrhage.
+It was obvious that she must leave Russia, and Metchnikoff, obliged to
+rejoin his post at Odessa, asked Mlle. Fédorovitch to go with her to
+Montreux.
+
+The separation was all the harder that all hope of recovery was
+beginning to wane. The patient, however, had been told of the magical
+effect of Madeira in cases of tuberculosis, and she clung to the idea
+as to a plank of safety. Elie resolved to take her there. He set to
+work with renewed ardour in order to obtain the sum necessary for
+the journey; in spite of all his self-denial, his normal resources
+would not have sufficed, and he had recourse to translations and
+literary articles. He had a theme ready, which he developed in a paper
+called _Education from the Anthropological Point of View_--in fact a
+preliminary sketch of his ideas on the disharmonies in human nature.
+In it, he analysed the disharmonies due to the great difference of
+development between the child and the adult: whilst the young of
+animals are very rapidly able to imitate the adults and to live like
+them, the man-child is incapable of it. His brain, especially in
+civilised races, demands a long period of development in order to equal
+that of the adult, whilst certain instincts in the organism mature,
+on the contrary, long before their function is possible. Moreover, a
+child's sensibility is extremely developed whilst his will is by no
+means so. These causes provoke suffering and a series of regrettable
+consequences.
+
+Apart from frenzied efforts and unceasing labour, Metchnikoff was going
+through a painful moral crisis, due to the impossibility of making
+his conduct accord with his convictions. Party intrigues continued
+to be rife at the Odessa University: Poles were being persecuted
+by Nationalists; one professor was refused admission on account of
+his Polish nationality, and Cienkovsky resigned by way of protest.
+Metchnikoff shared his views and longed to follow his example, but was
+prevented by his lack of means and felt it deeply. It also went against
+his conscience to ask for leave as frequently as his wife's condition
+made it necessary.
+
+She wished to see her parents once again before going to Madeira, and
+he took her to Russia for the last time: she never saw her family again.
+
+At last they were able to start. The long journey was very fatiguing,
+the sea voyage was rough, but, when she landed in Madeira, the patient
+thought herself saved. The very next morning Metchnikoff started
+feverishly on a voyage of discovery. Nature on the island was extremely
+beautiful; alone the sight of numerous sick people reminded him of
+suffering and death. The words "a flower-decked grave" haunted his
+mind, and a growing despondency warned him that he had nothing to
+expect from this luxuriant spot. From the aspect of the rocky coast,
+beaten by the waves, he realised that the beach fauna must be very
+poor; his only refuge, research work, was likely to be denied him.
+
+He was advised to hire a small house, which would be cheaper than
+a boarding-house, and he did find a pretty furnished villa with a
+garden; it was beyond his means, but a young Russian named Mertens,
+who had been a fellow-traveller, proposed to share it with them. The
+arrangement proved highly satisfactory, and Mertens, at first merely an
+agreeable neighbour, became a close friend.
+
+Before leaving for Madeira, Metchnikoff had obtained a scientific
+mission and a subsidy from the Society of Natural Science Lovers of
+Moscow, and felt it a moral obligation to obtain some results. The
+scantiness of the marine fauna was a bitter disappointment; he had
+to fall back upon what little he found, and embarked on the study,
+hitherto unknown, of the embryology of Myriapoda. But this research
+work brought him a new source of torment instead of satisfaction: he
+could not master the technique, which proved to be very difficult, and
+this irritated him; his failures disappointed him, made him vexed with
+himself; his nerves, already strung to the highest point by suffering
+and anxiety, made the disappointment unbearable. On the other hand,
+the external aspect of life formed a striking contrast with the state
+of his mind. A wealth of natural beauty, all flowers and perfumes, in
+an incomparable site, congenial surroundings and home comforts formed
+the frame for these two young lives, of which one was waning whilst the
+other was spent in a useless struggle to save it.
+
+Metchnikoff's natural pessimism was growing under the influence of
+these painful circumstances. His conception of life was a sombre
+one; he said to himself that the "disharmonies" of human nature must
+infallibly end in a general decadence of humanity. He set forth
+his reflections in an article entitled _The Time for Marriage_, in
+which he discussed the following concrete fact: With the progress of
+civilisation and culture, the time for marriage recedes gradually,
+whereas puberty remains as early as before; the result is that the
+time between puberty and marriage is becoming longer and longer,
+and constitutes a growing period in which there is no harmony. The
+statistics of suicides prove that there is a close connection between
+them and the period of disharmonies.
+
+Whilst he worked, his wife tried to make use of her leisure: she
+interested herself in poor children, sketched flowers, read novels ...
+life flowed peacefully in spite of the underlying drama.
+
+Yet the thought that he was not fulfilling his obligations was
+intolerable to Metchnikoff. He thought of resigning and founding a
+small book-shop at Madeira in order to be independent and not obliged
+to leave his wife, but lack of funds made this plan impossible. In his
+search for new resources, he went to Teneriffe to look for a subject
+for an article. He met with several disappointments on this trip; yet
+he saw the Villa Orotava, with its celebrated giant dragon-tree, which
+had already then been brought down by a storm. He also visited the
+Caves of the Guancios, the primitive inhabitants of the Canary Islands.
+Having gathered the necessary observations, he hastened to return to
+Madeira, where months passed without bringing any change.
+
+The book-shop idea was abandoned as being impracticable and Metchnikoff
+had to return to Odessa, asking his sister-in-law to come to Madeira
+in his place. When she had arrived, he confided the two girls to
+Mertens and to the care of the devoted Dr. Goldschmidt, and went away
+conscious of the uselessness of his efforts and more deeply pessimistic
+than ever.
+
+When he reached Odessa, in October 1872, he found there his friend
+Setchénoff, whom he had previously proposed for a Physiology Lecturer's
+chair, and whose affection was a great comfort to him at this sad time.
+The correspondence between him and his wife during that period is full
+of an infinite tenderness, as if they felt the supreme separation
+coming near, and yearned to express their mutual love.
+
+At the end of January 1873, between two classes, Metchnikoff received
+a letter from his sister-in-law telling him to come in haste if he
+wished to find his wife still living. He delivered his lecture like
+an automaton, then went to obtain his leave and hurried off. He
+accomplished the whole journey without a break. On arriving at Madeira
+he found his wife so changed that he scarcely knew her, and it was
+only through sheer force of will that he kept his alarm from her. She
+suffered so much that she had to be given morphia constantly and could
+no longer leave her bed.
+
+Metchnikoff himself was in very poor health; his eyes were so sensitive
+from overwork that he had to remain in the dark, only going into the
+garden at dusk to observe spiders and snails. Time was progressing
+slowly and miserably, and bringing nothing but anxiety as to the means
+to support this sad existence. Metchnikoff had hoped to receive the
+Baer prize for a zoological work, but did not obtain it: it was refused
+on the pretext that his memoir had been presented in manuscript
+instead of being printed. In reality, the German party had wished to
+give it to a fellow-German.
+
+A friend of his, who sent him the bad news, offered to lend him 300
+roubles, and Metchnikoff accepted; he could now think of nothing but
+holding out till the end.
+
+One morning the patient's condition suddenly became much worse. The
+doctor was sent for in a hurry and declared that it was now a question
+of a few hours.... When Metchnikoff went back to his wife he found her
+with eyes wide open and so full of mortal anguish and utter despair
+that he could bear it no longer and went out hastily, not to show her
+his dismay.
+
+This was his last impression; he never saw her again.
+
+Only half conscious, he walked up and down the drawing-room, opening
+and closing books without seeing them, his mind full of disconnected
+pictures; he wondered to himself how his family would hear the news.
+Time passed without his realising it. Then his sister-in-law came to
+tell him that all was over. This was on the 20th April 1873.
+
+Metchnikoff's feelings were complex: a mixture of crushing despair and
+of relief at the thought that the terrible agony was at last ended....
+During the whole of the sad first night he sat with his sister-in-law
+in a distant room, talking of those things which are only mentioned
+in moments such as these. When Dr. Goldschmidt came in the morning
+to offer Metchnikoff his sympathy and help he found him apparently
+almost calm. Metchnikoff asked him to make a post-mortem examination
+of the deceased and to look after her sister. A Scottish minister
+came to bring religious comfort and to exhort him to look there for
+consolation. Metchnikoff thanked him, but firmly assured him that it
+was not possible to him.
+
+The funeral took place two days later; he did not attend it and did not
+see the corpse. Immediately after the funeral he left Madeira with his
+sister-in-law. Being no longer anxious to economise, he took with him
+a sick young Russian who wished to see his mother again and could not
+afford the journey.
+
+After the catastrophe, Metchnikoff felt incapable of thinking of the
+future, his life seemed cut off at one blow; he destroyed his papers
+and reserved a phial of morphia, without any settled intention. They
+journeyed back through Spain; it was during the Carlist insurrection,
+and several episodes on the way distracted their attention. Elie and
+his sister-in-law reached Geneva, where they found Leo Metchnikoff
+and several relations, among whom he seems to have recovered himself.
+He even related some of their travelling experiences, meetings with
+Carlists, frontier incidents, etc., with some spirit. But his apparent
+calm concealed black despair.
+
+He said to himself: "Why live? My private life is ended; my eyes are
+going; when I am blind I can no longer work, then why live?" Seeing no
+issue to his situation, he absorbed the morphia. He did not know that
+too strong a dose, by provoking vomiting, eliminates the poison. Such
+was the case with him. He fell into a sort of torpor, of extraordinary
+comfort and absolute rest; in spite of this comatose state he remained
+conscious and felt no fear of death. When he became himself again, it
+was with a feeling of dismay. He said to himself that only a grave
+illness could save him, either by ending in death or by awaking the
+vital instinct in him. In order to attain his object, he took a very
+hot bath and then exposed himself to cold. As he was coming back by the
+Rhone bridge, he suddenly saw a cloud of winged insects flying around
+the flame of a lantern. They were Phryganidæ, but in the distance he
+took them for Ephemeridæ, and the sight of them suggested the following
+reflection: "How can the theory of natural selection be applied to
+these insects? They do not feed and only live a few hours; they are
+therefore not subject to the struggle for existence, they do not have
+time to adapt themselves to surrounding conditions."
+
+His thoughts turned towards Science; he was saved; the link with life
+was re-established.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+
+  Anthropological expedition to the Kalmuk steppes--Affection of the
+  eyes--Second expedition to the steppes--The eggs of the _Geophilus_.
+
+
+After the misfortune which had befallen him Metchnikoff placed his
+only hope in work, and the condition of his eyes was therefore for
+him a source of great preoccupation. He applied to the Petersburg
+Geographical Society for an anthropological mission in order to
+undertake researches less trying to his eyesight than microscopical
+work.
+
+As he went deeper into anthropology, he was struck by the fact that
+this science lacked a leading thread and was guided by no general idea
+but reduced to mere measurements, very precise and detailed, it is
+true. Metchnikoff wondered whether it would not be advisable to apply
+to anthropology the methods used in embryology and to establish an
+analogy between the diverse human races and the different ages of the
+individual. In order to solve this problem he had thought at first of
+visiting the Samoyedes as being the most primitive of the aboriginal
+peoples of Russia. But the project was not realisable and he determined
+to visit, at his own expense, the Kalmuks of the Astrakhan steppes,
+also a primitive Mongol race.
+
+Before his departure he went to see his family and that of his late
+wife. Long afterwards his sister-in-law, Mlle. Fédorovitch, wrote me
+the following account of that interview:
+
+  He was still suffering from an inflammation of the eyes. This man,
+  whom I cannot picture to myself without a microscope or a book, was,
+  at that sad period of his life, reduced to complete inactivity.
+  We had always been struck with his power of becoming absorbed in
+  scientific reading, even during meals; it inconvenienced no one, for
+  he heard at the same time the conversation that was going on and even
+  took part in it from time to time. Now, the day after his arrival,
+  I came to call him to tea and found him seated in his darkened room
+  with scissors in his hands and the floor around him littered with
+  small pieces of paper ... such was the occupation to which he was
+  reduced.
+
+  He told me that, if I liked, he would come to live in Moscow and
+  devote his life and his work to our family. I refused and told him
+  why; my refusal grieved him, but I was right. Besides a feeling of
+  generosity, his offer was actuated by a desire for an immediate
+  object in life. Soon after that, he started for the Kalmuk steppes in
+  order to undertake anthropological researches. I was often haunted by
+  the thought of his sad figure in the midst of the steppes.
+
+The journey was difficult and fatiguing. Metchnikoff did not know the
+Kalmuk language and had to depend on interpreters. From the very first
+he was painfully impressed by the brutality of the Russian officials
+towards the natives. At every halt the Kalmuks declared that they had
+no horses; the Cossack who convoyed Metchnikoff would then begin to
+swear and to play with his "nagaika" or leather-thonged whip, and the
+required horses appeared as by magic. After a while Metchnikoff became
+used to such scenes and looked upon them as a custom of the country.
+He found it more difficult to put up with the indescribable dirt, the
+smell of mutton fat which impregnated the food, and the continual
+barking of dogs during the night, details which destroyed the charm and
+poetry of primitive life. In spite of these unfavourable conditions,
+Metchnikoff worked indefatigably. The physical measurements of the
+Kalmuks led him to conclude that the development of the Mongol race
+was arrested in comparison with that of the Caucasian race; he found
+that all the relative proportions of the diverse parts of the Kalmuk
+skeleton corresponded with that of youth in the Caucasian race: a large
+head, a long torso, short legs, absolutely the relative dimensions of
+our children. This conclusion was further confirmed by the structure of
+the eyelid in the Kalmuks, of which the fold (epicanthus) in the adult
+corresponds with that of the fold of the eyelid in our children.
+
+These interesting results somewhat raised Metchnikoff's _moral_,
+the more so that his eyesight began to improve; he returned to
+Odessa but found that he was still unable to use a microscope. He
+therefore decided to go back to the steppes in order to proceed with
+his researches, and, this time, began his journey by the Stavropol
+province. The steppes there are very fine, with tall, luxuriant grasses
+and a profusion of flowers filling the pure atmosphere with perfume;
+the infinite space and absolute calm offer a peculiar and powerful
+charm. But the population is depressed and apathetic, as is the case
+with that of the Astrakhan steppes. The reason must be that the Kalmuks
+consume milk which has undergone alcoholic fermentation, and that
+provokes a slight but chronic intoxication. Yet a few among them are
+extremely intelligent and of fairly high culture. Thus, in the course
+of his ethnographical researches Metchnikoff came across a priest
+(bakshâ) who imparted to him such instructive facts on the principles
+of the Buddhist religion and on the organisation of its clergy that he
+even planned to go with him to Thibet, where no stranger can penetrate
+without the help of an adept. This plan, however, was never executed.
+
+After he had collected numerous anthropological data, Metchnikoff went
+again to the Astrakhan steppes in order to verify and to complete his
+observations of the preceding year. Whilst traversing some oases where
+the Russians were making experiments in artificial forestry, he had the
+pleasant surprise of finding some Myriapoda (_Geophilus_) bearing a
+number of eggs. The history of the development of those creatures was
+still unknown--a notable lacuna in embryology. Delighted at the idea
+of filling it, Metchnikoff did not hesitate to undertake a long and
+difficult extra journey and repaired to Astrakhan, taking with him his
+precious material, in order to fetch the necessary apparatus for his
+researches. But during the long journey several eggs perished and he
+had to return to the oasis with a borrowed microscope to study other
+eggs on the spot. In spite of very difficult conditions and of the
+persistent weakness of his eyesight, he succeeded in filling the lacuna
+in the embryology of the _Geophilus_.
+
+He had at the same time collected very interesting anthropological
+data. His hypothesis as to the necessity of applying to anthropology
+the comparative methods of embryology was fully justified, for, thanks
+to that process, he was able to establish a definite correlation
+between the Mongol race and the adolescence of the Caucasian race. He
+presented a report on the subject to the Anthropological Society of
+Moscow, but, his attention being afterwards turned in other directions,
+he never came back to this subject.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV
+
+                                    "As to thee, Hector, thou art to
+                                  me as a father and a revered mother
+                                  and a brother, and thou art my
+                                  husband."--_The Iliad._
+
+  Studies on childhood--The family in the upper flat--Lessons in
+  zoology--Second marriage--Private life--Visit and death of Lvovna
+  Nevahovna--Conjugal affection.
+
+
+Metchnikoff's anthropological researches led him to the study of
+childhood, which in its turn suggested reflections on questions of
+Pedagogy. His eyesight was still weak and his hunger for activity very
+great; in order to satisfy it, he gave lessons in a Lycée and public
+lectures in the Odessa University. Though time was passing, Metchnikoff
+could not get used to his solitude; he spent his active kindness on his
+friends and all around him, whilst living like an ascetic and giving
+away all that he could spare. But nothing could quench his thirst for a
+family life and affectionate intimacy.
+
+My family at that time lived in the same house as he did, on the floor
+above him; we were eight children, our ages ranging from one to sixteen
+years. We were noisy neighbours and we incommoded Metchnikoff, who was
+awakened every morning by the noise in our kitchen, where meat was
+being minced for the children. One fine day he could stand it no longer
+and went upstairs to ask if this nuisance could not be stopped; my
+father promised that he would see that it ceased. We were all seated
+round the tea-table when he came in, and, seeing a stranger, my sister
+and I hurriedly collected our lesson books, and hastened to leave the
+room. We did not even have time to distinguish Metchnikoff's features,
+but were struck by his paleness. Shortly after that incident we met him
+at the house of a mutual friend. He had already seen us from his window
+as we went off to the Lycée, and it used to amuse him to see us bravely
+stepping over a large pool of water which was permanent in the street.
+
+One of his pupils was a professor in our Lycée, and Elie had the
+opportunity of informing himself concerning our studies. Having heard
+that I was interested in natural science, it occurred to him to offer
+to give me lessons in zoology. I was delighted. He asked and obtained
+permission from my parents, and we eagerly set to work. Elie, being
+strongly attracted by me, returned to his former idea of training a
+girl according to his own ideas and afterwards making her his wife. He
+might have realised his programme of completing my education first and
+marrying me afterwards if he had not been prevented by the complete
+lack of accord between his ideas and those of my father. It was the
+eternal conflict of two generations, "fathers and children." My father
+was an excellent man, of great nobility of character, but he was a
+type of the old Russian patrician school and belonged to a different
+epoch, with different opinions and customs. This caused inevitable and
+frequent disagreements, and Elie decided to ask for my hand without
+further delay.
+
+My mother was much younger than my father, and her sympathies
+were all with the young generation. She was an idealist, gentle,
+intelligent and artistic, and, in her youth, had painted and played the
+violoncello, but a very early marriage and numerous children had forced
+her to give up the practice of art, to her lifelong regret. Great
+sympathy arose between her and Elie; she supported him in everything
+and became for him a tenderly attached friend. He explained to her his
+theories on marriage, and then confided to her his feelings towards
+me. My extreme youth troubled her very much, but Elie endeavoured to
+reassure her, saying that he fully understood the rashness of his
+projects, but that he was ready to suffer all the consequences; in
+fact, he declared, if he did not succeed in making me happy, he would
+have the strength to help me to create another existence for myself. I
+had not suspected my Professor's feelings towards me, and was deeply
+moved when I was told of them; it seemed to me impossible to understand
+that this superior, this learned man could wish to marry a little girl
+like myself! I thought with terror that he must be mistaken about me;
+I felt as if I were going up for an examination without any previous
+study. However, I had a great affection and admiration for Elie; I was
+attracted by his whole personality, which produced a strong impression
+upon others as well as upon myself. This is how Setchénoff describes
+him, in his own autobiography:
+
+  Elie Metchnikoff was the soul of our circle. Of all the young men I
+  have known in my life, young Metchnikoff was the most attractive with
+  his lively intelligence, inexhaustible wit and abundant knowledge
+  of all things. He was, in Science, as serious and as productive (he
+  had already done much in zoology and acquired a great name in that
+  branch) as he was full of life and varied interest in a circle of
+  friends.
+
+Moreover, my young imagination was impressed by his sad history and by
+his interesting appearance, at that time not unlike a figure of Christ;
+his pale face was illumined by the light in his kindly eyes, which at
+times looked absolutely inspired. My whole heart went out to him, but I
+was not yet ripe for matrimony and was somewhat thrown off my balance
+by the unexpectedness of the event. Fearing that I was not up to his
+level, I used to try beforehand to find worthy subjects of conversation
+in order that he should not feel bored in my society, but everything
+I thought of seemed to me so clumsy and stupid that I rejected one
+subject after another until he came and found me at a loss. He could
+not understand how deeply I was troubled, and cannot have been
+satisfied with my attitude, which really was that of a zealous pupil.
+
+Our marriage took place in February 1875; it was a very cold winter and
+the ground was covered with a thick coating of glistening snow. A few
+hours before the ceremony my brothers came with a little hand sledge
+to fetch me for a last ride. "Come quick," they said, "this evening
+you will be a grown-up lady, and you can't play with us any more!" I
+agreed, and we rushed out to the snowy carpet which covered the great
+yard of our house. In the midst of our mad race my mother appeared
+at the window; she had been looking for me everywhere and was much
+disturbed. "My dear child! what are you thinking of? It is late, you
+have hardly time to dress and to do your hair!" "One more turn, mother!
+It is the last time, think of it!" Other childish emotions awaited me;
+my wedding-dress was the first long dress I had ever worn, and I feared
+to stumble as I walked. Then, too, I was frightened at the idea of
+entering the church under the eyes of all the guests. My little brother
+tried to reassure me by offering to hold my hand, and my mother made me
+drink some chocolate to give me courage.
+
+Elie was awaiting us at the entrance; my shyness increased when I heard
+people whispering around us, "Why, she is a mere child!" The ceremony
+took place in the evening, after which Elie wrapped me carefully in
+a long warm cloak and we set off, the sledge gliding like the wind,
+towards our new home. In spite of the day's emotions, I rose very
+early the next morning in order to work at my zoology exercises and to
+give my husband a pleasant surprise. He was now free to superintend my
+education, a very difficult and delicate task when having to do with a
+mind as unprepared for life as mine was.
+
+The scientific methods which Metchnikoff applied to everything might
+have constituted a grave error at this delicate psychological moment;
+yet, in many ways, he showed himself a strangely clear-sighted
+educator. He made it a principle to give me entire liberty whilst
+directing me through the logic of his arguments. It is with deep
+gratitude that I realise how he, so superior to me, took care not to
+stifle my fragile individuality but to respect it and to encourage
+it to develop. Like all Russian young people of the time, I was very
+enthusiastic concerning political and social questions that I was not
+mature enough to understand, and my father forbade us to frequent
+political circles with which he had no sympathy, fearing that we might
+be influenced by them. Elie, on the contrary, left me full liberty,
+though he himself disapproved of my tendencies. He considered that
+political and social questions belonged to the realm of practical
+experience, in which young people were lacking, as also in practical
+preparation. He never prevented me from making myself acquainted with
+the social movement, but submitted it to close analysis and criticism;
+it is owing to this very efficacious method that I did not become one
+of the numerous political victims of that time.
+
+Elie took a lively and warm interest in everything which concerned
+me. Not having had time to pass my final examinations from the Lycée
+before my marriage, I was now obliged to go up before a special board
+for the whole curriculum. He helped me to prepare this, even the
+catechism, with the utmost keenness and gaiety, enlivening the driest
+subjects by means of interesting and instructive reading. I was glad to
+continue my biological studies under his direction after I had passed
+my examinations. Not only did he give a general interest, a leading
+thread, to every particular subject, but he also knew how to develop
+independent work. For instance, he made me compare representative
+examples of divers groups by practical study in order to let me deduce
+for myself their characteristics and their generic connections.
+
+And it was not my education only which interested him; he associated me
+with every detail of his life and initiated me into his thoughts and
+his work; we read together a great deal, he had an excellent delivery
+and liked reading aloud.
+
+He thoroughly enjoyed giving me pleasure; we often went to concerts
+and theatres, and beautiful music or dramatic scenes moved him even to
+tears. Musical themes haunted him, and he would whistle them softly
+to himself even at his work. Without caring for luxury, he was glad
+to contribute to the simple embellishment of our home because he knew
+I appreciated it. When we travelled, always with scientific research
+as an object, he never failed to point out every interesting feature
+that we happened to pass. He had a peculiar talent for making a journey
+instructive as well as attractive; his eagerness, infectious gaiety,
+inquisitive mind, and remarkable organising faculty made of him an
+incomparable guide and companion.
+
+We worked together for many years; it was both delightful and
+profitable to work with him, for he opened out his ideas unreservedly
+and made one share his enthusiasm and his interest in investigations;
+he could create an atmosphere of intimate union in the search for truth
+which allowed the humblest worker to feel himself a collaborator in an
+exalted task.
+
+Though I always took a strong interest in scientific questions, Art
+was the real passion of my life. But, imbued as I was with the narrow,
+utilitarian views which surrounded my youth, I had looked upon Art as
+a luxury which should not be indulged in at a time when the poorer
+classes could not read and write. When at last I became emancipated
+from this fallacy, my husband did his best to encourage my artistic
+development though he himself did not appreciate plastic art. Form and
+colour in themselves or in harmony did not appeal to him; he took much
+more interest in a subject than in the way it was treated; he liked
+psychological or realistic work, landscapes, "genre" pictures, but
+classical, Renaissance, or Impressionist works bored him. In spite of
+the divergence of our tastes in that connection, he never ceased to
+encourage me or to take an active interest in my work; often and often
+he accompanied me to picture galleries, making sincere and somewhat
+pathetic efforts to appreciate the beauty of great masterpieces.
+
+Next to music he enjoyed Nature most, perhaps because it offered him
+an inexhaustible source of scientific observation. His wearied nerves
+caused him to seek for soothing impressions, and calm, quiet ponds were
+what he preferred, with their reeds and aquatic plants, among which he
+loved to discover tiny beings, hidden under the leaves and below the
+surface of the water.
+
+Teaching and public work took up nearly the whole of his time;
+his leisure was devoted to home life and to an intimate circle of
+friends with whom he was bound by a common scientific fervour and by
+a University life. He kept up those friendships even after life had
+scattered them. His active kindness made him a centre of attraction
+to his relations and we were always very much surrounded. After his
+father died, in 1878, his mother and two of her grandchildren came to
+live with us. She was at that time sixty-four years of age and had the
+appearance of an old lady; she did not follow the fashion but wore her
+white hair simply parted and framing her face; alone her fine dark
+eyes had preserved their youthful sparkle and bore witness to her
+former beauty. She had a bright and cheerful disposition and a charming
+kindliness to every one; her desire for activity was unfortunately
+thwarted by the state of her health.
+
+Elie showed his mother a tender solicitude which manifested itself in
+the smallest details; for instance, he who detested cards would play
+Patience with her; or he would drive her round the markets, which
+interested her like the good housekeeper she was. When he came in from
+the laboratory he never failed to go to her to ask her for details
+of her health; he talked to her playfully and affectionately, making
+her laugh, telling her the incidents of the day. She continued to be
+interested in everything, especially that which concerned her dear
+Elie, the "consolation of her life," as she called him.
+
+In spite of his affection for his mother, he bore her almost sudden
+death very stoically, knowing as he did that the grave heart disease
+from which she suffered was bound to cause her increasing pain.
+
+My family became his, and the relations between him and my father
+became such that the latter, feeling ill and nearing his end, made
+him our guardian. Until the last my mother preserved for my husband
+a tender friendship which he fully returned. For years he bore the
+burden and responsibilities of the family. With my young brothers and
+sisters he kept up a tone of merry affection; always indulgent with
+them, he was anxious to neglect nothing that could be useful. Though
+ever led by the desire to procure happiness around him, it sometimes
+happened that he made a mistake in his appreciation and failed to
+reach his goal. The human soul is a riddle, life is complicated, and
+we ought not always to judge by results but by motives.... As far as I
+am personally concerned, his affection, kindness, and solicitude have
+always been unbounded. If during early years a few misunderstandings
+arose between us, they were due to my youthful obstinacy or to his
+nervous sensitiveness. We had our trials, but our friendship and deep
+affection emerged from them stronger and purer than ever. At a certain
+time, Elie, believing that happiness called me elsewhere, offered me
+my liberty, urging that I had a moral right to it. The nobility of his
+attitude was the best safeguard.... As years went on, our lives became
+more and more united; we lived in deep communion of souls, for we had
+reached that stage of mutual comprehension when darkness flees and all
+is light.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+
+  Metchnikoff at the age of thirty--Lecturing in Odessa University,
+  from 1873 to 1882--Internal difficulties--Assassination of the Tsar,
+  Alexander II.--Further troubles in the University--Resignation--Bad
+  health: cardiac symptoms--Relapsing fever--Choroiditis--Studies
+  on Ephemeridæ--Further studies on intracellular digestion--The
+  _Parenchymella_--Holidays in the country--Experiments on agricultural
+  pests.
+
+
+Elie Metchnikoff was now thirty years old, and his personality was
+fully characterised though it had not yet reached the culminating point
+of its development.
+
+His dominating point was his passionate vocation; his worship of
+Science and of Reason made of him an inspired apostle. He had the
+faults and qualities of a rich and powerful nature. Vibrating through
+all the fibres of his being, he shed life and light around him. His
+temper was violent and passionate; he could bear no attack on the ideas
+which were dear to him, and became combative as soon as he thought them
+threatened. His was a wrestler's temperament; obstacles exasperated
+his energy and he went straight for them, pursuing his object with an
+invincible tenacity; he never gave up a problem, however difficult, and
+never hesitated to face any sacrifice or any privation if he thought
+them necessary.
+
+A strange contradiction with this iron will was offered by occasional
+disconcerting impulses, like that which caused the failure of his
+first journey abroad, or by sudden attacks of fury for insignificant
+reasons such as an unexpected noise in the street, a cat mewing or a
+dog barking, or angry impatience when he could not solve a frivolous
+puzzle, etc. This impulsive disposition gradually calmed down as he
+grew older, and ultimately very nearly disappeared.
+
+In his personal relations also he was apt to lose his temper, but
+a reaction very soon followed the outburst, and his efforts to be
+forgiven when he felt guilty were very touching. On the other hand,
+he did not easily forget an offence, though no desire for revenge
+ever soiled his soul, and his gratitude for kindness was absolutely
+indestructible.
+
+He harboured pessimistic theories to that extent that he looked upon
+the procreation of other lives as a crime on the part of a conscious
+being; his physical and moral sensitiveness was intense. And yet he had
+inherited from his mother a natural gaiety and delightful elasticity
+which always ended by gaining the upper hand. He was fond of joking;
+his wit was occasionally somewhat cutting, but that was entirely due
+to the appropriateness of his remarks; he never hurt people's feelings
+intentionally. He sometimes gave offence by a professional habit of
+using personal and concrete instances by way of arguments, but he
+applied the process to himself as well; it was the objective method,
+nothing more, and those who knew him well never doubted it.
+
+His benevolence was most active and never insipid, though marked by
+an almost feminine sensibility. He was an incomparable companion and
+friend, and had the gift of smoothing difficulties and inspiring
+courage, security, and confidence. He took the greatest interest in
+others and easily came down to their level, always finding points in
+common, "an opportunity for the study of human documents," he said.
+Thus he conversed simply and sympathetically with the humble as with
+the great, with the young as with the old. It was no mere intellectual
+interest that he bore them, but he put his whole heart into it, which
+made him extremely easy to approach. And yet he never departed from
+absolute freedom of speech, sometimes mixed with harshness. Truth and
+sincerity, for him, came above everything; he carried the courage of
+his opinions to the highest degree, even if it was likely to shock
+his hearers or to do him harm. He jealously guarded his independence
+and nothing could force him to act against his convictions. Full of
+enthusiasm, always interesting, he enlivened all around him. His ideas
+and his activity were in constant effervescence; no serious question
+left him indifferent; he read everything, knew about almost everything,
+and willingly informed others; his vibrating expansiveness made him a
+centre of attraction in his private life as in the laboratory or in any
+other sphere of activity.
+
+From 1873 to 1882 his energies were chiefly absorbed by teaching and by
+the inner life of the University of Odessa, into which he threw himself
+with his usual enthusiasm. His lectures were full of life, always
+bringing out general ideas to throw light upon the most arid facts; he
+made use of these as an architect utilises coarse materials in order
+to erect a harmonious edifice. His creative power endowed his lectures
+with an æsthetic character in spite of their extreme simplicity; not
+that he concerned himself much about form, but because of his wealth
+of ideas and the logical way in which he developed them, starting from
+the simple and reaching the complex in a harmonious synthesis. His own
+enthusiasm established a living bond between him and his audience.
+
+He was on excellent terms with the students, though he made no bid for
+popularity. Not only did he give no encouragement to the prevailing
+tendency of the young men towards politics, but he endeavoured on the
+contrary to bring them back to their studies; he tried to prove to
+them that social problems demand knowledge and a serious practical
+preparation. Otherwise, said he, social life would be as medicine was
+before it entered into the path of science, and when any middle-aged
+woman, any bone-setter, was allowed to practise therapeutics. At the
+same time, students found in him willing protection in the persecutions
+directed against them, and earnest help in their work when they showed
+the least interest in it; he would eagerly welcome the smallest spark
+of the "sacred fire."
+
+Owing to the absolute independence of his ideas and conduct he had
+great influence on young men, and this caused him to be looked upon in
+administrative spheres as a "Red"--almost an agitator. In reality he
+was struggling against the inertia and reactionary forces which were
+shackling the normal development of culture and science in Russia. He
+called himself a "progressive evolutionist," for he considered that
+alone a deep and conscious evolution could give stable results and lead
+to real progress. He thought that Revolution, and especially Terrorism,
+merely provoked a reaction which might be long-lived, and that, as
+long as the people were not sufficiently educated, a revolution might
+easily result in the transfer of despotism from one party to another.
+Socialistic doctrines did not satisfy him; according to him, they
+did not leave sufficient scope to personal initiative and to the
+development of individuality, two factors which he considered as
+essential to every progress.
+
+He looked upon scientific work as his mission, and avoided politics
+because he did not think himself competent to deal with them. But
+scientific activity being closely limited by the state of the
+University, which was badly oppressed at that time by reactionary
+powers, he was led to take part in the defence of the University's
+right to autonomy. He brought all his energies into the struggle,
+though trying to keep from party tactics and to act purely in the
+interests of science. For instance, he would vote either for a Radical
+or a Conservative without sharing the opinions of either, but merely
+guided by their scientific value.
+
+At the beginning of his scientific career at Odessa he led a very
+active campaign in favour of the teaching of Natural Science. He urged
+that, in order to teach properly, Natural History professors should
+themselves have made independent researches on living fauna and flora,
+and tried to introduce a series of measures to allow biologists special
+holidays and missions to desirable places, at the proper seasons, for
+research purposes. "There is no doubt," he said, "that scientific
+activity would be much increased if the proposed measures were adopted.
+Then, before long, our young scientists would not need to go to
+study in German universities, but could go abroad already prepared
+to undertake independent research." The Commission which examined
+his report demanded certain modifications, "because of the Imperial
+injunction to be very strict in granting travelling permits to
+professors." Metchnikoff somewhat altered the text, which, after being
+adopted by the University Council, was rejected by the Ministry and
+remained without effect. Thus was every independent suggestion stifled,
+even when it had but a purely scientific object.
+
+Soon the situation of the Odessa University became even more difficult.
+Between 1875 and 1880 reaction increased considerably, and the inner
+life of the University became very unfavourable to any scientific
+activity. Already before that it was teeming with intrigues, the
+Professors of Ukrainian origin being hostile to the "Muscovites." Yet
+it was still possible to remain apart from these local intrigues, until
+political reaction, filtering into the University, created in it the
+deepest divisions. The hostility of parties was now based on political
+opinions, either "Reactionary" or "Liberal." The students were being
+more and more carried away by this movement and no longer took any
+interest in their studies.
+
+All these conditions made normal teaching and scientific work
+impossible, and Metchnikoff, seeing that politics from above and
+from below now swallowed up everything, tried to take refuge in
+his laboratory but in vain; even there he could no longer find the
+necessary calm, and only during the holidays could he really work.
+
+Thus passed the years until March 1, 1881, when the crime which ended
+the days of Alexander II. was followed by a great reactionary movement.
+The authorities, seeing conspiracies and plots everywhere, persecuted
+without cause all the elements which were ticketed as "dangerous."
+Though the University still preserved its autonomy, this was entirely
+fictitious, for the Ministry thwarted every desire for independence;
+the nomination of professors elected by the University Council was only
+ratified by the Ministry if they were reactionaries, without any regard
+for their scientific value. Soon the Chairs were occupied by ignorant
+men of doubtful morality.
+
+The life and honour of the University became endangered, and
+Metchnikoff found himself obliged to take part in the struggle; he did
+so with vehemence and energy; the independence of the University was
+involved, and, as long as he could hope to save it, he struggled. At
+the meetings of the Council and of the Faculty he never failed to give
+vent to his critical opinions with a vehement frankness which earned
+him in the University the reputation of an "_enfant terrible_." In the
+meanwhile every resolution passed by the Council, if not reactionary
+in character, was systematically quashed by the Ministry, which thus
+paralysed every means of action, and Metchnikoff found himself faced
+with the alternative of submitting or handing in his resignation. He
+decided for the latter: his convictions were involved, and moreover his
+health could not withstand the continual agitation and strain on his
+nerves.
+
+As we could not afford to live in independence, he applied for a
+vacant post of entomologist in the _zemstvo_[13] of Poltava, and at the
+same time wrote out his resignation, holding it in readiness for an
+opportunity which was not long in coming.
+
+  [13] Rural administration.
+
+The Conservative party in the Faculty arose against a Liberal professor
+who had accepted a very clever thesis in which the Reactionaries
+perceived Socialist tendencies. The Dean of the Faculty proposed that
+all such theses should be refused, and the Faculty approved. This was
+the signal for a storm in the University, the Dean was hooted by the
+students, and many of them were threatened with being expelled. The
+Curator desired the more influential professors, of whom Metchnikoff
+was one, to intervene with the students in order to bring disorder to
+an end, and the professors consented, on condition that the offending
+Dean should resign. The Curator promised that he should be asked to do
+so, and order was immediately restored; but the Dean remained and many
+students were severely and unjustly punished. Metchnikoff thereupon
+produced his resignation, which was promptly accepted, and thus his
+University career came to an end.
+
+Besides his University lectures, he gave public lectures on Natural
+History which were attended by a number of female students, for women
+at that time were only admitted to the Faculty of Medicine, and these
+lectures were extremely useful to them. Metchnikoff, though he did
+not believe that women could accomplish creative work in science,
+was strongly in favour of higher education for women, considering
+it as necessary to their general intellectual development. Genius,
+he thought, was peculiar to the male sex, no woman having created
+anything "of genius" even in domains which had always been accessible
+to them, such as music, literature, and the applied arts. The very rare
+exceptions, to his mind, only proved the rule; yet he did not draw the
+conclusion that woman was in any sense inferior to man. He merely held
+that her gifts are different from those of men.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Metchnikoff's health had been seriously shaken by the emotions and
+annoyances of university life. Already in 1877, after political
+intrigues at the University, he had felt the first symptoms of cardiac
+trouble, which were the beginning of a long period of ill-health. He
+consulted Bamberger, a great Viennese physician, who, however, found
+nothing serious, and merely forbade him the use of wine and tobacco, to
+neither of which was he addicted.
+
+His health suffered further through the violent anxiety which he went
+through in 1880 whilst I lay dangerously ill with typhoid fever,
+contracted in Naples. Though worn out with devoted nursing, he tried
+to make up the time lost to research and over-worked himself, with
+the result that cardiac trouble was followed by fits of giddiness and
+unconquerable insomnia. He fell into such a state of neurasthenia that,
+in 1881, he resolved in a moment of depression to do away with his life.
+
+In order to spare his family the sorrow of an obvious suicide, he
+inoculated himself with relapsing fever, choosing this disease in order
+to ascertain at the same time whether it could be inoculated through
+the blood. The answer was in the affirmative: he became very seriously
+ill. His condition was aggravated by anxiety concerning the University;
+for he was sufficiently conscious to be aware of the events which
+were taking place in Russia. The murder of Alexander II. caused him
+to foresee a political reaction of the most terrible type; already, a
+reactionary Rector had been appointed. Metchnikoff developed intense
+jaundice and had a serious relapse with alarming cardiac weakness;
+during the crisis he had a very distinct prevision of approaching
+death. This semi-conscious state was accompanied by a feeling of great
+happiness; he imagined that he had solved all human ethical questions.
+Much later, this fact led him to suppose that death could actually be
+attended by agreeable sensations.
+
+His robust nature, however, triumphed over all these grave
+complications, and, during his convalescence, he was filled with a joy
+of living such as he had never experienced before; from that moment
+his moral and physical balance was completely restored. There was one
+unpleasant sequel to his illness, an acute affection of the sight
+(choroiditis), but it fortunately disappeared without leaving any
+traces, and, in fact, he never suffered again from his eyes, in spite
+of his constant use of the microscope.
+
+After his recovery he had a renascence of vital intensity; the
+life instinct developed in him in a high degree; his health became
+flourishing, his energy and power for work greater than ever, and the
+pessimism of his youth began to pale before the optimistic dawn of his
+maturity. However, the relapsing fever had very probably increased, if
+not started, the cardiac trouble which eventually caused his death.
+
+During the time when Metchnikoff was forbidden the use of the
+microscope on account of his eye weakness, he studied Ephemeridæ from
+the point of view of natural selection. He wished to elucidate the
+manner in which this selection operates during the very short life of
+those insects: the rudimentary structure of their buccal organs does
+not allow them to feed themselves, and they have no time to adapt
+themselves to external conditions.
+
+During the 1875 holidays, at Gmunden and on the Danube, he observed
+the nuptial flight of the mayflies, a phenomenon which constitutes
+their short adult existence, preceded by a long period in the larval
+state. Thousands of these diaphanous, ephemeral insects swarm above
+the water in a compact cloud; now and then, dead Ephemeridæ fall like
+snow-flakes, and that is the final and tragic completion of the nuptial
+flight. Metchnikoff wished to unveil the mechanism of this sudden
+death, evidently due to a physiological cause; but he obtained no
+definite results either that year or the following, when he continued
+his observations in the Caucasus. He realised that the life of these
+insects was too short to allow him to solve the problems which
+interested him, and, his eyes now being cured, he went back to his
+studies on the origin of multicellular beings or _metazoa_.
+
+He studied the development of inferior sponges and ascertained that
+they possess the three embryonic layers which correspond to those of
+other animal types, but that these layers have not the same degree of
+independence or differentiation. He found that in certain inferior
+sponges the mesoderm develops before the endoderm and gives birth
+to it. These two layers, born one from the other, manifest common
+primordial characters. Therefore he was in no wise surprised to
+discover that, in these inferior sponges, the amoeboid and mobile
+cells of the mesoderm fulfil digestive functions equally with,
+and even more than those of the endoderm; in fact, with primitive
+beings, functional characters are not more strictly delimitated than
+morphological characters. It is only a more advanced differentiation
+which separates them.
+
+He connected these new facts with that which he had observed in 1865
+in one of the lower worms, the earth planarian _Geodesmus bilineatus_.
+This worm is actually without a digestive cavity, for the latter is
+entirely filled by parenchymatous cells inside which digestion takes
+place.
+
+By their primitive structure, lower sponges and worms come near the
+higher Infusoria, to which they are even more closely related by this
+intercellular digestion which is common to them.
+
+This led Metchnikoff to ask himself whether this was not, generally
+speaking, _the primitive mode of digestion_. He carried out numerous
+researches on this point during the following years, and found the same
+intercellular digestion in other lower worms, such as the _Mesostoma_
+and aquatic planarians, and afterwards in some lower Coelentera and
+some Echinoderma. He was thus enabled to establish definitely that the
+primitive mode of digestion was really intercellular, for the lower
+multicellular animals either do not possess any digestive cavity or
+else their digestive cavity develops late, as for instance with lower
+jelly-fish or with hydropolypi. Even when the cavity is developed in
+these inferior animals, the digestive functions are fulfilled by the
+mesodermic cells.
+
+The question as to what are the ancestral forms of multicellular
+animals cannot be solved through direct observation, for there is a
+lacuna between them and unicellular beings, a lacuna which is due to
+the disappearance of intermediary forms. It can only be filled by
+hypotheses, based upon the embryology of those animals which, in their
+embryonic development, repeat the inferior forms from which they are
+derived, thus reflecting the general evolution of living beings. It
+was therefore to the embryology of lower multicellular beings that
+Metchnikoff turned, in order to endeavour to reconstitute their origin
+and to show the link between them and unicellular beings.
+
+We know that the _ovule_ or primitive genital cell of every animal
+may be compared to a unicellular organism. After fertilisation the
+egg undergoes consecutive divisions or segmentation; each segment
+constitutes a new cell, and their aggregation forms a hollow sphere
+called a _blastula_, which is similar to a colony of unicellular
+beings. The blastula differentiates itself into embryonic layers, the
+_ectoderm_, _endoderm_, and _mesoderm_ already mentioned.
+
+In the majority of animals the origin of the first two layers, ectoderm
+and endoderm, is due to the invagination of one of the poles of the
+blastula; the invaginated part of the walls forms the internal layer,
+the endoderm, and lines the cavity produced by invagination; this
+cavity thus becomes a _digestive_ cavity. This stage of development,
+called _gastrula_, is similar to a cup with a double wall, of which the
+outer is the ectoderm and the inner the endoderm.
+
+This stage, discovered by Kovalevsky, is to be found in the evolution
+of most animals and corresponds to the adult stage of some of them. It
+was consequently considered as the _primitive type_ of multicellular
+beings.
+
+Haeckel founded thereupon his theory of the _gastræa_, according
+to which the common ancestor of animals was a lower animal, now
+disappeared, and similar to that stage of development. He therefore
+gave to this hypothetical animal the name of _gastræa_.
+
+Metchnikoff, however, discovered among primitive multicellular animals,
+such as sponges, hydroids, and lower medusæ, a stage of development
+still more simple than the gastrula; this stage is without a
+digestive cavity and only assumes the gastrula form in its ulterior
+evolution. He also made the remarkable discovery that, in the most
+primitive multicellular animals, the endoderm is formed, not by means
+of invagination, but by the _migration_ of a number of flagellated
+cells from one pole of the wall of the blastula into the central
+cavity. These cells draw in their flagellum, become amoeboid and
+mobile, multiply by division, fill the cavity of the blastula, and
+become capable of digesting. They originate the digestive cells of
+the complete organism and give birth to the mesoderm, which explains
+how the latter comes to contain a number of devouring cells even
+though these do not constitute digestive organs properly so called.
+Metchnikoff gave to that stage the name of _parenchymella_, for
+the migrating cells constitute the endoderm in the condition of a
+parenchyma.
+
+The invariable presence of this stage in the simplest multicellular
+animals, the primitive amoeboid state of the endodermic cells,
+cases of ulterior transformation of the parenchymella into the
+gastrula form in certain animals, the absence of a differentiated
+digestive cavity,--all that proved, according to Metchnikoff, that the
+parenchymella is more primitive than the gastrula, and is therefore
+entitled to be considered the prototype of multicellular beings.
+
+He saw a confirmation of this in the fact that primitive adult animals
+also have no digestive cavity but merely an intracellular digestion
+(sponges, turbellaria).
+
+He concluded that the common ancestor of multicellular beings was a
+being constituted by an agglomeration of cells without a digestive
+cavity, but endowed with intracellular digestion, like that of the
+"parenchymula" stage of development. He therefore gave to that
+hypothetical ancestor the name of _parenchymella_.
+
+Later, in 1886, he definitely formulated his theory of the genesis of
+multicellular beings, and having already stated the phagocyte theory,
+he substituted for the name _parenchymella_ that of _phagocytella_,
+which indicated at the same time the primitive mode of digestion of
+that hypothetical ancestor.
+
+Reduced to its simplest form, it presented, according to Metchnikoff,
+a certain analogy with a colony composed of unicellular beings of two
+kinds: the first, flagellated, forming the external layer, and the
+others, amoeboid, occupying the centre of the colony and capable of
+digesting.
+
+It may be interesting to mention here that, in this hypothetical
+description, Metchnikoff foresaw the existence of similar, but real,
+beings discovered a year later by Saville Kent, namely, the flagellated
+colonies of _Protospongia_.
+
+Thus the link between the unicellular and the multicellular beings
+could be constituted through the intermediary of flagellated colonies
+on the one hand and, on the other hand, of beings similar to a
+_phagocytella_. The _indivisible colony_ became the _multicellular
+individual_.
+
+While studying the genealogy of beings, Metchnikoff continued his
+researches on intracellular digestion. In 1879, at Naples and at
+Messina, he was able to establish the fact that the mesodermic cells
+of many larvæ of Echinodermata and Coelenterata, endowed with a
+digestive tube, nevertheless contained strange bodies. Therefore, even
+complicated organisms with a differentiated digestive system could
+still contain at the same time some primitive cells with an autonomous
+digestion.
+
+All these researches on the unity of the origin of multicellular
+beings and their morphological elements, and also those concerning
+intracellular digestion, were gradually preparing Metchnikoff's mind
+for the conception of the phagocyte theory.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We spent the summer of 1880 with my family in the country. The cereals
+were invaded by a harmful beetle, the _Anisoplia austriaca_, which was
+devastating the country. Metchnikoff took the study of this scourge to
+heart and tried to find a remedy. He had, the preceding year, observed
+a dead fly enveloped with a sort of fungus which had evidently been
+the cause of its death. Hence he conceived the idea that it might be
+possible to combat harmful insects by provoking epidemics among them.
+He now returned to this idea; on dead bodies of _Anisoplia_ he found a
+small fungus, the _muscardine_, which was invading the insects by means
+of filaments, and he succeeded in infecting healthy beetles.
+
+At first he confined himself to laboratory experiments; then a great
+landowner, Count Bobrinsky, placed experimental fields at his disposal.
+As the acquired results were very encouraging, Metchnikoff, forced
+to leave the neighbourhood, left a young entomologist in charge of
+the application of his method. So far as he himself was concerned,
+this study proved the starting-point of his researches on infectious
+diseases.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII
+
+  Death of his father- and mother-in-law--Management of country
+  estates--Agitation and difficulties--Departure for Messina with
+  young brothers- and sisters-in-law.
+
+
+In the spring of 1881, Metchnikoff having recovered from relapsing
+fever, we went to stay with my parents at Kieff and found my father
+dying. He entrusted Elie with the care of the family, and they came to
+live with us at Odessa. But, the following year, we had the misfortune
+to lose my mother also. From that moment my husband took upon himself
+the responsibility of the whole family.
+
+Our resources came from landed property, and he, who had never
+concerned himself with rural questions, had to make himself acquainted
+with them. In this he was greatly helped by a neighbour, Count
+Bobrinsky, through whose influence he came to abandon the purely
+theoretical opinions he had hitherto held concerning agrarian
+questions. He had considered communal property as a desirable agrarian
+system: Count Bobrinsky showed him that it was not so, at any rate in
+Little Russia.
+
+Metchnikoff came to the country with the keenest desire to make himself
+useful. First of all he devoted the gratuity which he had received on
+leaving the University, to a school which my sister and myself desired
+to open in our family property. But we were met by administrative
+opposition which nearly wrecked our plan, under the pretext that it was
+intended for political propaganda. And though cordial relations were
+established from the first between Metchnikoff and the peasantry, many
+complications were unavoidable, due to the general agrarian situation,
+to the insufficiency of the peasants' allotments, and to their
+primitive methods of cultivation.
+
+My father, whose property was in the province of Kieff, had inherited
+another domain in that of Kherson; Metchnikoff therefore had to
+manage both estates and to adapt himself to their very different
+respective circumstances. The majority of the farmers in Little Russia
+at that time were Jews and were beginning to be persecuted both by
+the Government and by the peasants; Elie was constantly obliged to
+intervene. In the province of Kherson, it was a tradition with the
+peasants that the land should belong to them, and they imagined that
+this could be brought about by the simple elimination of the farmers.
+Therefore they inflicted constant vexations upon the latter, allowing
+cattle to pasture in their crops, pulling up their beetroots, etc.
+Metchnikoff attempted in vain to re-establish peace by means of
+compromise; he persuaded a farmer to sub-let part of the land to the
+peasants, but this had to be given up, for the latter did not carry out
+their engagements. Relations between the farmers and the peasants were
+getting worse and worse, and Metchnikoff, foreseeing a catastrophe,
+warned the local administration that the situation was getting very
+grave and would lead to irreparable consequences. He was merely told
+that preventive measures would be useless; hereupon the peasants
+brutally murdered a keeper who was turning the cattle away from the
+crops. Then at last the administration awoke, arrested the murderers,
+and twelve men were exiled to Siberia.
+
+All this caused Metchnikoff the deepest anxiety, the more so that he
+was absolutely incapable of altering the situation. As soon as it
+became possible, he sold to the peasants that portion of the land
+which belonged to us personally; until then, the property had been
+common to the whole family, of which the younger members were not yet
+of age. This, however, was not a general solution, and these moral
+preoccupations, as well as the heavy responsibility incumbent upon him,
+kept him from his scientific work. He was therefore very pleased to
+hand over the management of the property to one of my brothers who had
+just completed his studies in a Higher Agricultural School, and, in
+spite of difficult conditions, Elie had the satisfaction of giving up
+everything in good order.
+
+Thanks to my parents' inheritance, he was able to abandon his share of
+the Panassovka patrimony to the children of his brother and to live
+henceforth independently. He wished to pursue researches on the shores
+of the Mediterranean: therefore, in the autumn of the year 1882, we
+went to Messina with my two sisters and my three young brothers. The
+children were no trouble to Elie, who loved them; on the contrary, he
+enjoyed organising the journey and arranging all sorts of pleasures for
+them. The children, accustomed to his kindly indulgence, always came to
+"the Prophet" for everything they wanted.[14]
+
+  [14] "Elie" is the French form of Elijah, in Russian Ilia, and
+       was ultimately adopted by Metchnikoff.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII
+
+  Messina--Inception of the phagocyte theory--Encouragement from
+  Virchow and Kleinenberg--First paper on phagocytosis at the Odessa
+  Congress in 1883--The question of Immunity--Article in Virchow's
+  _Archiv_, 1884.
+
+
+At Messina, we settled in a suburb, the Ringo, on the quay of the
+Straits, in a small flat with a garden and a splendid view over the
+sea. We did not have much room, and the laboratory had to be installed
+in the drawing-room, but, on the other hand, Elie only had to cross the
+quay in order to find the fisherman who provided him with the material
+needed for his researches and with whom we frequently went sailing.
+
+Metchnikoff loved Messina, with its rich marine fauna and beautiful
+scenery. The splendid view of the sea and the calm outline of the
+Calabrian coast across the Straits delighted him. He enjoyed it all
+the more after the many excitements of life at the University, and
+eagerly gave himself up to his researches. Often, in later years, he
+delighted to recall memories of that period, the more so that this was
+connected with the principal phase of scientific activity which led to
+the formation of his phagocyte theory. After the earthquake in 1908,
+he wrote a few pages on Messina and ended his article by the following
+lines:
+
+  Thus it was in Messina that the great event of my scientific life
+  took place. A zoologist until then, I suddenly became a pathologist.
+  I entered into a new road in which my later activity was to be
+  exerted.
+
+  It is with warm feeling that I evoke that distant past and with
+  tenderness that I think of Messina, of which the terrible fate has
+  deeply moved my heart.
+
+  They say that Messina will be rebuilt in the same place but in a
+  different way. Houses will be constructed of light materials, they
+  will be low, and the streets broad....
+
+  The town will be a new Messina, not "my Messina," not that with which
+  so many dear memories are associated in my mind....
+
+Metchnikoff continued to study intracellular digestion and the origin
+of the intestine. He foresaw that the solution of those problems
+would lead to general results of great importance. The study of
+medusæ and of their mesodermic digestion confirmed him more and more
+in the conviction that the mesoderm was a vestige of elements with a
+primitive _digestive_ function. In lower beings, such as sponges, this
+function takes place without being differentiated, whilst with other
+Coelentera and with some Echinoderma the _endoderm_ gives birth to
+a digestive cavity; yet, the mobile cells of the _mesoderm_ preserve
+their faculty of intracellular digestion. As he studied these phenomena
+more closely, he ascertained that mesodermic cells accumulated around
+grains of carmine introduced into the organism.
+
+All this prepared the ground for the phagocyte theory, of which he
+himself described the inception in the following words:
+
+  I was resting from the shock of the events which provoked my
+  resignation from the University and indulging enthusiastically in
+  researches in the splendid setting of the Straits of Messina.
+
+  One day when the whole family had gone to a circus to see some
+  extraordinary performing apes, I remained alone with my microscope,
+  observing the life in the mobile cells of a transparent star-fish
+  larva, when a new thought suddenly flashed across my brain. It struck
+  me that similar cells might serve in the defence of the organism
+  against intruders. Feeling that there was in this something of
+  surpassing interest, I felt so excited that I began striding up and
+  down the room and even went to the seashore in order to collect my
+  thoughts.
+
+  I said to myself that, if my supposition was true, a splinter
+  introduced into the body of a star-fish larva, devoid of
+  blood-vessels or of a nervous system, should soon be surrounded by
+  mobile cells as is to be observed in a man who runs a splinter into
+  his finger. This was no sooner said than done.
+
+  There was a small garden to our dwelling, in which we had a few days
+  previously organised a "Christmas tree" for the children on a little
+  tangerine tree; I fetched from it a few rose thorns and introduced
+  them at once under the skin of some beautiful star-fish larvæ as
+  transparent as water.
+
+  I was too excited to sleep that night in the expectation of
+  the result of my experiment, and very early the next morning I
+  ascertained that it had fully succeeded.
+
+  That experiment formed the basis of the phagocyte theory, to the
+  development of which I devoted the next twenty-five years of my life.
+
+This very simple experiment struck Metchnikoff by its intimate
+similarity with the phenomenon which takes place in the formation of
+pus, the diapedesis[15] of inflammation in man and the higher animals.
+The white blood corpuscles, or _leucocytes_, which constitute pus, are
+mobile mesodermic cells. But, while with higher animals the phenomenon
+is complicated by the existence of blood-vessels and a nervous system,
+in a star-fish larva, devoid of those organs, the same phenomenon is
+reduced to the accumulation of mobile cells around the splinter. This
+proves that the essence of inflammation consists in the reaction of
+the mobile cells, whilst vascular and nervous intervention has but a
+secondary significance. Therefore, if the phenomenon is considered in
+its simplest expression, inflammation is merely _a reaction of the
+mesodermic cells against an external agent_.
+
+  [15] Migration of the white blood corpuscles (leucocytes) through
+       the walls of blood-vessels.
+
+Metchnikoff then reasoned as follows: In man, microbes are usually
+the cause which provokes inflammation; therefore it is against those
+intruders that the mobile mesodermic cells have to strive. These mobile
+cells must destroy the microbes by digesting them and thus bring about
+a cure.
+
+Inflammation is thus a _curative reaction_ of the organism, and morbid
+symptoms are no other than the signs of the struggle between the
+mesodermic cells and the microbes.
+
+In order to verify these conjectures, he started studying the
+englobing of microbes by mesodermic cells in larvæ and in other marine
+invertebrates which he inoculated.
+
+At that time, a well-known German scientist, Kleinenberg, was Professor
+of Zoology at Messina. Metchnikoff imparted his ideas to him and showed
+him his experiments. Kleinenberg encouraged him very much; he looked
+upon his theory as "an Hippocratic thought" and advised him to publish
+it at once.
+
+Metchnikoff was also greatly encouraged by Virchow, who happened
+to pass through Messina and came to see his preparations and his
+experiments, which seemed to him conclusive. However, Virchow advised
+him to proceed with the greatest prudence in their interpretation, as,
+he said, the theory of inflammation admitted in contemporary medicine
+was exactly contrary to Metchnikoff's. It was believed that the
+leucocytes, far from destroying microbes, spread them by carrying them
+and by forming a medium favourable to their growth.
+
+Metchnikoff always preserved a deep gratitude towards Virchow and
+Kleinenberg for the moral support which they gave him at that time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the hot weather came, we left Messina for Riva, a delicious summer
+resort on the shores of the Lake of Garda. There, Metchnikoff wrote
+his first memoir on the reaction of inflammation and on the digestion
+of microbes by the mesodermic cells of lower invertebrates. On the way
+back to Russia through Vienna, he went to see the Professor of Zoology,
+Claus; he found other colleagues with him and expounded his theory
+to them. They were much interested, and he asked them for a Greek
+translation of the words "devouring cells," and that is how they were
+given the name of _phagocytes_.
+
+Claus asked him for his memoir for the Review which he edited and in
+which it appeared soon afterwards, in 1883.[16] The new-born "phagocyte
+theory" was thus very well received by naturalists and by Virchow, the
+father of cellular pathology.
+
+  [16] _Arbeiten des zool. Inst. zu Wien_, Bd. v. Heft ii. p.
+       141. "Untersuchung über die intracelluläre Verdauung bei
+       wirbellosen Tieren," E. Metchnikoff.
+
+Having returned to Russia, we went to the country, where Elie had to
+attend to family business; nevertheless, he continued his researches
+in every leisure moment. He had observed in Echinoderma that, during
+the transformation of their larvæ, the parts becoming atrophied were
+englobed by mesodermic mobile cells. In those observations he was
+delighted to have found an example of _physiological inflammation_,
+_i.e._ one which presented itself in normal and non-morbid conditions.
+He thought he might observe it also during the metamorphosis of the
+tadpole into a frog, whilst the tail was being atrophied. But he found
+that, instead of the leucocytes of the blood, certain cells from the
+muscular tissue were those which devoured the enfeebled elements of the
+tail; he thus learnt that phagocytes might be, not only the white blood
+corpuscles, but other cells of mesodermic origin.[17]
+
+  [17] It was only in 1892 that he completed and developed his
+       observations. He found that the cells of the sarcoplasma
+       of the muscular tissue devoured its contractile part, the
+       myoplasma.
+
+In autumn 1883 he read his first paper on phagocytosis to a congress of
+physicians and naturalists at Odessa.[18] He compared the phagocytes to
+an army hurling itself upon the enemy and looked upon the phagocytic
+reaction as a defensive force of the organism.
+
+  [18] This paper was entitled "Forces curatives de l'organisme."
+
+In that paper itself and from that moment onwards, the trend of his
+ideas towards optimism becomes visible. By discovering the phagocytic
+reaction of the organism, he made a first breach in his philosophy
+of human nature, hitherto so pessimistic; he discovered within it a
+salutary element which could be utilised by science to combat its
+discords. He began to have some faith in the power of knowledge, not
+only for this struggle, but also for the establishment of a rational
+conception of life in general. Thus he said in his paper to the Odessa
+Congress:
+
+  The theoretical study of Natural History problems (in the largest
+  sense of the word) alone can provide a critical method for the
+  comprehension of truth and lead to a definite conception of life, or
+  at least allow us to approach one.
+
+And yet, until then, the theory of phagocytosis as a curative force
+of the organism was but a hypothesis, for he had not yet observed
+_spontaneous phagocytosis in diseases_ and did not know pathogenic
+microbes. He therefore sought to study them in lower animals, whose
+simple structure made the observation easier. He found some small,
+transparent, fresh-water crustaceans, called _daphniæ_, which were
+diseased and easy to place alive under a microscope. These crustaceans
+are often infected by a parasite fungus (_Monospora bicuspidata_), of
+which the spores, shaped like sharp needles, are introduced with food
+into the digestive tube, traverse the walls of it, and thus penetrate
+into the general cavity of the body. They are immediately attacked by
+mobile phagocytes, which either singly or in groups englobe them; if
+the phagocytes succeed in digesting the spores, the daphnia recovers;
+in the contrary case, the spores germinate and develop into small
+fungi which invade the organism and kill it. The recovery or death of
+the daphnia depends therefore on the issue of the struggle.[19] This
+observation gave final confirmation to the hypothesis of the curative
+forces of the organism.
+
+  [19] Virchow's _Archiv_, vol. 96, p. 177.
+
+Metchnikoff was not content with observing lower animals but wished to
+study the reaction of the organism of mammals in infectious diseases.
+At that time, the best-known microbe was the bacillus of anthrax.
+He therefore chose that for his researches and ascertained that
+phagocytosis varied with the virulence of the microbes; thus, while
+phagocytes did not attack virulent bacteria, they attacked and rapidly
+digested attenuated bacteria. Moreover, he observed a very active
+phagocytosis in refractory animals and the reverse in sensitive ones.
+
+He thus came face to face with the question of _immunity_.
+
+He approached it by a comparative examination of the reaction of
+the organism of vaccinated rabbits and of non-vaccinated ones, and
+ascertained that an active phagocytosis was only manifested in a
+previously vaccinated organism. Metchnikoff explained these facts by
+the theory that the phagocytes became accustomed, gradually, through
+vaccination, to strive against more and more virulent microbes.
+
+From that moment, immunity appeared to him as being no other than this
+progressive hardening. He published his researches in 1884 in Virchow's
+_Archiv_, and impatiently awaited medical reviews, hoping to find some
+answer, but the memoir passed unnoticed; the full significance of it
+had not been grasped.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX
+
+  Ill-health of his wife and sister-in-law--Journey to Tangiers through
+  Spain--Villefranche--Baumgarten criticises the phagocyte theory.
+
+
+In 1884, Metchnikoff's work was interrupted by the ill-health of my
+eldest sister and of myself; physicians considered that we had weak
+lungs and advised that we should spend the winter in the South. Elie,
+full of anxiety, hastened to take us there.
+
+My younger brothers were now old enough to remain at school in our
+absence so as to go on with their studies; we therefore started with my
+two sisters. As cholera was raging in Italy, we went to Spain, hoping
+to find a place with a mild climate and conditions favourable to my
+husband's work. But we traversed the whole country without finding
+the right combination, and, as we had come too far to go back, we
+decided to spend the winter on the African coast, at Tangiers, close to
+Gibraltar where we were.
+
+Metchnikoff had not much taste for sight-seeing, but, with his
+inquisitive and observing mind, liked to understand what he saw, and
+never failed to acquaint himself with the history of the countries
+which we traversed and which, with his ever-ready solicitude, he
+wanted us to see. We therefore saw every interesting town on our route
+through Spain. In the evenings we read together works on the history
+and art of the country, and in the day-time we went for long rambles
+in order to examine all that there was to see. The history of the
+country, full of the sombre fanaticism which is reflected in its art,
+the austere aridity of the central plateau of the land, the reserved
+temper of the population--none of that found any echo in the vibrating,
+sunlight-loving soul of Metchnikoff.
+
+Gentle Italy, her exuberant life and highly-cultured past, charmed him
+much more. He was consequently better pleased with Southern Spain,
+which is more similar to Italy. He was greatly impressed by the
+grandiose site and luminous atmosphere of Granada and the Alhambra and
+by the superb gardens of Malaga, with their tropical plants and avenues
+of palm trees.
+
+At Gibraltar, he was greatly interested as a zoologist in the only
+monkeys (_Macaques_ or Barbary apes) which have remained wild in
+Europe; he never tired of watching their habits whilst those amusing
+creatures jumped from tree to tree above our heads.
+
+He had ample leisure to do so, for a frightful tempest kept us at
+Gibraltar, preventing the crossing of the Straits. As Metchnikoff was
+very anxious to set to work, we took the first steamship which ventured
+out, but the sea was still running so high that our ship was damaged
+and we had to go back. A panic took possession of the passengers,
+during which my sisters and I were struck by the calmness of Elie, who
+did not seem to realise the danger. After a delay of a few days, we
+were at last able to cross.
+
+Our first impression of Tangiers, an Arab port of a thoroughly Oriental
+type, was extremely vivid. The city lay before us with its tall
+minarets and flat roofs, shining white under the burning sun. The
+steamer dropped anchor some distance from the landing stage, and we
+were taken ashore on small boats, immediately to be surrounded by a
+motley crowd with faces varying from the pale olive of the pure Arab
+to the coal-black of the negro. All these people, in brilliant and
+picturesque garments, were shouting, gesticulating, fighting for the
+possession of passengers and their luggage, dragging them into the
+boats or carrying them on their backs, themselves standing up to their
+waists in water.
+
+That feverish agitation, noise, and glaring sunlight introduced us
+suddenly to new and violent sensations.
+
+Already at Gibraltar, Metchnikoff had made arrangements with a
+Spanish-speaking Arab from Tangiers who undertook our installation.
+He provided us with a very primitive dwelling, himself serving as our
+guide, cook, and general factotum.
+
+We hastened to look for zoological material: alas, the sea was almost
+a desert. After a long search we only found a few rare sea-urchins,
+and Metchnikoff had to content himself with this meagre fauna during
+the whole of the winter. He resigned himself to the study of the
+embryology of sea-urchins in order to fill a few lacunæ in his previous
+researches. As he could not work much for lack of materials, he
+came with us for long excursions, during which he used to improvise
+interminable and very amusing tales with which to entertain my little
+sister.
+
+At the beginning of our stay we were greatly interested by the life and
+customs of the country. The picturesque and varied crowd, the dignified
+and biblical types of Arabs, the bronzed Berbers, negroes, fanatical
+sects of Aïssawas, snake-charmers, the jousts, and mad races of
+cavalry across the sandy beach; opium smokers; mysterious silhouettes
+of veiled women; the call to prayer from the tall minarets--all
+that strange and exotic life fascinated us. But after a time the
+wild customs, continual shouting on the occasion of every ceremony,
+vendettas, cruel fanaticism, and also the absolute lack of intellectual
+resources, began to tell on our nerves. Inactivity weighed heavily upon
+Metchnikoff; nevertheless, he bore his ill-luck with his usual courage
+and gaiety, finding great consolation in the excellent influence that
+the climate of Tangiers had upon all our healths.
+
+At last, in the spring, we started for Villefranche, where he
+immediately set to work with success upon the embryology of jelly-fish;
+an important monograph on that subject was published by him in 1886.
+In it he gave definite form to his theory of the _phagocytella_ and
+the genetic relationships of animals and of their primitive organs, a
+theory already mentioned above (p. 110).
+
+From Villefranche we went to Trieste, where Metchnikoff studied
+star-fish and filled the lacunæ in his researches on the origin of the
+mesoderm.
+
+In a medical review which he read at Trieste, he found the first
+account of his phagocyte theory; it was an unfavourable and hostile
+criticism by a German scientist of the name of Baumgarten, endeavouring
+to prove that Metchnikoff's deductions were inadmissible. This grieved
+and pained him very much, but he immediately recovered himself and
+strongly determined to study the medical side of the question in order
+to prove on that ground that his theory was well-founded.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XX
+
+  A Bacteriological Institute in Odessa--Unsatisfactory conditions--
+  Experiments on erysipelas and on relapsing fever.
+
+
+The results of Pasteur's antirabic inoculations were published in 1885.
+The Municipality of Odessa, desirous of founding a bacteriological
+station in that town, sent Dr. Gamaléia to Paris to study the new
+method. Metchnikoff was appointed Scientific Director of the new
+institution, and Drs. Gamaléia and Bardach, former pupils of his, were
+entrusted with the preparation of vaccines and preventive inoculations.
+The Institute, opened in 1886, was founded at the expense of the
+Municipality of Odessa and of the _Zemstvo_ of the Kherson Province.
+
+Metchnikoff himself describes as follows the short time he spent in
+that Institute:
+
+  ... Having given up my State work, I placed myself at the service of
+  the city and the _Zemstvo_.
+
+  Absorbed as I was by the scientific part of the work, I confided to
+  my young colleagues the practical part, i.e. the vaccinations and the
+  perfection of vaccines.
+
+  It was to be supposed that all would go very well.
+
+  Work in the new Institute began with ardour. But, very soon, a strong
+  opposition manifested itself against it.
+
+  The medical administration began to make incursions into the
+  Institute, with a view to finding some infractions of the regulations.
+
+  Medical society was hostile to every work which issued from the
+  laboratory. The institutions which had subscribed funds for the
+  Institute were demanding practical results, while all necessary work
+  towards that object was met by every sort of obstacle.
+
+  For instance, in order to destroy certain voles, very harmful to
+  the cereals of Southern Russia, we proposed to make experiments as
+  to infecting those rodents with the microbe of chicken cholera.
+  Laboratory experiments were begun with that object. But, one day,
+  I received an order from the Prefect peremptorily forbidding those
+  experiments. This measure had been taken at the instigation of local
+  physicians; having seen in a Petersburg newspaper an article by
+  some one who had not a notion of bacteriology, they had assured the
+  Prefect that chicken cholera could turn into Asiatic cholera.
+
+  I had to appeal to the General Governor, who ended by countermanding
+  the Prefect's order; nevertheless this incident was not without
+  regrettable consequences concerning the ulterior activities of the
+  Institute.
+
+  Apart from all that, a deep scission took place between the members,
+  though they were so few, of the Institute itself, and this had fatal
+  consequences.
+
+  The men who were in charge of the practical work ceased to work
+  in concert; I could not take their place, being overwhelmed with
+  scientific researches, besides which, holding no medical degree, I
+  was not qualified to perform vaccinations on human beings.
+
+  Under those conditions, I understood that in my quality as a
+  theoretician, I should do well to retire, leaving the laboratory to
+  practitioners who, bearing full responsibility, would fill the part
+  better.
+
+During his stay at the Odessa Bacteriological Institute, Metchnikoff
+had busied himself with infectious diseases in order to answer the
+first objections to his theory. He began by the microbes of erysipelas
+and showed that the phenomena of the disease, as well as those of
+recovery, were in full accord with the postulates of the phagocyte
+theory.
+
+And then he studied relapsing fever in order to answer Baumgarten's
+objections, affirming that there was no phagocytic reaction in that
+disease, though it almost invariably ended in recovery. Experiments
+on man not being possible, Metchnikoff procured some monkeys, which
+he inoculated with relapsing fever, and ascertained that Baumgarten's
+error was due to the fact that he had only looked for phagocytosis in
+the patient's blood, whilst it really took place in the spleen.
+
+These researches on erysipelas and relapsing fever were published in
+Virchow's _Archives_ in 1887. Besides this scientific work, he was also
+giving lectures on bacteriology to some physicians, and was in full
+productive activity when external opposition and the discord among his
+collaborators in the Institute itself forced upon him the conviction
+that he could remain there no longer.
+
+At that very moment the Prince of Oldenburg, having founded a
+Bacteriological Institute at Petersburg, invited Metchnikoff to take
+charge of it. He had to refuse, fearing the Northern climate for my
+health, and knowing from experience that it was impossible for a layman
+to manage an Institute with a medical staff. Yet he could not do
+without a laboratory. Seeing no possibility of having one in Russia, he
+decided to look abroad for a refuge and a laboratory.
+
+"Having learnt from experience at Odessa," he wrote, "how difficult was
+the struggle against an opposition coming from all sides and devoid
+of reasonable causes, I preferred to go abroad to look for a peaceful
+shelter for my scientific researches."
+
+We were no longer held back by family considerations; our links with
+Russia had gradually loosened. He had resigned from the University,
+discord reigned at the Odessa Bacteriological Institute, conditions
+of life in Russia were very unfavourable to scientific activity; in
+a word, "obstacles from above, from below, and from all sides,"--as
+Metchnikoff expressed it,--gradually led to his resolution to leave his
+native country.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI
+
+  Hygiene Congress in Vienna--Wiesbaden--Munich--Paris and
+  Pasteur--Berlin and Koch--Failure of anthrax vaccination
+  of sheep--Decision to leave Russia.
+
+
+In 1887 we went to Vienna, where a Congress of Hygienists was held,
+in which, for the first time, bacteriologists took part. Metchnikoff
+thus had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with many of them and
+to make inquiries concerning bacteriological laboratories. Professor
+Hueppe, of Wiesbaden, very kindly invited him to come to work in his
+own. The idea pleased Metchnikoff, who thought that a peaceful little
+University town would be very favourable to his work. But he found
+that his situation would be very difficult at Wiesbaden on account of
+the lack of harmony between the different laboratories in the town; he
+therefore gave up the project which had seemed to him so tempting.
+
+By this time many objections had been raised against the phagocyte
+theory, and, Emmerich having attacked him very violently, Metchnikoff
+went to Munich to have an explanation with him. This gave him the
+opportunity of realising that Munich, like Wiesbaden, was not a place
+where he would care to settle.
+
+He had a great desire to know Pasteur and his collaborators, who had
+just been playing such an important scientific part, and, finding
+ourselves within easy reach of Paris, we repaired thither, without
+the slightest idea of settling there. This is how Metchnikoff himself
+described his first interview with Pasteur:
+
+  On arriving at the laboratory destined for the antirabic
+  vaccinations, I saw an old man, rather undersized, with a left
+  hemiplegia, very piercing grey eyes, a short beard and moustache and
+  slightly grey hair, covered by a black skull-cap. His pale and sickly
+  complexion and tired look betokened a man who was not likely to live
+  many more years. He received me very kindly, and immediately spoke
+  to me of the question which interested me most, the struggle of the
+  organism against microbes.
+
+  "I at once placed myself on your side," he told me, "for I have
+  for many years been struck by the struggle between the divers
+  micro-organisms which I have had occasion to observe. I believe you
+  are on the right road."
+
+Pasteur at that time was chiefly occupied with antirabic vaccinations
+and with the building of a new Institute in the rue Dutot. Seeing the
+vast dimensions of the edifice and learning that the scientific staff
+was not large, Metchnikoff asked Pasteur if he might hope to work in
+one of the laboratories in an honorary capacity. Pasteur not only
+acceded to this request but offered him a whole laboratory. He was
+most kind, invited us to his home and introduced Metchnikoff to his
+collaborators, who produced an excellent impression on my husband.
+
+Though all this made him incline more and more towards the Pasteur
+Institute, he still dreaded life in a large and noisy city, thinking
+that a peaceful little University town would be more favourable to his
+work. Therefore, before making a final decision, he desired to visit a
+few more bacteriological laboratories.
+
+On our way back we passed through Berlin, where Metchnikoff wished
+to see Professor Koch and to show him some interesting specimens of
+phagocytosis. The great _savant_ received him very coldly. For a long
+time, while examining specimens of the spleen in relapsing fever, he
+refused to recognise in them an example of phagocytosis. Though he
+was at last obliged to bow to evidence, he yet remained unfavourable
+to the phagocyte theory, and all his assistants followed his example.
+Metchnikoff was much surprised and grieved by this hostility towards
+his ideas, notwithstanding that they were based on well-established
+facts. We hastened to leave Berlin.
+
+Many years later, when phagocytosis was generally admitted, even in
+Germany, Professor Koch and many other German scientists welcomed
+Metchnikoff very kindly, which somewhat counterbalanced the
+unpleasantness of early memories. But, at that time, the contrast
+between our impression of Paris and of Germany was so great that all
+hesitation was at an end: the choice was made.
+
+On returning to Odessa, Metchnikoff began to prepare his resignation
+and his departure. Yet he still had time to make some researches on
+phagocytosis in tuberculosis, in reply to the objections which rained
+upon his theory.
+
+In the spring, he handed over the direction of the Institute to Dr.
+Gamaléia and took leave; we went to the country for a while before
+our final departure. During that time, Drs. Gamaléia and Bardach were
+making anthrax vaccinations on a large scale in a vast private property
+in the province of Kherson. When we were settled in our country
+home, Metchnikoff received a telegram announcing that the first
+anthrax vaccine had killed many thousand sheep. Though, as a matter
+of fact, his personal responsibility was not involved, the blow was a
+terrible one; he hastened back to Odessa to elucidate the cause of the
+catastrophe. But it remained obscure....
+
+This painful episode was the last drop which made the cup brim over; it
+strengthened Metchnikoff in his resolve to leave Russia.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII
+
+  The Pasteur Institute--Dreams realised--Metchnikoff at fifty--
+  Growing optimism--Attenuated sensitiveness--The Sèvres villa--
+  Daily routine.
+
+
+Having decided to settle in France, we hastened to make ourselves
+acquainted with contemporary French literature, thinking to find in it
+a reflection of the soul and manners of the nation. But the realistic
+literature of the time, in spite of the great artistic worth of many of
+the authors, gave us an erroneous idea of life in France, of which it
+represented but one of many aspects. It was therefore with apprehension
+that we asked ourselves if we should ever be able to adapt ourselves to
+the new conditions, and whether our isolation would not be great.
+
+We arrived in Paris on the 15th of October 1888, and we lodged at a
+small hotel in the Latin quarter, not far from the rue d'Ulm where the
+old Pasteur Institute stood, the new one not being completed. There
+was but little room in the laboratory, and Metchnikoff felt rather
+uneasy, fearing that he was in the way. But the new Institute soon was
+sufficiently advanced for him to settle there.
+
+He was given two rooms on the second floor; I served as his assistant;
+he was perfectly happy at being at last able to give himself up in
+peace to his work. Soon, young physicians came to work under his
+direction. Their number having increased, he was given a whole floor in
+which to instal them, two rooms on that floor being reserved for his
+own use. He occupied these rooms until the end of his life.
+
+His dreams were at last realised. This is from a narration of the
+causes which led to his departure from Russia, in his own words:
+
+  Thus it was in Paris that I succeeded at last in practising pure
+  Science apart from all politics or any public function. That dream
+  could not have been realised in Russia because of obstacles from
+  above, from below, and from all sides. One might think that the hour
+  of science in Russia has not yet struck. I do not believe that. I
+  think, on the contrary, that scientific work is indispensable to
+  Russia, and I wish from my heart that future conditions may become
+  more favourable than in the time of which I have spoken in the above
+  lines.
+
+Soon he was able to appreciate the great French qualities: humanitarian
+manners, tolerance, and gentleness, real freedom of thought, loyal and
+courteous intercourse, all of which made life easy and agreeable. And
+most precious of all were the true friendships which he contracted with
+his colleagues and his pupils. Indeed the Institut Pasteur and France
+became for him a second Motherland, and when in later years he was
+invited to other countries with more liberal conditions, he habitually
+replied that only for one place would he leave the Pasteur Institute,
+"the neighbouring cemetery of Montparnasse."
+
+However, after his death, the Pasteur Institute which he had so loved
+continued to give him hospitality and harboured his ashes....
+
+Pasteur himself ever was most kind and helpful to Metchnikoff. During
+the first years, when his health still allowed it, he used often to
+come to the laboratory, questioning Metchnikoff on his researches with
+much interest and always warmly encouraging him. He even attended
+assiduously his course of lectures on inflammation. After his state
+of health no longer allowed him to go out, Metchnikoff used to visit
+him every day, and tried to cheer him by talking to him of current
+researches.
+
+MM. Duclaux and Roux became his closest friends; they were at first
+brought together by scientific interests and by questions concerning
+the Institute; but, gradually, personal sympathy grew up between them,
+binding them by that solid bond which is made up of daily occurrences,
+inducing respect, confidence, and affection. Moreover, Metchnikoff felt
+the deepest gratitude towards Pasteur and his collaborators, who had
+given him the possibility of working in so favourable an atmosphere.
+
+From the very first, Pasteur sympathised with the phagocyte theory;
+the other members of the Institute thought it too biological, almost
+vitalistic. But when they had made themselves thoroughly cognisant with
+it, they also adopted it. Thus, having found in the Pasteur Institute
+not only favourable working conditions but also moral support,
+Metchnikoff became deeply attached to it, and the interests of "the
+House" became his.
+
+In 1915, on the occasion of Metchnikoff's seventieth anniversary, M.
+Roux, in a Jubilee speech, gave of him and of his work the following
+appreciation which describes, better than anything I could say, what
+his part was in the Pasteur Institute:
+
+  In Paris as in Petrograd, as in Odessa, you have become a leader of
+  thought, and you have kindled in this Institute a scientific focus
+  which has radiated afar.
+
+  Your laboratory is more alive than any in the house; workers come
+  to it in crowds. There, the bacteriological events of the day are
+  discussed, interesting preparations examined, ideas sought for that
+  may help an experimenter to solve difficulties in which he has become
+  involved. It is to you that one comes to ask for a control experiment
+  on a newly observed fact, for a criticism of a discovery that does
+  not always survive the test.
+
+  Moreover, as you read everything, every one comes to you for
+  information, for an account of a newly published memoir which there
+  is no time to read. It is much more convenient than to consult
+  the library and also much safer, for errors of translation and
+  interpretation are avoided.
+
+  Your erudition is so vast and so accurate that it is made use of by
+  the whole house. How many times have I not availed myself of it?
+  One never fears to take advantage of it, for no scientific question
+  ever finds you indifferent. Your ardour warms the indolent and gives
+  confidence to the sceptical.
+
+  You are an incomparable collaborator as I know, I who have had the
+  good fortune of being associated with your researches on several
+  occasions. Indeed, you did nearly all the work!
+
+  More even than your science, your kindliness attracts; who amongst us
+  has not experienced it? I have had a touching proof of it when, many
+  times, you have nursed me as if I were your own child. You are so
+  happy in doing good that you even feel gratitude towards those whom
+  you serve.
+
+  This is such an intimate gathering that I may be allowed to say quite
+  openly that it is so painful to you not to give that you prefer being
+  exploited rather than close your hand.
+
+  The Pasteur Institute owes you much; you have brought to it the
+  prestige of your renown, and by your work and that of your pupils
+  you have greatly contributed to its glory. You have given a noble
+  example of disinterestedness by refusing any salary in those years
+  when the budget was balanced with difficulty and by preferring to the
+  glorious and lucrative situations that were offered to you the modest
+  life of this house. Still a Russian by nationality, you have become
+  French by your choice, and you contracted a Franco-Russian alliance
+  with the Pasteur Institute long before the diplomats thought of it.
+
+At the beginning the members of the Pasteur Institute were few, and
+the association bore a quasi-family character, Pasteurians often being
+compared with a monastic order, united by the worship of science. The
+progressive growth of the Institute inevitably destroyed its character
+of intimacy, but it remained a precious scientific focus, and this is
+what Metchnikoff said of it in 1913, _à propos_ of the twenty-fifth
+anniversary of its foundation:
+
+  If we weigh the for and against of the Pasteur Institute, it is
+  indisputable that the first surpasses the second by a great deal. I
+  do not think another institution exists that is equally favourable
+  to work. Innumerable proofs have been adduced to attest this in the
+  twenty-five years that our House has existed.
+
+It was especially the development of pure scientific research in the
+Institute which interested Metchnikoff; he continually considered means
+of contributing towards it; he thought it necessary to attract active
+scientific forces regardless of their origin, to institute generous
+scientific "scholarships," and to stimulate by every means scientific
+activity and spirit.
+
+As the rapid development of bacteriology necessitated having recourse
+to chemistry, physics, and physiology, he considered it indispensable
+to organise collective work in which specialists in these divers
+branches should take part, thus collaborating to the solution of
+the same problem. Later he was able to realise this project, up to a
+certain point, in his own laboratory, when studying intestinal flora.
+
+He thought it would be useful to extend this method, as far as
+possible, to researches such as that on tuberculosis and on cancer,
+such researches being complicated and protracted and demanding
+co-ordinate efforts and an organisation that should prevent the
+repetition of individual first steps. A clinic attached to the
+Pasteur Institute and adapted to scientific researches seemed to him
+indispensable.
+
+He also considered that the experimental study of those human diseases
+which can only be inoculated in anthropoid apes should be carried out
+through the breeding of those animals in the colonies, for infantile
+diseases demand very young apes as subjects for experiments, and they
+cannot be brought to Europe in sufficient numbers without great loss. A
+mission of workers might carry out experiments on the spot.
+
+He thought the popularisation of science a very useful thing and wished
+the Pasteur Institute to participate in it by appropriate courses of
+public lectures. He attached great importance to the penetration into
+ordinary life of results acquired by science, for the struggle against
+disease consists chiefly in prophylactic and hygienic measures which
+can only be applied by a well-informed public. For that reason he was
+always willing to be interviewed on scientific questions by journalists
+and, indeed, by any one, however ignorant. In order to instruct the
+public he often wrote popular articles on questions of hygiene and
+medicine.
+
+Science in general never was a dead letter for him; his most abstract
+conceptions were always narrowly bound to life; he saw one through the
+other and considered that they should serve each other.
+
+Apart from scientific researches, he took part in the courses given at
+the Pasteur Institute. He prepared his lectures with infinite care,
+and, in spite of his long experience, he never could give them without
+some nervousness, especially during the last years of his life. He used
+even to write down the first sentences and to read them out in order
+to give himself time to recover; but very soon his self-control would
+return, and he would proceed with animation and lucidity; his lectures
+were living and suggestive.
+
+I have mentioned above Roux's masterly appreciation of his influence at
+the Pasteur Institute. The following was written to me, a year after
+Metchnikoff's death, by one of his closest disciples and collaborators,
+and describes in a vivid manner the deep feelings with which he
+inspired his pupils:
+
+  "You say that you love to think that he continues to live in
+  others. Could it have been otherwise? A character as powerful as
+  his is capable of influencing and illuminating the life, not of one
+  individual, but of a whole generation. I look upon it as the greatest
+  good fortune of my life that I was able to spend my best years in his
+  orbit and to impregnate my mind with his spirit, not his scientific
+  spirit, but that which he manifested in facing life and humanity.
+
+  "This bond has become so much part of myself that my first impulse
+  is always to act in the way he would have approved. I even feel the
+  need to share with others what I received from him. I do not know
+  whether it will be given to me to solve certain problems posed by
+  him, but I have the conviction that his spirit, in its purity, will
+  be preserved among us. He will ever live in those who worked by his
+  side, and in those who will come to work in his laboratory. It cannot
+  be otherwise."
+
+Metchnikoff on his part never remained indifferent to his pupils. His
+solicitude towards them was warm, sometimes paternal, always ready and
+active. Many of his pupils remained his friends and collaborators for
+years afterwards. His fiery and exclusive temperament, however, made
+him take up a very different attitude in exceptional cases, when he
+found himself in front of one who persisted in a path which Metchnikoff
+himself considered the wrong path, or before an action which he thought
+disloyal or work done without conscience. Then he became beside
+himself, and positively dangerous to those who had exposed themselves
+to the paroxysm of his indignation.
+
+Fortunately such cases were rare; as a general rule, the atmosphere of
+his laboratory was impregnated with scientific spirit and ardour; all
+forces in it converged towards the same goal, being bound together by a
+community of aspirations and activity of which he was the soul.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The first period of his life in France was taken up by the
+strengthening and development of the phagocyte theory and by an eager
+struggle in its defence. He displayed in it his full energy as a
+scientist and a fighter, and this was perhaps the most agitated, the
+most tense period of his life.
+
+When at last his theory was securely established and began to be
+accepted, he continued his researches with the same passionate ardour
+but in an atmosphere of peace. It was joy and bliss to him to be able
+to work apart from other preoccupations, and the years of his life
+between fifty and sixty were the happiest he ever had.
+
+The state of his soul and his ideas had considerably evolved in the
+course of years; the great moral and physical sensitiveness which had
+so often made him miserable in his youth had decreased and he had
+become much less impulsive. Unpleasant sensations no longer caused him
+so much suffering; he could bear the mewing of a cat or the barking of
+a dog; personal vexations no longer made him take such a horror of life
+as to wish to be rid of it: he now merely tried to conquer them.
+
+At first this change operated less upon his ideas than upon his
+sensations and sentiments. Accustomed as he was to analyse his
+emotions, he realised the development within himself of a new sense of
+appreciation; less sensitive now to extreme impressions, he had become
+more so to ordinary ones. For instance, though less enchanted by music,
+and less irritated by discordant noises, he enjoyed absolute calm more
+fully. Now indifferent to rich food, which he formerly used to enjoy,
+he appreciated simple fare, bread and pure water. He did not seek for
+picturesque sites but took infinite pleasure in watching the growth of
+grass or the bursting of a bud. The first halting steps or the smile of
+an infant charmed and delighted him.
+
+Demanding less from life, he now appreciated it as it was, and
+experienced the joy of mere living. The instinct, the sense of life
+had been born in him. He now saw Life and Nature under a different
+aspect from that which they had borne for him in his youth, for he had
+gradually acquired more balance; he had become adapted.
+
+In their turn, his ideas evolved towards a more optimistic conception
+of life. His reflections, freed from the yoke of his juvenile
+sensitiveness, tended towards the possibility of a correction of the
+disharmonies of human nature through knowledge and will. This evolution
+had taken years. "In order to understand the meaning of life," he said,
+"it is necessary to live a long time, without which one finds oneself
+in the position of a congenitally blind man before whom the beauties of
+colour are spread out."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+During the twenty-eight years that he lived in France, nearly all his
+time was devoted to the laboratory. Whilst the Institute was still in
+its beginning, work there was calm and collected; but, as its growing
+renown attracted many people, this quietude decreased considerably.
+Metchnikoff felt this, but could not bring himself to refuse to admit
+those who came; he compensated himself by peaceful Sundays and holidays.
+
+For a long time we inhabited the neighbourhood of the Institute and
+spent the summers at Sèvres; in 1898 we bought a small villa there with
+a sum of money which we inherited from an aunt. In 1905 we settled
+there altogether, for Metchnikoff, confined in the laboratory all day,
+felt the need of fresh air; the daily walk that he was obliged to take
+to reach the house and the absolute calm, away from the noise of the
+city, suited him; he even fancied that the hill on which the house was
+built provided him with a wholesome exercise for his heart.
+
+The return to Sèvres, which he greatly liked, was to him a daily source
+of pleasure. I can see him now, hastily coming out of the train, his
+pockets full of papers and brochures which he read in the train and
+parcels in his hands, for he loved to bring home little presents. A
+kindly smile illumined his face and he never failed to express the
+pleasure he felt at coming home. "How pure the air is! How green the
+grass! What peace! You see, if I did not go to Paris to work I should
+not be so alive to the charm of Sèvres and the pleasure of rest." He
+used to come home at seven and do no more work; it was his daily rest.
+He then gave himself up to complete relaxation, joked, related the
+incidents of the day, spoke of his researches, planned experiments
+for the next day, read aloud part of the evening and then listened to
+music, not only because he liked it, but also because he wanted to
+"switch on to another line," _i.e._ rest his mind completely.
+
+He was an incomparable companion, always alive and communicative,
+generously giving out the treasures of his heart and his intelligence.
+He liked a simple life; all artifice, all convention displeased him. He
+disliked luxury in his person to that extent that he never consented
+to possess a gold watch nor any object with no particular use. His
+only luxury was to gratify others. He enjoyed peaceful family life and
+a circle of intimate friends. Yet, appreciating as he did all serious
+manifestations of life, he was glad to have the opportunity of meeting
+people who were interesting either in themselves or for the knowledge
+which they could impart.
+
+In Life as in Science he found precepts to help the evolution of his
+moral and philosophical ideas, which he placed in their turn at Life's
+service. If he could not solve a problem, he at least pointed out its
+importance.
+
+His attentive penetration of things in themselves, coupled with a
+creative imagination, was the force which enabled him to open out new
+prospects and new paths.
+
+On looking back upon his own life, he used to say that the period spent
+at the Pasteur Institute had been the happiest, the most favourable to
+his scientific work; he therefore remained deeply attached to it until
+the end of his life.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII
+
+  Opposition to the phagocyte theory--Scientific controversies
+  --Experiments in support of the phagocyte theory--Behring and
+  antitoxins--The London Congress--Inflammation.
+
+
+As long as Metchnikoff was but a zoologist, the scientific atmosphere
+around him remained calm and serene. But everything changed suddenly
+when he entered the domain of pathology with his theory of phagocytes
+and phagocytosis.
+
+Here was the realm of secular traditions, deeply rooted, and of
+theories generally admitted but resting on no biological basis. Attacks
+and objections against his theories came following upon each other
+with a rush, only to be compared with the racing clouds of a stormy
+sky or the hurrying waves of a tempestuous sea. An epic struggle began
+for Metchnikoff which was to last for twenty-five years, until the
+moment when the phagocyte theory, his child now grown up, emerged
+victoriously. To each attack, to each objection, he answered by fresh
+experiments, fresh observations annihilating objections; his theory
+was assuming a wider and wider scope, becoming more solid, more
+convincing.... But only his intimates knew how much the struggle cost
+him in vital force, what sleepless nights, due to continuous cerebral
+tension and to the effort to conceive some new and irrefragable
+experiment, what alternations of hope and depression.... In an ardent,
+stormy life such as this, each year counted for many.
+
+As soon as he arrived at the Pasteur Institute he undertook active
+researches with the object of developing and defending the phagocyte
+theory.
+
+By experiments on the _rouget_ of pigs he refuted the objections of
+Emmerich, who affirmed that, in that disease, the destruction of the
+microbes was not due to phagocytes. By experiments on the anthrax
+of pigeons he answered the attacks of Baumgarten and his pupils. To
+Behring, who affirmed that immunity was due to the bactericidal power
+of the serum, he replied by a series of experiments on the anthrax of
+rats.
+
+By all these researches Metchnikoff proved that recovery and immunity
+depended on the absorption and digestion of _living, virulent_ microbes
+by phagocytes. Natural or artificial vaccination by attenuated microbes
+allows the phagocytes to become gradually accustomed to digest more
+virulent ones, and this confers immunity upon the organism. That
+phenomenon is comparable to that by which we can accustom ourselves
+gradually to doses of poison which would be very harmful if taken at
+the start (arsenic, opium, nicotine, etc.).
+
+Little by little, the accuracy of Metchnikoff's observations began to
+be realised, and, moreover, other scientists supported him by their
+personal investigations. The part played by phagocytosis was becoming
+more and more evident and the question was ripening in France and in
+England, but in Germany it still met with great opposition.
+
+At the Berlin Congress in 1890 the theory was received very favourably
+by Lister, whilst Koch attacked it, trying to prove that phagocytes
+played no part in immunity, which, according to him, depended upon the
+chemical properties of the blood.
+
+Soon after that, Behring discovered antitoxins, and this seemed to
+favour the chemical or humoral theory of immunity. According to the
+latter, microbes and their poisons were rendered harmless by the
+chemical properties of the blood serum, properties similar to those of
+disinfecting substances.
+
+In spite of his firm conviction of the solidity of the phagocyte
+theory, this discovery was a shock to Metchnikoff, for it was in
+apparent contradiction with the cellular theory of immunity. He
+hastened to undertake a series of researches; his overflowing eagerness
+infected his whole circle, every one taking the warmest interest in the
+progress of his experiments.
+
+This was just as preparations were being made to take part in the
+London Congress, where the question of immunity was to be debated and
+had indeed been placed at the head of the programme. Many papers were
+being prepared, and a veritable tourney of opinions was to take place
+at this Congress.
+
+Metchnikoff had already been to England once, in the spring of
+1891, on the occasion of his reception as an Honorary Doctor by the
+University of Cambridge. This gave him the opportunity of making closer
+acquaintance with the English, who inspired him with great sympathy;
+years only increased this feeling. He appreciated the originality of
+their earnest and generalising spirit, their loyalty and energy; he was
+grateful to them for the attentive and favourable attitude with which
+his scientific work and himself had been received.
+
+He was therefore delighted that this Congress, which was to be the
+scene of his final struggle against his contradictors, should take
+place in England and not in Germany, a country hostile to his ideas.
+
+In view of the importance of the coming debate, a series of fresh
+experiments was made. This time Metchnikoff undertook them not only in
+person, but also in collaboration with M. Roux and with some students.
+The whole laboratory was in a state of effervescence.
+
+The principal papers to be read at the Congress on the question of
+immunity were those of Messrs. Roux and Büchner, the first entirely in
+favour of the phagocyte theory and the second supporting the humoral
+theory.
+
+Metchnikoff read an epitome of his researches and of his answers to
+attacks on his theory. Towards the end of the Congress the latter had
+visibly acquired the suffrage of numerous scientists. Roux wrote to me
+from London concerning my husband's paper:
+
+  Metchnikoff is busy showing his preparations and, besides, he would
+  not tell you how great is his triumph. He spoke with such passion
+  that he carried everybody with him. I believe that, this evening, the
+  phagocyte theory is the richer by many friends.
+
+Thus the researches made in recent years and the results of the London
+Congress allowed us to consider the phagocyte theory of immunity as
+being solidly established.
+
+Yet, Behring's discovery of antitoxins still hung over it like a
+sword of Damocles; it was imperative that the respective parts played
+by antitoxins and by phagocytes should be elucidated. With that
+object in view, Metchnikoff undertook new researches and succeeded in
+ascertaining once for all the narrow link between immunity and the
+function of the phagocytes which probably elaborate the antitoxins as a
+product of their digestion of vaccinal toxins. He drew this conclusion
+from the fact that, in a rabbit vaccinated against hog-cholera, the
+exudate devoid of phagocytes[20] is neither bactericidal, nor antitoxic,
+nor attenuating, while it is so if it contains phagocytes. Therefore a
+relation of causality exists between cells and the acquired properties
+of humors. And the resistance of the animal is in visible correlation
+with the degree of phagocytosis which is manifested by it.
+
+  [20] Aqueous humor, the exudate of aseptic oedemata.
+
+These results having been established, it seemed as if the last rampart
+of the humoral theory had been taken by storm.
+
+In the meanwhile the persistent and bitter opposition of physicians to
+the phagocyte theory made a great impression on Metchnikoff, and, while
+stimulating his energy in defence of his ideas, it maintained him in a
+state of nervous excitement and even depressed him.
+
+He asked himself why this obstinate opposition to a doctrine based on
+well-established facts, easily tested and observed throughout the whole
+animal kingdom? To him, a naturalist, it seemed clear and simple and
+all the more admissible that it was confirmed by the generality of its
+application to all living beings.
+
+But, he thought, perhaps the real cause of the attitude of the
+contradictors lies in the very fact that medical science only
+concerns itself with the pathological phenomena of higher animals,
+leaving their evolution entirely out of account, as well as their
+starting-point in lower animals--whilst it is the very simplicity of
+the latter which allows us to penetrate to the origin of the phenomena.
+
+Perhaps a general plan of the whole, in the shape of a comparative
+study, embracing the whole animal scale, would throw light over the
+generality of phagocytic phenomena and would make their continuity
+understood through normal and pathological biology. He determined to
+make this effort. In order to place in a fresh light the biological
+evolution of phagocytosis phenomena _in disease_, he chose one of the
+principal manifestations of pathological phagocytosis, _inflammation_,
+and, in 1891, gave a series of lectures on this subject which he
+afterwards published in a volume. According to his usual method, he
+began by the most primitive beings, taking as a starting-point the
+lower organisms which do not yet possess differentiated functions, and
+whose normal digestion is, if necessary, used as a means of defence
+against noxious agents. Then, by a comparative study in every grade
+of the animal kingdom, he proved that the same mode of struggle and
+defence persists in the mesodermic cells, the phagocytes in all
+animals in general. In all of them, thanks to a special sensitiveness,
+_Chimiotaxis_, phagocytes move towards the intruder, to englobe it and
+digest it if they can. This reaction for defence by the organism takes
+place in beings endowed with a vascular system by the migration of the
+blood-phagocytes which traverse the walls of the blood-vessels in order
+to betake themselves to the invaded point.
+
+In higher animals, all the symptoms which accompany this phenomenon of
+defence and which constitute the classical picture of inflammation
+(a heightened temperature, pain, redness, tumefaction) are due to the
+complexity of the organism; but the _essence_, the _primum movens_
+of inflammation, with them also, is a _digestive_ action of the
+phagocytes upon the noxious agent, therefore a salutary reaction of
+the organism, essentially similar to the normal digestion of inferior
+beings. Metchnikoff adduced numerous examples giving evidence of the
+genetic link which exists between inflammation and normal intracellular
+digestion, and while establishing the evolution of the former on
+biological and experimental bases, he showed at the same time the close
+connection which binds normal biology and pathological biology.
+
+This series of lectures formed a volume which appeared in 1892 under
+the title of _Leçons sur la pathologie comparée de l'inflammation_, a
+book which contributed to the acceptation of the phagocyte theory and
+which showed the importance of Natural History applied to Medicine.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV
+
+  Cholera--Experiments on himself and others--Illness of M. Jupille
+  --Death of an epileptic subject--Insufficient results.
+
+
+The acute period of the struggle in defence of the phagocyte theory
+now seemed to have come to an end and Metchnikoff turned his thoughts
+towards a new field of ideas.
+
+Having elucidated the essence of inflammation, he wished to study the
+origin of another pathological symptom, _i.e._ the rise in temperature
+which constitutes a feverish condition. To that end he undertook a
+succession of experiments on cold-blooded animals; he injected microbes
+into crocodiles and serpents, hoping thus to provoke a rise in their
+temperature. But those experiments did not give the results expected.
+
+In the meanwhile (1892) cholera had made its appearance in France; the
+specificity of the cholera vibrio was not finally established at that
+time. The observations made by Pettenkoffer on the immunity of certain
+regions, despite the presence of the cholera vibrio in the water, and
+the experiments made upon himself by that scientist, seemed to plead
+against the specificity of the cholera vibrio; but other facts spoke in
+its favour. Desirous of solving this question, Metchnikoff went to a
+cholera centre in Brittany in order to fetch the necessary materials.
+Having done so, he attempted to produce cholera in divers kinds of
+animals, but without success.
+
+As he failed to solve the problem of the specificity of the cholera
+vibrio on animals, he resolved to experiment upon himself and consumed
+a culture of cholera vibriones. He did not contract cholera, which made
+him doubt the specificity of the vibrio, and therefore he consented to
+repeat the experiment on one of his workers (M. Latapie) who offered
+to submit to it: the result was the same. He then did not hesitate to
+accept the offer of a second volunteer (M. Jupille). The preceding
+results having led him to suppose that the cholera vibrio became
+attenuated _in vitro_ and might perhaps serve as a vaccine against
+cholera, he gave a culture of long standing to the young volunteer.
+
+To his astonishment and despair, Jupille began to manifest the typical
+symptoms of cholera, and a doctor who was particularly conversant
+with the clinical chart of the disease declared the case a severe one
+because of the nervous symptoms which accompanied it.
+
+Metchnikoff was in mortal anxiety, and even said to himself that he
+could not survive a fatal issue. Fortunately the patient recovered,
+and this terrifying experiment proved indisputably the specificity of
+the cholera vibrio. Yet the irregularity of its action showed that in
+certain cases conditions existed which prevented the inception of the
+disease, and Metchnikoff supposed that this might be due to the action
+of the different intestinal micro-organisms.
+
+In order to simplify the question, he began by making experiments
+outside the organism. He sowed the cholera vibrio with divers other
+microbes and saw that some of them facilitated its culture whilst
+others prevented it. Similar experiments within the organism of animals
+gave no conclusive results; the simultaneous ingestion of the cholera
+vibrio and of favourable microbes did not induce cholera.
+
+The flora of the intestines, complex as it is, probably played a part
+on which it was difficult to throw any light. Yet Metchnikoff did not
+give up the idea of producing a vaccine against this disease with
+attenuated microbes, or, if not, to prevent its inception by preventive
+microbes. His thesis was strengthened when one of his pupils, Dr.
+Sanarelli, discovered a series of choleriform bacilli in the absence of
+any cholera epidemic, one of those microbes being found at Versailles,
+a town which had remained immune during every cholera epidemic.
+
+Metchnikoff thought that this microbe, or some choleriform bacillus,
+similar though not specific, probably served as a natural vaccine
+against cholera in those localities which were spared by the epidemic
+though the cholera vibrio was brought there. This was a question that
+could only be solved by experiment.
+
+At the time when he had himself absorbed a cholera culture, Metchnikoff
+admitted the risk of catching the disease; still, his eagerness to
+solve the problem had silenced in him all other considerations and
+feelings opposed to his irresistible desire to attempt the experiment.
+This "psychosis," as he himself called it later, recurred now, in spite
+of all the emotions he had gone through on the previous occasion, and
+he decided once again to experiment on man. It is true that he now
+only had to deal with choleriform microbes from Versailles which he
+believed to be quite harmless as they came from the water of a locality
+free from cholera. He therefore ingested some of the Versailles
+choleriform vibriones and gave some to several other people. Contrary
+to expectation, one of the latter, an incurable epileptic, showed some
+symptoms of cholera, but recovered. But as, a short time later, this
+patient died from a cause which remained obscure, Metchnikoff thought
+that possibly the experiment might have had something to do with it,
+and finally resolved to perform no other experiments on human beings.
+
+How could that unforeseen result be explained? Metchnikoff supposed
+that the intestine of the subject contained favourable microbes
+which had exalted the virulence of the bacillus, in itself weak
+and innocuous. If it were so, then certain intestinal microbes
+would influence the inception of diseases and the action of the
+micro-organisms would vary according to the society in which they found
+themselves. As such problems could only be solved through experiment,
+he again energetically sought for a means of conferring cholera upon
+animals. After many failures and difficulties, it occurred to him to
+try new-born animals whose intestinal flora, not yet developed, could
+not interfere with the swarming of the ingested bacilli. He chose young
+suckling rabbits for his experiments and, with the aid of _favourable_
+microbes, he succeeded at last in giving them characteristic cholera,
+through ingestion; thus it became possible to study intestinal cholera
+on these animals.
+
+However, numerous researches on the prevention of cholera by means
+of divers microbes gave no results sufficiently conclusive to permit
+their application to human beings. The problem was rendered extremely
+complicated and difficult by the many and varied influences of numerous
+intestinal microbes and the inconstancy of microbian species in the
+same individual.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV
+
+  Pfeiffer's experiments, 1895--The Buda-Pest Congress--Extracellular
+  destruction of microbes--Reaction of the organism against toxins--
+  Dr. Besredka's researches--Macrophages--The Moscow Congress, 1897--
+  Bordet's experiments.
+
+
+Metchnikoff had scarcely recovered from all the emotions caused by his
+experiments on cholera, which he was still studying, when, in 1894, a
+work appeared by a well-known German scientist, Pfeiffer, bringing out
+new facts in favour of the extracellular destruction of microbes.
+
+Whilst studying the influence of the blood serum within the organism
+and not outside it as his predecessors had done, he had found that
+cholera vibriones, injected into the peritoneum of a guinea-pig
+vaccinated against cholera, were nearly all killed in a few minutes
+and that they then presented the form of motionless granules in
+the peritoneal liquid. This granular degenescence, said Pfeiffer,
+took place apart from the phagocytes and therefore without their
+intervention. Metchnikoff repeated the experiment at once and
+ascertained that it was perfectly accurate.
+
+The complexity of biological phenomena being very great, he fully
+admitted the possibility of other means of defence in the organism
+besides that of the phagocytic reaction. However, this new fact
+disagreed so much with his own observation, and seemed so isolated,
+that Metchnikoff supposed an error of interpretation must have been
+made and tried to throw light upon it. He spent sleepless nights
+seeking the conclusive experiment which might explain Pfeiffer's
+phenomenon.
+
+His excitement was all the greater that he was very soon going to the
+International Congress at Buda-Pest, where he intended to expose the
+results of his new researches, and he feared that he should not have
+time to make all the experiments which he required in support of his
+arguments. However, the general impression of the Congress was clearly
+favourable to the phagocyte theory. This is how M. Roux picturesquely
+described the scene at Metchnikoff's Jubilee in 1915:
+
+  "I can see you now at the Buda-Pest Congress in 1894, disputing
+  with your antagonists; with your fiery face, sparkling eyes, and
+  dishevelled hair, you looked like the Dæmon of Science, but your
+  words, your irresistible arguments raised the applause of your
+  audience.
+
+  "The new facts, which had at first sight seemed to contradict the
+  phagocyte theory, now entered into harmony with it. It was found to
+  be sufficiently comprehensive to reconcile the holders of the humoral
+  theory with the partisans of the cellular theory."
+
+This is how Metchnikoff had reconciled the apparent disagreement of
+Pfeiffer's phenomenon with the phagocyte doctrine: he demonstrated,
+by a series of experiments, that the extracellular destruction of
+the cholera vibriones in the peritoneum of a guinea-pig vaccinated
+against cholera, did in no wise depend on the _chemical_ properties
+of the blood serum, but was simply due to the digestive juices which
+had escaped from the inside of the leucocytes, damaged by the
+intraperitoneal injection. Those digestive juices, or _cytases_, poured
+into the peritoneal liquid were what killed the injected cholera
+vibriones and transformed them into "Pfeiffer's granulations." On the
+other hand, if by means of various precautions the phagocytes were left
+unmolested, the extracellular destruction did not take place and the
+vibriones were digested within the phagocytes.
+
+Metchnikoff used other experiments to prove that the bactericidal
+property of blood juices did not exist without intervention from the
+phagocytes. For instance, in a guinea-pig vaccinated against cholera,
+the bacilli are not destroyed if they are injected into parts of the
+organism that are devoid of pre-existing phagocytes, such as in the
+subcutaneous tissue, in the anterior chamber of the eye or in an
+aseptically-obtained oedema. On the other hand, if, in the same
+medium, some exudate is injected containing damaged leucocytes from
+which the digestive juice is leaking, the vibriones introduced are
+destroyed. The same results are obtained _in vitro_.
+
+All these experiments proved that the extracellular destruction of
+the cholera vibrio was accomplished by the digestive juices which had
+passed from the phagocytes into the humors and not at all through a
+special property of those humors. Once again the phagocyte theory rose
+triumphant from the test.
+
+After having finally proved that it is by means of its phagocytes that
+the organism fights _microbes_, Metchnikoff wished to find out whether
+it was by the same process that it struggled with their poisons, or
+_toxins_. This problem, far more difficult to solve, took him many
+years' study. Whilst every phase of the phagocytes' struggle against
+microbes can be followed with the eyes, it is impossible to do so
+where poisons are concerned, since they are invisible; it is necessary
+to proceed by a different road.
+
+Faithful to his method of taking as a starting-point the simplest
+expression of the phenomenon to be studied, Metchnikoff began by
+lower beings. Unicellular organisms, such as myxomycetes, amoebæ,
+and infusoria, sometimes manifest a natural immunity to certain
+poisons. It is also possible to endow them with artificial immunity
+by accustoming them gradually to substances which, ingested straight
+away, would infallibly have killed them. Such phenomena, seen in
+unicellular beings, could only be ascribed to the reaction of the cell
+itself. Therefore Metchnikoff supposed _a priori_ that the phagocytes,
+being similar primitive cells of multicellular beings, would also
+react against poisons. And, in fact, he ascertained that the number
+of phagocytes in a rabbit's blood diminished considerably under the
+influence of a fatal dose of arsenic, whilst it increased under the
+influence of small doses of the poison, to which it was possible to
+accustom the animal.
+
+Dr. Besredka, a disciple of Metchnikoff, made some very interesting
+researches, which entirely confirmed the share of the phagocytes in the
+reaction against sulphides of arsenic. He had chosen the trisulphide,
+a very slightly soluble salt of an orange colour, in order to find it
+again easily within the organism. After having injected non-fatal doses
+of it into the peritoneal cavity, he obtained an exudate in which all
+the orange granules of the salt were to be found included within those
+leucocytes which have a large, non-lobed nucleus--the _macrophages_.
+These cells gradually digested the salt they had englobed, which ended
+by disappearing entirely within them, and the rabbit remained safe and
+sound. On the other hand, it died if the same doses of the same salt
+had been protected from the leucocytes by an elderberry bag, or when
+the leucocytes had been attracted elsewhere by a previous injection of
+carmine for instance. Those experiments removed all doubts as to the
+share of the phagocytes in the destruction of mineral poisons.
+
+Certain experiments on _microbian_ poisons spoke in the same sense.
+Thus MM. Roux and Borrel had observed that the diphtheritic toxin,
+which is inoffensive to rats even in large doses, kills that animal
+if a small quantity of it is introduced into the brain, the probable
+explanation being that, in cases of subcutaneous injections, the
+poison, "phagocyted" on the way, was destroyed before it reached the
+nerve cells.
+
+Thus experiments seemed to plead in favour of the view that the part
+played by phagocytosis is not limited to the struggle against microbes,
+but also extends to the defence against poisons and toxins.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After having studied the mode of destruction of these, Metchnikoff
+wished to elucidate the origin of the counter-poisons, the specific
+antitoxins discovered by Behring in the humors of immunised organisms,
+a question of which the study was even more difficult.
+
+Metchnikoff began by asking himself whether the microbes themselves
+did not produce antitoxins in order to defend themselves against enemy
+micro-organisms. He made many experiments but only obtained negative
+results, and concluded that the antitoxins must be manufactured by the
+organism itself.
+
+The origin of this property must be more recent than that of the
+phagocytic reaction, for it does not exist in plants or in inferior
+animals. It was only from superior cold-blooded vertebrates, such as
+the crocodile--and that only in artificial conditions--and upwards,
+that Metchnikoff succeeded in finding a specific antitoxic power in the
+humors.
+
+He ascertained that the vaccination of animals by toxins conferred,
+after a time, antitoxic powers to the blood and humors _which contained
+leucocytes_. He concluded therefrom that the presence of antitoxins
+depended on that of the phagocytes. Experiments on divers higher
+animals having proved that, in them also, antitoxins were localised
+in _humors containing phagocytes_, Metchnikoff concluded that the
+antitoxins were manufactured by the cells themselves. As toxins are
+absorbed and digested chiefly by _macrophages_, it is probable that
+it is the latter also which manufacture specific antitoxins, or the
+final product of the digestion of corresponding toxins. Metchnikoff
+could only propound this idea as an hypothesis, for the complexity and
+difficulty of a material demonstration did not yet allow of a definite
+solution of the problem. However, certain observations on toxins and
+antitoxins pleaded in favour of this thesis.
+
+For instance, working in collaboration with MM. Roux and Salimbeni, he
+had found that it is by soluble poisons that the cholera vibrions harm
+the organism or kill it, but that small doses of the same _poisons_
+are vaccines and make the blood of the vaccinated animal _antitoxic_.
+On the other hand, a _microbian_ vaccination is preventive against
+_microbes_ only but not against toxins and the blood does not become
+antitoxic. This is explained by the fact that it is not the same cells
+which digest cholera microbes and cholera toxins: the _microphages_
+digest the vibriones whilst the _macrophages_ digest the poisons and,
+probably, manufacture as products of this digestion, the corresponding
+antibody, the cholera antitoxins.
+
+On the contrary, in cases of the inclusion of _microbes_ by
+_macrophages_, as, for instance, in plague, the blood acquires an
+_antitoxic_ power by injection of the microbes themselves and not by
+their toxins, as was demonstrated by M. Roux and his collaborators. The
+same fact was observed by Metchnikoff on the alligator, in whom also
+microbes are digested by _macrophages_. In those cases, when microbes
+and toxins are digested by the same cells, the latter manufacture
+antibodies against both.
+
+These facts rendered legitimate the supposition of the macrophagic
+origin of antitoxins.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In 1897 an International Congress took place in Moscow. Metchnikoff
+read a paper on the phagocytic reaction against toxins and another
+dealing with the whole of the knowledge acquired concerning human
+plague. He ended this by a plea in favour of Science, so often accused
+of having contributed nothing to the solution of the most important
+human problems, particularly ethical ones, and of having, on the
+contrary, sanctioned the law of Might by tabulating the laws of the
+struggle for existence. Metchnikoff objected that, far from doing
+so, Science, by revealing the laws of Nature, applied to humanity
+the benefits derived from them, whilst striving to counterbalance
+their cruel or harmful effects. The struggle against plague and other
+diseases was a concrete example of this, for here medical science
+opposed itself to the cruelty of "natural selection." He wound up
+his speech by the following words, "Just as, in order to satisfy his
+æsthetic tastes, Man revolts against the laws of Nature which creates
+races of sterile and fragile flowers, he does not hesitate to defend
+the weak against the laws of natural selection. Science has been
+faithful to her mission and to her generous traditions. Let her, then,
+progress unhindered."
+
+Metchnikoff's friend and companion, M. Nocard, wrote to me concerning
+Metchnikoff's paper:
+
+  Do not believe a word that Metchnikoff tells you. He had tremendous
+  success. The somewhat free form of his paper contributed to its
+  success, as it only made his conviction and enthusiasm more apparent.
+  Thus the Sibyl on her tripod.
+
+Metchnikoff had at this period a very talented disciple, M. I. Bordet,
+who opened a new path by a series of researches of the greatest
+importance. He found, among other things, that "the figured elements"
+can be destroyed outside the cells, in the humors. Thus, if red blood
+corpuscles from one animal are injected into an animal of a different
+kind, these globules are destroyed, not within the phagocytes,
+but outside them, in the ambient humors. Metchnikoff studied this
+phenomenon and proved that the explanation was the same that he had
+previously given of Pfeiffer's phenomenon in the case of cholera
+vibrions. In Bordet's experiments, the leucocytes which were already
+existing in the humors were also damaged by the experimental shock;
+but, if this was carefully avoided, the phagocytes, remaining intact,
+englobed and digested the injected red corpuscles and no phenomenon
+similar to Pfeiffer's took place.
+
+These observations led Metchnikoff to a thorough study of the
+destruction of cellular elements by the phagocytes. He had already
+observed that, whilst the struggle with microbes is chiefly undertaken
+by small leucocytes with a lobed nucleus--the _microphages_--it is
+the great leucocytes with a single large nucleus--the so-called
+_macrophages_--which undertake the destruction of cells, "figured"
+elements, as well as that of toxins. The _macrophages_ are to be
+found not only in the blood but also in different organs such as the
+liver, spleen, kidneys, etc.; they seize upon living cells by means
+of mobile protoplasmic prolongations with which they draw them in and
+end by ingesting them completely. Not only do they thus absorb foreign
+cellular elements such as red corpuscles, spermatozoa, etc., but also
+all the weakened cells of the organism itself.
+
+This weakening may be due to normal phenomena such as the metamorphosis
+of insects or tadpoles, when certain organs, as they weaken,
+become useless or inactive. But, oftener, this weakening is due to
+pathological causes, as in morbid atrophies or poisoning by microbian
+toxins. In any case, the enfeeblement of cells exposes them to be
+devoured by macrophages, which brings about the atrophy of the cells or
+even of the organs which contain them.
+
+These observations suggested to Metchnikoff the idea that senile
+atrophy might be due to the same mechanism, and his thoughts turned
+towards the problem of the causes of old age.
+
+But, before undertaking researches in a new direction, he wished to
+conclude those he had been pursuing for twenty years on the phenomenon
+of phagocytosis. He therefore started to complete his investigations on
+immunity in order to epitomise them and to give a definite form to his
+doctrine on that subject.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI
+
+  1900. Immunity--Natural Immunity--Artificial Immunity.
+
+
+For centuries the question of immunity has occupied the human mind
+because the prevention of disease has ever been one of the greatest
+preoccupations of Man. Savages had already observed that man can become
+refractory to the venom of serpents, either through a slight bite or
+by the application of certain preparations of that venom on scarified
+skin. It was also a popular and very ancient notion that the contact
+of a slightly scratched hand with the pustules of cow-pox conferred
+immunity against human small-pox. It was on this observation that
+Jenner founded his method of antivariolic vaccination. The latter, in
+its turn, suggested to Pasteur the idea of attempting antimicrobian
+vaccinations. Having ascertained that old cultures of chicken cholera,
+previously very virulent, had become harmless, he wondered whether
+they had become a vaccine and proved by experiment that they had. That
+led him to the principle of the attenuation of viruses and to that of
+vaccination by attenuated microbes. Thus the problem of the mechanism
+of immunity was stated.
+
+The first theories propounded on the subject concerned the humors.
+Pasteur supposed that immunity was due to the absorption, by the
+vaccinating microbes, of certain nutritive substances in the humors,
+which, not being renewed for some time, were missed by the microbes
+afterwards introduced into the organism, which therefore could not
+develop completely. Chauveau, on the other hand, thought that, in cases
+of immunity, the humors contained substances which were unfavourable
+to microbes. Those theories explained particular facts, but were not
+applicable to the generality of cases.
+
+Other theories,[21] whilst attributing an active part to the organism
+itself, failed to account for the mechanism of immunity in general.
+This was due to the fact that knowledge at that time lacked the two
+essential elements, _i.e._ the modifications suffered by the organism
+which was becoming immunised, and the fate of the microbes in the
+refractory organism.
+
+  [21] Naegeli, Büchner, Gravitz.
+
+The disappearance of the microbes in the cured or refractory animal
+had indeed been observed;[22] the inflammatory reaction of the organism
+in the course of immunisation had been noted;[23] microbes had long
+ago been observed inside the white globules of pus;[24] but, either an
+erroneous interpretation was given to the facts observed, or, rather,
+the links of causality between those factors failed to be established
+because they were observed solely in the complicated organism of
+superior beings. Humoral theories, less easy to test, preserved an
+appearance of generality and were easily admitted.
+
+  [22] Chauveau.
+
+  [23] Büchner.
+
+  [24] Hayem, Birsch, Hirschfeld, Kleps, Recklinghausen, Waldeyer,
+       and Virchow.
+
+Such was the state of the question when Metchnikoff approached it
+from a naturalist's point of view. He knew the life of unicellular
+beings and that of the lower multicellular organisms in their
+complete simplicity; he knew their mode of defence by ingestion and
+intracellular digestion. Having become familiar with these phenomena,
+visible in the single cell, he was better able to see his way in
+the complicated _milieu_ of higher beings. He was therefore able
+to discover the connection between the divers factors which other
+scientists had observed singly. He was able to prove that it is the
+combination of these factors, _i.e._ inflammation, the ingestion of
+living and virulent microbes, and their disappearance by means of
+intracellular digestion which makes immunity possible. He demonstrated
+that "there is but one permanent element in natural or acquired
+immunity, and that is phagocytosis."
+
+The extension and importance of this factor, applicable to the whole
+animal kingdom, proved the truth and general scope of the phagocyte
+doctrine of immunity.
+
+In 1900, Metchnikoff presented to the International Congress in Paris
+a complete tabulation of his researches and fought his contradictors
+for the last time, after which, convinced that his deductions were
+solid, he began to write a work on _Immunity in Infectious Diseases_.
+In it he epitomised, as in a great harmonious chord, the results of
+his researches, reaching over a period of nearly twenty years; he
+affirmed and gave final expression to his doctrine of immunity, based
+on the comparative study of the mechanism of that phenomenon and of
+its evolution along the whole scale of living beings; he related his
+controversies, analysed the objections to his doctrine, expounded the
+theories of other scientists concerning immunity, and gave a general
+view of the present state of the question. This book is a living
+picture of a long and important part of Metchnikoff's scientific
+achievements.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The question of immunity is of such great importance, the mechanism
+of this phenomenon and the physiology of intracellular digestion are
+so complicated, that I have thought it useful to epitomise here the
+exposition given of it by Metchnikoff in his book. Readers who do not
+care to go further into the subject can pass over the next few pages
+without hindering their comprehension of the following chapters.
+
+Diseases affect all living beings, and the greater number of plants and
+animals would cease to exist without innate or acquired immunity.
+
+Unicellular beings are generally immune against infectious diseases,
+which are rarely observed in them. Their body being almost entirely
+made up of digestive protoplasm, the microbes which they absorb are
+directly introduced into a noxious medium and are destroyed therein
+like any other food. If the microbes are indigestible, they are
+immediately rejected; hence, in the majority of cases, they cannot
+become harmful.
+
+This resistance of unicellular beings to many microbes and microbian
+toxins is due not only to the intense digestive power of the cell but
+also to the extreme sensitiveness which rules over the choice of food.
+Owing to this protoplasmic sensitiveness (_chimiotaxis_) protozoa are
+attracted towards certain microbes or substances (positive chimiotaxis)
+and repelled by others (negative chimiotaxis). Thus, many ciliate
+infusoria choose bacteria only for their food; they are sharply
+repelled by dead infusoria, etc.
+
+Therefore, in the _natural_ immunity of unicellular beings, two
+fundamental elements may already be observed: sensitiveness and
+intracellular digestion. No researches have yet been made on the
+possibility of conferring on protozoa an artificial immunity against
+certain pathogenic microbes and their poisons. But unicellular beings,
+insensible to microbian poisons, are the reverse to many chemical
+substances which, in their normal life, they have no opportunity of
+ingesting.
+
+It has been proved by experiment that, against many of those chemical
+substances, an artificial immunity may be given to the protozoa by
+accustoming them gradually. Very diluted solutions are added at first
+to the medium in which they live and, by gradually concentrating
+those solutions, an artificial immunity is conferred; the negative
+chimiotaxis becomes positive, allowing the protozoa to absorb and
+digest the poison, now become a food.
+
+_Habit_ is therefore the fundamental condition of artificial
+immunity; it must be that also of immunity naturally acquired. Having
+accidentally digested enfeebled microbes or having suffered an attack
+of disease, the unicellular being becomes accustomed to a stronger
+virus and becomes immune against it. The fact that so many unicellular
+beings have become thus accustomed is therefore connected with their
+sensitiveness and their digestion. Accordingly, sensitiveness, habit,
+and digestion are the fundamental factors of the mechanism of immunity
+in protozoa; this immunity thus indisputably belongs to the category of
+purely _cellular_ phenomena.
+
+Having arrived at this conclusion, Metchnikoff thought that the same
+mechanism of immunity must be found in other primitive and analogous
+cells, such as the phagocytes of multicellular beings. This was
+proved by a whole series of observations and by the fact that the
+immunity of higher animals is connected with an intense phagocytosis.
+In fact, as he ascended the scale of beings and studied their natural
+and artificial immunity, he ascertained that, in all of them, the
+essence of immunity, masked by the complexity of the organism, reduced
+itself to the _phagocytes becoming accustomed_ to noxious agents. The
+mechanism of immunity in protozoa could therefore really be compared
+with that of immunity in multicellular beings.
+
+Becoming accustomed and becoming immune are phenomena of a general
+order, for they can be manifested not only by animals, but also by
+plants. They, too, have to defend themselves against numerous diseases.
+Lower vegetables, such as myxomycetes (beings which stand on the limit
+between the animal and vegetable kingdoms), have an amoeboid phase,
+in which they are but a simple heap of formless protoplasm. During that
+stage of their life, myxomycete behave towards noxious agents exactly
+in the same way as unicellular beings and, like them, acquire immunity
+by becoming gradually accustomed.
+
+In higher vegetables, the mechanism is different because of their
+structure. The cells of nearly all plants are immobilised by rigid
+membranes; therefore they cannot surround their prey, but protect
+themselves by the production of tough membranes (cicatrisation) and
+by the secretion of various juices. Certain of these juices (gums
+and resins) become solid when exposed to the air and constitute a
+sort of natural (dressing); others (essences) are antiseptic. The
+secretion of these cellular juices in plants is therefore a powerful
+means of defence. This defence is due to the extreme sensitiveness
+of the protoplasma of vegetable cells: they react against irritation
+by a defensive secretion. Vegetables, as well as unicellular beings,
+can accustom themselves or become artificially accustomed to noxious
+influences and acquire immunity.
+
+As to animals, Metchnikoff had already proved long ago that they
+defend themselves against morbid agents by phagocytosis, _i.e._ by
+intracellular digestion. It is always to be found in cases of immunity
+and is indispensable to it, on the same grounds as in unicellular
+beings. The organism of multicellular animals possesses various
+cells which play the part of phagocytes. There are some in the blood
+and humors, as also in the divers organs and in the tissues. These
+phagocytes are either mobile--leucocytes, or fixed--tissue-cells.
+However, all those cells may be classed into two principal groups: the
+microphages and the macrophages. Both categories of cells are capable
+of digesting microbes, but it is chiefly done by the microphages,
+whilst macrophages more especially digest figured elements (cells) of
+animal origin and poisons. It may be said that the microphages are
+vegetarians whilst the macrophages are chiefly carnivorous.
+
+What, then, is the mechanism of phagocytic digestion?
+
+Intracellular digestion by phagocytes is accomplished by means of
+digestive ferments, similar to those of our own digestive organs. "In
+both cases," says Metchnikoff, "a diastasic action is due to soluble
+ferments produced by living elements. In intracellular digestion, the
+diastases digest within the cells, whereas in extracellular digestion
+the phenomenon takes place outside the cells, in the cavity of the
+gastro-intestinal tube."
+
+Only gradually has intracellular digestion given place to the digestion
+by secreted juices. The link between these two modes is to be found
+in certain transparent Invertebrates, such as the floating mollusc
+_Phyllirhoë_. The nourishment is first digested in the cavity of the
+digestive tube by secreted juices, and its treatment is completed
+within the amoeboid cells of the cæcum.
+
+In higher animals, the digestion of food is due to several digestive
+ferments (rennet, pepsin, trypsin, enterokinase, etc.) produced by
+divers organs (stomach, pancreas, intestines). The phagocytes also
+manufacture several digestive ferments; their principal digestive juice
+is a soluble ferment of the trypsin category, to which Metchnikoff gave
+the name of _cytase_.[25]
+
+  [25] It is also called _alexine_ or _complement_ by other writers.
+
+To the morphological difference of the phagocytes corresponds also
+a difference in the properties of their cytases, which are suited
+to the digestion of this or that food. The cytases are kept within
+the interior of the cells and only escape into the humors when the
+phagocytes are damaged (Pfeiffer's phenomenon). This kind of ferment
+does not withstand a temperature above 55° to 58° C. In natural
+immunity, it plays the principal part by digesting morbid agents inside
+the phagocytes like any other food. But, in artificial immunity,
+other soluble ferments come into play, developed in consequence of
+vaccination.
+
+The principal of those is the _fixator_.[26] It is less sensitive
+than cytasis to high temperatures and can bear a temperature of 65°
+to 68° C. It is incapable, by itself, of killing and digesting, but
+by _fixing_ on them, it _bites_ them, so to speak, and makes them
+sensitive to the action of the phagocytic cytases, which can thus
+digest them more easily.
+
+  [26] Designated by other writers by various synonyms: preventive,
+       or sensibilising substance, immunising body, amboceptor.
+
+The _fixator_ may be compared to _enterokinase_, a special ferment in
+the small intestine of higher animals which also does not by itself
+digest food but which activates in a high degree the digestive power of
+pancreatic ferments. However, it has the property of fixing itself on
+fibrin; it is obvious that enterokinase and the fixator have the same
+essential properties. This similarity again proves that the destruction
+of morbid agents by the phagocytes really corresponds with actual
+digestion.
+
+It is in consequence of the digestion of vaccinal products that the
+phagocytes manufacture the _fixator_. Created at the expense of a
+given vaccinal substance, the _fixator_ has a specific character which
+corresponds with that substance, whereas the cytase already existing
+within the phagocytes never has a specific character.
+
+_Artificial_ immunisation generally produces the formation of so
+great a quantity of fixators that the phagocytes are unable to retain
+them and excrete them in part in the ambient humors, _i.e._ the blood
+plasma, or serum. When, afterwards, virulent morbid agents (microbes
+or figured elements) are introduced into an organism which has been
+immunised against them, they are at once faced, in the humors, with
+_fixators_, which immediately exert a biting action on them and render
+them sensitive to the action of the intracellular cytasis of the
+phagocytes. The same mechanism explains the specificity of the serums
+of vaccinated animals.
+
+The quantity of specific fixators in the humors depends on the surplus
+production of that ferment by the phagocytes and is not always the
+same. That is why different serums are preventive in different degrees.
+They are inactive if the phagocytes have not produced enough fixators
+to pass any out into the humors. For a serum is only preventive when
+it brings into the new organism into which it is injected a sufficient
+quantity of fixators ready to sensibilise the morbid agents afterwards
+introduced into the organism.
+
+The over-production of antibodies--fixators or antitoxins--corresponds
+up to a certain point with the frequency and quantity of vaccinal
+injections; that is why serums are usually preventive in artificial
+immunity and very rarely so in natural immunity. Through successive
+inoculations, the cells become accustomed to digesting the microbes, or
+figured elements, and manufacture, in consequence of that digestion,
+growing quantities of fixators.
+
+In natural conditions, on the other hand, morbid agents do not usually
+penetrate into the organism in massive or repeated doses; therefore
+digestion under natural conditions results in a less abundant
+production of fixators which can be contained in the interior of the
+phagocytes without leaking into the humors in sufficient quantities to
+render the latter preventive.
+
+It might be thought that immunity against pathogenic microbes is
+accompanied by immunity against their toxins. In reality that is not
+always the case, and very often the organism, now made refractory to
+certain microbes, remains sensitive to their toxic products. Thus
+antimicrobian immunity and antitoxic immunity constitute in most cases
+two distinct properties. In order to confer antitoxic immunity recourse
+must be had to vaccination by soluble poisons and toxins.
+
+Immunity, acquired naturally, is so especially against microbes and
+not against toxins, for, in nature, it is almost always by microbes
+that the organism is threatened. As to _antitoxic_ immunity, it is
+very probably due to the intracellular digestion of toxins by the
+different macrophages. This hypothesis is supported by the experiments
+quoted in the preceding chapter. During antitoxic vaccination, the
+macrophages manufacture, probably at the expense of vaccinal toxins,
+a certain quantity of _antitoxins_, substances which offer a great
+similarity with the fixators. Like them, they are specific; they are
+also produced in great quantities and excreted into the humors, which
+they render antitoxic when sufficiently abundant; finally, they are
+not very sensitive to high temperatures. That is why, in spite of the
+impossibility of proving their origin directly, it is quite probable
+that it is analogous to that of the fixators and that antitoxins are
+manufactured by cellular elements, the macrophages in particular. For
+it is they which absorb and digest toxins as well as soluble poisons.
+
+This deduction is also supported by the antitoxic immunity which may be
+conferred on _unicellular_ beings in which the cell alone enters into
+play.
+
+Phagocytes no doubt manufacture many other soluble ferments
+corresponding with the elements which they absorb, for, in a vaccinated
+organism, divers new specific properties of the serum are to be found,
+such as that of agglutination, precipitation, etc. Humoral properties
+may be more or less durable, in proportion as the products manufactured
+by the phagocytes are more or less rapidly evacuated by the organism.
+
+All these humoral properties, traced back to their first source, depend
+upon the digestive activity of the phagocytes, since they are the
+products of that digestion. In cases where it has not yet been possible
+to make a direct demonstration of this, it becomes evident through
+analogy and experiments pointing in that direction.
+
+To sum up, according to Metchnikoff, "_Immunity in infectious diseases
+is linked with cellular physiology, namely, with the phenomenon of
+the resorption of morbid agents through intracellular digestion._
+In a final analysis, the latter (as also the digestion of food
+in the gastro-intestinal tube) reduces itself to phenomena of a
+physico-chemical order; however, it is a real _digestion_ accomplished
+by the living cell.... The study of Immunity, from a general point of
+view, belongs to the subject of Digestion."
+
+Immunity against diseases is but one of the manifestations of an
+immunity on a much larger scale, always based, in final analysis, on
+the sensitiveness of the living cellular protoplasm. The sensitiveness
+of the nervous cells extends this phenomenon to the psychical domain.
+They also are capable of becoming accustomed to external irritations of
+all kinds, hence constituting a psychical immunity for the organism.
+We all know that one can become accustomed to many painful or violent
+sensations; and, as Metchnikoff says: "... It is very probable that
+the whole gamut of Habit, starting from the unicellular beings, who
+accustom themselves to live in an unsuitable medium, to cultured men
+who acquire the habit of not believing in human justice, rests on one
+and the same fundamental property of living matter."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII
+
+  Private sorrows--Death of Pasteur, 1895--Ill-health--Senile
+  atrophies--Premature death--Orthobiosis--Syphilis--Acquisition
+  of anthropoid apes.
+
+
+Metchnikoff's health had suffered from the numerous emotions provoked
+by the struggle in defence of the phagocyte doctrine and also from a
+series of sad events. In 1893, sickness and death fell upon our family;
+I lost a sister and a brother at a short interval and had myself to
+undergo a serious operation. My husband nursed me night and day, as a
+mother might have done, and went through the deepest anxiety on account
+of post-operative complications. All this told on him all the more
+that he had just endured cruel moral suffering during the experiments
+on cholera mentioned above. In 1894, an agricultural crisis in Russia
+influenced our material situation and gave him many worries. In the
+autumn of 1895, M. Pasteur's health became worse and, soon afterwards,
+he died.
+
+This series of calamities depressed Metchnikoff, his old cardiac
+trouble returned, and he again became a prey to insomnia. We spent part
+of the holidays in the mountains, thinking it might do him good, but he
+did not care for a prolonged rest; he was preoccupied by the thought
+of his interrupted experiments and only thought of returning to the
+laboratory.
+
+In 1898, he had some disquieting symptoms of kidney trouble, a little
+albumen. He consulted the celebrated German physician, von Noorden, who
+found nothing serious, but this did not reassure him and he continued
+to worry about himself.
+
+Already some time previously, theoretical considerations on senile
+atrophies had directed his thoughts towards old age. His reflections
+now turned towards the psychological aspect of the problem; he analysed
+his personal sensations and realised that he, at the age of 53, felt an
+ardent desire to live. This imperious instinct for life, in spite of
+the inevitable evolution towards personal death and old age, brought
+his thoughts back to the disharmonies of human nature. But now,
+through all his gloomy reflections, he was borne up by the unshakable
+conviction that Science would succeed in correcting those disharmonies
+and he continued to work with untiring energy.
+
+He had prescribed for himself a hygienic diet, based on the idea that
+the cause of his own condition and senility in general was due to
+a chronic poisoning by intestinal microbes. This diet consisted in
+avoiding raw food in order not to introduce noxious microbes into the
+intestines, and in absorbing their useful enemies, the acid-forming
+microbes of sour milk. This diet was very favourable to his health.
+
+After he had finished his book on immunity he at last allowed himself
+to pass on to the new questions which preoccupied him, _i.e._ senility
+and death.
+
+He set forth a sketch of his ideas in 1901 in a paper which he read
+at Manchester (Wilde Lecture) on the "Flora of the Human Body." He
+reviewed this flora and pointed out the harmful effect of the microbes,
+especially those of the large intestine the toxins of which effect a
+chronic poisoning of the cells of our organism and thus provoke their
+gradual weakening. He then indicated the means of combating this evil,
+on the one hand by stimulating the vital activity of the cells exposed
+to enfeeblement, by means, for instance, of small doses of specific
+cytotoxins, and, on the other hand, by direct action on intestinal
+microbes. He concluded by saying that "the intestinal flora is the
+principal cause of the too short duration of our life, which flickers
+out before having reached its goal. Human conscience has succeeded in
+making this injustice obvious; Science must now set to work to correct
+it. It will succeed in doing so, and it is to be hoped that the opening
+century will witness the solution of this great problem."
+
+Metchnikoff considered that our chronic poisoning by intestinal
+microbes weakens our cellular elements; he supposed that the same cause
+might provoke senile phenomena, manifestly due to weakness of the
+tissues.
+
+One of the first manifestations of senility being the whitening of
+hair, he began to study the mechanism of that. He had previously
+observed the dominant part played by phagocytosis in all phenomena
+of atrophy, and it occurred to him that it may be phagocytes which
+destroy the colouring matter of hair, a substance which, in the form
+of tiny granules, is enclosed within the hair cells. In fact, he
+found that the whitening process is accompanied by a stimulation of
+the amoeboid cells which introduce their protoplasmic prolongations
+into the periphery of the hair. They absorb the coloured granules,
+or pigment, and digest it, partly on the spot, partly after carrying
+it into the root of the hair, often even in the connective tissue
+which supports the hairy scalp. As the pigment becomes destroyed,
+the hair loses its colour and whitens. The cells which devour the
+pigment--pigmentophages--belong to the category of macrophages which,
+in general, absorb all the enfeebled cells in the organism.
+
+Metchnikoff was able to note similar phenomena in divers other senile
+atrophies either by his own ulterior researches or by collaboration
+with his pupils (MM. Salimbeni and Weinberg).
+
+In the same way that the whitening of the hair depends on the
+destruction of pigment by pigmentophages, the wrinkles of the
+skin, weakness of the muscles, friability of the bones, and senile
+degenerescence of divers organs are caused by the destruction of
+weakened cells which do not defend themselves and thus become the prey
+of the stronger and more resisting macrophages. Senility is thus no
+other than a generalised atrophy. What is it that provokes it? The
+answer is: The swarming microbes in our large intestine. They form the
+permanent source of a slow poisoning of our organism. This fact alone
+suffices to explain one of the principal causes of the enfeebling
+of our tissues. It is not simultaneous in all the cells because of
+their different powers of resistance. The struggle and destruction
+of the weak by the strong is the cruel law of nature; therefore the
+macrophages, more resisting to poisons, take advantage of the weakening
+of other cells in order to devour them, and this is one of the causes
+of senility.
+
+These reflections and the biological researches which confirmed them
+allowed Metchnikoff gradually to build up a philosophical doctrine,
+which he expounded in 1903 in his work, _Études sur la nature humaine_.
+
+He considered "old age" as a pathological phenomenon. He saw in it one
+of the most important disharmonies of human nature, because of the fact
+that neither senility nor death is accompanied by a natural instinct.
+The accomplishment of every physiological function leads to satiety or
+to a desire for rest; after a busy day, man feels an instinctive need
+for rest and sleep. But, in his maturity, he has no desire to grow old,
+and in his old age none to die. It is rare that one should aspire to
+die, and nobody wishes to grow old. These facts are in contradiction
+with other natural phenomena; they are all the more discordant that
+they play an immense part in our psychical life.
+
+After a general review of opinions on human nature, Metchnikoff
+analysed it from the biological point of view; he revealed its discords
+and concluded that it is far from being perfect. In his eyes, the
+lack of harmony in the human being is an inheritance from our animal
+ancestors; they have handed down to us a whole series of remains
+of organs which are not only useless but even harmful in the new
+conditions of human existence.
+
+The large intestine, inherited from mammalian ancestors, holds the
+first place among those noxious organs. This reservoir of food
+refuse was very useful to our animal forebears in their struggle
+for existence; it allowed them not to interrupt their flight whilst
+pursued by their enemies. In man, whose life conditions are different,
+a large intestine of that size, without offering the same advantages,
+is a source of slow and continuous poisoning and a cause of premature
+senility and death.
+
+Man, after acquiring a still higher development, realised these
+evils and made concentrated efforts to fight them and to soothe his
+own terrors. It is for that object that the divers religious and
+philosophical systems were created, in which humanity sought for
+consolation. Finding none there, man turned to Science, which, at
+first, neither solved his doubts nor eliminated his sufferings. But
+Science provided him with rational methods of research, owing to which
+he gradually progressed and conquered a series of truths, allowing him
+gradually to struggle against some of his troubles and to solve some of
+his problems. Science has already done much to diminish the diseases
+which are among the chief scourges of humanity. It has thrown light
+upon the causes of many of them and has found preventive and curative
+remedies for several.
+
+Surgery, antiseptics, serotherapy, vaccinations already yield secure
+results. Hygiene and prophylaxis are in course of development, and
+a vast prospect is open to them in the future. But our heaviest
+burdens, senility and death, common to all, have yet scarcely been
+studied. Having expounded his views on senility and proved that it is a
+pathological phenomenon, Metchnikoff concluded that to struggle against
+it was quite as possible as to struggle against disease.
+
+The principal causes which bring about _premature_ senility are:
+alcoholism, chronic poisoning by intestinal microbes, and infectious
+diseases, headed by syphilis. Surely Science will discover efficacious
+means against all these.
+
+The strengthening of the beneficent cells in our organism; the
+transformation of the wild intestinal flora into a cultivated flora, by
+the introduction of useful microbes; the struggle against infectious
+diseases and alcoholism--all these are workable means of fighting
+pathological and premature senility.
+
+When old age becomes physiological and no longer painful it will become
+proportionate with the other epochs of our lives and cease to alarm us.
+But how is the fear of death to be explained, since it is a general and
+inevitable phenomenon? How is it that we have no _natural instinct_ for
+death? Metchnikoff supposes that this lack of harmony in our nature
+comes from the fact that death is as _premature_ as senility and
+arrives before the _natural instinct for it_ has had time to develop.
+This supposition is confirmed by the fact that old people who have
+reached an exceptionally advanced age are often satiated with life and
+feel the _need_ of death as we feel a need of sleep after a long day's
+work. That is why we have a right to suppose that, when the limit of
+life has been extended, owing to scientific progress, the instinct of
+death will have time to develop normally and will take the place of the
+fear which death provokes at the present day. Both death and old age
+will become physiological and the greatest discord in our nature will
+be conquered.
+
+Our manner of life will have to be modified and directed according to
+rational and scientific data if we are to run through the normal cycle
+of life--_orthobiosis_. The pursuit of that goal will even influence
+the basis of morals. Orthobiosis cannot be accessible to all until
+knowledge, rectitude, and solidarity increase among men, and until
+social conditions are kinder.
+
+Man will then no longer be content with his natural inheritance; he
+will have to intervene actively in order to correct his disharmonies.
+"Even as he has modified the nature of plants and animals Man will have
+to modify his own nature in order to make it more harmonious."
+
+In order to obtain a new race, one forms an ideal in relation to the
+organism to be modified. "In order to modify human nature, it is
+necessary to realise what is the ideal in view, after which every
+resource of which Science disposes must be taxed in order to obtain
+that result. If an ideal is possible, capable of uniting men in a
+sort of religion of the future, it can only be based on scientific
+principles. And if it is true, as is so often affirmed, that it is
+impossible to live without faith, that faith must be faith in the power
+of Science."
+
+In those words, Metchnikoff ends his book on Human Nature.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The public at large and many critics did not understand the deep and
+general meaning of Metchnikoff's thoughts. They reproached him with
+having an insufficiently exalted ideal, for they only saw in his
+doctrine the desire of postponing senility and living longer. They
+did not understand that to revolt against the lack of harmony in
+nature, through which all humanity has to suffer, not only physically
+but morally, was to aspire to perfection. They did not consider
+that, in order to attain that end, all human culture and the whole
+social state would have to be modified; that this could only be done
+through many virtues, intense energy, and great self-control. They
+had not understood the elevation and power of an ideal which aspired
+to perfect not only the direction of life but human nature itself.
+They had not understood the audacious beauty of such a struggle, the
+benefit conferred by the belief that the human will and the human mind
+are capable of transforming Evil into Good according to a conceived
+ideal!...
+
+In the meanwhile Metchnikoff, convinced that Knowledge is Power and
+that "Science alone can lead suffering Humanity into the right path,"
+quietly continued his task.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One of the most characteristic symptoms of old age is the hardening
+of the arteries--arterio-sclerosis. He therefore especially wished to
+elucidate the mechanism of that phenomenon.
+
+Whilst many, yet unknown, factors come into play in senility, one
+disease, syphilis, often provokes arterio-sclerosis, indisputably due
+to a morbid agent. Metchnikoff therefore began to study this disease,
+of which the origin is infectious--especially as he thought he could do
+so experimentally.
+
+Long before this, he had conceived the idea that the study of those
+human diseases which cannot be transmitted to ordinary laboratory
+animals might be carried out on anthropoid apes, of all animals the
+nearest to man. He had spoken of it to M. Pasteur, but, at that time,
+the Institute could not afford to acquire these costly animals. In
+1903, at the Madrid Congress, Metchnikoff received a 5000 fr. prize
+and utilised this money in the acquisition of two anthropoid apes. The
+same year M. Roux won the Osiris prize of 100,000 fr. which he devoted
+to the same object, and it was decided that the two together would
+undertake researches on syphilis. Other donations, 30,000 fr. from the
+Morosoffs of Moscow and 250 roubles from the Society of Dermatology
+and Syphilography of the same city, completed the capital required to
+execute the projected plan.
+
+The following is a short sketch of the researches that were undertaken
+and the results that were obtained.
+
+The inoculation of anthropoid apes with syphilis was successful. The
+chimpanzee was found to be most sensitive to the disease; it manifests
+primary and secondary symptoms identical with those of man. Lower
+monkeys, though less sensitive, also contract syphilis but generally
+only show primary characteristic manifestations. The possibility of
+rapidly provoking in apes, even of the inferior kinds, syphilitic
+lesions similar to those of man has a very great importance, for it
+provides a sure means of diagnosis in doubtful human cases. Owing to
+the liability of apes to contract syphilis, experimental vaccination
+and serotherapy could be attempted on them; but, though these
+experiments were sometimes encouraging, the results obtained were not
+constant enough to justify their application to man. Thus, it was found
+possible to attenuate the virus by successive passages in certain lower
+apes, and yet, though attenuated for the chimpanzee, it did not confer
+upon him immunity against the active virus.
+
+In 1905, Schaudinn discovered the syphilitic treponema in man. By
+using this discoverer's method, the same microbe was found in apes
+inoculated with human virus, which confirmed the specific character of
+the treponema.
+
+An observation was then made which was of great importance on account
+of its consequences: it was ascertained that the syphilitic microbe
+was absorbed by the less mobile mononuclear phagocytes and remained
+localised near the entrance point long enough to allow of a local
+treatment which might succeed in being curative as it had time to act
+before the microbes had passed into the general circulation of the
+organism. This supposition was proved to be correct by a series of
+experiments on monkeys, and, in 1906, a young doctor, M. Maisonneuve,
+inoculated himself with syphilis and applied the treatment with a
+perfectly satisfactory result.
+
+It might have been thought that this simple, safe, and innocuous method
+would at once come into practice, but it was not so. Between opposition
+on the one hand, and carelessness of the subjects themselves on the
+other, this useful discovery remained for a long time without being
+utilised. All the above results were obtained through experiments on
+anthropoid apes, and the study of syphilis, until then purely clinical,
+entered at last into the field of experimental science.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Researches upon syphilis were but an interlude; Metchnikoff, returning
+to his principal work, resumed the study of senility and of the
+intestinal flora. During many years he applied himself to researches
+concerning the part played by the latter within the organism.
+
+He was able to confirm the deductions expounded in his _Études sur
+la nature humaine_, and in 1907 he published a new work, _Essais
+optimistes_, in which he developed the same ideas, amplified by the
+results of his new researches, and answering the criticisms excited by
+his first book.
+
+In the _Essais optimistes_ he studied first of all the phenomena of old
+age in the different grades of the scale of living beings, of which he
+compared the life duration. He concluded that there was an indubitable
+connection between this and the intestinal flora.
+
+The shorter the intestine, the fewer microbes it contains and the
+longer the relative duration of life. As an example, he quoted the
+relatively great longevity of birds and bats. Those animals, adapted
+to aerial life, have to weigh as little as possible. To that end,
+they empty their intestine very frequently and this in consequence is
+not used as a reservoir for alimentary refuse; as it is but little
+developed, it contains a much smaller number of microbes. The longevity
+of flying animals is relatively much greater than that of mammals with
+a large intestine full of microbes, a constant source of slow poisoning.
+
+After treating the question of longevity, Metchnikoff dealt with that
+of death.
+
+Living beings die, in the great majority of cases, in consequence
+of diseases or accidents with an external cause; one involuntarily
+wonders whether there is such a thing as "natural death," _i.e._
+arising exclusively from causes due to the organism itself. A review
+of known facts allowed Metchnikoff to draw the following conclusions:
+unicellular inferior beings have no _natural_ death; they merely die by
+accident. Their individual life is very short and comes to an end by
+multiplication or division of a unit into two; there is no trace of a
+_corpse_ in this loss of previous individuality.
+
+Among superior plants, certain trees attain considerable dimensions
+(dragon-tree, baobab, oak, cypress), live for centuries, and die from
+external causes. Their organism presents no _internal_ necessity for
+a natural death. On the other hand, a multitude of other plants have
+but a short life and their natural death coincides usually with the
+ripening of the seed. It has even been observed that it is possible
+to retard the death of a plant by preventing it from fructifying. For
+instance, lawns made up of grass mown before it runs to seed remain
+green and living whilst grass allowed to flower and bear seed becomes
+yellow and dries up. It is a well-known fact that fruits and seeds are
+frequently poisonous. Therefore Metchnikoff supposed that the death of
+the plant may be due to an auto-intoxication by poisons manufactured
+by it in order to defend its seeds and ensure the next generation;
+in Nature, the individual does not count, but the species. Once the
+survival of this is ensured the individual may disappear.
+
+A similar phenomenon of auto-intoxication is manifested by lower
+vegetables, yeasts, and microbes. Pasteur, who discovered the microbe
+of lactic fermentation, found that this micro-organism, which itself
+produces lactic acid, perishes because of the over-production of this
+substance. Yeasts, again, cannot bear an excess of alcohol, their own
+product. Thus the vegetable kingdom offers us examples of the absence
+of natural death as well as examples of a natural death due to an
+auto-intoxication of the organism.
+
+In the animal kingdom examples of natural death are also to be found,
+but only very exceptionally. Those examples are provided by Rotifera
+(inferior worms) and by Ephemeridæ. Their adult life is reduced to the
+sexual act, almost immediately followed by death without an external
+cause. Their life is so short that they do not even feed and lack
+developed buccal organs. That in itself constitutes an organic cause of
+inevitable, _i.e._ natural, death.
+
+Among human beings natural death is extremely rare. It sometimes
+occurs in very old people, under the shape of a peaceful last sleep.
+The likeness it bears to sleep is so striking that Metchnikoff thought
+himself authorised to form the following hypothesis concerning the
+analogy in their mechanism.
+
+According to a theory of Preyer's, fatigue and sleep are due to a
+periodical auto-intoxication set up by the products of the vital
+activity of our organism. These products are destroyed by oxidation
+during sleep, after which fatigue disappears and awakening comes.
+According to Metchnikoff it may be that the mechanism of natural death
+also consists in an auto-intoxication by the progressive accumulation
+of toxic products during the whole of life. The analogy between sleep
+and natural death allows the supposition that, as before going to sleep
+an instinctive desire for rest is felt, in the same way _natural_
+death must be preceded by an instinctive desire to die. Moreover,
+this is confirmed by concrete examples. Thus that of an old woman
+of ninety-three who expressed that desire in the following terms to
+her great-nephew: "If ever you reach my age, you will see that death
+becomes desired just like sleep." The same thought had been expressed
+by the biblical patriarchs who fell asleep satiated with life.
+
+When, owing to the progress of Science, men reach the development of
+the instinct of death, they will look upon Death with the same calm as
+do very old people, and it will cease to be one of the principal causes
+of pessimism. It is for that reason that we must learn to prolong life
+and to allow all men to realise their complete and natural vital cycle,
+thus ensuring their moral balance.
+
+Psychological observations allowed Metchnikoff to conclude that
+pessimism is much more frequent in youth than in maturity or in old
+age. He attributes this to the gradual development of the _vital
+instinct_ which is only completely manifested in middle age. Man then
+begins to appreciate life; made wiser by experience, he demands less
+and is therefore better balanced.
+
+Metchnikoff proffers examples in support of his theory. He analyses the
+psychic evolution of Goethe as reflected in his _Faust_ and describes
+that of "an intimate friend." These examples prove that natural
+psychological evolution already leads to a relative optimism. But, as
+long as senility is pathological and death premature, the apprehension
+that they inspire antagonises the normal evolution of optimism. A
+victory over those present evils will direct the normal course of life
+in the right way; one normal active period will succeed another; the
+accomplishment of individual and social functions corresponding with
+each period will become realisable; the death instinct will have time
+to develop, and Man, having been through his normal vital cycle, will
+sink, peacefully and without fear, into eternal sleep.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+  Researches on intestinal flora--Sour milk.
+
+
+The problem of our intestinal flora is so vast and so difficult that it
+demands years of research. Numerous facts had already been accumulated
+by Science on this subject, but it was still far from being elucidated.
+
+Certain scientists affirmed that microbes favour digestion by
+decomposing food residues in the intestine and are therefore not
+merely useful, but necessary to the organism. Others entertained a
+diametrically opposed opinion. The first thing, therefore, was to know
+which of the two opinions was founded on fact. Metchnikoff studied
+the case of the bat, in which the digestive tube is short and the
+large bowel not even differentiated. As he had supposed, _a priori_,
+in this animal, whose life duration is relatively long, the intestine
+contains few or no micro-organisms, which proves that digestion can
+be accomplished without their intermediary. Moreover, this was before
+long amply confirmed by the researches of MM. Cohendy, Wollman, and
+other scientists who succeeded in bringing up chickens and tadpoles in
+conditions of absolute sterility.
+
+Having acquired the conviction that microbes are not indispensable to
+digestion, Metchnikoff studied the part they play in the organism. It
+is universally admitted that the products of putrefaction are toxic,
+and he enquired whether the intestine sheltered putrefying microbes.
+This question had not yet been solved; certain bacteriologists
+thought that little or no putrefaction exists in a normal intestine.
+Metchnikoff ascertained through systematic researches that the
+intestinal flora includes several kinds of putrefying microbes which
+secrete highly toxic products.
+
+With his pupils and collaborators, MM. Berthelot and Wollman, he
+carried out a series of experiments which established the fact that
+this intoxication is due to poisons of the aromatic group, such
+as phenols and indols. With these substances, they succeeded in
+artificially provoking arterio-sclerosis in the organs of animals,
+and also other modifications similar to those which are observed
+in senility. Having proved that putrefying microbes provoke the
+intoxication of the tissues, Metchnikoff set to work to find a means of
+struggling against those microbes.
+
+It was known that they could only live in an alkaline medium which
+is precisely that of the intestinal juices. Metchnikoff thought that
+if means were found to render the intestinal contents acid, without
+harm being done to the organism, the putrefying microbes might thus be
+destroyed. It had been known for a long time that sour milk does not
+suffer putrefaction, that being prevented by the acid fermentation. The
+lactic microbes of this fermentation must therefore be antagonistic to
+the putrefying microbes. He drew a conclusion in favour of the utility
+of sour milk, containing acid-producing microbes; once introduced
+into the intestine, these should prevent the breeding of the noxious
+microbes which require an alkaline medium.
+
+His hypothesis seemed confirmed by the fact that populations who feed
+almost exclusively on curded milk live a very long time. In Bulgaria,
+for instance, whole villages, thus fed, are known for the longevity
+of their inhabitants. Starting from these considerations, he made
+experiments upon himself and systematically introduced into his diet
+sour milk carefully prepared with pure cultures of certain lactic
+bacilli. His health was benefited by it, and his friends followed
+his example. Certain doctors recommended sour milk, the use of which
+gradually spread as a hygienic food. Metchnikoff considered the result
+acquired as a first step towards the artificial transformation of the
+wild intestinal flora into a cultivated and useful flora.
+
+Unfortunately, the study of the intestinal flora is extremely
+complicated because of the innumerable species of micro-organisms and
+the extreme difficulty of disentangling the many influences which
+cross each other. He therefore considered collective researches as
+indispensable, the life and science of one man being insufficient
+to solve so vast a problem. Up to a certain point he succeeded in
+realising this scientific collaboration within his own laboratory.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIX
+
+  The Nobel Prize--Journey to Sweden and to Russia--A day with Léon
+  Tolstoï.
+
+
+In 1908 Metchnikoff received the Nobel Prize, together with Ehrlich,
+for his researches on immunity. According to the statutes of that
+prize, the laureate is invited to give a lecture in Stockholm.
+Metchnikoff chose for his theme the "present state of the question
+of immunity in infectious diseases," and, in the spring of 1909, we
+went to Sweden and thence to Russia. The whole journey was a series
+of fêtes and receptions in his honour. He was touched and grateful at
+this welcome, but with his usual humour, declared that it was the Nobel
+Prize which, like a magic wand, had revealed to the public the value of
+his researches.
+
+We only stopped for a short time at Stockholm, where the kindest
+hospitality was shown to Metchnikoff. Sweden made an unforgettable
+impression upon us. Her deep, dark waters, wild rocks, and sombre
+pines make of it a land of legends. Elie was impressed not only by
+Nature in Scandinavia but also by Scandinavian Art, which reproduces
+it admirably. He was specially pleased with Lilienfiorse's pictures,
+representing animals against a background at the same time real and
+legendary.
+
+We went to Russia by way of the Baltic. The nights at that time were
+"white," and rocky islands covered with pines emerged from the sea
+like ghosts, in the mysterious silvery midnight light; the impression
+was fairy-like.
+
+A warm welcome awaited Metchnikoff in Russia. At Petersburg, as in
+Moscow, he was received with cordial and enthusiastic sympathy not
+only by scientific and medical societies, but by all the intellectual
+youth of those cities. This warm reception contributed to efface the
+bitterness sometimes aroused in him by distant recollections of the
+reasons which caused him to leave his native country.
+
+During our stay in Russia we made the acquaintance of our great writer,
+Léon Tolstoï. We spent a day with him in his estate, Iasnaïa Paliana,
+and the day left a lifelong impression upon us.
+
+It was at dawn that we reached the little railway station where a
+carriage had come to meet us. It had been raining in the night and now,
+in the first morning light, everything shone with dew. We were excited
+by the sight of the Russian country, cool meadows, forest, fields, all
+that simple landscape that we had not seen for so long, and we were
+also greatly moved at the idea of meeting Tolstoï.
+
+The village appeared in the distance and, a little way apart, the wide
+open entrance gate of the old park of Iasnaïa Paliana. We entered a
+long shady avenue leading to the home of Tolstoï. The spring was at its
+best, flowers and perfumes everywhere. The house and the old park had
+the poetic charm of the ancient "nests of nobility" in Russia.
+
+Tolstoï's daughter greeted us on the steps; her kindly simplicity at
+once put us at our ease. We had hardly entered the vestibule when we
+saw Léon Tolstoï himself coming down the stairs with a brisk step.
+We knew him at once, though he seemed to us different from all his
+portraits. We were first of all struck by his eyes, deep, piercing, and
+yet as clear as those of a child. He had nothing of that hardness and
+severity that one is accustomed to see in his portraits; his features,
+too, seemed to us much finer and more idealised. He looked straight
+into our eyes as if he wished to read the depths of our souls. But we
+were at once reassured by the kind and benevolent expression of his
+whole face. He looked strong and healthy and did not seem old, but
+full of inner life. After the first words of welcome, he said to us,
+"You resemble each other; that happens after living happily together
+for a long time." He questioned us concerning our journey and on the
+impression made upon us by Russia after our long absence; then he said
+he had to finish his morning task.
+
+His daughter and son took us for a walk through the park and the
+village, and the friendly words they exchanged with the peasants
+indicated excellent relations between the villagers and the people of
+the château. As soon as we came in, Léon Tolstoï reappeared, declaring
+that he gave himself holiday for the day. He questioned Metchnikoff on
+his researches, on the present state of hygiene, and on the application
+of scientific discoveries. He listened attentively and with visible
+interest. At the end of the conversation he declared that it was quite
+erroneously that he was thought to be hostile to Science, and that
+he only denounced pseudo-science, which has nothing to do with human
+welfare. "In reality," he said, "you and I are aiming towards the same
+goal by different lines."
+
+All his words were impregnated with a deep love for, and an ardent
+desire to serve, humanity. Literature and Art were mentioned; Tolstoï
+said that he was now so far from it all that he had even forgotten some
+of his own works and appreciated them much less than his writings on
+spiritual questions. He thought that sometimes beauty of form acted at
+the expense of the moral bearing of the subject. To the objection that
+Art embellishes Life, he answered that it has some value in that it
+serves as a link between men and makes them purer, but that its moral
+importance surpasses its æsthetic value by a great deal.
+
+He related that he had conceived a new work on the social movement in
+Russia and, _à propos_ of that, the conversation fell upon political
+reprisals. The subject of deportations, prisons, and executions was
+visibly painful to him; his eyes, now sad and suffering, revealed his
+vibrating soul.
+
+On the agrarian question, he was in favour of the nationalisation of
+land, and showed great enthusiasm for Henry George. He thought the
+suppression of the commune in Russia a great mistake. Metchnikoff
+explained to him that his personal observations in Little Russia
+spoke, on the contrary, in favour of individual property, which gave
+better agricultural results. Tolstoï manifested perfect tolerance,
+and conversation flowed on peacefully concerning various subjects. In
+everything he said the beauty and elevation of his soul was perceptible.
+
+After lunch he desired to have a serious conversation with Metchnikoff
+and took him out driving, he himself holding the reins. On the way he
+returned to the question of Science. He thought that humanity was so
+overwhelmed with misery and had so many urgent questions to solve that
+work ought to be turned in that direction, and that we had no right to
+busy ourselves with abstract questions unrelated to life. "What good
+can it do man to have a notion of the weight and dimensions of the
+planet Mars?" he said.
+
+Metchnikoff answered that theory is much nearer to life than it seems,
+and that many benefits have been acquired for humanity by scientific
+observations of an abstract order. Thus, the discovery of the great
+unchanging laws of Nature give to Man the consciousness of being
+submitted to logical laws instead of an arbitrary force, and that is a
+benefit. When microbes were discovered, their part in human life was
+not suspected, and yet this discovery was afterwards of the greatest
+service to human welfare since it enabled man to fight against disease.
+
+On the way back, Tolstoï gave his place to his son and himself returned
+on horseback, an exercise in which he indulged almost daily, in spite
+of the approach of his eighty years. He still rode splendidly, sitting
+quite upright, and seemed even younger than before.
+
+After that he went to take a little rest, whilst Countess Tolstoï gave
+us immense pleasure by reading to us two yet unpublished works by her
+husband, the charming story _After the Ball_ and the tragic _Sergius
+the Monk_.
+
+In the late afternoon a friend of our host, an accomplished musician,
+sat at the piano and played some Chopin. In the spring twilight the
+charm of that music filled us with emotion. Léon Tolstoï, seated in an
+armchair, listened; the lyrical beauty of the sound sank deeper and
+deeper into his soul, his eyes became veiled with tears, he leant his
+forehead on his hand and remained motionless. Metchnikoff also was
+deeply moved, and the effect of music on two such men, the pleasure
+that it gave them, was the strongest plea in favour of pure Art.
+
+"I do not know what takes place in my mind when I listen to Chopin,"
+said Tolstoï a few moments later, after the closing sounds had
+vanished, "Chopin and Mozart move me to the depths. What lyrism! what
+purity!" Metchnikoff liked Mozart and Beethoven, but Tolstoï thought
+Beethoven too complicated. As to Wagner and modern music, they both
+agreed about it, thinking it unintelligible and lacking harmony and
+simplicity.
+
+Around the tea-table conversation turned on senility, and Metchnikoff
+developed his theory of the discords of human nature. He illustrated
+his affirmations by the example of Goethe's _Faust_, who, according to
+him, formed the best picture of the evolution of human phases. To his
+mind the second part of _Faust_ is but an allegory of the disharmonies
+of old age. It is a striking picture of the dramatic contest between
+the yet ardent and juvenile feelings of old Goethe and his physical
+senility. Tolstoï seemed interested by this interpretation and said he
+would read the second part of _Faust_ over again, but that he himself
+would never offer an example of a similar lack of harmony. _À propos_
+of Metchnikoff's theory, according to which the fear of death exists
+because Death itself is premature, Tolstoï affirmed that he had no fear
+of death, but added, laughingly, that he would nevertheless try to
+reach the age of 100 in order to please Elie.
+
+Our train only left late in the night, and, until we started, the
+conversation never ceased to be animated. In every one of his words
+Tolstoï's exalted soul was perceptible, a soul in which there was room
+but for preoccupations of a spiritual order. He would have given the
+impression of floating above the earth if his ardent and compassionate
+heart had not constantly brought him back to the miseries and faults of
+human beings. The atmosphere around him was pure and vivifying as on
+high peaks, and the place seemed sanctified by his presence.
+
+That interview had been a meeting of two superior minds, two exalted
+souls, but how different! The one, scientific and rational, always
+leaning on solid facts in order to soar and to spread his wings in the
+highest spheres of thought; the other an artist and a mystic, rising
+through intuition to the same spiritual heights; both pursuing the same
+goal of human perfection and happiness, but going along such different
+roads....
+
+As we took leave of him, Léon Tolstoï said, "Not farewell, but _au
+revoir_!" And as we sat in the carriage and started to go, he appeared
+in a lighted window, as in an aureola, waving his hand, "Au revoir,
+au revoir!" he repeated for the last time.... The night was calm and
+beautiful under the immensity of the starry vault, and its greatness
+was confounded in our souls with the greatness of Léon Tolstoï.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX
+
+  Intestinal flora--Infantile cholera--Typhoid fever--Articles on
+  popular Science.
+
+
+When he returned home, Metchnikoff immediately resumed his work. He
+continued, with his collaborators, researches on the normal intestinal
+flora and on the microbian poisons which provoke arterio-sclerosis.
+
+They were able to ascertain that certain microbes of the intestinal
+flora, such as the _bacillus coli_ and _Welch's bacillus_, produce
+poisons (phenol and indol) which are reabsorbed by the _normal_
+intestinal walls and which provoke arterio-sclerosis and other lesions
+of the organs. A part of those poisons is eliminated by the urine,
+and the quantity found therein allows one to estimate the quantity
+contained in the organism. An exclusively vegetarian or carnivorous
+diet increases its production, while a mixed diet reduces it. During
+the rest of his life Metchnikoff made systematic and periodical
+analysis of his own urine in correlation with his diet.
+
+From certain facts and certain experiments he concluded that the
+reciprocal influence of microbes might be utilised to attenuate or to
+eliminate the noxious action of some of them. Thus, by cultivating
+the lactic bacillus in the presence of those microbes which produce
+poisons belonging to the aromatic group, the decrease in quantity
+and even the disappearance of phenol and indol is observed. All those
+facts confirmed anterior results which Metchnikoff had obtained, and
+indicated the route to be followed in his struggle against those toxins
+which gradually poison the organism and induce premature senility.
+
+Having thus elucidated certain questions concerning the part played by
+microbes in a normal organism, he studied the pathogenic intestinal
+flora. He began by infantile cholera because this question is
+simplified by the fact that new-born children are fed exclusively
+on milk. It was then believed by practitioners that this intestinal
+disease of infants came from their mode of feeding, from summer heat,
+and other external influences. Metchnikoff, however, succeeded in
+demonstrating that the contents of the intestines of infants suffering
+from "cholera" always included a special kind of microbe, the _B.
+proteus_; he was also able to give the disease to young anthropoid
+apes by making them ingest food soiled by the intestinal contents of
+sick infants, thus establishing the infectious character of infantile
+cholera.
+
+He then attacked another intestinal disease, typhoid fever, of which
+the microbe (_Eberth's bacillus_) had been known for some time, but
+had not been studied experimentally, ordinary laboratory animals
+being refractory. Metchnikoff had again recourse to anthropoids, and
+succeeded in infecting a chimpanzee by making him eat food soiled by
+the intestinal contents of a typhoid patient.
+
+With the collaboration of Dr. Besredka, he undertook a series of
+experiments on anthropoid apes and on macaques. The former alone took
+typical typhoid fever, similar to that of man. It could be given them
+by pure cultures of Eberth's bacillus, which definitely confirmed the
+specificity of that microbe.
+
+Antityphoid vaccination by means of killed bacilli not being at that
+time either safe or durable, Metchnikoff advised measures of simple
+preventive hygiene: the use of cooked food, great personal cleanliness,
+cleanliness of streets and dwellings, and the destruction of insects,
+especially flies, which often infect food. In order to popularise these
+notions, he wrote a series of articles in newspapers. Later, several
+scientists found efficacious means of vaccination against typhoid fever.
+
+In 1912 Metchnikoff, in collaboration with Dr. Besredka (the author of
+the antityphoid vaccination method by means of sensitised bacilli),
+demonstrated on anthropoid apes that antityphoid vaccination by living
+sensitised microbes is certain, and that it presents no danger of
+diffusing the disease, for these microbes, harmless to the vaccinated
+individual, cannot prove a source of danger for his entourage, since
+they are phagocyted at the very place where they are inoculated.
+
+Metchnikoff always considered that it was very useful to keep the
+public at large informed of the results acquired by Science, because
+"it is only by becoming a part of daily life that measures of hygiene
+and prophylaxis will have efficacious results." He therefore lost no
+opportunity of spreading scientific principles and facts. In 1908 he
+had given in Berlin a lecture on "The Curative Forces of the Organism."
+In a Russian review, the _Messenger of Europe_, he developed the
+same subject and included an epitome of his lecture in Stockholm
+on immunity. In that article he expounded the phagocyte theory of
+immunity. Among concrete examples of its application, he quoted the
+indications concerning the evolution of an infectious disease provided
+by the quantity of leucocytes in the blood, and the process employed
+by certain surgeons to diminish the danger of infection during an
+operation: just as, in case of an enemy menace, the Government mobilise
+an army, certain surgeons employ divers means to attract an army of
+phagocytes and to stimulate their activity in case any microbes should
+penetrate into the wound.
+
+In 1909 he gave another lecture at Stuttgart, "A Conception of
+Nature and of Medical Science," in which he summed up his two works
+_Études sur la nature humaine_ and _Essais optimistes_. The title
+of this lecture was intended to emphasise his view of human nature,
+according to which "Man, as he appeared on the earth, is an animal and
+pathological being belonging to the realm of medicine." But he ended
+his paper by the same optimistic thought which illumines the whole
+philosophy of his later years. "With the help of Science, Man can
+correct the imperfections of his nature."
+
+He unveiled these imperfections and the ills which proceed from them,
+not only from a love of truth or scientific honesty, but always with
+the object of finding means to combat them. He never allowed sight to
+be lost of the fact that Science lights up the tortuous and painful
+path which leads to an issue that suffering humanity will find by
+gradually widening the limits of knowledge with the help of Work and of
+Will.
+
+Thus all his writings offer us encouragement and support.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXI
+
+  A bacteriological expedition to the Kalmuk steppes, 1911.
+
+
+During his preceding journeys in the Kalmuk steppes, Metchnikoff had
+often heard it said that tuberculosis was almost unknown there, but
+that the Kalmuks took it very easily when brought into contact with
+foreigners. As all means of combating this disease had hitherto given
+very unsatisfactory results, Metchnikoff thought that researches should
+be started along a new path. He had long thought that observations on
+the extreme liability of Kalmuks to tuberculosis might perhaps provide
+some new data. But the study of the question necessitated a very
+distant journey which he now at last had the opportunity of realising.
+
+According to Metchnikoff's hypothesis, a _natural_ vaccination
+takes place among us against tuberculosis which would explain the
+resistance of the majority of human beings in spite of the enormous
+diffusion of the disease. He concluded that some attenuated breeds of
+microbes become introduced into our organism during our childhood,
+thus vaccinating us against the virulent tuberculous bacillus. This
+supposition seemed to him plausible, for he had long ago found that
+some micro-organisms (Cienkovsky's bacillus, the cholera bacillus,
+etc.) become modified in different environment and conditions, both
+in form and in virulence. He had described this phenomenon in 1888
+in a memoir entitled _Pleomorphism of Microbes_. His hypothesis would
+explain the liability of the Kalmuks, since, if no tuberculous bacilli
+existed in the steppes, the inhabitants could not acquire a natural
+vaccination. When placed in an environment which was not free from
+tuberculosis, they became infected very easily, being in no wise
+prepared for the struggle against the virus.
+
+The expedition to the Kalmuk country was therefore planned in order to
+ascertain whether tuberculosis was really absent from the steppes. This
+could easily be done by Pirquet's test,[27] which at the same time would
+show whether the number of Kalmuks infected increased from the centre
+to the outer limit of the steppes and corresponded with the greater
+degree of contact with the surrounding population. If the enquiry
+confirmed the hypothesis, there would remain to be seen which microbes
+might best be used as vaccines.
+
+  [27] A cutaneous scarification by tuberculin which provokes local
+       inflammatory redness on the scarified point in tuberculous
+       subjects only.
+
+The expedition was also intended to elucidate a few questions on the
+etiology of endemic plague in the Kirghiz steppes. When this intention
+became known, the Russian authorities desired to add to it a local
+mission on the study of plague epidemics in the steppes. Metchnikoff,
+who was chiefly concerned with the question of tuberculosis, was only
+able to draw up a plan of work for the Russian mission and to start it
+going in one of the plague centres.
+
+The Pasteur Institute expeditionary party comprised, besides
+Metchnikoff, MM. Burnet, Salimbeni, and Iamanouchi. They were joined at
+Moscow by Drs. Tarassevitch and Choukevitch, and at Astrakhan by the
+physicians of the Russian plague mission. The Institut Pasteur party
+left Paris on May 14, 1911, full of spirits; Metchnikoff, eager to make
+the journey pleasant for his companions, was doing the honours of his
+country to the best of his ability; he fully succeeded, owing to the
+warm welcome and liberal hospitality which they received in Russia,
+where every one tried to contribute not only to the success of the
+expedition but to the comfort and pleasure of its members. The latter,
+indeed, preserved a most pleasant recollection of this journey, and, in
+later years, always spoke of it with pleasure.
+
+Navigation on the Volga from Nijni Novgorod to Astrakhan was full of
+peculiar charm. That five days' journey was one of the rare periods
+of complete rest in Metchnikoff's life. He indulged in the _dolce far
+niente_ as he watched the peaceful landscape on the passing banks. The
+Volga, then in flood, covered immense spaces. Here and there, whole
+forests emerged from the river which reflected them as in an enchanted
+dream. From time to time, little isolated villages appeared with the
+gilt cupola of a church or a monastery, then meadows, forests, steep
+cliffs, or gentle slopes down to the river. What poetry, what grandeur
+in simplicity! As in a kaleidoscope, types of varied populations and
+pictures of local customs followed upon each other.
+
+Along the banks now and then were seen processions of pilgrims. Their
+humble, gray, stooping figures breathed deep faith and resignation.
+Sometimes popular songs arose from the Volga, sad, expressive,
+soul-penetrating chants.
+
+This contemplative quietude was only interrupted by stations in the
+ports of large towns where deputations of the educated inhabitants came
+to wish the mission welcome. These functions had a cordial and touching
+character, for it was obvious that such enthusiastic demonstrations had
+for their source a sincere cult for the knowledge whose representatives
+were being fêted; it was touching to see such a living ideal in this
+distant and oppressed land.
+
+At Tsaritsine, several Kirghiz embarked on our boat in order to go to
+a large fair which the inhabitants of the steppes attended in numbers.
+Metchnikoff thought this was a unique opportunity to learn whether
+there were any carriers of the plague bacillus among those many natives
+coming from all parts of the steppes. He therefore decided that those
+members of the expedition who had come to study plague would go to the
+fair with the Kirghiz, whilst he, with the rest of the expedition,
+would make observations on the Kalmuks of the Astrakhan region.
+
+A most hospitable welcome awaited us there; people vied with each other
+in their efforts to assist the expedition. The Governor-General of
+Astrakhan had ordered all preparations to be made, and the mission was
+provided not only with necessaries but with comforts which did much to
+alleviate the fatigue of the long journey.
+
+Whilst waiting for our companions, we had time to verify several
+diagnostical reactions, the Kalmuks lending themselves willingly to the
+operation. We heard later that they thought they were being vaccinated
+against small-pox, a disease much feared in the steppes.
+
+As soon as the plague mission arrived, we started towards the Kirghiz
+steppes, for there was a plague centre north of the Caspian Sea. When
+we were out at sea, an intense north wind began to blow the waves away
+from the Kirghiz bank, and soon the depth lessened to such an extent
+that we could make no progress. The sailors were perpetually making
+soundings, and their repeated cries of "Two and a half feet!" became
+a regular nightmare. The situation seemed critical, and returning to
+Astrakhan was suggested; an idea which infuriated Metchnikoff; he would
+not hear of it. At last, after several incidents we reached the Kirghiz
+bank, the crossing having lasted three days instead of the usual
+twenty-three hours.
+
+As we arrived, we could see from afar a sort of Valkyries' ride of
+natives clad in brilliant colours and riding up at full gallop with
+wild cries and exclamations. Before us spread a barren and sandy
+steppe, producing the sad impression of a land forsaken by God and
+man. How could life be possible there? But gradually, as we became
+captivated by the charm of the boundless space, the purity of the air,
+the harmonious colouring and the scent of wild heliotrope and wormwood
+which alone can grow in those sands, we began to understand that it was
+not only possible to live in those steppes, but also to love them.
+
+The plague centre stood among sandy hills with low-growing grass; the
+summit of one of them was black with charred remains of burnt objects;
+the corpses were buried in the same place. Only a few wretched forsaken
+hovels remained. In order to throw light upon endemic plague in the
+steppes, it was first of all necessary to ascertain whether the plague
+microbes remained alive for some time in places where the scourge had
+raged; if they were preserved in dead bodies which had been singed
+rather than burnt; if the worms, insects, rodents, and domestic animals
+on the spot were or were not carriers of the plague microbe, and could
+or could not transmit it to a distance from the initial focus.
+
+After organising a small emergency laboratory, the corpses were
+exhumed, and Dr. Salimbeni made a post-mortem examination. These
+corpses, having been in the ground for three months, were in a state of
+advanced decomposition and contained no living microbes.
+
+Having set the work of the plague mission going, Metchnikoff parted
+from it in order to accomplish the projected investigations on
+tuberculosis in the Kalmuk steppes. He made a very solemn entry into
+these steppes; a Kalmuk deputation welcomed the mission and presented
+Metchnikoff with a bronze Buddha.
+
+The aspect of those natives is sad and humble, their movements are
+slow, their eyes dull. In this they contrast with their neighbours,
+the quick and intelligent Kirghiz, and one reason for it is that the
+latter, being Moslems, absorb no alcohol, while the Kalmuks consume
+fermented milk (alcoholic fermentation) which poisons them slightly but
+continuously; this observation had already been made by Metchnikoff at
+the time of his previous visit.
+
+The Kalmuks live in tents covered with coarse felt; they transport
+these dwellings on camels from one place to another when their herds
+of sheep or horses have consumed the scanty pasture grass around the
+camp. There is no attempt at cultivation, and the steppes become more
+and more barren as the pastures become exhausted. In order to remedy
+this evil, the Russian administration has begun various experimental
+plantations. In some places the steppes are covered with small tamarisk
+bushes or with silky grass, but, as a rule, the chief growth is of
+silver wormwood. The monotony is not so great as one might think, for
+the steppes, like a mirror, reflect all the divers light-changes, and
+wonderful natural phenomena take place there. During the great heat,
+mirages are to be seen in the distance--a river, lakes, reed-grown
+shores; sometimes a sand-storm supervenes, more infernal than
+fairy-like, called here "smertch." The wind raises the sand in tongues
+of flames or in funnels running up to the sky with giddy rapidity.
+Gradually, all the separate turmoils join in a gigantic wall of sand,
+advancing in an orgy of movement; the heavy clouds fall towards the
+ground, the sand rushes upwards, everything becomes confounded in
+darkness and chaos.
+
+One feels so entirely in the power of natural forces that the fatalism
+of the poor inhabitants of the land is easily understood. The Kalmuks,
+primitive and nomadic, produce the impression of ghosts from distant
+centuries.
+
+Metchnikoff noticed that since his last visit in 1874, fatal influences
+had worked havoc on the population. Four scourges, all of them coming
+from outside, are destroying the Kalmuks: syphilis, alcoholism,
+tuberculosis, and the Russians who are constantly pushing them back.
+Those poor people realise the fate which is awaiting them, and resign
+themselves like a sick man who knows his sickness to be incurable.
+
+The spiritual life of the Kalmuks reduces itself to their religious
+cult. There are many Buddhist convents where children are being brought
+up for a monastic life. Religious rites are performed by priests
+dressed in purple and brilliant yellow; for the uninitiated, their
+part consists in unrolling interminable bands on which prayers are
+inscribed, and in executing a religious music which seemed a mixture
+of a camel's grunt, a dog's howling, and an infinitely sad plaint. Of
+the pure cult of Buddha, nothing seems to remain but an empty form.
+However, there is a convent in the steppes--Tshori--a sort of religious
+academy, where an effort is being made to restore the cult to the
+original level of Buddhist doctrines.
+
+Whilst gathering observations on tuberculosis, we traversed the steppes
+in a north-easterly direction as far as Sarepta. This town seemed like
+a civilised centre after the steppes, where the conditions of life were
+somewhat hard in spite of the cordial reception accorded us everywhere.
+The food, consisting solely in tinned goods and mutton, had caused
+intestinal trouble in nearly all the members of the expedition; on the
+other hand, we were greatly incommoded by the heat, lack of water, and
+abundance of insects of all kinds.
+
+In spite of all, Metchnikoff had hitherto borne the journey fairly
+well. However, since we left Moscow he had had frequent cardiac
+intermittence, accompanied sometimes by sharp pains along the sternum.
+But the stay at Sarepta especially tried his health; the heat reached
+35° C. (95° F.) in the shade and 52° C. (about 125° F.) in the sun; in
+the evening the windows could not be opened because of the mosquitoes.
+Metchnikoff, who had shown so much endurance, now became weak, drowsy,
+and nervous; he attributed his condition to the excessive heat. Yet
+he could not leave Sarepta, for all the members of both branches of
+the mission had agreed to meet there in order to sum up the results of
+their observations.
+
+The researches of the expedition for the study of plague were not
+finished, and the Russian mission had agreed to complete them. So far,
+it was established that neither the corpses--after a certain time--nor
+the ground, nor the surrounding animals contained any plague microbes,
+and no carriers had been found among the Kirghiz population.
+
+The data gathered among the Kalmuk population justified Metchnikoff's
+hypothesis. In the centre of the steppes, where the Kalmuks were still
+isolated, tuberculosis was completely unknown; diagnosis reactions
+were negative. They became positive more and more frequently as we
+came nearer the periphery of the steppes and the Russian population.
+The extreme sensitiveness of the Kalmuks must therefore depend on the
+fact that they have suffered no natural vaccination in the steppes,
+which would support the idea that some natural vaccine exists amongst
+us. Metchnikoff therefore concluded that he might direct ulterior
+researches towards the quest of natural tuberculous vaccines. Such were
+the scientific results of the expedition.
+
+Apart from that, the journey to Russia had a strong personal influence
+on Metchnikoff. He had formerly left his country under the impression
+of the fatal error committed by the revolutionaries in killing
+Alexander II., an error which had led to a protracted reaction. He had
+therefore remained very sceptical concerning the Russian revolutionary
+movement; he thought that the necessary reforms might come from a
+Government evolution. But, during his sojourn in Russia, he was able
+to appreciate events which modified his ideas to a great extent. He
+was impressed by the contrast between the progressive aspirations of
+the "intellectuals" and the inertia or noxious activity of the rulers.
+The policy of Casso, the Minister of Public Instruction, who ordered
+regular raids in the universities, the persecution of Poles and Jews,
+the encouragement of the "black band" obscurantism, giving plenary
+powers to creatures of darkness like Rasputin and his peers, all these
+things excited indignation in a man who placed the free development of
+human culture above everything.
+
+He thus ceased to count upon the progressive evolution of a Government
+which was incapable of solving the complicated problems of Russian
+life, and henceforward thought that those problems would be solved by
+the "intellectuals" apart from the Government and in opposition to it.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXII
+
+  Further researches on the intestinal flora--_Forty Years' Search for
+  a Rational Conception of Life._
+
+
+Since Metchnikoff had conceived the idea that a considerable part was
+played in human life by the intestinal flora, his thoughts had centred
+around a study which he thought profitable: that of the influence of
+intestinal microbes on the normal and on the pathological organism.
+
+So, on his return from Russia, he took advantage of the fact that an
+epidemic of infantile cholera had broken out in order to continue his
+former investigations of that disease. The numerous cases which he
+thus studied allowed him finally to establish the specific part of the
+_B. proteus_ as well as the similarity between infantile cholera and
+Asiatic cholera. This time he succeeded in contaminating, not only
+young anthropoid apes, but also new-born rabbits, and that not only
+through sick children's excreta, but by pure cultures of the _proteus_,
+which eliminated every doubt of the specificity of this microbe.
+
+Metchnikoff explained the contamination of children exclusively
+breast-fed, either by the presence of a carrier personally refractory,
+among the entourage, or by the transport of dirt, by means of flies,
+on the objects which infants so readily put into their mouths.
+He therefore advised preventive means of absolute hygiene and
+cleanliness, especially where suckling infants are concerned.
+
+During the year 1912, he studied the intestinal flora and the influence
+of divers food diets. He experimented upon the rat, an omnivorous
+animal whose mode of feeding resembles that of man. The rats were
+divided into three lots, of which one was kept to a meat diet, another
+to a vegetarian régime, and the third to a mixture of both. The meat
+diet was least favourable, and the best results obtained by the mixed
+food.
+
+These observations led Metchnikoff to the study of other problems
+intimately connected with the same question.
+
+He undertook a series of researches in collaboration with his pupils,
+MM. Berthelot and Wollman, on the conditions which cause the diminution
+within the organism of the toxic products of intestinal microbes. They
+found that the quantity of these products was very small in those
+animals which feed on vegetable or fruit containing much sugar, such
+as carrots, beetroot, dates, etc. This is explained by the fact that
+the products of the decomposition of sugar are acids which prevent the
+development of putrefying microbes. But the sugar, rapidly absorbed by
+the walls of the small intestine, only reaches the large intestine in a
+much reduced quantity, for it is only up to a certain point during its
+journey that the cellulose of vegetables, rich in sugar, protects that
+substance. The question, therefore, was to find the means of making
+it reach the large intestine in greater quantities. In the intestine
+of a normal dog, an innocuous microbe was found, the _Glycobacter
+peptonicus_, which decomposes starch into sugar.
+
+Metchnikoff made some laboratory animals ingest this microbe together
+with food, and ascertained that it reached the large intestine and
+decomposed in it the starch of farinaceous food into sugar, of which
+the acid products prevented the swarming of putrefying microbes. By
+this process it is possible to reduce to a minimum and even sometimes
+to eliminate the production of phenol and indol in rats subjected to a
+mixed diet and made at the same time to ingest cultures of the lactic
+bacillus and of the glycobacter.
+
+Metchnikoff applied these different diets to himself and to other
+individuals and obtained concordant results.
+
+However, he ascertained that it is not only the food diet which
+regulates the quantity of microbian poisons contained in the organism;
+that quantity sometimes varies very much in spite of an identical
+diet. He thought that a very important part of influence is due to
+pre-existing microbes which prevent or favour the development of
+microbes of putrefaction. All these questions, complicated by the
+richness and variety of the intestinal flora, still demanded a long
+series of laborious researches.
+
+At the end of the winter he felt tired, and we went to the seaside
+during the holidays. But the sharp sea air did not suit him; he had
+a beginning of cardiac asthma and nearly fainted during a walk. We
+therefore had to come away from the sea, and went inland, to Eu. At the
+beginning of our stay, Metchnikoff did not feel well, walking tired
+him, he suffered from cardiac intermittence; it was only gradually
+that his condition improved and he was able to write the preface to a
+Russian edition of his philosophical articles.
+
+This book was entitled _Forty Years' Search for a Rational Conception
+of Life_, and the articles record the evolution of his ideas and his
+search "not only for a rational understanding of life, but also for the
+solution of the problem of death, which is so full of contradictions."
+
+This collection of articles enables us at the same time to follow the
+gradual transition from the pessimism of his youth to the optimism of
+his maturity. His first writings[28] relate to the discords of human
+nature and the lack of a solid basis for morals.
+
+  [28] _Education from an Anthropological Point of View_, _The
+       Matrimonial Age_, _The Conception of Human Nature_, _The
+       Struggle for Existence in a General Sense_. See Bibliography.
+
+But, already in 1883, he concluded an opening _Causerie_ at the
+Naturalists' Congress in Odessa, by the following words: "The
+theoretical study of natural history problems, in the widest sense of
+the word, alone can give a sound method for the comprehension of truth
+and lead to a definite conception of life--or at least to an approach
+to it."
+
+Another article, _The Curative Forces of the Organism_, sums up his
+phagocyte theory, and states the fact that the organism possesses
+special powers of struggle against enemy elements.
+
+In 1891, he wrote _The Law of Life_, in which we find the dawning idea
+that the lack of harmony in human structure does not make a happy
+existence and a rational code of morals impossible. Morals must consist
+"not in rules of conduct adapted to our present defective human nature,
+but on conduct based upon human nature modified, according to the ideal
+of human happiness."
+
+_The Flora of the Human Body_, published in 1901, is a study in which
+Metchnikoff's optimism assumes a definite form, for he speaks of the
+efficacy of certain means of struggling with our lack of harmony.
+
+The last chapter in the book, "A Conception of Life and of Medical
+Science," introducing the word Orthobiosis, strikes the optimistic
+chord, winged and conclusive, which must result from victory over the
+disharmonies of human nature. This is Metchnikoff's ultimate formula,
+summing up the problems of life and of morals:
+
+  The ethical problem reduces itself to this: to allow the majority of
+  human beings to reach life's goal, that is, to accomplish the whole
+  cycle of a rational existence to its natural end. We are still very
+  far from that. We can but sketch the rules to follow in order to
+  attain this ideal. Its final realisation will demand more scientific
+  researches, which must be allowed the widest and freest scope. It is
+  to be foreseen that existence will have to be modified in many ways.
+  Orthobiosis demands an active, healthy, and sober life, devoid of
+  luxury and excess.
+
+  We must therefore modify present customs and eliminate those extremes
+  of wealth and poverty which now bring us so many evils. As time goes
+  on, when Science has caused present evils to disappear, when men no
+  longer tremble for the life and welfare of their dear ones, when
+  individual life follows a normal course--then Man can attain a higher
+  level and more easily devote himself to exalted goals.
+
+  Then Art and pure Science will occupy the place which is due to them
+  and which they lack at the present moment in consequence of our many
+  cares. Let us hope that men will understand their true interests and
+  contribute to the progress of orthobiosis.
+
+  Many efforts are necessary, much self-sacrifice, but they will be
+  attenuated by the consciousness of an activity directed towards the
+  real goal of human existence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+                            First our pleasures die, and then
+                            Our hopes, and then--our fears, and when
+                            These are dead--the debt is due.
+                            Dust claims dust--and we die too.
+
+                                                            SHELLEY.
+
+  Unpleasant incidents--The fabrication of lacto-bacilli--St.
+  Léger-en-Yvelines--Return to Paris--First cardiac attack--Evolution
+  of the death-instinct--Notes on his symptoms.
+
+
+The end of 1912 had some unexpected emotions in store for us.
+
+Metchnikoff had always been able to congratulate himself on the cordial
+hospitality which he had found in France, and to the end of his life he
+remained deeply grateful for it.
+
+But, in any country, incidents may occur about which it would be
+unjust to generalise when they are due to individuals or to particular
+limited circles, as was the fact in the present case. In spite of the
+broad and generous ideas so widespread in France, a sudden current
+of narrow nationalism became manifest, at this moment, in certain
+quarters. Foreigners were accused of invading the country, of occupying
+lucrative posts and increasing the difficulties of the bitter struggle
+for existence. At first, only vague allusions were made, but, little
+by little, the attacks of that nationalist circle went beyond all
+bounds of justice and decency and turned into brutal provocations. The
+contemptuous word _métèque_ was resuscitated.
+
+One newspaper especially led a furious propaganda and hesitated at no
+means of overwhelming its victims, one of whom was Metchnikoff.
+
+Those coarse attacks might have been ignored with the contempt which
+they deserved had they not been echoed by a writer in a serious
+publication. Dr. Roux then wrote a reply in the same paper, and the
+campaign ceased.
+
+A proverb says with truth, "Slander away! something will always
+stick." And it was thus in this case. Metchnikoff was reproached with
+having made money by his scientific discoveries. The story of his
+whole life and the fact that he left no fortune should suffice to
+answer this calumny, yet I am obliged to dwell on it, though I should
+have preferred not to do so. The incident is too characteristic of
+Metchnikoff to be omitted in this biography, which must be a faithful
+testimony. The calumny was based on a real fact, but the interpretation
+of it was absolutely false. After Metchnikoff's experiments on the
+lactic bacillus, a notion of the hygienic power of pure sour milk began
+to spread among the public. A manufacturer had the idea of preparing
+it on a large scale, according to the new scientific principles, and
+wished to form a company to that effect; he asked Metchnikoff to
+recommend to him some one whom he could entrust with the technical work
+of preparing the pure curded milk. It happened that we were just then
+trying to find a post for a young couple in whom we were interested,
+and whose child was my husband's goddaughter. He trained his protégé
+in the technique required, and was therefore able to recommend him.
+A short time later, the manufacturer declared that he could not be
+sure of the success of his enterprise without the guarantee of the
+name of Metchnikoff, whose researches had proved the advantages of
+the preparation in question. After consulting the legal adviser of
+the Pasteur Institute, Metchnikoff consented to this, without of
+course having any pecuniary interest in it; the formula chosen was,
+"sole provider of Professor Metchnikoff." The undertaking succeeded,
+and our protégé's future was assured. Metchnikoff himself, however,
+was attacked and accused most unjustly, though he had never made any
+personal profit whatever from the enterprise. And yet, when his friends
+told him that it had been very reckless on his part thus to expose
+himself, he answered that he thought it impossible to hesitate between
+the welfare of a whole family and the possibility of gossip. His
+reasoning was imprudent and perhaps erroneous, but he never hesitated
+between doing a kindness and the possible unpleasant consequences it
+might have for himself. If some people could not understand him, it was
+because he was far from the commonplace, "not like other people," a
+quality often misunderstood and unforgiven.
+
+Such are the facts. "Honi soit qui mal y pense!"
+
+The desire to lessen the ills around him was, in general, the cause of
+heavy anxieties in his later years. He had learnt that the discovery of
+an industrial process, of which the realisation required capital, would
+be an excellent investment. He immediately wished to make his friends
+profit by it, as well as himself, in order to alleviate material
+difficulties. But until the end of his life the undertaking had no
+results, and he was obsessed by the fear of having given bad advice to
+those who followed him.
+
+He knew not how to refuse, even when he should have done so; therefore
+he was odiously exploited. Often he worked, in his rare leisure
+moments, for people who were unworthy of his kindness. During the last
+years of his life, all these incidents grieved him so much that he used
+to say he felt the burden of existence. His soul was darkened, he felt
+very depressed, and his health suffered.
+
+We spent the summer holidays of 1913 at St. Léger-en-Yvelines, a
+pretty place on the edge of the Rambouillet forest. In his choice of a
+holiday resort, my husband was always guided by the desire to find a
+place favourable to my sketching, and St. Léger answered the purpose
+wonderfully. The fields with their vast horizons, the forest with its
+graceful bracken and carpets of softly-tinted heather, the mysterious
+ponds, all went to compose an admirable symphony, full of artistic
+suggestion.
+
+Elie himself was gay and full of spirits. He worked in the morning, and
+we spent the rest of the day in the forest. He often read aloud; he
+rested and enjoyed the peaceful calm, pure air, and verdure which he
+loved so much.
+
+He had arranged to take advantage of these holidays to execute work of
+which he had been thinking for a long time. As it has been said above,
+he thought that the life instinct was only developed gradually and
+produced at the same time an optimistic conception of life; he wished
+to verify this personal impression by the psychological evolution of
+divers other thinkers. He turned to Maeterlinck, as a representative of
+modern ideas. This author, mystical and pessimistic in his youth, had
+acquired in his maturity a far more optimistic conception of life. He
+himself explained this change by the influence of circumstances, but
+Metchnikoff saw in it a deeper cause, connected with the progressive
+evolution of the vital instinct which, by bringing equilibrium with
+it, suggests optimism. The study of Maeterlinck's works confirmed his
+opinion.
+
+Time flowed peacefully between rest and these occupations; at the end
+of the holidays, we congratulated ourselves on their result on my
+husband's health; on our return, his friends thought him looking well.
+Yet on the 19th October, about seven in the morning, he had a terrible
+cardiac attack without any apparent cause. I found him seated at his
+desk, and was terrified by his appearance; his lips were blue, and he
+was breathing with difficulty. And yet he was writing, and this is what
+he was writing:
+
+                           SÈVRES, _19th October 1913_, 7.45 A.M.
+
+  This morning, after a good night, my heart was working well; I had
+  from 58 to 59 regular pulsations. But, as I rose, I suddenly felt
+  acute pain along the sternum; at the same time began a strong crisis
+  of tachycardia. I had never in my life felt anything like it....
+
+Here he had to stop as the crisis was becoming intolerable, but a few
+hours later he took up his pen again:
+
+                                           _19th October_, 3 P.M.
+
+  The crisis lasted till one o'clock (six hours' duration).
+
+  There were times when the pain in the chest was unendurable.
+
+  I was thirsty and drank hot, weak tea; I vomited; I felt wind in the
+  stomach and the intestine. About noon the pain decreased, but the
+  heart-beats were frequent and extremely irregular. I lunched in
+  order not to alarm my wife, though I feared to aggravate the attack
+  by filling my stomach.
+
+  But the opposite happened. From the first mouthfuls (I naturally
+  eat very little) the pain became more tolerable and the pulse less
+  frequent. After lunch, everything became normal again; the pain
+  ceased, the pulsations slackened (78-80 per min.) and became much
+  more regular. Intermittence was rare, and I several times counted
+  100 regular beats in succession. I remained absolutely conscious
+  during the whole crisis, and what chiefly pleased me is that I felt
+  no fear of death, which I was expecting at every moment. It was not
+  only _reasoning_ which made me understand that it was better to die
+  now, whilst my intellectual powers had not yet gone from me and I had
+  evidently accomplished all of what I was capable; I resigned myself
+  also _in feeling_, and quite serenely to the catastrophe which was
+  coming upon me and which would be far from unexpected.
+
+  My mother, who had suffered from heart attacks during a great part of
+  her life, died at 65. My father died of apoplexy in his 68th year.
+
+  My eldest sister succumbed to an oedema of the brain; my brother
+  Nicholas died at 57 of _angina pectoris_.
+
+  Undoubtedly my cardiac heredity is a bad one. Already in my youth, I
+  suffered from my heart. At 33 I had such cardiac pains that sometimes
+  I had to rest after walking a few paces. At 34, I had much giddiness
+  and a feeling of heaviness in the head. I could not read a few lines,
+  a poster even, without a painful sensation. In 1881, during relapsing
+  fever, I had severe cardiac intermittence, very fatiguing and only
+  relieved by small doses of digitalin.
+
+  I afterwards had periodical attacks of intermittence but never any
+  tachycardia, at least none that lasted more than a few seconds.
+  A little tincture of strophanthus used to relieve me during
+  intermittence. I ended by consulting Dr. Vaquez, but the treatment
+  he prescribed gave me no relief. As I attributed my condition to
+  poisoning by the toxins of intestinal microbes, I resolved to give
+  up raw food and to purge myself now and then with Carabaña water.
+  The success of this treatment was indisputable, and in 1897 the
+  intermittence ceased. In the autumn of 1898 I was beginning to suffer
+  from polyuria; I consulted Albaran, who counselled Contrexéville
+  water, but this cure caused the appearance of _albumen_ in my urine.
+  In 1898 I consulted Norden at Frankfort and Leube in Paris during
+  the Exhibition of 1900. Neither found anything alarming. Norden had
+  told me that I had _symptoms of arterio-sclerosis inherent to my age_
+  (53). I adopted a mixed diet; I took, regularly, sour milk prepared
+  with cultures of the Bulgarian lactic bacillus, and, during some
+  years, my health was quite satisfactory.
+
+  It was only after my journey to Russia in 1909 that a notable
+  aggravation supervened. I felt acute pains in the chest, along the
+  sternum, especially after eating or walking.
+
+  In 1911 the intermittence reappeared. In January 1911, I consulted
+  Dr. Heitz in order to know whether I could undertake an expedition in
+  the Kalmuk steppes, where hygienic conditions are very unfavourable.
+  Dr. Heitz found my heart hypertrophied, some slight galloping noise,
+  the blood-pressure (Pachon's apparatus) 17-16-15. He said, however,
+  that I might undertake the journey, but added, "People die suddenly
+  with less the matter than that with their hearts." The journey went
+  well, though I suffered from frequent intermittence and pains along
+  the sternum when I walked.
+
+  After my return, my heart was fairly satisfactory.
+
+  What consoles me especially is that I have preserved my activity, my
+  passion for work, and my intellectual powers. But, naturally, I am
+  ready to die at any moment.
+
+  At the beginning of the summer I was sounded by Dr. Manoukhine and
+  Professor Tchistovitch; both thought the heart-sounds satisfactory,
+  but Manoukhine was rather struck by the weakness of the first
+  aortic sound whilst the second was very strong. I had frequent
+  intermittence, but with intervals of normal pulsations. Latterly I
+  have felt better in that respect, and the pain along the sternum only
+  occurred in exceptional cases.
+
+  Whilst preparing for my end, I am glad that I can face it with
+  courage and serenity.
+
+  As I look back upon my life, it seems to me to have been as
+  "orthobiotic" as possible.
+
+  If it may seem premature to die at 68 years and 5 months, it must not
+  be forgotten that I began to live very early (I published my first
+  scientific work at 18); that I have had many emotions during my life;
+  that I was, so to speak, in a state of continual ebullition.
+
+  The polemics concerning phagocytosis might have killed or finally
+  enfeebled me much earlier. At times (for instance, I refer to
+  Lubarsch's attacks in 1889 and those of Pfeiffer in 1894) I was ready
+  to rid myself of life.
+
+  Moreover, I only began to follow a rational hygiene (according
+  to my opinion) after I was 53 years old and already had symptoms
+  of arterio-sclerosis. I have been fairly successful in combating
+  intestinal putrefaction (phenols and indols),[29] but I could not
+  succeed in getting rid of abundant _clostridium butyricum_ which were
+  implanted in my intestine.
+
+  To sum up, I rejoice that I have had an existence not devoid of
+  sense, and I feel some satisfaction in considering my conception of
+  the problem of life as being accurate.
+
+  As I prepare to die, I have not the shadow of a hope of a life
+  beyond, and I calmly look forward to complete annihilation.
+
+  It is possible that having very early begun a very intense life, I
+  have attained at 68 a precocious satiety of living, just as certain
+  women cease to menstruate earlier than the great majority.
+
+                                                 EL. METCHNIKOFF.
+
+  _P.S._--I believe everything is in order in view of my end (my will,
+  my affairs, etc.).
+
+  _P.S._--Let those who think that, according to my principles, I
+  should have lived a hundred years, "forgive" me my premature end in
+  view of the extenuating circumstances above-mentioned (intense and
+  precocious activity, excitable temperament, nervous disposition, and
+  late beginning of the rational diet).
+
+                                                            E. M.
+
+  [29] 28th _June_ 1914.--I have again analysed my urine and I
+       again find indican in fairly large quantities in spite of
+       a diet which is as rational as possible. I am trying to
+       elucidate this strange contradiction.
+
+The very next day he felt well enough to return to his work.
+
+When urged to settle down in Paris in order to avoid the fatigue of
+the journey, he replied that the peace and pure air of Sèvres were
+indispensable to his health, that the journey did not fatigue him in
+the least, but on the contrary provided him with wholesome exercise and
+a pleasant walk. Knowing how prudent he was, I did not dare to insist
+for fear of mistaking what was really best for him. And life gradually
+resumed its normal course....
+
+For a long time Metchnikoff had been observing himself very
+attentively; he took regular notes on the influence of the food
+diet which he followed; by the analysis of his urine, he sought for
+indications respecting the toxic products of his intestinal flora; he
+studied upon himself the advance of senility, whitening of hair, etc.
+
+Since his crisis he had adopted the habit of writing occasional notes
+on his psychical state. This is what he wrote on the 23rd December 1913
+at Sèvres:
+
+  Two months and more have passed since I wrote the preceding lines.
+  During that period my health has been satisfactory; nevertheless I
+  have wondered every day whether it would be my last.
+
+  I am therefore hastening to write my memoir on infantile cholera.
+
+  The cardiac intermittence has been more or less frequent, yet every
+  day I have had periods of regular pulsations (58-66-72 per minute) as
+  usual.
+
+  The day before yesterday I contracted a bad cold, accompanied by a
+  little fever. Wondering if it would degenerate into pneumonia, I
+  faced anew the possibility of a near end, and I resumed the analysis
+  of my thoughts, feelings, and sensations.
+
+  As my 70 years draw near to their close, it seems to me that a
+  feeling of satiety with life, what I call the "natural death
+  instinct," is gently beginning to evolve.
+
+  When, in autumn 1910, experimenting with typhoid cultures, I had
+  soiled my face and mouth, I naturally said to myself that it might
+  give me typhoid fever. I washed my face and beard with soap and a
+  solution of sublimate without considering that I was safe against
+  the infection. I _reasoned_ that it would be preferable to contract
+  the disease and to die of it. (At my age typhoid fever is almost
+  always fatal. I had never had it, and might therefore consider myself
+  in a state of receptivity.) It is fine to fall on the battlefield,
+  especially at an age when life and activity are already on the
+  wane. But all that was pure _reasoning_; _instinctively_ I still
+  felt a great desire to live, and it was with joy that I counted
+  the days which separated me from the danger of having contracted
+  typhoid fever. I felt much relieved a fortnight after the incident,
+  considering that the limit of incubation was passed.
+
+  Thus _reasoning_ and feeling or _instinct_ were not in accord.
+
+  Since then, in the three following years, a modification has taken
+  place in my psychical condition.
+
+  The prospect of death _frightens me less than before_. During my
+  cardiac crisis of the 19th October 1913 I even felt no fear of death,
+  and my satisfaction at my recovery was _less_ than before.
+
+  I think it is that difference in quantity which constitutes the first
+  symptoms of _indifference_ towards death, an indifference which is
+  hardly perceptible at first.
+
+  Satiety with life is sometimes observed in old people of 80; it is
+  not surprising to feel the first approach of it about 70, especially
+  in the case of a man like myself who began very early to lead a very
+  intense life.
+
+  Other special circumstances influence even more this precocious
+  satiety of life. As I become more indifferent to my own life I feel
+  a more and more acute anxiety for the health, life, and happiness of
+  those who are dear to me.
+
+  I am especially troubled by a consciousness of the imperfection
+  of modern medicine. In spite of the progress realised in these
+  latter days, it is still powerless against a multitude of diseases,
+  threatening us on all sides.
+
+  Pulmonary lesions (tuberculosis, pneumonia, etc.), the nephrites, and
+  an infinite quantity of other diseases can yet neither be prevented
+  nor cured. So we live in constant fear for those we love. When
+  medicine shall (as I am persuaded) have conquered all these evils,
+  one cause of the bitterness of life will cease--but that is not yet
+  the case.
+
+  That is why, besides the weakening of the life-instinct, a
+  resignation towards death grows in us, as a means of no longer
+  feeling the ills which afflict our neighbours.
+
+  With time, when that source of unhappiness has been eliminated by
+  medicine, old age will be more attractive, and an orthobiotic life
+  will become normal and realisable.
+
+  At the ages of 50, 60, 65, I felt an intense joy in living, such as I
+  described in my _Studies on Human Nature_ and _Optimistic Essays_. In
+  the last few years it has lessened markedly.
+
+  Scientific work still provokes in me an invincible enthusiasm, but I
+  am becoming more indifferent to many of the pleasures of life.
+
+And indeed he no longer had the joyous soul of former days; into his
+life a funereal note had crept, low but continuous and obstinate. He
+gave all the more energy to the study of those questions the solution
+of which was to bring about the reign of orthobiosis. He spent
+the whole winter in researches on the intestinal flora and on the
+completion of his studies on infantile cholera.
+
+In the spring, on the occasion of his anniversary, he wrote the
+following:
+
+                                         SÈVRES, _16th May 1914_.
+
+  I have to-day entered my 70th year; it is a great event for me. As I
+  analyse my feelings, I realise more and more the _weakening_ of my
+  "life-instinct."
+
+  In order to verify my impressions, I wished to hear again the
+  musical compositions which formerly used to make me shed tears of
+  enthusiasm (for instance, Beethoven's 7th Symphony or Bach's aria
+  for the violin). Well, my impressionability towards music has very
+  much lessened. In spite of the facility with which old people weep, I
+  hardly shed a single tear, save with rare exceptions.
+
+  I observe the same change in other circumstances.
+
+  This spring, the blossoming of flowers, buds, bushes, and trees, all
+  this renascence of nature, has not excited in me a shadow of the
+  emotion of preceding years.
+
+  Rather I felt a melancholy, not on account of my coming end, but
+  because of the consciousness of the burden of existence.
+
+  There is no question for me now of the old joy of living; my
+  predominant feeling is _infinite anxiety_ for the health and
+  happiness of those I love. I now so well understand Pettenkoffer,
+  who committed suicide at 84 after losing all his family. Their
+  death had evidently been precocious because of the impotence of
+  medicine. At every step, one comes across cases where neither
+  hygiene nor therapeutics can do anything. How many are infected with
+  tuberculosis, no one knows how or where. What is to be done to avoid
+  it? And the consequences of measles, of scarlet fever, perhaps of a
+  simple sore throat, followed sometimes by tuberculosis or nephritis!
+
+  What is the use of being able to foretell, by means of the proportion
+  of urea in the blood, the precise moment of the death of an
+  "azotemic" patient when you cannot prevent it or cure him?
+
+  This imperfection of medical science prevents many from reaching true
+  _orthobiosis_, and it is understandable that, seeing the present
+  state of medicine, the feeling of the "burden of existence" may be
+  precocious, as in my case.
+
+  But it is indubitable that, in spite of the slowness with which
+  medical science is developing, it will in the future reach a degree
+  which will enable us to cease to tremble any longer before all sorts
+  of incurable diseases. Orthobiosis will then appear, no longer under
+  its present incomplete form, but as the solid and essential basis of
+  life.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+  Return to St. Léger-en-Yvelines--Norka--Studies on the death of the
+  silk-worm moth--War declared--Mobilisation.
+
+
+The drawback of the holidays consisted, for Metchnikoff, in coming away
+from his laboratory and in the impossibility of following his diet in a
+hotel or a boarding-house. We therefore resolved to hire a cottage in
+some quiet place, to organise a small laboratory, and to continue our
+usual mode of life.
+
+St. Legér-en-Yvelines, where we had spent part of the preceding summer,
+answered all our requirements. We took a small villa there and called
+it "Norka," which means in Russian "little hole," "little refuge," and
+came there for the holidays in July 1914.
+
+Elie seemed pleased to be there; thanks to the laboratory, he could
+easily vary his occupations, for continuous reading fatigued him. His
+reflections having led him to the problem of natural death, he had
+for some time been seeking for a subject on which he could study the
+mechanism of the phenomenon. He had formerly studied the May-flies
+(Ephemeridæ), predestined to a natural death by their rudimentary
+buccal organs, incapable of use in feeding. But the life of those
+insects, a life of a few hours or a few days at the most, was too short
+to allow the necessary researches. The males of the Rotifera, which are
+also deprived of buccal organs and even of digestive organs, were too
+small in size for physiological experiments. Thus, those two examples
+of natural death among multicellular beings were unsuitable to the
+projected study.
+
+He found a more favourable subject in the moth of the silk-worm
+(_Bombyx mori_); the rudimentary buccal organs of that insect make all
+feeding impossible and predestine it to a natural death. The dimensions
+of the silk-worm moth are large enough and it has a life duration of
+twenty-five or thirty days, therefore sufficient to allow the study of
+the mechanism by which its death is brought about. Metchnikoff procured
+a quantity of silk-worms, and soon the moths hatched and covered all
+the mantelpieces and tables in Norka with white flakes. He ascertained
+that it was not hunger which brought about the death of the moths, for
+their organism was not in the least exhausted.
+
+The nutrition of the latter takes place at the expense of the fatty
+substance which remains after the metamorphosis of the chrysalis into
+a moth. The dissolution of this fatty substance produces toxins which
+pass into the urine. Thus the obvious cause of the death of the moth
+is an acid intoxication by toxic urine secreted in the bladder. As the
+latter does not empty itself, uræmia becomes inevitable.
+
+The majority of moths contain no micro-organisms which could suggest
+death by infection.
+
+The only theoretic objection against a natural death might consist
+in the existence of "invisible microbes." Indeed, the question
+of invisible microbes revealed in certain infections perturbed
+Metchnikoff's mind to such an extent that, during his last illness,
+he used to say that it would have been a curse to his ulterior
+activity, a sort of ghost preventing all definite conclusions in
+problems connected with the absence or presence of microbes. The last
+word on natural death, he said, will only be spoken when, owing to
+the improvement of the microscope, those microbes which are as yet
+invisible to us will become visible. Nevertheless, as far as can be
+judged at present, the death of the _Bombyx mori_ is due, not to
+external causes, but to the structure of the insect itself, and is
+therefore a natural death.
+
+During these holidays, Metchnikoff also wrote reminiscences of his
+friend the physiologist Setchénoff.[30]
+
+  [30] In the Russian Review, _Messenger of Europe_.
+
+We went quietly for fairly long walks; Metchnikoff rested on the shores
+of his favourite lake (Vilpert), and his health was very satisfactory.
+
+After the intense heat, some rain came and the weather became ideal;
+there was a perceptible lull in nature; the underwood was becoming
+purple with heather; the corn was ripening; harvest had begun, and
+sheaves stood up in the fields. All was calm and peaceful; we never
+tired of the charm of the forest, of the fields, of the beautiful
+rustic surroundings, and our souls sang in unison with Nature....
+
+Suddenly, like a flash of lightning in the pure sky, the news of the
+war burst out!
+
+The possibility had so often been mentioned in late years that no one
+believed in it. Even now, on the eve of the catastrophe, it was hoped
+that all would settle down....
+
+Until the last moment Metchnikoff refused to believe in it; he could
+not admit that a pacific solution was impossible. "How is it possible
+that in Europe, in a civilised country, mutual interests should not be
+reconciled without killing?" he said. "A war would be madness, even
+from the point of view of Germany, who risks having to face three great
+powers. No, war is not possible."
+
+And yet war was spreading all over Europe.
+
+The situation of France seemed critical, for the country had just gone
+through a series of internal storms. The labour question, that of
+income tax, and that of the three years' military service had raised
+sharp controversies; the Caillaux affair had revealed hidden sores in
+political life; the insane assassination of Jaurès, of which the reason
+was still unknown, gave rise to the blackest prognostications.
+
+Already on the 28th July, date of the declaration of war by Austria
+against Serbia, anxiety had become intense, but it was hoped that
+Russia would settle matters between the two countries, and that the
+trouble would remain local.
+
+On the 1st August, Germany declared war on Russia, and it became
+obvious that the storm was coming on apace. The aspect of life suddenly
+changed; a feeling of dread and expectancy unnerved everybody;
+mobilisation was mentioned; automobiles at full speed hurried along the
+roads; the harvest was hastily gathered.... We could no longer work, go
+for walks, or admire nature without a feeling of heavy anxiety.
+
+We went about like automatons, all our thoughts centred on one
+point--the threatening, inevitable war. Everything had put on a
+sinister aspect, and Nature herself joined in the general gloom; the
+weather became stormy, thunder rolled alarmingly, heavy clouds hurried
+and met in a gigantic struggle, evoking the image of other coming
+struggles. During the night of the 1st August the storm never ceased,
+we could not sleep; all night long, frenzied automobiles raced along
+the high road, sounding their lugubrious horns. In the middle of the
+night, we heard some one knocking at the doors of the police station
+opposite. What was happening? In the darkness, illumined by flashes of
+lightning, we saw horsemen with lanterns; they were messengers bringing
+the orders for mobilisation. It was proclaimed the next day.
+
+The population gathered at the _mairie_, a grave, silent crowd; the few
+words exchanged only concerned war and partings. Old men, who had lived
+through 1870, were low-spirited; young ones, on the contrary, were
+excited.
+
+We had to think of our return home, which might be difficult later.
+We went into the forest for the last time; the evening was mild and
+calm after the storm. The peace and beauty around us were such that
+we longed not to believe in the terrible reality. But we had to bid
+farewell to all that had charmed us. We went once again into the
+meadows near Norka. The hayricks were standing in rows, their soft,
+golden silhouettes harmoniously outlined against the hilly background
+purple with heather. We sat down on the mown grass. Suddenly, in the
+calm of the evening, bells began to sound. It was not the distant and
+poetic call for vespers, nor the sad sound of the passing bell, but the
+hard, sinister, ill-omened tocsin, warning the whole countryside, down
+to the most distant, most peaceful hamlets and to the wood-cutters in
+the forest, that mobilisation had commenced....
+
+Another storm broke out in the night. Again the rolling of the
+thunder shook our nerves and seemed like the echo of distant battles;
+again mysterious automobiles and horsemen raced along the road, and
+everything, every sound, every shadow seemed sinister.
+
+We did not feel any fear, but a kind of insupportable nervous tension.
+Later, when we were much nearer real danger, we did not experience this
+electric, almost morbid feeling.
+
+The next day, Germany had declared war on France.
+
+It was only with much difficulty that we found a carriage to take us
+to the station. On the road we were constantly being passed by various
+vehicles, crowded with soldiers and young men going off. The little
+station was full of people, the train also. Moved and excited, the
+people shouted, "Vive la France!" and sent friendly salutes to unknown
+soldiers in the train. Women, seeing their men off, were trying to be
+gay; they encouraged the departing ones, and only wept after they were
+gone. The general impression, both moral and material, was excellent;
+every one seemed equal to his task, conscious of his duty, and desirous
+of fulfilling it well. The mobilisation seemed well organised,
+everything was being accomplished without any flurry or bustle, even
+the trains were almost punctual.
+
+All small personal interests and party quarrels which had latterly
+poisoned life now suddenly disappeared; everywhere the desire to be
+useful was noticeable; people became better, there was more sympathy,
+more solidarity; the distance between classes seemed to decrease, the
+common trial made all equal.
+
+There was beauty in that moment, for it showed that the greatest of
+evils might yet exalt and purify the human soul.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXV
+
+  Return to Paris--The deserted Institute--Memoir on the Founders of
+  Modern Medicine--Metchnikoff's Jubilee--Last holidays at Norka.
+
+
+This was but the beginning of the war; soon it spread with vertiginous
+rapidity, and made its cruel destructive force felt.
+
+On our return from Norka, we found everything on a war footing. The
+very next morning, Metchnikoff hurried to the laboratory. He only
+reached Paris with some difficulty, all means of communication being
+encumbered by soldiers. He had left the house nervous and excited but
+full of courage and energy. I shall never forget his return home....
+
+I was awaiting him as usual, just outside the station, and, as he got
+out of the train, I did not recognise him. I saw a stooping old man,
+bent as under a heavy burden; his usual vivacity was gone, and had
+given place to the deepest depression.
+
+He told me in a broken voice that the Institute was already deserted;
+that it was under the orders of the military authorities, and
+completely disorganised for scientific work. The younger men were
+mobilised; the laboratories empty; the animals used for experiments had
+been killed on account of the departure of the servants, and for fear
+of a lack of food. Everything that had been devoted to the service of
+science and of research into means of preserving life had been handed
+over to the service of war. Normal and cultured life was arrested. And
+that was the outcome of civilisation.
+
+Metchnikoff felt as if he had suddenly been dropped into the abyss of
+centuries, into the times of human savagery. He could not accustom
+his mind to the idea of such a fall; it seemed to him a paradox, an
+impossibility, that civilised peoples could not do without sanguinary
+fights in order to solve questions of mutual relations.
+
+The events which were taking place agitated and depressed him all the
+more that he had not the possibility of becoming absorbed in scientific
+investigations; he was completely thrown off his balance.
+
+And as, one by one, the news came of the death in action of several
+of the young men who had left the Institute, Metchnikoff's grief knew
+no limits. He could not bear the idea, now a terrible reality, that
+these brilliant young lives should be sacrificed, victims of those who
+should have directed the peoples towards peace and a rational life,
+and who, instead of that, threw the most precious part of humanity
+into the abyss of death. War became a dark, sinister background to
+his daily life. The victims of war were not only those who fell on
+the battle-field, but included him whose whole life-effort had been
+directed towards the conservation of human existence and the search
+for rational conceptions. The contrast between his aspirations and the
+cruel reality had been to him a blow which his sensitive and suffering
+heart was not fit to bear.
+
+The Germans were advancing rapidly. Then came the sad days of panic,
+when the inhabitants were leaving Paris in numbers and the Government
+started for Bordeaux. At night, the sky was swept by the gigantic,
+luminous sword of the searchlights; the rumble of cannon could be heard
+in the distance....
+
+Metchnikoff, however, had no personal fear whatever. He very simply
+decided on his course of action, which was to remain at the Institute
+if his presence there could be of use; if not, to retire to some quiet
+place where he could work. As there was hardly any staff left at the
+Institute on account of the mobilisation, he did not go away, but, on
+the contrary, we came to live in Paris, the communication with Sèvres
+being very difficult.
+
+The day we arrived was that on which the first German aeroplanes
+appeared, and they dropped bombs near the St. Lazare station just as we
+were alighting from the train. For some time after that, they carried
+out a raid above Paris every Sunday.
+
+In spite of the disorganisation of his whole life, Metchnikoff had
+succeeded in resuming his work to a certain extent. He took advantage
+of an opportunity to observe an old dog who was suffering from
+diabetes, and hastened to examine his organs as soon as he died, whilst
+they were still fresh. He had for some time supposed that diabetes
+might be an infectious disease; yet he was unable to discover any
+specific microbe either in the humors or in the organs of the dog. But
+he succeeded in provoking symptoms of the disease (traces of sugar in
+the urine) in a healthy dog, by inoculating him with the pancreatic
+gland of the diabetic dog. He was much encouraged by this result,
+and would have liked to continue his researches, but was unable to
+do so because of the general disorganisation and the impossibility
+of obtaining animals for experiments. He had to content himself with
+continuing his memoir on infantile cholera and his observations on the
+silk-worm moth.
+
+As he was almost altogether precluded from laboratory work, he began
+to write a study on "The Founders of Modern Medicine," in order to
+demonstrate, by concrete examples, the importance of positive science
+in its application to life. This is what he said in his preface to the
+book:
+
+  These pages were written under special circumstances. If not in the
+  actual hearing of guns, it was in expectation of it that I had to
+  spend several weeks in my Paris laboratory, now under war conditions.
+  These meant an almost complete cessation of any scientific activity
+  in our Institute.
+
+  For fear of a lack of food, the animals used for our experiments had
+  been killed, which deprived us of the possibility of proceeding with
+  our researches.
+
+  The stables of the Institute were filled with cows who provided milk
+  for the hospitals and children's homes.
+
+  The greater number of our young collaborators, assistants, or
+  laboratory attendants were mobilised, and only the female employees
+  and old men remained. One of the latter, I found myself in the
+  impossibility of pursuing my investigations and in possession of much
+  leisure. I made use of it to write this book in the hope that it
+  might be helpful.
+
+  It is not intended for physicians, for they know all that is
+  expounded in it, but for young men who are seeking a scope for their
+  activities.
+
+  We may be sure that the insane war which broke out in consequence of
+  the lack of knowledge or of power of those who should have watched
+  over peace, will be followed by a long period of calm. It is to be
+  hoped that this unexampled butchery will, for a long time, do away
+  with the desire for fighting, and that soon the need will be felt
+  of a more rational activity. Let those who will have preserved the
+  combative instinct direct it towards a struggle, not against human
+  beings, but against the innumerable microbes, visible or invisible,
+  which threaten us on all sides and prevent us from accomplishing the
+  normal and complete cycle of our existence.
+
+  The results acquired by the progress of the new medical science allow
+  us to hope that, in a more or less distant future, humanity will be
+  freed from the principal diseases which oppress it.
+
+After describing the state of medical science before Pasteur, Lister,
+and Koch, Metchnikoff compared with it modern medicine, created by
+these three Founders, and showed the great horizons opened by them to
+the medicine of the future.
+
+On the 26th of September 1914, whilst we were still in Paris, he had,
+in the laboratory, an attack of tachycardia, which lasted three hours
+but was much less violent than that of the year before. The winter,
+however, passed fairly well in spite of the emotions and continuous
+excitement caused by the war, and he had no other attack until April
+1915, when again he had a slight tachycardiac crisis of a short
+duration. Yet he was very much changed: his hair was much whiter, his
+movements were slow, and his figure bent. His infectious gaiety and
+vivacity had disappeared, but he remained energetic and enthusiastic in
+his work, and gained more and more in serenity.
+
+Little children in the street called him "Father Christmas," and came
+confidingly to ask him for presents. They knew him well, and were aware
+that his pockets were always filled with sweets for them. He used
+to say that his growing love for children was the revelation of the
+grandfatherly instinct, for which he had reached the proper age. He
+especially loved one of his god-daughters, little Lili; he had become
+attached to the child on account of her kind heart and exceptional
+sweetness, and also because, from the cradle, she had shown a marked
+preference for him. And yet his love for children was not to him a
+source of joy, for anxiety on their account predominated over other
+feelings.
+
+In spite of the physical change which had supervened, his brain
+continued to work untiringly as in the past, and he tackled new
+problems with youthful courage and boldness. He had planned a work on
+the sexual question, which, according to him, was treated erroneously,
+with the result that grave disharmonies occurred in human existence.
+
+Thus he reached some quite revolutionary conclusions respecting
+education and marriage. He thought that morality should be set upon
+a quite different basis, new and rational; and that was the question
+which he prepared to treat.
+
+The 16th of May of that year was his seventieth anniversary.
+
+His satisfaction was great at having reached the normal limit of age,
+for he saw in that a conclusive proof of the efficacy of his hygiene.
+Indeed, he showed on that day a sort of rejuvenation: his aspect was
+quite different, he was gay and animated as he had not been for a long
+time.
+
+The Pasteur Institute celebrated his jubilee. In spite of the absence
+from "The House" of many members on account of the war, the library
+filled with people, and the fête had a cordial and intimate character.
+Dr. Roux's speech[31] will remain the best description of E. Metchnikoff
+and of his scientific activity. He himself responded to all those
+manifestations of sympathy by a spirited speech, in which, _à propos_
+of his own particular case, he expounded his ideas on senility and the
+duration of life in general. This is what he wrote on that same day in
+his note-book:
+
+  [31] _Annales de l'Institut Pasteur_, Jubilé d' E. Metchnikoff,
+       1915.
+
+  16th May 1915. To-day I have at last accomplished my seventy years!
+  I have attained the normal limit of life, a limit mentioned by King
+  David and confirmed by the statistical researches of Lexis and
+  Bodio.[32] I am still capable of work and of reflection. But the
+  changes in my psychical state which I had observed a year ago have
+  become sensibly accentuated. The difference in acuteness both of
+  pleasant and painful sensations is becoming more and more marked.
+  Agreeable sensations are becoming weaker; I am now indifferent to
+  many things which I used to appreciate very much.
+
+  It is useless to say that I am indifferent to the quality of my food;
+  my need of musical impressions has become so much less that I hardly
+  feel the desire to satisfy it. The charm of spring no longer touches
+  me and only provokes sadness in my mind.
+
+  On the other hand, my anxiety for the health and happiness of those
+  I love is getting more and more acute. I find it difficult to
+  understand how I ever could bear it.
+
+  The powerlessness of medicine grieves me more and more, and,
+  as a last straw, the war has interrupted all the work that had
+  been undertaken against disease. In these conditions, it is not
+  astonishing that I should feel a growing satiety with existence.
+  Last year [16th May 1914 to 16th May 1915] I had two attacks of
+  tachycardia, during which I should have been glad to die, but in
+  general my health is satisfactory and that sustains me. What would
+  have become of me if, to crown my misfortunes, I had fallen ill! I
+  certainly no longer fear death, but I desire to die suddenly during a
+  heart attack and not to go through a long illness.
+
+  My comparative longevity is not due to family heredity (my father
+  died in his 68th year, my mother in her 66th, my sister also, my
+  eldest brother at 45, my second brother at 50, the third in his 57th
+  year; my grandparents I have not known). It is to my hygiene that I
+  give the credit for having attained my 70 years in a satisfactory
+  condition. I have taken no raw food for eighteen years and I
+  introduce as many lactic bacilli as possible into my intestines. But
+  it is but a first step; in spite of all, I am being poisoned by the
+  bacteria of butyric fermentation. However, I have practically reached
+  the normal term of life and I must be satisfied. I have, so to speak,
+  accomplished the programme of a "reduced orthobiosis."
+
+  When macrobiotics become more perfect, when people have learnt how to
+  cultivate a suitable flora in the intestines of children as soon as
+  they are weaned from their mother's breast, the normal limit of life
+  will be put much further back and may extend to twice my 70 years.
+  Then, also, satiety with existence will appear much later than it has
+  done in my case.
+
+  To-day they celebrated my jubilee at the Pasteur Institute, which
+  touched me very much, in spite of my distrust of sentimental
+  manifestations, for I realised their sincerity. I should have liked
+  to set out a programme of the researches which should be accomplished
+  by the Pasteur Institute, but I feared to detain my audience too long.
+
+  I believe that Science will solve all the principal problems of Life
+  and Death and that she will enable human beings to accomplish their
+  vital cycle by real orthobiosis, not by a reduced caricature of it as
+  in my case. Nevertheless, I consider the experiment practised upon
+  myself as having already given some result and that is to me a real
+  satisfaction.
+
+  [32] _Annales de l'Institut Pasteur_, 1915.
+
+We spent that summer a few weeks at Norka, where Metchnikoff completed
+his researches concerning the death of the silk-worm moth.
+
+We went for delicious walks; we spent all the afternoon by the lake
+or under the pines in the heather, reading and working. Once only,
+during a walk, he had a strong cardiac intermittence, but as a rule
+he felt well. I could see, however, that he was obsessed by a grave
+preoccupation which he did not express. Later, during his last illness,
+he confessed to me that during the whole of that stay at St. Léger he
+had feared to die suddenly during one of our walks. The thought of my
+isolation weighed on his mind and he hid his anxiety so as not to alarm
+me....
+
+With a view to the work which he had planned on the sexual question,
+he interested himself in the influence that their sentimental life had
+had on the activity of great men, and we read together the biographies
+of Beethoven, Mozart, and Wagner. Elie was more than ever desirous of
+making our holidays as pleasant as possible, as if he already felt that
+they were our last. Here are more extracts from his note-book:
+
+                         ST. LÉGER-EN-YVELINES, _24th June 1916_.
+
+  When saying that I did not fear death, I had in view the dread of
+  annihilation. That fear, manifested during a long period of life
+  and disappearing towards the end, may be compared with the fear of
+  darkness which children instinctively feel and which also disappears
+  gradually and naturally. When, towards the end of life, the fear of
+  nothingness ceases, no desire remains for a future life, for the
+  immortality of the soul. It would even be painful to me to think
+  that the soul, surviving the body, could watch, from beyond, the
+  misfortunes of those who remain on the earth. On the contrary,
+  towards life's decline, a desire for complete annihilation becomes
+  developed.
+
+He spent the autumn collecting and preparing the materials he required
+for his book on the sexual function. It was a relief from the sad
+impressions of the war and the deserted laboratory. But new troubles
+were in store for us; I became ill, and had scarcely recovered when we
+heard the news of the death of a nephew who was very dear to us. The
+death of the young had always deeply moved Metchnikoff, and it was so
+in this case. It was another weight thrown into the already descending
+scale.
+
+In spite of all, he continued to work with enthusiasm, planting young
+trees that future generations might enjoy their shade.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+  Bronchial cold--Aggravated cardiac symptoms--Farewell to Sèvres
+  --Return to the Institute--Protracted sufferings--Intellectual
+  preoccupations--Observations on his own condition--The end--
+  Cremation.
+
+
+If in this sad last chapter I occasionally dwell on details which may
+seem insignificant in themselves, it is because, at this supreme moment
+of Elie Metchnikoff's existence, everything was full of significance,
+for everything converged to emphasise the powerful unity and the
+ascending and continuous progress of his ideas.
+
+His attitude in the face of illness and death was a teaching, a
+support, and an example. That is why, relating the story of his last
+days, I piously describe everything.
+
+Towards the end of November, he caught a slight cold, which did not
+prevent him from leading his usual life, but which, nevertheless, was
+the starting-point of the illness which took him from us.
+
+On the 2nd of December, during a walk, he suddenly felt a cardiac
+commotion such that he thought he was dying. For hours, his pulse
+remained intermittent and very rapid, and from that day he felt unwell
+but continued to go to the laboratory.
+
+On the 9th of December his condition became worse and forced him to
+interrupt his normal life. All the doctors were away or very busy on
+account of the war, and it was only on the 11th that Dr. Renon could
+give him a consultation at the Laënnec Hospital. He found Metchnikoff's
+heart very tired and nervous, prescribed a treatment, and told us to
+come back in twenty-five days.
+
+But the disease was making giant strides. In the night of the 12th to
+13th a first attack of cardiac asthma supervened, an extremely painful
+one; we had the impression that the end was near. Elie suffered agonies
+but remained morally calm and ready for death, as he had ever been
+since his first heart attack, two years previously. He repeated that he
+had accomplished his task and run through his vital cycle; that what he
+could yet do would be but a supplement, and that it was better to die
+than to outlive his own decadence.
+
+He only wished not to suffer too long, but that humble desire was not
+to be realised. We spent two more nights at Sèvres, terrible nights not
+to be forgotten if one had centuries to live, and we then decided to go
+to a nursing home in Paris, as it was imprudent to remain any longer
+isolated as we were.
+
+Having heard of Metchnikoff's illness, Dr. Roux offered to receive us
+at the Pasteur Institute in a small lodging which was now free, the
+house-physician who had occupied it having been killed.
+
+Dr. Widal, in whom Metchnikoff had absolute confidence, came to
+Sèvres on the 14th and found myocarditis. Thanks to an absolutely
+incomprehensible phenomenon, Elie had suddenly ceased to realise the
+rapidity of his pulse; he had 160 beats in a minute and only perceived
+less than half; it was therefore easy to keep the truth from him.
+
+After a last night of suffering we left our Sèvres nest, which we had
+so loved. Leaning on my arm, he slowly walked through the little
+garden and gazed for the last time at the home that we were leaving for
+the unknown.... He looked worn and bent under the weight of suffering,
+but he was quite calm, and his eyes, though firm and gentle, already
+seemed to me to be looking very far away.
+
+The automobile bore us slowly from Sèvres to the Pasteur Institute,
+and we found ourselves in the small flat which had been inhabited by
+the young doctor who had been killed in the war. He had only spent a
+short stage of his life there. How long should we remain? And what road
+should we take when we left it? We tried to smile, though our hearts
+were terribly heavy, in order to cheer each other.
+
+But, in the course of the day, we were surrounded by friends full of
+solicitude, the tension relaxed, and we felt a growing sense of comfort
+and security. No more nights of mortal dread and loneliness, with no
+help at hand! That thought alone inspired courage and hope. In case of
+need, I had only to send down to the next floor to ask for a doctor.
+
+For a few days, Elie felt much better, perhaps on account of the mental
+relief, but his heart was weak and his pulse extremely rapid. Drs.
+Widal, Martin, Veillon, Salimbeni, and Darré came to see him every day;
+during the whole of his long illness, they never ceased to show him the
+most attentive and devoted care. They attempted by every means to save
+him from pain, for, alas, they had no hope of curing him. Nothing was
+neglected, and many still greater sufferings were spared him.[33]
+
+  [33] For instance, Dr. Widal, very early in his illness, had
+       advised a saltless diet, which caused the infiltration in
+       the tissues to remain comparatively slight.
+
+The war was an inexhaustible and passionately interesting subject
+of conversation; Elie read a number of newspapers and listened with
+avidity to every news from private sources. Often, too, scientific
+questions were discussed, which continued to interest him intensely.
+These talks were an invaluable relaxation.
+
+Feeling infinitely grateful towards his medical advisers and friends,
+he showed himself a most docile patient, following their prescriptions
+with absolute punctuality. When his condition grew worse and he felt
+no hope whatever of his recovery, he often used to say, "What is to be
+done? the doctors can do nothing, for medicine is powerless. Unhappily,
+it will remain so for a long time. Much work will have to be done to
+rid humanity of the scourge of diseases. But, surely, one day science
+will succeed in doing so; that will be chiefly through prophylaxis and
+rational hygiene. There will also be a new science--the science of
+death; it will be known how to make it less hard."
+
+After lunch and a short sleep, he received the daily visit of his
+friend Dr. Roux, with whom he talked in the full intimacy of friendship
+and affection. He confided to him his apprehensions and desires, and
+felt unlimited gratitude for his kindness to us, often saying to me,
+with tears in his eyes, "I knew Roux was a kind man and a true friend,
+but I see now that he is incomparable." Other friends also did their
+utmost to serve him and to show their sympathy. He had the great joy
+of feeling himself beloved and surrounded with an atmosphere of real
+kindness. Many times he said to me, "Now, only, have I appreciated the
+warm-heartedness of the French at its full value. Do not fail, in my
+biography, to emphasise how deeply I feel it, and how grateful I am. I
+want them to know it."
+
+Yet all the care and devotion of which he was the object could neither
+arrest the fatal progress of disease nor spare cruel suffering to him
+who had thought of nothing but relieving the pains of others. All our
+efforts were as flowers scattered over a tomb; he, poor tortured one,
+was slowly, consciously sinking into it through the implacable logic
+of Fate. From the beginning of his illness, he foresaw the issue; he
+lived in constant expectation of death, on the threshold of which his
+calm and serenity remained as unalterable as were his patience and
+resignation.
+
+After a temporary and comparative lull, which lasted until the end of
+December, the disease began to progress again, and almost every week
+brought a fresh alarming symptom. It was especially during the night
+that the pain, treacherously, reappeared. After dropping asleep fairly
+early, he would begin to breathe with difficulty and then awake in
+an indescribable state of anguish; perspiration drenched his head,
+neck, and chest, several towels often being required to dry him. His
+breathing was hard; during bad attacks, the wheezing of his bronchial
+tubes was terrifying.
+
+He would sit up, his hands clenched, his face blue and contracted by
+suffering, his darkened lips apart, his eyes dilated--the face of a
+man on the rack. He gasped like a suffocating man; at last a tearing
+cough supervened, followed by expectoration, and the attack gradually
+subsided.
+
+For a time we were able to relieve him without the use of narcotics. As
+long as there was a ray of hope--not of recovery, but of a bearable
+life and further work--he wished at all costs to avoid the influence of
+narcosis. He breathed fumes of pyridin or ether, he smoked Escouflaire
+cigarettes, and inhaled various other things. In order to sleep after
+an attack, he ate a few biscuits, and I sprinkled his head with a
+menthol solution, with which I damped his temples and forehead. That
+eased him, and sometimes he slept again for a few hours.
+
+But how many were the nights of insomnia and suffering! How many times
+did he call for death as a deliverer, and say that he _resigned_
+himself to live for my sake only!
+
+And in spite of the martyrdom he endured, he always had gentle words,
+a caress, a consolation even! He constantly returned to the thought
+that he had nothing to complain of, that he had had a large share of
+happiness and good fortune in having accomplished his task, and even
+arrived at the development of the natural death-instinct.
+
+All those who saw him every day knew that he was courageous and
+patient, every one admired his serenity, but no one could realise the
+_degree_ of his courage and patience, for no one had seen and lived
+through those miserable nights.
+
+Often, even, when asked how he was, he said "not bad!" after a terrible
+night, saying to me afterwards in explanation, "Why grieve them, since
+it cannot be helped?"
+
+At the beginning of our stay in the Institute, he was not yet quite
+bedridden. After his morning toilet, he would lie for some hours on a
+sofa, reading almost continuously, newspapers, scientific reviews, and
+many works in connection with the book he had planned on the sexual
+function, of which he wrote only the introduction and a few lines of
+the first chapter.[34]
+
+  [34] He expounded the theory that ideas on the sexual function
+       had been falsified through fear of venereal diseases at a
+       time when people did not know either how to avoid or cure
+       those diseases. He showed that the condemnation of a natural
+       function by divers religions was based on that fear. He
+       analysed the deplorable consequences of that, and set forth
+       the necessity of returning to more wholesome ideas, more in
+       conformity with nature and allowing the study and avoidance
+       of many evils. He thought that, in this connection, a new
+       direction should be given to the education of children
+       and to marriage. He then examined the part played by the
+       sexual function in the lives of men of genius and, with
+       that object, read many biographies and literary works.
+       During his illness he read books concerning Victor Hugo and
+       Napoleon, J. J. Rousseau's _Confessions_ and even parts of
+       the _Nouvelle Héloïse_.
+
+Another question occupied him at that time, that of first-born
+children. Certain data led him to think that men of genius were but
+rarely the first-born of their parents, and he sought for every
+possible information on the subject. In his constant desire to improve
+life-conditions, he even thought that a demonstration of this fact
+might have a desirable influence on the increase of population in
+France after the war; if it were proved that the most successful
+children are not the first-born, perhaps the system of having two
+children only would be given up in order to have a chance of giving the
+country a more capable population.
+
+His reflections on the sexual questions led him to seek for
+experimental means of studying gonorrhoea. He thought of inoculating
+the gonococcus into the eye of new-born mice and entrusted M.
+Rubinstein, the only worker left in the laboratory, with these
+experiments. The latter began them and obtained encouraging results,
+but he left Paris in the spring and the work remained unfinished.
+
+Metchnikoff's mind never ceased to work unless interrupted by acute
+pain; until the very end, his brain never failed him. He often used to
+say how far he was from any mystic aspirations, and how sure he was of
+remaining a rationalist until the end. And such was the case. Faithful
+to himself, not even in the most painful moments did he feel a desire
+to look for support outside the ideas and principles of his whole life.
+Yet his soul was sad and full of care; the war grieved him utterly,
+every newspaper he read renewed his sorrow. When a severe engagement,
+Verdun for instance, was going on, he lost the little sleep he had, and
+his agitation became painful.
+
+He was deeply disillusioned by the Germans. Having always felt great
+esteem for their scientific work, he had believed in their high
+culture, and now he was absolutely disconcerted by the mentality which
+they manifested during the war.
+
+Neither could he understand how the war had been allowed to come
+about. He thought it ought to have been avoided, and considered the
+authorities guilty for not having done so. He said that nothing could
+compensate the harm done by this insane butchery.
+
+The deserted laboratories, the interruption of scientific work, filled
+his soul with melancholy. For, he said, all the great, all the real
+questions should have been solved by Science and were kept waiting....
+
+He also had material worries, the war having brought great perturbation
+in his affairs. The fate of his mobilised pupils preoccupied him
+constantly. The least indisposition, however trifling, of those he
+loved made him unhappy. His sensibility, which had always been very
+marked, increased still more, and consumed him; it surely was one of
+the causes that had worn his heart out. When already very weak and ill,
+he constantly thought of giving pleasure to those who were with him; he
+read innumerable reviews and periodicals, and would tell each friend
+what he had found of particular interest to the latter, even when
+speech was difficult to him. His gentleness and cordiality were most
+touching during the whole of his illness, though he preserved his usual
+outspokenness.... It seemed to me that this offended no one; they all
+understood Elie now.
+
+He sought a refuge from his sufferings in his own ivory tower; these
+sufferings themselves were to him a source of observations. He
+studied his body and his soul as he would have studied any subject
+under experiment. Every day he wrote down his auto-observations, and
+carefully read the diary which I kept for him.
+
+During the whole of the winter he had ups and downs. Towards the end
+of December the cough and respiratory symptoms increased, and at the
+beginning of January he expectorated clots of blood, due to a passive
+congestion of the right lung.
+
+On the 19th January, some liquid appeared in the pleura on the same
+side. Pleurisy persisted for a whole month and necessitated three
+punctures. Every time we feared to tell him that the puncture was
+necessary, but he received the news with complete coolness, saying that
+he had always been in favour of radical measures.
+
+After the third puncture, which took place on the 19th February, a
+marked relief supervened, and the improvement lasted for some time; it
+was the only moment when we saw a ray of hope.
+
+Though keeping to his bed, he worked a great deal, read, and received
+not only his friends but other visitors. At the beginning of March and
+at the end of April he again expectorated blood, and the terrible,
+tragical nights began again. Yet the days were fairly good.
+
+During that period, he had the pleasure of seeing some of his pupils
+again, and of receiving several Russian deputies and journalists. They
+talked to him of political events, of the war, of the moral state of
+Russia. All that interested him immensely; he plied them with the most
+varied questions. It must be remembered that, before that interview, we
+had lost all touch with Russia.
+
+During the whole of May he again had ups and downs, but the progress of
+the disease was indisputable.
+
+Tachycardia was constant, urine more and more scanty, the swelling of
+the legs never decreased, cough and oppression occurred frequently
+even during the day. Elie awaited his seventy-first birthday with
+impatience. Often during the night, after a painful attack, he would
+count the days, hours, and minutes which separated him from that date.
+At last it arrived. Here are the lines which he added to his notes on
+that day:
+
+  16th May. Against all expectation, I have lived until this day. I
+  have reached my 71 years. My dream of a rapid death without a long
+  illness has not been realised. I have now been bedridden for five
+  months. After several crises of tachycardia, following upon a slight
+  grippe with asthma, I had congestion of one lung with pleuritic
+  exudate. Though some improvement followed after that, nevertheless I
+  am tormented by fits of sweating followed by cough and oppression. I
+  suffer chiefly in the night from those attacks; they provoke insomnia
+  which can only be combated by pantopon.
+
+  My psychical state is twofold. In one way, I should like to get well,
+  but, on the other hand, I see no sense in living any longer. Illness
+  has not provoked in me any fear of death, and I am more deprived than
+  formerly of the joy of living. The reawakening of spring leaves me
+  quite indifferent. There can be no question for me of that pleasure
+  which convalescents often feel, nor indeed of any pleasure. To the
+  despair that I feel in the face of medicine's powerlessness to cure
+  the ills of my friends is added the feeling of its powerlessness
+  towards my own illness. I think that my desire to recover and to
+  continue to live is connected with practical causes.
+
+  The war has compromised our finances, our income from Russia has
+  practically disappeared. If I die, my wife may find herself in a very
+  difficult situation. Given her lack of practical notions, that may
+  lead to very sad results. Yet it is quite impossible to straighten
+  our affairs before the end of the war and the re-establishment of
+  normal conditions.
+
+These were the last words he wrote in his book of notes; his hand had
+become weak and trembling; he tired very soon, and henceforth I wrote
+under his dictation. On the 18th June, one month before his cremation,
+he dictated to me for the last time, and this is what he said:
+
+  This is the seventh month that I have been ill and it brings my
+  thoughts back to the gravity of my condition. I therefore continually
+  realise how much satisfaction I have derived from life during my long
+  years. The gradual disappearance of my "life-instinct," which already
+  began a few years ago, is now more marked, more precise. I no longer
+  feel that degree of pleasure which I felt only a few years ago. My
+  affection for my nearest and dearest shows itself much more by the
+  anxiety and suffering provoked by their diseases and sorrows than by
+  the pleasure I derive from their joys or normal health.
+
+  Those to whom I describe my feelings tell me that satiety with living
+  is not normal at my age. To that I oppose the following: Longevity,
+  at least to a certain point, is hereditary. Now I have already
+  mentioned, on the occasion of my 70th anniversary, that my parents,
+  sister, and brothers died before reaching my present age. I knew
+  neither of my grandparents, which shows that they could not have been
+  very old when they died.
+
+  Let us now turn to the profession, since it is an established fact
+  that it has an influence on the duration of life. Pasteur died at 72,
+  but for a long time he had been unable to do scientific work. Koch
+  did not reach the age of 67. Other bacteriologists died at a much
+  earlier age than I (Duclaux, Nocard, Chamberland, Ehrlich, Büchner,
+  Loeffler, Pfeiffer, Carl Fraenkel, Emmerich, Escherich).
+
+  Among those bacteriologists of my generation who are still living the
+  majority have already ceased from working. All that should indicate
+  that my scientific life is over and confirm at the same time the fact
+  that my "orthobiosis" has actually reached the desirable limit.
+
+He was anxious to prove that his end, which seemed premature at first
+sight, did not contradict his theories, but had deep causes such as
+heredity and the belated introduction of a rational diet. He had only
+begun to follow it at fifty-three. Facts corroborated him after his
+death, for the post-mortem examination showed that the heart lesions
+were of long standing. He himself thought they went back at least to
+1881, when he had had a very grave relapsing fever. The doctors even
+wondered how he had lived with his heart in such a state, and only
+accounted for it by the strict régime which he had followed during the
+latter part of his life.
+
+And indeed when it is remembered how pugnacious, how vehement he
+was--always, so to speak, in a state of ebullition, feverishly active,
+intensely sensitive--it must be admitted that his life really held more
+than an ordinary life of longer duration.
+
+He was very desirous that the example of his serenity in the face of
+death should be encouraging and comforting. It should prove that, at
+the end of his vital cycle, man fears death no longer; it has lost its
+sting for him.
+
+Early in June his condition became still worse. The nights were so
+painful that, every evening, recourse had to be had to pantopon.[35] It
+was with the greatest impatience that he awaited his "dear Darré and
+dear Salimbeni," as he called them.
+
+  [35] Pantopon is a narcotic drug prepared from opium.
+
+After Dr. Darré had finished his complete and thorough medical
+examination, we three remained talking around Elie's bed for a short
+hour. He often recalled his personal or scientific memories when he was
+not too weary; we talked of the war, of medical questions; often, too,
+we would evoke, with Salimbeni, recollections of our journey to the
+Kalmuk Steppes.
+
+We loved that peaceful hour, which ended by an injection of pantopon,
+the only relief, alas, that could be procured for him. He would thank
+Dr. Darré with gratitude, and drop his poor weary head on the pillow,
+awaiting in absolute security the blessed sensation of warm heaviness
+which pervaded him, for he knew that sleep and rest from his sufferings
+would not be long in coming. The spectre of tragical nights never
+ceased to haunt us.
+
+Until the hot weather came, he was quite comfortable in the small flat
+in the Pasteur hospital; the temperature there had been perfectly
+regular all through the winter; but now he began to be incommoded by
+the heat.
+
+M. Roux then proposed that we should be transferred to Pasteur's old
+flat; the rooms were spacious and much cooler. This idea rejoiced and
+touched Elie very much. As he thanked M. Roux, he said to him: "See
+how my life is bound with the Pasteur Institute. I have worked here
+for years; I am nursed here during my illness; in order to complete
+the connection I ought to be incinerated in the great oven where our
+dead animals are burnt, and my ashes could be kept in an urn in one
+of the cupboards in the library." "What a gruesome joke!" answered M.
+Roux, really taking those words for a joke. But directly after he was
+gone Elie turned to me with an anxious look and said, "Well, what do
+you think of my idea?" I saw by his earnest expression that he meant
+what he said, and I answered that I thought it a very good idea.
+The Pasteur Institute had become his refuge, the centre of all his
+scientific interests; he loved it; he had spent his best years there.
+Let his ashes be laid there some day; it would be in perfect harmony
+with his past. Let us only hope that would not be too soon! But why had
+he given his words that jesting form which must have misled M. Roux? He
+explained it to me: knowing how deeply conscientious his friend was,
+he did not wish to express his desire as a dying wish in order that he
+should feel no obligation. A simple jest, on the contrary, left him
+absolutely free.
+
+On the 26th June, Elie was carried into Pasteur's flat; it was a very
+great satisfaction to him, it brought him nearer his laboratory. Now
+and then, very seldom now, he thought he might return there one day;
+he said I should wheel him there in his bath-chair. "I know I could
+scarcely work there myself. But perhaps I might still play the part of
+a ferment, be useful to my pupils by giving them advice. I am leaving
+so much unfinished work which it would be interesting to go on with:
+the question of intestinal flora, that of diabetes, which surely
+is an infectious disease--but that will have to be proved,--and my
+experiments on the subject were scarcely begun. I think the study of
+gonorrhoea will give very interesting results when they succeed in
+inoculating it in new-born animals. And the question of tuberculosis is
+well started! I could still help my pupils and encourage them if I were
+a little better!... But I have no illusions! I must live now only from
+day to day...."
+
+Those words were uttered with heart-rending resignation.
+
+He continued to get worse....
+
+It was fortunate that pantopon should have given him good nights, for
+attacks of oppression now supervened several times during the day;
+tachycardia was continuous, the heart was weakening. The quantity of
+urine diminished; it often did not surpass 250 cubic centimetres, and
+no diuretic succeeded in increasing it; the legs remained swollen,
+ascitis was beginning to become visible; in the night he occasionally
+grew slightly delirious.
+
+At the beginning of July he wished to sit up; he spent part of the
+afternoon in an armchair, his legs lying on cushions. We thought it
+was a good sign, but in reality he found it difficult to breathe lying
+down. Several times he asked me to play to him, very soft music, as
+noisy sounds wearied him. I played him some Beethoven, some Mozart;
+the last time it was a Chopin prelude.
+
+On the 9th his temperature went down in an alarming way to 35.2° C.
+(95 F.). For the first time he would not write down his ordinary
+observations. "What is the good?" said he, "it has no longer any
+interest." Yet the next day he did so, for the last time. On the 11th
+and 12th he put down his temperature, and glanced superficially at the
+notes I had written. On the 12th, about five o'clock in the morning, he
+had a bad fit of breathlessness followed by coughing, and brought up
+large clots of very red blood. He smiled faintly. "You understand what
+that means," he said, adding some tender words.
+
+I wheeled him to his bed, which he never left again.
+
+On the 13th, in the early morning, he felt very ill. Calmly and gently
+he warned me to be ready. "It will surely be to-day or to-morrow."
+
+My heart breaking, I asked him why he said that; was he feeling very
+weak? or suffering very much?
+
+"No," he said, "it is difficult to say what I feel; I have never felt
+anything like it; it is, so to speak, a death-_sensation_.... But I
+feel very calm, with no fear. You will hold my hand, will you not?"
+
+How can I describe those last three days? He preserved all his lucidity
+and serenity, often smiling at me and drawing me towards him. He
+inhaled oxygen very often, as breathlessness became almost continuous.
+
+On the 14th there was to be a _matinée_ performance of _Manon Lescaut_,
+and remembering that his god-children had long wished to see that
+opera, he had had a box taken for them. He was now quite uneasy about
+it. "What ill-luck," he said, "if _it_ happened just before and
+prevented them from going. In any case they must not come here on their
+way to the theatre, so that if _it_ happens they will not know, and can
+still enjoy the performance."
+
+Thanks to pantopon, he spent a very good night. He awoke about five
+o'clock, but remained so quiet that I thought him asleep. When I rose
+about six he held out his hand to me and told me he had been awake for
+a long time. He talked to me tenderly, in the full intimacy of our
+affection; he spoke sweet, unforgettable words. He made me promise once
+again not to give way to grief. "At first, our friends will help you,
+and then work, that infallible remedy, and duty.... You will have that
+of writing my biography. Remember how much I wish the _last_ chapter to
+be complete. You alone can write it, for you have seen me all the time;
+I have told you all my thoughts, and yet...." I understood that he had
+occasionally, out of pity for me, hidden his sufferings and his sad
+thoughts. But he did not know how often I guessed what he did not say;
+love and pain have a dumb language, more eloquent than any human words.
+
+"You will hold my hand when the moment comes," he repeated. "But do
+not think I am afraid, now that it is near. No, I assure you, I have
+an absolute serenity of soul! I spent a divine night. It seemed to
+me that I was already half outside life. This night has taught me
+many things.... Everything which troubled me, everything that seemed
+so disturbing, so terrible, like this war for instance, seems so
+transitory now, such a small thing by the side of the great problems of
+existence!... Science will solve them some day." He ceased speaking. He
+seemed illumined by a very exalted feeling; it was like the last chord
+of his harmonious soul. What a consolation if he could have died then!
+
+But life is cruel. He lived through two more days of suffering. On
+the 14th he inhaled oxygen almost continually. He asked for pantopon,
+but we feared to give him too much. I told him it would induce such
+continuous sleep that he would not even be able to enjoy it. "But an
+eternal sleep is precisely what I want! Do understand that now nothing
+is left to me but pantopon. What is the good of making me last? Is
+this a life? A few days or a month have no importance when one is not
+going to recover. And you cannot wish to prolong my sufferings." His
+breathlessness increased; he said, "Give me your hand; stay near me!" I
+knew what he meant; he had the "death-sensation."
+
+His poor hands were hot and warmed my cold ones.... The next day I
+could not warm his hands, ice-cold for ever.
+
+The whole day he awaited with impatience the hour for pantopon. About
+nine o'clock, when Dr. Darré came in, he said, "Dear Darré, at last!"
+
+There was no talk that evening, he was so weary. With what anguish I
+awaited the stroke of midnight, which ended those two dread days! He
+had been mistaken by barely one day. The night was not bad, in spite
+of breathlessness and some fits of coughing. The next morning he felt
+better. He had not read the papers the day before, to-day I read him
+the communiqués in the _Petit Parisien_, he said it was enough. He also
+turned the pages of a book he had recently begun to read, _La Science
+et les Allemands_.
+
+I told him how pleased I was to see him better. "It is true," he said,
+"to-day I have no death-sensation, but I beg you, have no illusions!"
+
+Always that preoccupation of breaking the shock for me. He made me
+bring a pocket-book with some money in it and a few envelopes; in each
+of them he made me place notes of similar value, then with his already
+shaking hand, he himself wrote on each envelope the value of the notes
+multiplied by their number, and explained that it was to help me to
+find quickly what I should require after the catastrophe.
+
+He ate better at lunch than he had done lately; but already at two
+o'clock the breathlessness increased. Yet he did not look pale; he had
+preserved his rosy complexion. As he inhaled the oxygen, he was shaken
+by a hiccough. He pressed my hand. "It is the end," he said, "the death
+rattle; that is how people die." He looked at his watch on the small
+table, it marked four o'clock.
+
+"No," he said, "it must have stopped. Four o'clock struck some time
+ago." And he smiled. "Is it not strange that it should have stopped
+before I? Go and see what time it is."
+
+I ran out to see the clock from the window of another room; it was
+twenty minutes to five. I met some one in the passage and asked him to
+go quickly to fetch one of the Institute doctors. Then I begged Elie
+not to have such ideas, and tried to cheer him.
+
+"But, my child, why do you want to calm me? I am quite calm; I am only
+stating facts," he said, adding tender words.
+
+At that moment Salimbeni came in. Elie said to him: "Salimbeni, you are
+a friend; tell me, is it the end?" And as he protested, he added, "You
+remember your promise? You will do my post-mortem? and look at the
+intestines carefully, for I think there is something there now." MM.
+Roux and Martin then arrived. The feeling of weight in the intestines
+of which he complained was mentioned. He did not know that he had
+ascitis in the peritoneum.
+
+As I was attending to him I felt him move suddenly, and said, "I beg
+you, do not make such sudden movements; you know it is not good for
+you." He did not answer. I raised my head; his was thrown back on the
+pillows, his face had assumed a blue tinge, the white of the eyes alone
+could be seen under the half-closed lids.
+
+Not a word, not a sound.
+
+All was over.[36]
+
+  [36] It was 5.20 by the conventional war time, 4.20 in reality.
+
+Then an abyss of oblivion....
+
+I saw him again, stretched on his deathbed. He was white, cold, and
+dumb. His face bore a calm and very serious expression. He looked like
+a martyr who had at last entered into rest. Death had marked his face
+with no dread seal. The lids had closed of their own accord, and he
+seemed to be sleeping after great lassitude; one might have thought
+that, with his usual kindness, he wished to spare us all too painful an
+impression....
+
+All through the night and the next morning his face preserved the same
+expression.
+
+In the afternoon Salimbeni performed the autopsy. Then he was laid in
+his coffin; twenty-four hours had elapsed since the end. Wrapped in a
+white sheet, which framed his fine face, he had the appearance of a
+biblical prophet.
+
+Now his expression had assumed absolute serenity, illumined by
+gentleness and kindness. He had a look of elevation, grandeur, and
+beauty which was really divine. It was an apotheosis. His beautiful
+soul beamed in its full purity; neither suffering nor any earthly
+preoccupation had any hold on it. He gave an impression of eternal rest.
+
+It was his final image, a splendid one, the last ... for ever.
+
+The bier was closed and covered with a heavy black pall. On life also a
+blacker and heavier pall had fallen. The light had gone out.
+
+Two days later, on the 18th July, he was carried to the cemetery of
+the Père Lachaise, to be cremated in all simplicity, as he had wished.
+Faithful to his ideas, he had wished for a lay funeral, with no
+speeches, flowers, or invitations.
+
+His bier disappeared into a large sarcophagus; on each side black
+curtains fell to hide what was going on.... Then one hour of heavy
+silence whilst the poor body was being consumed by the flames....
+
+A death silence....
+
+And that was all....
+
+The mercurial, vivacious child, good-hearted, intelligent, and
+precocious; the young man, ardent, impetuous, passionate, a lover of
+science and of all that was exalted; the mature man, a bold thinker,
+an indefatigable investigator, eager, generous, tender, and devoted;
+the old man, in everything faithful to himself, but progressing in
+serenity, shining with an ever softer light, like a mountain peak in
+the setting sun; the martyr at last, enduring suffering with patience
+and resignation, seeing the approach of death without fear, observing
+it as he had observed life....
+
+The hour of silence was over; the incineration accomplished. Of his
+body, little was left--a handful of ashes. They were enclosed within an
+urn and placed in the library of the Pasteur Institute.
+
+But his beautiful, ardent soul, his audacious and fertile ideas, all
+that rich inner life which had developed into a harmonious and puissant
+symphony, all _that_ cannot be dead, cannot disappear! The ideas, the
+influence we give to life must persist, must live; they are the sacred
+flame which we hand on to others and are eternal.
+
+
+
+
+                               EPILOGUE
+
+
+The life and work of Elie Metchnikoff are so intimately bound together
+that, in a biography, it is impossible to separate them. That is why
+the description of his work necessarily has been dispersed along the
+story of his life; but, just as, in order to judge of a work of art,
+one has to draw back and contemplate the whole, we must also, after
+following the evolution and successive stages of E. Metchnikoff's
+scientific works, take a full view of his work as a whole.
+
+He was a born biologist; everything connected with life interested
+him. In his childhood, he observed plants and animals. At the age of
+fifteen, he became acquainted with microscopic beings; they aroused in
+him such powerful interest towards the primitive forms of life that,
+from that moment, not only his future path was marked out for him but
+also his method of starting from the simple to elucidate the complex.
+He was imbued with Darwin's theory of evolution; having begun by the
+study of inferior animals, he began to look for their connections with
+other groups.
+
+He endeavoured to establish the continuity and the unity of phenomena
+in all living beings. According to his method of studying first what
+was simplest, he turned to embryology, for in the egg and the embryo
+it is possible to follow step by step the transformation of the
+simple to the complex and to see the origin and development of all the
+constituent parts of the organism. Moreover, the embryo is exempt from
+secondary complications, due to the multiple external conditions of
+post-embryonic life.
+
+Metchnikoff was able to establish, from embryological data, that the
+development of lower animals takes place according to the same plan
+and under the same laws as that of higher animals. In all of them,
+the segmentation of the egg is followed by the formation of embryonic
+layers, of which each gives birth to cells and to definite organs.
+Superior forms repeat, in their embryonic life, the evolution cycle of
+inferior forms.[37]
+
+  [37] Thus the _parenchymella_, _phagocytella_, and _gastrula_
+       stages correspond in the embryo with the adult form of
+       certain very primitive Metazoa and even to a colony of
+       unicellular animals.
+
+This common plan in the embryology of all animals established their
+genealogical continuity and strengthened the Darwinian theory.
+
+Metchnikoff's studies, carried out on the various groups of animals,
+contributed towards the foundation of comparative embryology. Owing to
+the comparative method, he had made himself familiar not only with the
+morphological and functional continuity of divers organisms, but also
+with that of their constituting cells; a comparison between the latter
+and unicellular beings was inevitable. That is why, having ascertained
+that the mobile cells of the lower Metazoa absorbed foreign bodies by
+inclusion, he naturally concluded that that phenomenon was similar to
+digestion in unicellular beings.
+
+Having established the fact of intracellular digestion in lower
+animals, he extended it to certain cells of the higher animals; thus
+his phagocyte theory was born.
+
+Seeing that unicellular beings, like the mobile cells of Metazoa,
+englobe, not only food, but foreign bodies, he asked himself whether
+this was not at the same time a defensive action. Such a possibility
+brought no surprise to a zoologist, accustomed to see that, in the
+struggle for existence, animals often devoured their enemies.
+
+All the materials for the building up of the phagocyte theory were
+therefore ready in Metchnikoff's mind when he asked himself, as by an
+intuition, whether the white globules of our blood, globules so similar
+to amoebæ, do not play the part of a defensive army in our organism
+when they envelope in accumulated masses intrusive bodies injurious to
+the organism.
+
+The thought was but the result of a preparatory work already
+accomplished; it was the butterfly escaping out of the chrysalis.
+
+Metchnikoff had recourse to his method of simplification in order to
+solve the question.
+
+The organism of the higher animals being extremely complicated, he went
+down as far as the transparent larva of the starfish (bipinnaria) in
+order to watch with his own eyes the phenomena which take place within
+it. He introduced a rose-thorn into the transparent body of the larva,
+and noted the next day that the mobile cells in the latter had crowded
+towards the splinter, like an army rushing to meet a foe.
+
+The analogy of this phenomenon with inflammation and the formation
+of an abscess was striking. Metchnikoff said to himself that since
+most diseases in the higher animals are accompanied by inflammation
+and provoked by microbes, it was chiefly against these microbes that
+our defensive cells had to struggle. He named the defensive cells
+_phagocytes_.
+
+He confirmed his hypothesis by another observation, equally simple. In
+a little transparent crustacean (Daphnia) infected by a small parasitic
+fungus, (_Monospora bicuspidata_), he was easily able to observe the
+struggle between the animal's mobile cells and its parasites.
+
+These two simple observations served as foundation and supports to the
+bridge by which Metchnikoff connected normal biology with pathological
+biology. Having entered the domain of the latter, he studied various
+microbian diseases, and asked himself why the organism was sometimes
+liable and sometimes refractory. In order to elucidate this question,
+he turned again to lower animals, in which he could easily observe the
+most intimate phenomena, simplified.
+
+He ascertained that liability in an animal corresponded with the fact
+that microbes introduced into the organism remained free and invaded
+it, whilst immunity coincided with the inclusion and digestion of the
+microbes by phagocytes.
+
+He also found that, in artificial immunity, the phagocytes are
+accustomed gradually, by preventive inoculations, to digest microbes
+and their toxins.
+
+Thus he established the fact that phagocytosis and inflammation are
+curative means employed by the organism.
+
+All his ulterior researches, his studies on the various categories of
+phagocytes and their properties, on their digestive liquids, on the
+formation of antitoxins, on the different properties acquired by the
+blood, etc., were but the natural development of those premises.
+
+He had proved that the part played by the phagocytes consists, not only
+in the struggle against microbes and their poisons, but also in the
+destruction of all the mortified or enfeebled cells of the organism,
+and that atrophies are nothing more than the absorption of cellular
+elements by the phagocytes.
+
+He found that senile atrophies have the same cause, and asked why the
+cells of old people's organisms should become enfeebled.
+
+He demonstrated that the principal cause is the chronic poisoning
+of the cells by toxins manufactured by microbes in the intestine.
+Premature senility was the result--a phenomenon as pathological as any
+disease.
+
+The source of the evil, therefore, resides in the intestinal flora.
+Accordingly he started to study the latter, as also senility, in order
+to find means of struggling against both.
+
+His researches enabled him to indicate a series of means, based, on the
+one hand, on the struggle against microbes, and, on the other, on the
+defence of the noble cells against destructive ones.[38]
+
+  [38] Replacement of the wild and noxious flora of the intestines
+       by antagonistic cultivated microbes; strengthening and
+       vaccinating of noble cells.
+
+The study of old age led him to that of syphilis, a disease which
+provokes an arterio-sclerosis which is similar to that of old people;
+the study of the normal intestinal flora was followed by that of
+intestinal diseases, such as typhoid fever and infantile cholera.
+
+Finally, he progressed towards the last phenomenon, the most mysterious
+in nature, Death.
+
+Researches on the silk-worm moth--a rare example of an animal the life
+of which ends in natural death--allowed him to conclude that the latter
+is due to an auto-intoxication of the organism.
+
+But he only just raised the veil of the great mystery; it was his last
+work....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Metchnikoff's philosophical evolution ran on parallel lines with his
+scientific researches.
+
+When studying the laws and the unity of vital phenomena he found that
+their harmony was occasionally broken by the collision of internal
+conditions with the environment and that regrettable consequences
+ensued. He saw an example of that in human nature, full of disharmonies
+due to its animal origin.
+
+These considerations caused the pessimism of his youth. But his
+energetic, pugnacious temperament could not remain content with a
+passive acceptance of facts.
+
+He started to study the lack of harmony in human nature and its causes,
+and sought for means to combat these causes. Gradually he reached the
+conclusion that the greatest human disharmonies are provoked by the
+rupture of the normal cycle of our life, by the precocity of senility
+and of death, chiefly arising from a chronic poisoning by the toxins of
+intestinal microbes.
+
+But having acquired the conviction that it is possible to struggle
+against that intoxication, he concluded that science, which has already
+done so much to fight diseases, would also find means of struggling
+against _premature_ old age and _precocious_ death, thus leading us to
+the normal vital cycle, _orthobiosis_.
+
+Then disharmony, transformed into harmony, will cause the greatest of
+ills to disappear.
+
+Faith in the power of Science and in the possibility of modifying human
+nature itself through Science was the foundation of the optimistic
+philosophy of his maturity. Thoughts full of strength and hope shine
+like leading stars all along his philosophical works.
+
+"Alone, Rational Science is capable of showing humanity the true path."
+
+"The real goal of human existence consists in an active life in
+conformity with individual capacity; in a life prolonged until the
+appearance of the _death-instinct_, and until Man, satisfied with the
+duration of his existence, feels the desire for annihilation."
+
+"Man is capable of great works; that is why it is desirable that
+he should modify human nature and transform its disharmonies into
+harmonies."
+
+"If an ideal capable of uniting _men_ in a sort of religion is
+possible, it can only be founded on scientific principles. And, if it
+is true, as is often affirmed, that man cannot live without faith, it
+must be faith in the power of Science."
+
+Thus Elie Metchnikoff had begun by the study of nascent life in
+inferior beings; by a logical and continuous chain, he had followed the
+whole cycle of development of living beings in their continuity and
+their whole.
+
+From the initial question of intracellular digestion he had reached the
+most exalted problems which can occupy our minds, the harmonising of
+human discords through knowledge and will.
+
+Such is the harmonious edifice which he has built.
+
+No vital question was indifferent to him. He tackled the most difficult
+and most mysterious among them with courage, moved by an invincible
+impulse towards Truth and sustained by enthusiasm and faith in the
+power of Science.
+
+The beauty of a work of art consists in the harmony and unity of a
+realised conception.
+
+Thus a Gothic cathedral, by its graceful and harmonious lines,
+expresses an impulse towards higher spheres; it leans solidly on the
+earth only in order to soar better towards the heavens.
+
+Such is also the character of Elie Metchnikoff's life-work.
+
+
+
+
+                       BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
+
+
+                       WORKS OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF
+
+  1865. "Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Chaetopoden," Zeitschrift für
+           wissenschaftliche Zoologie, xv. 3, p. 328.
+
+        "Über einige wenig bekannte Thierformen," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xv. 4, p. 450.
+
+        "Über Geodesmus bilineatus Nob. (Fasciola terrestris), eine
+           europäische Landplanarie, Mélanges biologiques" (Bull. de
+           l'Académie des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg, vol. v.).
+
+  1866. "Untersuchungen über die Embryologie der Hemipteren
+           (vorläufige Mitteilung)," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xvi. 1, p.
+           128.
+
+        "Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte von Myzostomum," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xvi. 1, p. 326.
+
+        "Apsilus lentiformis, ein Räderthier," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+           xvi. 3, p. 1.
+
+        "Embryologischen Studien an Insecten," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xvi. Entgegnung auf die Erwiederung des Her. Prof.
+           Leuckart in Giessen, in Betreff der Frage über die
+           Nematodenentwicklung (Göttingen, Verlag von Adalbert Rente).
+
+  1867. "Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Würmer," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xvii. 4, p. 539.
+
+        "Embryology of the Sepiola" (in Russian), Archives des Sciences
+           physiques et naturelles, Genève, vol. 21.
+
+  1868. "Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Entwicklungsgeschichte der
+           Chaetopoden" (in collaboration with Ed. Claparède), Zeit. f.
+           wissen. Zool. xviii.
+
+  1869. "Embryology of Nebalia" (in Russian), Mélanges biologiques
+           de l'Académie de Saint-Pétersbourg, vi. p. 730.
+
+        "Untersuchungen über die Metamorphose einiger Seethiere,
+           Tornaria," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xx. p. 131.
+
+        "Über ein Larvenstadium von Euphausia," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+           xix. 4, p. 179.
+
+        "Über die Entwicklung der Echinodermen und Nemertinen,"
+           Mémoires de l'Acad. de Saint-Pétersbourg, xiv. 8, p. 33.
+
+  1870. "Bemerkungen über Echinodermen," Bulletins de l'Acad. de
+           Saint-Pétersbourg, xiv. p. 51.
+
+        "Embryologie des Scorpions," Zeitschr. f. wissen. Zool. xxi.
+
+  1871. "Über die Metamorphose einiger Seethiere," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xxi. 2, p. 235.
+
+        "Entwicklungsgeschichte des Chelifers," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+           xxi. p. 513.
+
+        "Über den Naupliuszustand von Euphausia," ibid. Bd. xix.
+
+  1872. "Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der einfachen Ascidien," Zeit.
+           f. wissen. Zool. xxii. 3, p. 339.
+
+        "Vorläufige Mitteilung über die Embryologie der Polydesmiden,"
+           Mélanges biologiques des Bullet. de l'Académie des Sciences
+           de Saint-Pétersbourg, vol. viii.
+
+        "Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Kalkschwämme," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xxiv. p. 1.
+
+        "Studien über die Entwicklung der Medusen und Siphonophoren,"
+           Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xxiv. p. 15.
+
+        "Embryologie der doppelfüssigen Myriapoden," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xxiv. p. 253.
+
+  1874. "Embryologisches über Geophilus," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+           xxv. p. 313.
+
+  1876. "Beiträge zur Morphologie der Spongien," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xxvii. p. 275.
+
+  1878. "Spongiologische Studien," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xxxii. p.
+           349.
+
+  1879. "Spongiologische Studien," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xxxii. p.
+           374.
+
+  1880. "Über die intracelluläre Verdauung bei Coelenteraten,"
+           Zoologischer Anzeiger, No. 56, p. 261.
+
+        "Untersuchungen über Orthonectiden," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+           xxxv. p. 282.
+
+        "Über die systematische Stellung von Balanoglossus,"
+           Zoologischer Anzeiger, pp. 139, 153.
+
+  1881. "Zur Lehre über die intracelluläre Verdauung niederer
+           Tiere," Zoologischer Anzeiger, p. 310.
+
+        _Vergleichend-embryologische Studien_:
+
+        1. Entodermbildung bei Geryoniden.
+
+        2. "Über einige Studien der Cunina," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+           xxxvi. p. 433.
+
+  1882. 3. "Über die Gastrula einiger Metazoen," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xxxvii. p. 286.
+
+        "Die Embryologie von Planaria polychroa," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xxxviii. 3, p. 331.
+
+  1883. "Untersuchungen über die intracelluläre Verdauung bei
+           wirbellosen Tieren," Arbeiten d. zool. Instituts zu Wien, v.
+           2, p. 14 (Quarterly Journal of Micr. Science, vol. 93).
+
+        "Untersuchung über die mesodermalen Phagocyten einiger
+           Wirbeltiere," Biologisch. Centralblatt, No. 18, p. 560, Bd.
+           iii.
+
+  1884. "Embryologische Mitteilungen über Echinodermen,"
+           Zoologischer Anzeiger, vii. Nos. 158, 159.
+
+        "Über eine Sprosspilzkrankheit der Daphnien; Beitrag zur Lehre
+           über den Kampf der Phagocyten gegen Krankheitserreger,"
+           Virchow's Archiv, vol. 96, p. 177.
+
+        "Über die Beziehung der Phagocyten zu Milzbrandbacillen,"
+           Virchow's Archiv, vol. 97, p. 502.
+
+        "Über die pathologische Bedeutung der intracellulären
+           Verdauung," Fortschritte der Medizin, 1884, p. 558, No. 17.
+
+  1885. _Vergleichend-embryologische Studien_:
+
+        4. "Über die Gastrulation und Mesodermbildung der Ctenophoren,"
+           648.
+
+        5. "Über die Bildung der Wanderzellen bei Asterien und
+           Echiniden," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xlii. p. 656.
+
+  1886. "Medusologische Mittheilungen," Arbeiten d. zool. Instituts
+           zu Wien, vi. 2, p. 1.
+
+        Embryologische Studien an Medusen, ein Beitrag zur Genealogie
+           der Primitivorgane, Wien, 1886.
+
+  1887. "Sur l'atténuation des bactéridies charbonneuses dans le
+           sang des moutons réfractaires," Annales de l'Institut
+           Pasteur, i. p. 42, No. 1.
+
+        "Über den Kampf der Zellen gegen Erysipelkokken, ein Beitrag
+           zur Phagocytenlehre," Virchow's Archiv, vol. 107, p. 209.
+
+        "Über den Phagocytenkampf bei Rückfalltyphus," Virchow's
+           Archiv, vol. 109, p. 176.
+
+        "Sur la lutte des cellules de l'organisme contre l'invasion des
+           microbes," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, i. p. 321, No. 7.
+
+        "Kritische Bemerkungen über den Aufsatz des Herrn
+           Christmas-Dirckinck-Holmfeld, I. V.," Fortschritte der
+           Medizin, 17, p. 541.
+
+  1888. "Über die phagocytäre Rolle der Tuberkelriesenzellen,"
+           Virchow's Archiv, vol. 113, p. 63.
+
+        "Pasteuria Ramosa, un représentant des bactéries à division
+           longitudinale," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, p. 165, t.
+           ii. No. 4.
+
+        "Über das Verhalten der Milzbrandbakterien im Organismus,"
+           Virchow's Archiv, vol. 114, p. 465.
+
+        "Réponse à la critique de M. Weigert au sujet des cellules
+           géantes de la tuberculose," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur,
+           ii. p. 604.
+
+  1889. "Recherches sur la digestion intracellulaire," Annales de
+           l'Institut Pasteur, iii. p. 25, No. 1.
+
+        "Contribution à l'étude du pléomorphisme des bactéries,"
+           Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, iii. p. 61, No. 2.
+
+        "Note sur le pléomorphisme, etc.," Annales de l'Institut
+           Pasteur, iii. p. 265, No. 5.
+
+        _Studies on Immunity_:
+
+        1. "Immunité des lapins contre le bacille du rouget des porcs,"
+           Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, iii. p. 289, No. 6.
+
+  1890. 2. "Le Charbon des pigeons," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur,
+           iv. p. 65, No. 2.
+
+        3. "Le Charbon des rats blancs," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur,
+           iv. p. 193, No. 4.
+
+  1891. 4. "L'Immunité des cobayes vaccinés contre le Vibrio
+           Metchnikowii," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, v. p. 465, No.
+           8.
+
+        "Sur la propriété bactéricide du sang de rat" (in collaboration
+           with Dr. Roux), No. 8.
+
+        "Recherches sur l'accoutumance aux produits microbiens" (in
+           collaboration with Dr. Roudenko), Annales de l'Institut
+           Pasteur, v. p. 567, No. 9.
+
+        "Beiträge zur vergleichenden Pathologie der Entzündung,"
+           Virchow Festschrift, vol. 11.
+
+  1892. "La Phagocytose musculaire" (in collaboration with Dr.
+           Soudakevitch), Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, vi. p. 1.
+
+        Leçons sur la pathologie comparée de l'inflammation. Paris,
+           1892.
+
+        "On Aqueous Humour, Micro-organisms and Immunity," Journal of
+           Pathology, i.
+
+        _Studies on Immunity_:
+
+        5. "Immunité des lapins vaccinés contre le microbe du
+           Hogcholéra," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, vi. p. 189, No.
+           5.
+
+        "Atrophie des muscles pendant la transformation des
+           batraciens," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, vi. No. 1.
+
+        "Note au sujet du mémoire de M. Soudakevitch (Parasitisme
+           intracellulaire des néoplasmes cancéreux)," No. 3.
+
+        "Über Muskelphagocytose," Centralblatt für Bakteriologie, 1892.
+
+        "La Lutte pour l'existence entre les diverses parties de
+           l'organisme," Revue scientifique, 10 sept. 1892, No. 11.
+
+  1893. "Recherches sur le choléra et les vibrions, 1er mémoire"
+           (Sur la propriété préventive du sang humain vis-à-vis du
+           vibrion de Koch), Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, vii. p.
+           403, No. 5.
+
+        2. "Mémoire," idem (Sur la propriété pathogène des vibrions),
+           tome vii. p. 562, No. 7.
+
+        Comparative Pathology of Inflammation. Lectures at the Pasteur
+           Institute. Paul: London, 1893. 8vo. (The name of the
+           translator is not stated.)
+
+  1894. 3. "Mémoire," idem (Sur la vaccination artificielle du
+           vibrion cholérique), Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, viii. p.
+           257, No. 5.
+
+        4. "Mémoire," idem (Sur l'immunité et la réceptivité vis-à-vis
+           du choléra intestinal), tome viii. p. 529, No. 8.
+
+        "L'état actuel de la question de l'immunité" (Rapport du
+           Congrès international de Budapest), Annales de l'Institut
+           Pasteur, viii. p. 706, No. 10.
+
+  1895. _Studies on Immunity_:
+
+        6. "Sur la destruction extracellulaire des bactéries dans
+           l'organisme," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, ix. p. 433, No.
+           6.
+
+  1896. "Toxine et antitoxine cholériques" (in collaboration with
+           Drs. Roux and Salimbeni), Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, x.
+           p. 25, No. 5.
+
+        "Quelques remarques à propos de l'article de Gabritchevsky sur
+           la fièvre récurrente," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, x. No.
+           11.
+
+        _Recherches sur l'influence de l'organisme sur les toxines_:
+
+  1897. 1st Memoir. "Recherches sur l'influence de l'organisme sur
+           les toxines," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xi. p. 801.
+
+        "Réponse à M. Gabritchevsky," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur,
+           xi. No. 3.
+
+        "Immunität," Weyl's Handbuch der Hygiene. Jena, 1897.
+
+        "Recherches sur l'influence de l'organisme sur les toxines"
+           (Communication faite au congrès de Moscou en août 1897),
+           Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xi. No. 10.
+
+  1898. 2nd Memoir. "Influence du système nerveux sur la toxine
+           tétanique," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xii. No. 2, p. 81.
+
+        3rd Memoir. "Toxine tétanique et leucocytes," Annales de
+           l'Institut Pasteur, xii. No. 4, p. 263.
+
+  1899. "Résorption des cellules," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur,
+           xiii. No. 10, p. 737.
+
+  1900. _Researches on the Influence of the Organism on Toxins_:
+
+        4ème mémoire. "Sur la spermotoxine et l'antispermotoxine,"
+           Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xiv. p. 5.
+
+        "Sur les cytotoxines," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xiv. No.
+           6. p. 369.
+
+        "Recherches sur l'action de l'hémotoxine sur l'homme," Annales
+           de l'Institut Pasteur, xiv. No. 6, p. 402.
+
+  1901. _Biological Studies on Old Age_:
+
+        1st Memoir. "Sur le blanchiment des cheveux et des poils,"
+           Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xv. No. 12, p. 865.
+
+        L'Immunité dans les maladies infectieuses. Paris, 1901.
+
+  1902. _Biological Studies on Old Age._ "Recherches sur la
+           vieillesse des perroquets" (in collaboration with Drs.
+           Mesnil and Weinberg), Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xvi.
+           No. 12.
+
+        The Nature of Man. Studies in optimistic philosophy. The
+           English translation by P. Chalmers Mitchell. Heinemann:
+           London; Putnams: New York, 1903. 8vo.
+
+  1903. _Studies on Human Nature_: Paris, 1903.
+
+        Études expérimentales sur la syphilis (in collaboration with
+           Dr. Roux):
+
+        1st Memoir. Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xvii. No. 12, p. 809.
+
+  1904. 2nd Memoir. "Études expérimentales sur la syphilis" (in
+           collaboration with Dr. Roux), Annales de l'Institut Pasteur,
+           xviii. No. 1, p. 1.
+
+        3rd Memoir. Id. No. 11.
+
+  1905. 4th Memoir. Id. Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xix. No. 11.
+
+        Immunity in Infective Diseases. Translated from the French by
+           F. G. Binnie. University Press: Cambridge; The Macmillan
+           Co.: New York, 1905. 8vo.
+
+  1906. 5th Memoir. Id., Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xx. No. 10.
+
+        The New Hygiene: three lectures on the prevention of infectious
+           diseases. Translated and a preface written by E. Ray
+           Lankester. Heinemann: London, 1906. 8vo.
+
+        [Another edition.] Chicago Medical Book Co.: Chicago, 1906. 8vo.
+
+  1907. [Another edition.] W. T. Keener & Co.: Chicago, 1907. 8vo.
+
+        "Sur la prophylaxie de la syphilis" (Paper read at the XIIth
+           International Congress in Berlin), Annales de l'Institut
+           Pasteur, xxi. No. 10.
+
+        The Prolongation of Life: optimistic studies. The English
+           translation edited by P. Chalmers Mitchell. Heinemann:
+           London, 1907. 8vo.
+
+        _Essais optimistes._
+
+  1908. "Études sur la flore intestinale," "Putréfaction
+           intestinale," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xxii. No. 12.
+
+  1909. Idem. "Roussettes et microbes" (in collaboration with MM.
+           Weinberg, Pozersky, Distaso, Berthelot), Annales de
+           l'Institut Pasteur, xxiii. No. 12.
+
+        Notes on Sour Milk and other Methods of administering Selected
+           Lactic Germs in Intestinal Bacterio-therapy. J. Bale, Sons &
+           Co.: London, 1909. 8vo.
+
+  1910. Idem. "Poisons intestinaux et scléroses," Annales de
+           l'Institut Pasteur, xxiv. No. 10.
+
+        The Prolongation of Life. New and revised edition, Heinemann:
+           London; Putnams: New York, 1910. 8vo.
+
+  1911. "Sur la fièvre typhoïde expérimentale" (Metchnikoff et
+           Besredka), Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xxv. No. 3.
+
+        Annales de l'Institut Pasteur:
+
+        Tome xxv. No. 6. Quelques remarques sur la vaccination à propos
+           du mémoire de M. Choukevitch sur le choléra.
+
+        Tome xxv. No. 6. Réponse de MM. Metchnikoff et Besredka à M. le
+           Dr. Vincent (remarques sur la vaccination antityphique).
+
+        Tome xxv. No. 11. El. Metchnikoff, E. Burnet et L.
+           Tarassevitch, "Recherches sur l'épidémiologie de la
+           tuberculose dans les steppes Kalmouks."
+
+        Tome xxv. No. 12. El. Metchnikoff et A. Besredka, "Des
+           vaccinations antityphiques (2nd Memoir)."
+
+  1912. Tome xxvi. No. 11. El. Metchnikoff et Eug. Wollman, "Sur
+           quelques essais de désintoxication intestinale,"
+           "Bactériothérapie intestinale."
+
+        The Warfare against Tuberculosis--being the Priestley Lecture
+           of the National Health Society for the year 1912. Published
+           in Bedrock, January 1913. Constable: London.
+
+  1913. _Études sur la flore intestinale._
+
+        Tome xxvii. No. 8. "Des vaccinations antityphiques" (El.
+           Metchnikoff et A. Besredka).
+
+        Tome xxvii. No. 11. "Toxicité des sulfoconjugués de la série
+           aromatique."
+
+  1914. Tome xxviii. No. 2. "Études sur la flore intestinale" (4ème
+           mémoire). "Les diarrhées des nourrissons."
+
+  1915. Tome xxix. No. 8. "Causerie de El. Metchnikoff à l'occasion
+           de son jubilé."
+
+        Tome xxix. No. 10. "La Mort du papillon du mûrier."
+
+        "Founders of Modern Medicine: Pasteur, Lister, Koch" in Russian
+           (a French translation to appear shortly).
+
+  1915-16. "Introduction à 'Études sur la fonction sexuelle'"
+           (posthume, dans Le Mercure de France, 1917).
+
+  1916. The Nature of Man. Popular edition. Heinemann: London, 1916.
+           8vo.
+
+  _Note._--Sources consulted: British Museum Catalogue; English
+           Catalogue; American Catalogue.
+
+
+
+
+                                 INDEX
+
+
+  Acoelomata, development of, 73
+
+  Albaran, Dr., 231
+
+  Alexander I., Tsar of Russia, 26
+
+  Alexander II., 28;
+      assassination of, 101, 104, 218
+
+  Alexis Michailovitch, Tsar, sends Spatar on mission to China, 24;
+      death of, 25
+
+  Alhambra, the, 124
+
+  Amour (Amur) river, Spatar's exploration of, 24
+
+  _Anisoplia austriaca_, experiments on, 111
+
+  _Annales de l'Institut Pasteur_, 1915, 249-50 _n._
+
+  Anthrax vaccine experiment, unfortunate result of, 133-4
+
+  Anthropoid apes, Metchnikoff's desire to experiment with, 140, 189;
+      syphilis experiments with, 190, 191;
+      infantile cholera experiments with, 207, 220;
+      typhoid fever experiments with, 207
+
+  Antitoxins, Metchnikoff's experiments with, 162
+
+  _Arbeiten des zool. Inst. zu Wien_, publication of Metchnikoff's
+    "Untersuchung über die intracelluläre Verdauung bei wirbellosen
+    Tieren," 119 _n._
+
+  Arterio-sclerosis, 189, 206
+
+  Ascidia, Metchnikoff's difference with Kovalevsky _re_, 62, 73
+
+  Asiatic cholera, 220
+
+  Astrakhan steppes, 84, 85
+
+  Austria, declaration of war on Serbia, 1914, 240
+
+
+  Baer, Prof., and Baer Prize, 58
+
+  Bakounine, 52, 56
+
+  Bardach, Dr., 127, 133
+
+  Bassarab, Constantine, 24
+
+  Baumgarten, Prof., hostile criticism of phagocyte theory, 126, 129;
+      criticism refuted, 148
+
+  Behring, theory of immunity, 148;
+      discovery of antitoxins, 149, 150
+
+  Békétoff, Prof., 40, 58
+
+  _Bell_, the, 29
+
+  Berlin Congress, 1890, 148-9
+
+  Berthelot, M., pupil and collaborator of Metchnikoff, 197, 221
+
+  Besredka, Dr., researches, 161-2, 207-8
+
+  Birsch, 169 _n._
+
+  Bobrinsky, Count, 111, 112
+
+  Bogomoloff, 29
+
+  _Bombyx mori_ (moth of the silk-worm), Metchnikoff's experiments
+    with, 238-9, 251
+
+  Bordet, M. I., important researches and experiments, 165
+
+  Borrel, M., 162
+
+  Brockhaus and Effrone, _Encyclopædia_ quoted, 25-6
+
+  Bronn, _Classes and Orders of the Animal Kingdom_, 31
+
+  Büchner, 169, 265;
+      paper on humoral theory, 150
+
+  Buckle, _History of Civilisation_, 29
+
+  Buda-Pest Congress (International, 1894), 159
+
+  _Bulletin of the Moscow Society of Naturalists_, 33
+
+  Bunsen, 48
+
+  Burnet, M., 211
+
+
+  Caillaux affair, 240
+
+  Cantemir, Prince, 26
+
+  Casso, Minister of Public Instruction, 219
+
+  Cephalopoda, Metchnikoff's study of, 56, 57
+
+  Chamberland, 265
+
+  Chauveau, 169 and _n._
+
+  Cholera outbreak in France, 1892, 154;
+      Metchnikoff's experiments with cholera vibrio, 154-7, 158 _seq._
+
+  Choukevitch, Dr., 212
+
+  Cienkovsky, friendship for and interest in Metchnikoff, 59, 60, 73;
+      resigns from Odessa University, 75;
+      bacillus, 210
+
+  Claus, Prof., 48, 119
+
+  Coelentera and intracellular digestion, 107, 110, 116
+
+  Coelomata, development of, 73
+
+  Cohendy, M., research work of, 196
+
+  Cohn, association with and interest in Metchnikoff, 43, 45
+
+  "Conception of Nature and of Medical Science, A," Metchnikoff's
+    Stuttgart Lecture, 1909, 209, 224
+
+  Crimea, and Black Sea fauna, 59
+
+  Ctenophora, 73
+
+  "Curative Forces of the Organism, The," Metchnikoff Lecture on, in
+    Berlin, 1908, 208, 223
+
+  Curded milk, manufacture, Metchnikoff's connection with, 226-7
+
+
+  Daphniæ, experiments with, 121, 279
+
+  Darré, Dr., 256, 266, 271
+
+  Darwin, _The Origin of Species_, 41;
+      theories, 276, 277
+
+  Diabetes, 246
+
+  Dubois-Reymond, journal of, 48
+
+  Duclaux, M., 137, 265
+
+  Duniasha (Avdotia Maximovna), 4, 10
+
+
+  Eberth's bacillus, 207-8
+
+  Echinodermata, Metchnikoff's researches, etc., 61, 62, 70;
+      metamorphoses of, 72, 73;
+      and intracellular digestion, 107, 110, 116;
+      observations on larvæ transformation, 119
+
+  _Education from an Anthropological Point of View_, Metchnikoff's
+    paper on, 63, 74
+
+  Ehrlich, Prof., 199, 265
+
+  Embryology, comparative, Metchnikoff's studies in, 50-51, 56, 57,
+    107, 277
+
+  Emmerich, 265;
+      attack on phagocyte theory, 131;
+      attacks refuted, 148
+
+  Engelmann, 45
+
+  Ephemeridæ, Metchnikoff's study of, 105, 106, 193, 237
+
+  Escherich, 265
+
+  _Essais optimistes_, 191-2, 209
+
+  _Études sur la nature humaine_, 185, 191, 209;
+      quoted, 188
+
+  Evolution, Metchnikoff's researches in, 50-51
+
+
+  _Fabricia_, Metchnikoff's researches on, 43
+
+  Fédorovitch, Mlle. Ludmilla, afterwards Madame Elie Metchnikoff, 63;
+      engagement to Metchnikoff, 65-9;
+      marriage to Metchnikoff, 69;
+      illness of, 69-70;
+      a clever draughtswoman, 71;
+      temporary recovery of, 73;
+      relapse, 74, 75, 78;
+      death, 79
+
+  Fédorovitch, Mlle., 71, 74, 78, 80;
+      account of interview with Metchnikoff, 83
+
+  "Flora of the Human Body," Wilde Lecture, 1901, 182
+
+  _Flore du corps humain_, La, 224
+
+  "Forces curatives de l'organisme," quoted, 120-21
+
+  _Forty Years' Search for a Rational Conception of Life_, 223
+
+  _Founders of Modern Medicine, The_, extract from preface to, 247-8
+
+  Fraenkel, Carl, 265
+
+
+  Gamaléia, Dr., 127, 133
+
+  Garibaldi Movement, the, 47
+
+  Garnier, M., 21, 22
+
+  _Gastræa_, Haeckel's theory of the, 108
+
+  "Gastrotricha," Metchnikoff's establishment of, 42
+
+  Geneva, young revolutionary centre, 47-8
+
+  _Geodesmus bilineatus_, 106-7
+
+  Geophilus (_see_ Myriapoda)
+
+  George, Henry, 202
+
+  Germany, Metchnikoff's appreciation of scientists of, 55
+
+  Germany, declaration of war on Russia, 240;
+      on France, 242
+
+  Giessen, Naturalists' Congress at, 1864, 44-5
+
+  _Glycobacter peptonicus_, 221, 222
+
+  Goethe, _Faust_, 195, 204
+
+  Goldschmidt, Dr., 78, 79
+
+  _Göttingen News_, Leuckart's memoir on Nematodes in, 48
+
+  Granada, 124
+
+  Gravitz, 169 _n._
+
+  Grove, _The Unity of Physical Forces_, 32
+
+  Guancios, Caves of the, 77
+
+
+  Haeckel, theory of the _gastræa_, 108
+
+  Hayem, 169 _n._
+
+  Heitz, Dr., 231
+
+  Heligoland, flora and fauna of, 43
+
+  Helmholtz, 48
+
+  Henle, Prof., 54
+
+  Herzen, _Passé et pensées_, 47
+
+  Hirschfeld, 169 _n._
+
+  Hodounof, 19, 20, 22
+
+  Hueppe, Prof., 131
+
+  Hugo, Victor, 260 _n._
+
+
+  Iamanouchi, M., 211
+
+  Immunity, 122;
+      opposing theories of Behring and Metchnikoff, 148, 149, 150, 151;
+      ancient and modern theories of, 168-70;
+      Metchnikoff's exposition of, 171-180
+
+  _Immunity in Infectious Diseases_, 170
+
+  Infantile cholera, 207, 220-21
+
+  _Inflammation_, Metchnikoff's lectures on, 152-3
+
+  Intestinal flora, problem of, 196-8, 206;
+      further researches, 220, 235, 280;
+      experiments with rats, 221, 222
+
+  Intracellular digestion, Metchnikoff's studies of, 57, 105, 107, 110,
+    116, 170, 277, 278
+
+
+  Jaurès, assassination of, 240
+
+  Jelly-fish, Metchnikoff's monograph on embryology of, 126
+
+  Jenner and method of antivariolic vaccination, 168
+
+  _Journal de Moscou_, Elie Metchnikoff's first publication in, 33
+
+  Jupille, M., 155
+
+
+  Kalmuk steppes, Metchnikoff's journey to, 82-3;
+      description of, 215-16;
+      Metchnikoff's anthropological work among natives of, 84-5;
+      liability of natives to tuberculosis, 210-11;
+      Pasteur Institute expedition to, 212;
+      description of, 215-17
+
+  Keferstein, Prof., 54
+
+  Kent, Saville, discoveries of _Protospongia_, 110
+
+  Kharkoff, 1, 16, 20;
+      Lycée, progress in, 28;
+      University, ancient methods in, 31-2, 37, 40
+
+  Kherson, peasants' grievances and vexatious conduct in, 113, 114
+
+  Kirghiz steppes, endemic plague in, 211;
+      Russian plague mission to, 211, 215, 218;
+      description of, 214
+
+  Kleinenberg, Prof., encouragement of Metchnikoff, 118, 119
+
+  Kleps, 169 _n._
+
+  Koch, Prof., 265;
+      attitude to Metchnikoff's theory, 133, 149
+
+  Kölliker, Prof., 37
+
+  Kovalevsky, Alexander, friendship with Metchnikoff, 49, 58;
+      work of, 51, 52, 61, 62, 72, 73, 108;
+      divides Baer Prize with Metchnikoff, 58
+
+  Kriloff, 26
+
+  Kühne, 41
+
+
+  Latapie, M., 155
+
+  _Law of Life, The_, 223
+
+  _Leçons sur la pathologie comparée de l'inflammation_, 152-3
+
+  Leube, Dr., 231
+
+  Leuckart, Prof., 43-5, 46
+
+  Lilienfiorse, 199
+
+  Lister, Dr., 148
+
+  Loeffler, 265
+
+  London Congress, 149-50
+
+  Lubarsch, attacks on Metchnikoff's theory, 232
+
+  Lucernaria, 73
+
+
+  _Macaques_ or Barbary apes, 124;
+      Metchnikoff's typhoid experiments with, 207-8
+
+  Macrophages, 163-4, 166, 178, 184
+
+  Madeira, 75
+
+  Maeterlinck, Maurice, 228-9
+
+  Maisonneuve, M., 191
+
+  Malaga, gardens of, 124
+
+  Manoukhine, Dr., 231
+
+  Martin, Dr., 256, 273
+
+  Medusæ, 72, 73, 116
+
+  Mertens, 76, 79
+
+  _Messenger of Europe_, Metchnikoff's contributions to, 208-9,
+    239 _n._
+
+  Messina, Metchnikoff's work at, 61
+
+  Messina, the Metchnikoff home at, 115
+
+  Messina, earthquake at, 1908, 115, 116
+
+  Metazoa, 277
+
+  Metchnikoff, Dmitri Ivanovitch, devotion to his brother's family, 5,
+    17, 21, 28;
+      appearance and character, 5-6;
+      other references, 12, 14
+
+  Metchnikoff, Elie (or Ilia), parents' home at Panassovka, 1-3;
+      birth of, 3;
+      appearance and disposition in childhood, 8-11;
+      early indications of unusual intelligence, 9, 16, 20;
+      an adventurous journey to Slaviansk, 12-15;
+      life at Kharkoff, 16-18;
+      develops natural history tastes with Hodounof, 20-22;
+      ancestry, 23-7;
+      entry into and progress at Kharkoff Lycée, 28-34;
+      friendships and their influence, with Bogomoloff, 29,
+          with Tschelkoff, 32-3, 42,
+          with Kovalevsky, 48 _seq._,
+          with Cienkovsky, 59-60,
+          with Kleinenberg, Virchow, and others, 118-19,
+          with Pasteur, 132 _seq._,
+          various, 56, 58-9, 63, 65, 93, 137;
+      adopts atheism and shows continued interest in natural history,
+        29-30;
+      love of music, 31, 34, 54-5, 93;
+      plans a scientific career, 31;
+      early publications, 33, 41;
+      devotion to his mother, 35, 93-4;
+      early love affairs, 35-6;
+      abortive journey to Würzburg, 37-9;
+      at Kharkoff University, 40-42;
+      an early controversy with Kühne, 41;
+      influenced by Darwin, 41, 50;
+      early researches and privations in Heligoland, 43-5;
+      letters to his mother quoted, 44-6, 65-9;
+      at Giessen Congress, 45;
+      work and relations with Leuckart, 45-8;
+      eyesight troubles, 46, 62, 82-3, 105;
+      visit to Geneva, 46-8;
+      researches, Mediterranean, 48-53, 56-7, 61 _seq._,
+          in the Crimea, 59-60,
+          at Spezzia, etc., 70-73,
+          anthropological among Kalmuks, 84-5,
+          in intracellular digestion and Ephemeridæ, 105-11, 116,
+          in infectious diseases, 128,
+          in tuberculosis and phagocytosis, 133;
+      at Pasteur Institute, 135-6,
+          in cholera, 154-157,
+          in immunity, 168-80,
+          in senile atrophies and intestinal flora, 182-9, 191, 196-8,
+            206-8, 220 _seq._,
+          in syphilis, 189-91,
+          in infantile cholera and typhoid, 207-8, 220,
+          in tuberculosis and plague among Kalmuks, 210-19;
+      silk-worm moth, 238-9, 251;
+      contribution to foundation of comparative embryology, 51, 56;
+      studies in Germany and opinion of German scientists, 54-5, 57;
+      illnesses, 55-56, 65, 104, 181, 217, 222, 229 _seq._, 249;
+      return to Russia and Odessa University appointment, 58-60;
+      appointed Zoology Professor at Petersburg, 61;
+      interest in educational questions, 63, 100;
+      life at Petersburg, 63-4, 71 _seq._;
+      engagement and first marriage, 66-70;
+      reappointed to Odessa University and difficulties of appointment,
+        73, 75, 78, 98 _seq._;
+      his philosophical theory and its evolution, 74-7, 184-9, 191-5,
+        209, 222-4, 228-9, 281-3;
+      visit to and life at Madeira, 75-7;
+      death of first wife, 79;
+      attempts suicide, 80-81;
+      Mlle. Fédorovitch's description of, 83;
+      journey to Astrakhan steppes, 82-3;
+      studies of childhood, 86;
+      meeting with family of second wife and growing intimacy, 86-8, 94;
+      Setchénoff's description of, 88;
+      harmony of second marriage, 89-95;
+      character and disposition 96-8, 143-5;
+      views of women's scientific capacity, 103;
+      inoculates himself with relapsing fever, 104;
+      and the phagocyte theory, first statement of, 110,
+          describes first inception of, 116-17,
+          progress in, 117-22, 126, 128, 142, 148, 150-53, 158-66,
+            183, 208-9,
+          controversies and attacks on, 131, 133, 142, 147-9;
+      difficulties over Russian estate management, 112-14;
+      life at Messina, 115-19;
+      again returns to Russia, 119;
+      journey through Spain to Tangiers, 123-4;
+      life at Tangiers and Villefranche, 125-6;
+      describes work at Bacteriological Institute, Odessa, 127-8;
+      describes first meeting with Pasteur, 132;
+      Pasteur's offer, 132;
+      visit to Berlin and reception by German scientists, 133;
+      work and influence at Pasteur Institute, 135-146;
+      M. Roux's appreciations of, 138-9, 150, 159;
+      other appreciations, 141, 165;
+      life at Sèvres and Paris, 144-5;
+      visit to England, 149;
+      triumph at London Congress, 150;
+      interest in Pfeiffer's phenomenon, 158-60;
+      theory and studies of natural death, 192-5, 230-35, 237-8, 252;
+      receives Nobel Prize, 199;
+      journey to Sweden and Russia, 199-200;
+      visit to Tolstoï, 200-205;
+      expedition to Kalmuk steppes, 210 _seq._;
+      unpleasant incident of lacto-bacilli fabrication, 225-7;
+      kindness to friends, 227-8;
+      descriptions of his own symptoms, etc., 229-36, 250-51, 263-5;
+      holidays at St. Léger-en-Yvelines, 228, 237-9, 251;
+      effect of war on, 239-46, 261;
+      preface to _Founders of Modern Medicine_ quoted, 247-8;
+      plans a work on sexual questions, 249, 252, 260;
+      jubilee celebrations, 249-50;
+      last illness, 254-73;
+      last days at Pasteur Institute, 256-73;
+      death, 273;
+      synopsis of work and achievements, 276-81
+
+  Metchnikoff, Madame, meeting with Metchnikoff, 87,
+      parents and family, 87-8, 94,
+      marriage, 89, 90,
+      relations between husband and wife, 90-95,
+      illness of, in 1880, 104,
+      loss of both parents, 112,
+      illnesses of, 123, 181, 252
+
+  Metchnikoff, Emilia Lvovna (_née_ Nevahovna), appearance and
+    disposition, 2, 5, 6, 93;
+      a capable housewife, 3;
+      a devoted mother, 4, 6, 13, 14, 18, 37;
+      delicacy of, 22;
+      ancestors, 26;
+      influence on Elie Metchnikoff's choice of a career, 41;
+      endeavours to prevent Elie's first marriage, 66;
+      letters to, from Elie quoted, 44-5, 65-69;
+      death of, 94
+
+  Metchnikoff, Elena Samoïlovna, 4, 8, 10
+
+  Metchnikoff, Ilia Ivanovitch, home at Panassovka, 1,
+      appearance and character, 2,
+      marriage, 2,
+      easy-going temperament, and extravagance, 2-6,
+      attitude to his family and servants, 6-7
+
+  Metchnikoff, Ivan, 3, 8
+
+  Metchnikoff, Katia, appearance and character, 8,
+      marriage, 16, 21,
+      other references, 12, 14
+
+  Metchnikoff, Leo, 3, 8,
+      illness of, 19,
+      gifted but superficial nature of, 19, 46-7;
+      activities in Geneva and connection with Garibaldi Movement,
+        46-7, 80
+
+  Metchnikoff, Nicholas, birth of, 3;
+      appearance, 8;
+      his great-aunt's favourite, 8, 10;
+      boyhood pursuits, 17-18;
+      enters Kharkoff Lycée, 28;
+      life in Kharkoff, 31;
+      death of, 230
+
+  _Microphages_, 163-4, 166
+
+  Morosoffs, the, of Moscow, 189
+
+  Moscow, Anthropological Society of, Metchnikoff's report to, 85
+
+  Moscow, International Congress, 1897, 164-5;
+      Skin Disease Research Society, 189
+
+  Müller, Fritz, _For Darwin_, 50
+
+  _Müller's Archives_, Metchnikoff's memoir on the Vorticella in, 41
+
+  Myriapoda, embryology of, 76, 85
+
+
+  Naegeli, 169 _n._
+
+  Naples, cholera epidemic in, 1865, 53;
+      Metchnikoff's first stay at, 49-53,
+      second stay, 62
+
+  Napoleon, 260 _n._
+
+  Natural death, Metchnikoff's studies of, 237, 280-81
+
+  Natural science, Metchnikoff's campaign for the teaching of, 100
+
+  Nematodes, Metchnikoff's discoveries, etc., 42, 46
+
+  Nevahovitch, Leo, 26
+
+  Nicholas I., 28
+
+  Nobel Prize, the, 199
+
+  Nocard, M., 265;
+      appreciation of Metchnikoff, 165
+
+  Norden, Dr., 231
+
+
+  Odessa, University of, 58-9,
+      Metchnikoff's work at, 60-61, 98-9,
+      party intrigues at, 75, 101,
+      rights to autonomy threatened, 101-3,
+      Congress, 1883, 120,
+      bacteriological Institute founded at, 127
+
+  Oldenburg, Prince of, 129
+
+
+  Panassovka, the home of the Metchnikoffs, 1, 3,
+      fire at, 20-21
+
+  _Parenchymella_, explanation of, 109-110
+
+  Paris, International Congress, 1900, 170
+
+  Paris, air raids on, 246
+
+  Pasteur, antirabic inoculations, 127,
+      Metchnikoff's first interview with, 132,
+      friendship with Metchnikoff and interest in phagocyte theory, 137,
+      experiments in vaccination and immunity, 168-9,
+      death of, 181,
+      discovery of lactic fermentation microbe, 193,
+      age at death, 265
+
+  Pasteur Institute, the, 132,
+      Metchnikoff's work and influence at, 134-142, 144,
+      Metchnikoff's appreciation of, 139,
+      effect of outbreak of European War on, 244-5;
+      celebration of Metchnikoff's jubilee, 249
+
+  Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, 24, 25, 26
+
+  Petersburg, 2, 19,
+      Congress of Russian Naturalists at, 1867, 60-61,
+      difficult conditions of Metchnikoff's work at, 63-4, 71,
+      foundation of Bacteriological Institute at, 129
+
+  Petersburg Geographical Society, 82
+
+  Petrushka, 4, 12, 13
+
+  Pettenkoffer, 154, 236
+
+  Pfeiffer, 265,
+      experiments in extracellular destruction of microbes, 158-60,
+        165-6, 175;
+      attacks on Metchnikoff's theory, 232
+
+  _Phagocytella_, 110, 126
+
+  Phagocytes, origin of Metchnikoff's theory of, 51, 57, 278,
+          development of theory, 110, 111, 113, 120-22, 142,
+          inception of theory, 116-19,
+          Baumgarten's hostile criticism of theory, 126;
+      application of theory to erysipelas, 128,
+          opposition to theory, 131, 151,
+          controversy, 148,
+          renewed experiments for proving theory, 148, 149, 150, 151,
+            152, 153, 279;
+      vindication of, at Buda-Pest Congress, 159, 160;
+      experiments with toxins and poisons, 160-62;
+      experiments with antitoxins, 162-164,
+          and doctrine of immunity, 170-80,
+          and senility, 183, 280
+
+  Phagocytosis, Metchnikoff's first paper on, read at Odessa Congress
+    of Physicians and Naturalists, 1883, 120
+
+  _Phyllirhoë_, 175
+
+  Picot, E., _Chronicle of John Neculua_ quoted, 23
+
+  Pirquet's test, 211
+
+  _Pleomorphism of Microbes_, Metchnikoff's memoir, 1888, 211
+
+  Poland, Revolution in, 1830, 26
+
+  Polypi, 72
+
+  _Popular Star_, 29
+
+  Preyer, theory of fatigue and sleep, 194
+
+  _Protospongia_, discovery of, by Saville Kent, 110
+
+  Pushkin, 2, 26
+
+
+  Radlkoffer, _The Crystals of Proteic Substances_, 33
+
+  Rasputin, 219
+
+  Recklinghausen, 169 _n._
+
+  Relapsing fever, experiments to prove phagocytic reaction, 129
+
+  Renon, Dr., 255
+
+  Rotifera, 193, 237-8
+
+  Rousseau, J. J., _Confessions and the Nouvelle Héloïse_, 260 _n._
+
+  Roux, Dr., 137, 255,
+      appreciation of Metchnikoff quoted, 138-9, 141, 159, 249;
+      collaboration with Metchnikoff, 150, 162, 163, 164,
+      wins Osiris Prize, 189;
+      reply to campaign against Metchnikoff, 226;
+      friendship with and visits to Metchnikoff in his last illness,
+        257, 267, 273
+
+  Rubinstein, M., 260
+
+
+  St. Léger-en-Yvelines, 228, 237
+
+  Salimbeni, Dr., 163, 184, 211, 215, 256, 266, 272-3
+
+  Sanarelli, Dr., discovery of choleriform bacilli, 156
+
+  Sarepta, 217-18
+
+  Schaudinn, discovery of syphilitic treponema, 190
+
+  Scorpion, the, Metchnikoff's researches concerning the development
+    of, 71
+
+  Senility and death, Metchnikoff's views on and researches, 182-8,
+    191-5
+
+  Serums, their action, 177
+
+  Setchénoff, Prof., 52-3, 71, 73, 78, 239;
+      autobiography quoted, 88
+
+  Sèvres, Metchnikoff Villa at, 144, 145
+
+  Siphonophora, 72
+
+  Slaviansk, adventurous journey of the Metchnikoff family to, 12
+
+  Spain, Metchnikoff's eventful journey through, 80
+
+  Spatar, Joury Stepanovitch, 26
+
+  Spatar, Nicholas Milescu, exploits and adventures of, 23-4,
+      mission to China, 24,
+      literary activities and services to Peter the Great, 25,
+      death of, 25
+
+  Spezzia, the Metchnikoffs sojourn at, 70-71
+
+  Sponges and Echinodermata, Metchnikoff's study of, 61, 72, 106, 117
+
+  Stepanita, Prince, his dealings with Nicholas Milescu Spatar, 24
+
+  Syphilis, Metchnikoff's researches on, 189-91, 280
+
+
+  Tangiers, journey to, through Spain, 123-4,
+      description of, 124-6
+
+  Tarassevitch, Dr., 212
+
+  Tchistovitch, Dr., 231
+
+  _Time for Marriage, The_, Metchnikoff's paper on, 77
+
+  Tolstoï, Léon, a day at Iasnaïa Paliana, 200-205
+
+  Tolstoï, Countess, 203
+
+  Tornaria, Metchnikoff's discovery concerning, 70
+
+  Toxins and the phagocyte theory, experiments, 160 seq.
+
+  _Trattoria della Harmonia_, the, 53
+
+  Trieste, Metchnikoff's work at, 62
+
+  Tschelkoff, Prof., 32, 33, 40, 41, 42
+
+  Tshori, Convent of, 217
+
+  Tuberculosis, researches on phagocytosis, in, 133;
+      Metchnikoff's theory of natural vaccination, 210-11, 218
+
+  Typhoid fever, 207-8
+
+
+  Vaquez, Dr., 230
+
+  Veillon, Dr., 256
+
+  Vienna, Hygienists' Conference at, 1887, 131
+
+  Villa Orotava, giant dragon-tree at, 77
+
+  Virchow, cellular theory, 32, 48, 169 _n._;
+      encouragement of Metchnikoff, 118-19;
+      _Archives_, publication of Metchnikoff's researches in, 122, 129
+
+  Volga, description of, 212-13
+
+  von Noorden, 182
+
+  von Siebold, Prof., 54
+
+  Vorticella, the, Metchnikoff's memoir on, 41
+
+
+  Waldeyer, 169 _n._
+
+  Weinberg, M., 184
+
+  Widal, Dr., 255, 256
+
+  Wollman, pupil and collaborator of Metchnikoff, 196-7, 221
+
+  Würzburg, University of, Metchnikoff's abortive journey to, 37
+
+
+  Zalensky, 32
+
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+_Printed in Great Britain by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
+
+
+
+
+                    READERS OF THIS BOOK INTERESTED
+                       IN MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC
+                        BIOGRAPHY ARE REFERRED
+                               OVERLEAF
+
+
+
+
+                      MEN OF MEDICINE AND SCIENCE
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF PASTEUR. By RÉNÉ VALLERY-RADOT. Translation by Mrs. R. L.
+    DEVONSHIRE. New Edition with a Preface by Sir WILLIAM OSLER, Bart.,
+    M.D., F.R.S.
+
+                                     Demy 8vo. Portrait, 10s. 6d. net.
+
+      "A classic of scientific biography."--_Saturday Review._
+
+      "The translation of M. Vallery-Radot's admirable biography of the
+      great Frenchman is a book which every English-speaking admirer of
+      Pasteur will desire to possess."--_The Athenæum._
+
+      "Pasteur's career is set out in the fullest detail, making an
+      absorbing narrative, and the scientific, social, and political
+      environment is sketched with vivid accuracy. It is the picture of
+      a great man, a great career, and a great epoch in the history of
+      France and of science."--_The Times Literary Supplement._
+
+
+  SIR VICTOR HORSLEY. By STEPHEN PAGET. Foreword by LADY HORSLEY.
+
+                                      Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.
+
+      "All the aspects of Horsley's strenuous life are depicted with
+      the writer's accustomed sympathy and skill. Mr. Paget has given
+      us a study of absorbing interest.... We are never allowed to
+      lose sight of the restless energy and indomitable courage that
+      characterised all that Horsley undertook."--_British Medical
+      Journal._
+
+      "No biographer who agreed with Horsley could have given us
+      anything so valuable, so convincing, so vitally defined.... Mr.
+      Paget has never had an equal as a medical biographer, and here he
+      has excelled himself."--_The Observer._
+
+
+  LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH BLACK, M.D. By Sir WILLIAM RAMSAY, K.C.B.,
+    LL.D., F.R.S., etc. Introduction by F. G. DONNAN, F.R.S.
+
+       Demy 8vo. Frontispiece Portrait and Illustrations. 6s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  ROBERT BOYLE: A Biography. By FLORA MASSON.
+
+                             Frontispiece. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+      "May be recommended as an excellent study of the great Irishman
+      to whose services as natural philosopher and chemist even modern
+      scientists owe a debt of gratitude."--_Pall Mall Gazette._
+
+
+                 PUBLISHED BY CONSTABLE & COMPANY LTD.
+                   10-12 ORANGE STREET LONDON W.C.2.
+
+
+
+
+                              Biography &
+                             Reminiscence
+                               Military
+                               Political
+                                Social
+                               Literary
+                              Scientific
+                               & General
+
+
+                             Published by
+                         Constable & Co. Ltd.
+                           10-12 Orange St.
+                             London W.C.2
+
+
+
+
+                                  I.
+
+       Military Biographies, Autobiographies and Reminiscences.
+
+
+  FIRST WORLD WAR, 1914-1918. By Lieut.-Col. CHARLES À COURT REPINGTON,
+    C.M.G.
+
+                                           Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 42s. net.
+
+      "Few if any two-guinea books have had such a sale as the _First
+      World War_."--_Evening Standard._
+
+      "Colonel Repington's fame as a military critic is world-wide.
+      He now gives us his personal experiences of the war in the form
+      of a Diary which will compare with the most famous diaries in
+      literature.... Few diarists show keener observation or greater
+      power of description than Colonel Repington here displays,
+      and none before has had such a period of history for his
+      theme."--Major-General Sir FREDERICK MAURICE in _The Daily News_.
+
+      "... There are countless piquant little pen pictures through
+      these two books.... Colonel Repington met all the great soldiers
+      of the Allies.... The book is full of extraordinarily good
+      stories and remarks."--_Sunday Times._
+
+
+  EXPERIENCES OF A DUG-OUT. By Major-General Sir C. E. CALLWELL, K.C.B.
+
+                                                             18s. net.
+
+      The General held the appointment of Director of Military
+      Operations during the early years of the war, and was indeed
+      in the saddle at the beginning of the operations in 1914. In
+      this volume he shows us behind the scenes and enables us to see
+      clearly much that was obscure. His book reveals to us in an
+      intimate way the personality of Lord Kitchener and many others,
+      and introduces us to the War Cabinet.
+
+      "A vivacious picture of life behind the scenes of the great drama
+      ... told keenly and poignantly, with a biting humour ... and with
+      a frankness of disclosure."--_The Times._
+
+      "Sir Charles Callwell is one of the soundest military critics in
+      the country.... He is a writer ... his sense of proportion is
+      never at fault."--_Spectator._
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF LIEUT.-GEN. SIR STANLEY MAUDE, K.C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.
+    Authorised Memorial Biography of the Conqueror of Baghdad. By
+    Major-General Sir C. E. CALLWELL, K.C.B.
+
+                                                Illustrated. 21s. net.
+
+      "General Callwell is in the very front rank of military writers
+      ... one of the very few who combine learning in the military art
+      with ability to make it interesting to others."--_Times Literary
+      Supplement._
+
+      "A good book.... Should be in the hands of every newly joined
+      subaltern, for no nobler picture of a British officer and a
+      gentleman could be laid before them."--Hon. JOHN FORTESCUE in
+      _The Observer_.
+
+
+  SUVOROF. By W. LYON BLEASE. With an Introduction by Major-General Sir
+    CHARLES CALLWELL, K.C.B.
+
+                       Frontispiece and 21 Maps. Demy 8vo.   25s. net.
+
+      "Mr. Blease has done his work uncommonly well. The book is
+      well arranged and well written.... Sir E. Callwell in his
+      preface pronounces Suvorof to have been, next to Frederick the
+      Great, unquestionably the greatest soldier of the last half
+      of the eighteenth century.... We hold that Sir E. Callwell is
+      undoubtedly right. He was a very great soldier and a great
+      man."--_Times Literary Supplement._
+
+
+  FREDERICK THE GREAT. By H. DE CATT. Translated by F. S. FLINT.
+    Introduction by LORD ROSEBERY.
+
+                                           Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 24s. net.
+
+      "Entertaining and instructive.... Perhaps the main attraction is
+      the masterly introduction by Lord Rosebery which occupies some
+      forty pages."--_British Weekly._
+
+      "A very human book. We have never read anything giving so simple
+      and homely a picture of Frederick as that drawn by his admiring
+      Swiss reader."--_Spectator._
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. By NORWOOD YOUNG.
+
+                            Front. Maps and Plans. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.
+
+
+      "The book shows both energy and industry.... Mr. Young has a
+      large acquaintance not only with the original authority but also
+      with the literature of the subject."--_Times Literary Supplement._
+
+
+  MOLTKE. By Lt.-Col. F. E. WHITTON. (Makers of XIX. Century Series.
+    See p. 4.)
+
+  AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR WILLIAM BUTLER.
+
+                                       Frontispiece and Maps. 6s. net.
+
+      "This book must always occupy a prominent place in our military
+      literature, and its vivid portraiture and its humour, as well as
+      the light it throws on the 19th century history, must carry it
+      beyond the circles of military interest."--_Aberdeen Free Press._
+
+
+  LIFE OF SIR FREDERICK HAINES. By ROBERT S. RAIT, M.A.
+
+                                Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  THE LIFE AND CAMPAIGNS OF HUGH, 1ST VISCOUNT GOUGH, FIELD MARSHAL. By
+    ROBERT S. RAIT, M.A.
+
+               Illustrations and Maps. Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 31s. 6d. net.
+
+      "By no means a mere compilation, but a substantial and
+      independent work bearing the clear interests of individuality,
+      power of research, and historic training.... The style is
+      suited to the work--clear, vigorous, and graphic.... By
+      means of his own letters, a brave, hot-headed, affectionate,
+      pure and conscientious soldier is revealed to us in all his
+      naturalness."--_Athenæum._
+
+
+
+
+                      Makers of the XIX. Century.
+
+    Biographies of Men of all Countries who have had a definite
+    influence on thought or action in the Nineteenth Century. Edited by
+    BASIL WILLIAMS. Demy 8vo. With Frontispiece, Bibliographies, and
+    Full Index.
+
+
+
+  DELANE OF THE "TIMES." By Sir E. T. COOK.     6s. net.
+
+  ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By LORD CHARNWOOD.           10s. 6d. net.
+
+  ABDUL HAMID. By SIR EDWIN PEARS.              6s. net.
+
+  HERBERT SPENCER. By HUGH S. ELLIOT.           6s. net.
+
+  DIAZ. By DAVID HANNAY.                        6s. net.
+
+  LI HUNG CHANG. By J. O. P. BLAND.             6s. net.
+
+  BISMARCK. By C. GRANT ROBERTSON, C.V.O.       10s. 6d. net.
+
+  CECIL RHODES. By BASIL WILLIAMS.              15s. net.
+
+  VICTOR HUGO. By MARY DUCLAUX.                 14s. net.
+
+  MOLTKE. By Lieut.-Col. F. E. WHITTON.
+
+
+
+
+                                 II.
+
+         Political and Social Biographies and Reminiscences.
+
+
+  AN ENGLISH WIFE IN BERLIN: A Private Memoir of Events, Politics and
+    Daily Life in Germany throughout the War and the Social Revolution
+    of 1918. By EVELYN, PRINCESS BLÜCHER.
+
+                                         Portrait. Demy 8vo. 19s. net.
+
+      "If there are any other diarists who managed to preserve as much
+      fairness and coolness as Princess Blücher displays in this book
+      they need not be ashamed to publish their records. If she had a
+      just mind she had a stalwart one."--_Spectator._
+
+      "This is a book apart. Nothing yet published gives so clear and
+      honest a picture of German mentality. The soul of Germany is laid
+      bare and the exposure achieved without the slightest pretension.
+      The character of the Berlin aristocracy is written in every page
+      of this honest and absorbing document."--_Daily Telegraph._
+
+      "Perhaps the most absorbingly interesting war book that has been
+      written.... Altogether the book is a most remarkable one. The
+      kind that causes one to forget one's meals and other pleasures
+      until the last page is read. Princess Blücher has earned the
+      undying gratitude of her countrymen for her indefatigable work on
+      behalf of prisoners of war."--_Globe._
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF JOHN BRIGHT. By G. M. TREVELYAN.
+
+                                 20 Illustrations. Med. 8vo. 15s. net.
+
+      "A book of great and vivid interest."--_Westminster Gazette._
+
+      "The book, fully commensurate with the fame of its subject, will
+      take its place with the standard Lives of Statesmen."--_Daily
+      Telegraph._
+
+      "Mr. George Trevelyan has had the honour of writing what must
+      henceforth be the accepted Life.... Finely written. We only wish
+      we had space to quote in full."--_Spectator._
+
+
+  EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AND AFTER. By Sir GEORGE KEKEWICH, K.C.B.
+
+                                                   Demy 8vo. 21s. net.
+
+      "His reflections upon the Civil Service are full of
+      interest.... There is much entertaining matter in the book,
+      which touches in turn on almost every topic of present-day
+      administration."--_Morning Post._
+
+      "Sir George Kekewich and Anthony Trollope are, so far as we
+      know, the only permanent officials who have written a book about
+      their own departments.... Sir George was genuinely interested
+      in his duties and did well the work which he found to his
+      hand."--_Saturday Review._
+
+
+  THE END OF A CHAPTER. By SHANE LESLIE, M.A.
+
+                                                   Fcap. 8vo. 2s. net.
+
+
+  A BEACON FOR THE BLIND: Being a Life of Henry Fawcett, the Blind
+    Postmaster-General. By WINIFRED HOLT. Foreword by Rt. Hon. Viscount
+    BRYCE.
+
+                              16 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+      "The whole wonderful story of this life Miss Holt tells with a
+      proper warmth of enthusiasm.... Carefully and intimately, so
+      that the reader is able to love the man as well as admire the
+      hero."--_Observer._
+
+      "A valuable memorial of a noble character and a truly
+      extraordinary man."--_Times._
+
+
+  CHARLES STEWART PARNELL. A Memoir by his Brother, JOHN HOWARD PARNELL.
+
+                                 Frontispiece. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  GENERAL BOTHA: The Career and the Man. By HAROLD SPENDER. Portrait
+    and Maps. New and Enlarged Edition, bringing the story down to
+    General Botha's death.
+
+                                               Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+      "A tale worth the telling, and set forth with a lucidity,
+      a sympathy, and a comprehension remarkable in one whose
+      acquaintance with South Africa can only be slight.... A book
+      which is not only a valuable historical document but absorbingly
+      interesting in every page."--_Westminster Gazette._
+
+
+  CECIL RHODES. By BASIL WILLIAMS. (Makers of XIX. Century Series. See
+    p. 4.)
+
+
+  LORD GEORGE BENTINCK: A Political Biography. By BENJAMIN DISRAELI.
+    Introduction by CHARLES WHIBLEY.
+
+                                                    Demy 8vo. 6s. net.
+
+      "A fascinating edition of a fascinating book."--_Morning Post._
+
+      "Mr. Whibley's introduction contains an appreciation of
+      Lord Beaconsfield concisely just to his great gifts, to the
+      general consistency of his life, and to his qualities as a
+      statesman."--_Outlook._
+
+
+  OLIVER CROMWELL. By THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
+
+                                    Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. net.
+
+
+  BISMARCK. By C. GRANT ROBERTSON, C.V.O. (Makers of XIX. Century
+    Series. See p. 4.)
+
+
+  THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CAVOUR. By WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER.
+
+                                    Front. Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 30s. net.
+
+      "A real benefit to the cause of recent history.... Mr. Thayer
+      has done his work notably well. It is accurate, thorough,
+      well-balanced, essentially lucid. Well-written, solid yet
+      inspiring, admirably produced.... Such a work is a credit to the
+      book industry from every point of view."--_Bookman._
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF VENIZELOS. By S. B. CHESTER.
+
+      In this volume the author has traced the life of one of the
+      most remarkable men of to-day. BOOK I.--Crete before and during
+      the rise of Venizelos--deals with the early life of this great
+      patriot; his early struggles as leader of the Cretan revolution;
+      his final triumphal election to the Greek National Assembly. BOOK
+      II.--Venizelos as Maker of Modern Greece--is a history of the
+      gradual aggrandisement of Greece. From 1910 to 1920 the life of
+      Venizelos is synonymous with that of his country.
+
+
+  ISMAIL KEMAL BEY. Memoirs. With an Introduction by W. MORTON
+    FULLERTON.
+
+                                                   Demy 8vo. 18s. net.
+
+      "An invaluable source for the historian of the downfall of the
+      Turkish Empire, and adds materially to our knowledge of the
+      intrigues of the great continental powers in Egypt and the Near
+      East."--_Manchester Guardian._
+
+      "Of profound interest and reveals some inner secrets of Near
+      Eastern policy."--_Sunday Times._
+
+
+  ABDUL HAMID. By Sir EDWIN PEARS. (Makers of XIX. Century Series. See
+    p. 4.)
+
+
+  LI HUNG CHANG. By J. O. P. BLAND. (Makers of XIX. Century Series. See
+    p. 4.)
+
+
+  DIAZ. By DAVID HANNAY. (Makers of XIX. Century Series. See p. 4.)
+
+
+  NADIR SHAH. By Sir H. MORTIMER DURAND.
+
+                                Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  THE WINTER QUEEN: The sad story of Elizabeth of Bohemia. By MARIE HAY.
+
+                                                         12s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  EMMA, LADY HAMILTON. From New and Original Documents, together with
+    an Appendix of Notes and Letters. By WALTER SICHEL.
+
+                                        Illust. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ANDREW CARNEGIE.
+
+                                                Illustrated. 25s. net.
+
+      "He was in spirit a true sportsman, and his autobiography, fresh,
+      crisp, and entirely unaffected, will do something to put him in
+      his right niche."--_Observer._
+
+      "The two stages of his extraordinary career as he describes them
+      in great detail, with honest self-satisfaction and a good deal of
+      quiet humour, make a story--almost a romance--which is not only
+      entertaining but instructive."--_Westminster Gazette._
+
+
+  A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS, 1861-1865. Edited by W. C. FORD.
+
+                                      With many Illustrations. 2 vols.
+
+      Letters of CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, American Minister to England
+      during the Civil War, and his two sons--HENRY ADAMS, who acted as
+      secretary, and CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Jr., then serving in the
+      Northern Armies.
+
+      These two volumes of family letters form an unique series. They
+      contain detailed description of social conditions, discussion of
+      public questions, and wise and informed comments on the events in
+      Great Britain and America during the war between North and South.
+      Social, military, and diplomatic, the importance of so long a
+      series of letters between members of a distinguished family
+      cannot be over-estimated.
+
+
+  LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HAY. By WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER.
+
+                                                     2 vols. 21s. net.
+
+      "Mr. Thayer's very interesting biography."--LORD CROMER in _The
+      Spectator_.
+
+      "Mr. Thayer is to be congratulated on this biography.... He
+      has made a most skilful and attractive book, full of good
+      reading, dealing with great events and little, and adding to our
+      knowledge of men and things at moments of real importance to
+      history."--_Westminster Gazette._
+
+      "One of the most comprehensive and masterly biographies I have
+      ever read."--CLAUDIUS CLEAR in _The British Weekly_.
+
+
+  THEODORE ROOSEVELT. An Intimate Biography. By WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER.
+
+                                           Illust. Demy 8vo. 25s. net.
+
+      "A vivacious narrative, decidedly more attractive for the English
+      reader than Roosevelt's record of his career."--_Manchester
+      Guardian._
+
+
+  ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By LORD CHARNWOOD. (Makers of XIX. Century Series.
+    See p. 4.)
+
+
+  LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN. By ALONZO ROTHSCHILD. Illustrated with
+    Portraits.
+
+                                               Demy 8vo. 17s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  ALEXANDER HAMILTON. An Essay on American Union. By F. S. OLIVER. With
+    Portraits.
+
+                                                    Demy 8vo. 6s. net.
+
+      "A thorough and penetrating review of the circumstances which
+      united the States of America under a common and supreme
+      government. On literary grounds it is a book of singular merit,
+      while as a contribution to the political and constitutional
+      history it deserves the closest study."--_Liverpool Post._
+
+
+  THE DIARY OF GIDEON WELLES, with a Memoir. Edited by JOHN T. MORSE.
+
+                                        Illustrated. 3 vols. 42s. net.
+
+
+  AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER. With a Memoir by his
+    Wife.
+
+                                    Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 16s. net.
+
+
+
+
+                         Modern Biographies.
+
+    With Bibliographies and Portraits. Fcap. 8vo. 1s. 6d. net each.
+
+
+  LAFCADIO HEARN. By EDWARD THOMAS.
+
+  W. E. HENLEY. By L. COPE CORNFORD.
+
+  TOLSTOY. By EDWARD GARNETT.
+
+  PAUL BOURGET. By ERNEST DIMNET.
+
+  VERLAINE. By WILFRED THORLEY.
+
+  DR. BARNARDO. By A. R. NEUMAN.
+
+  CARDUCCI. By ORLO WILLIAMS.
+
+
+
+
+                                 III.
+
+            Literary, Artistic, Philosophical and General.
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF SIR E. T. COOK. By J. SAXON MILLS.
+
+                                               Frontispiece. Demy 8vo.
+
+      This is the authorised life of the famous journalist and
+      publicist, friend and biographer of Ruskin, who became during the
+      War one of the chiefs of the Press Bureau. Sir Edward Cook was
+      in his time editor of the _Pall Mall Gazette_, the _Westminster
+      Gazette_, and the _Daily News_, and Mr. Saxon Mills' book throws
+      much valuable light on the political and social England of the
+      last thirty years. Contents:--Parentage and School; Oxford Days;
+      Early Journalism; Early Days on the _Pall Mall_; Politics in
+      the 'Eighties; Editor of the _Pall Mall_; From _Pall Mall_ to
+      _Westminster_; The _Westminster Gazette_; The _Daily News_; The
+      South African Scene; Sale of the _Daily News_; As Editor and
+      Journalist; Literary Work; The Last Task; Death and Character;
+      The Age of Puff; Some Stories.
+
+
+  ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH: A Critical Biography. By JAMES I. OSBORNE.
+
+                                                Demy 8vo. 8s. 6d. net.
+
+      "Mr. Osborne has approached his difficult task with ardour and
+      taste."--EDMUND GOSSE in the _Sunday Times_.
+
+      "A very careful and interesting piece of work."--W. L. COURTNEY
+      in the _Daily Telegraph_.
+
+      "A most admirable exposition of character of singular and
+      beautiful integrity."--NEW STATESMAN.
+
+      "This acute and interesting book."--_Times Literary Supplement._
+
+
+  MEMORIES OF GEORGE MEREDITH, O.M. By LADY BUTCHER.
+
+                              Three Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 5s. net.
+
+      "All the swift criticisms and unpremeditated comments that
+      this indefatigable diarist has recovered from her treasures
+      make it clear that Meredith's wit was as spontaneous as it was
+      characteristic."--_Saturday Westminster._
+
+      "Lady Butcher deserves very hearty thanks for this little volume
+      of her charming memories."--CLEMENT SHORTER in _The Sphere_.
+
+
+  FREDERICK LOCKER LAMPSON. By the Rt. Hon. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL.
+
+                                     Illustrated. Fcap. 4to. 25s. net.
+
+      *** 100 copies on hand-made paper, bound in white and gold and
+      signed by the author, were also issued.
+
+      "Life is more than politics, and if we deal with a book this week
+      it is because we have found in it an ironic and reconciling charm
+      to make us more content with existence as it is. We are restored
+      to the forgotten grace of letters, and Mr. Birrell has done this
+      with that way of his own which is like no other man's. This
+      little quarto with the rough edges, perfect in form and texture
+      to a book lover's eye, written with a deep-laid negligence, makes
+      us surer that Mr. Birrell will be remembered when more ponderous
+      reputations have foundered.... A collector can see at a glance
+      that the book lovers of posterity will always gather this volume
+      like amber.... This character sketch, followed by a little
+      masterpiece of editing applied to family letters and a book list,
+      makes us regret the fate that lured Mr. Birrell from writing
+      and wasted him on political clubs.... He is a cross between Dr.
+      Johnson and Charles Lamb."--_Observer._
+
+      "Nothing that Mr. Birrell has previously written has been
+      conceived in so happy a vein as this monograph.... A charming
+      little quarto."--_Daily Chronicle._
+
+      "The book to delight the heart of every one who really cares for
+      literature. Written with a manly and tender affection and with
+      the reverence which the subject demands. The publishers have done
+      their part admirably."--CLAUDIUS CLEAR in _The British Weekly_.
+
+
+  GEORGE MEREDITH: His Life, Genius, and Teaching. By S. C. PHOTIADES.
+    Rendered into English by ARTHUR PRICE.
+
+                                             Extra Crown 8vo. 6s. net.
+
+
+  W. E. HENLEY. By L. COPE CORNFORD. (Modern Biographies Series.
+    See p. 9.)
+
+
+  HERBERT SPENCER. By HUGH S. ELLIOT. (Makers of XIX. Century Series.
+    See p. 4.)
+
+
+  THE MIDDLE YEARS: Reminiscences. By KATHERINE TYNAN.
+
+                                               Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  THE YEARS OF THE SHADOW. By KATHERINE TYNAN.
+
+                                                   Demy 8vo. 15s. net.
+
+  THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS. With an Introduction BY HENRY CABOT
+    LODGE.
+
+                                                             21s. net.
+
+      "This fascinating autobiography.... A brilliant picture of
+      a social epoch now completely vanished, and a record of an
+      intellectual pilgrimage which will stand along with the few
+      perfect examples."--_Manchester Guardian._
+
+
+  LETTERS TO A NIECE, and Prayer to the Virgin of Chartres. By HENRY
+    ADAMS, Author of _The Education of Henry Adams_, etc.
+
+      "These letters written from Washington and during his travels
+      in the Pacific, in Egypt, Paris, etc., leave in their playful
+      and tender intimacy a pleasant impression which forms a
+      welcome memorial of the inner life of a distinguished man of
+      letters."--_Times Literary Supplement._
+
+
+  REMINISCENCES OF ARTHUR COLERIDGE. By J. A. FULLER-MAITLAND.
+
+                                                             Demy 8vo.
+
+      Arthur Duke Coleridge, born in 1830, was the grand-nephew of
+      the great poet, S. T. Coleridge. Educated at Eton and King's,
+      Cambridge, he acted for fifty-four years as an official on the
+      Midland Circuit. He died in October 1913. Very few people have
+      had so fine a gift for friendship as Arthur Coleridge. Few
+      also have had the privilege of knowing so many of those who
+      interpreted the artistic feeling of their time. He himself did
+      much to stimulate the vogue of the best in music. His musical
+      recollections are a delightful account of his important work
+      towards the musical revival in England.
+
+
+  VIA GIBBS. A Memoir by Mrs. ALSTON.
+
+               Photogravure Portrait and 8 half-tone Illust. Demy 8vo.
+
+      A memorial volume to Victoria Florence de Burgh Gibbs, C.B.E.,
+      eldest daughter of the Rt. Hon. W. H. Long, M.P., and the wife of
+      Lieut.-Col. G. A. Gibbs, M.P. "The path of a good woman is indeed
+      strewn with flowers, but they rise behind her steps, not before
+      them."--RUSKIN.
+
+
+  DELANE OF THE "TIMES." By Sir E. T. COOK. (Makers of XIX. Century
+    Series. See p. 4.)
+
+
+  LORD STOWELL: His Life and the Development of English Prize Law. By
+    E. S. ROSCOE.
+
+                                         Front. Med. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+      "Mr. Roscoe has collected diligently and reverently and has
+      been able to present a picture such as we have not had before
+      of a great judge and a constructive jurist."--_Times Literary
+      Supplement._
+
+
+  THE LIFE AND A SELECTION FROM THE LETTERS OF WILLIAM STUBBS (Bishop
+    of Oxford). 1825-1901. Edited by W. H. HUTTON, B.D.
+
+                                                    Demy 8vo. 6s. net.
+
+      "Mr. Hutton gives an excellent account of the Bishop's
+      career.... Of Stubbs as a historian the book can only recount
+      the achievements, but of Stubbs as a man it gives an excellent
+      portrait."--_Athenæum._
+
+
+  PAUL VERLAINE. By HAROLD NICOLSON.
+
+      It is not easy to write a critical biography of Verlaine without
+      either patronage or pomposity. Mr. Nicolson succeeds because he
+      treats his subject whimsically but with respect. He does not
+      seek to excuse or to minimise the failings of Verlaine as a man,
+      nor does he make extravagant claims of poetical genius, but he
+      tells with genial sympathy a rather pitiful life story, and by
+      skilful quotation enables the reader to form his own judgment
+      of Verlaine's work. Contents:--Youth; Marriage; Arthur Rimbaud;
+      "Sagesse"; Middle Age; The Last Phase; Verlaine's Literary
+      Position.
+
+
+  VERLAINE. By WILFRED THORLEY. (Modern Biographies Series. See p. 9.)
+
+
+  PAUL BOURGET. By ERNEST DIMNET. (Modern Biographies Series. See p. 9.)
+
+
+  VICTOR HUGO. By MARY DUCLAUX. (Makers of XIX. Century Series. See p.
+    4.)
+
+
+  CARDUCCI. By ORLO WILLIAMS. (Modern Biographies Series. See p. 9.)
+
+
+  DANTE ALIGHIERI: A Biographical Study. By CHARLES A. DINSMORE.
+
+                                            Large Crown 8vo. 15s. net.
+
+      "Dante's latest biographer has made out a very just summary of
+      modern opinion and research."--_New Statesman._
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF TOLSTOY. By AYLMER MAUDE.
+
+    Vol. I. First Fifty Years to 1870.
+
+    Vol. II. Later Years.
+
+                   Each vol. illustrated. Price per vol. 12s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  TOLSTOY. By EDWARD GARNETT. (Modern Biographies Series. See p. 9.)
+
+
+  JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. His Life, Art, and Work. Translated from the
+    German of JOHANN NIKLAUS FORKEL. With Notes and Appendices by
+    CHARLES SANFORD TERRY, LITT.D.
+
+                                      Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.
+
+      "Very much more than a re-translation of an old work which was
+      previously translated very imperfectly into English a hundred
+      years ago.... Though it bears the name of Forkel on the cover,
+      it contains material for a history of Bach criticism from
+      the beginning of the 19th century until the present day, and
+      incidentally suggests directions which future research may
+      follow."--_Times Literary Supplement._
+
+
+  TSCHUDI, THE HARPSICHORD MAKER. By WILLIAM DALE, F.S.A.
+
+                                 Demy 8vo. Illustrations. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  MICHEL-ANGELO: A Record of his Life as told in his own Letters and
+    Papers. By R. W. CARDEN, R.W., A.R.I.B.A.
+
+                                Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  LIFE AND LETTERS OF LAFCADIO HEARN. By ELIZABETH BISLAND.
+
+                                Illust. Demy 8vo. 2 vols. £3: 3s. net.
+
+
+  LAFCADIO HEARN. By EDWARD THOMAS. (Modern Biographies Series. See p.
+    9.)
+
+
+  THE JAPANESE LETTERS OF LAFCADIO HEARN. By ELIZABETH BISLAND.
+
+                                       Illust. Demy 8vo. 31s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS. Author of "Uncle Remus." By
+    JULIA COLLIER HARRIS.
+
+                                      Demy 8vo. Illustrated. 18s. net.
+
+
+  THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN FISKE. By JOHN SPENCER CLARK.
+
+                              Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 50s. net.
+
+
+  LETTERS OF ROBERT WATSON GILDER. Edited by ROSAMOND GILDER.
+
+                                    Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 14s. net.
+
+
+  THE MEMORIAL BIOGRAPHY OF W. G. GRACE. By LORD HAWKE, LORD HARRIS,
+    and Sir HOME GORDON. Published under the auspices of M.C.C.
+
+                                      Demy 8vo. Illustrated. 21s. net.
+
+      "Of inestimable value.... Sir Home Gordon must have had
+      an extremely difficult and laborious task, and is to be
+      congratulated on the way in which he has accomplished
+      it."--_Field._
+
+
+
+
+                                 IV.
+
+                       Scientific and Medical.
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF. By OLGA METCHNIKOFF. Translated by Mrs.
+    R. L. DEVONSHIRE.
+
+                                               Frontispiece. Demy 8vo.
+
+      Reviewing the French edition of this book in January 1921, _The
+      Times Literary Supplement_ said: "Madame Metchnikoff's excellent
+      analysis of her husband's scientific theories does not hinder
+      her from showing us the living, the lovable, the extraordinary
+      human being who conceived so many ideas, who developed so many
+      theories, inventions, innovations.... Mme. Metchnikoff has made
+      us admire the man of science and warmly the man."
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF PASTEUR. By RÉNÉ VALLERY-RADOT. Translation by Mrs. R. L.
+    DEVONSHIRE. New Edition with a preface by Sir WILLIAM OSLER, Bart.,
+    M.D., F.R.S. 2nd edition.
+
+                                     Demy 8vo. Portrait. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+      "A classic of scientific biography."--_Saturday Review._
+
+      "The translation of M. Vallery-Radot's admirable biography of the
+      great Frenchman is a book which every English-speaking admirer of
+      Pasteur will desire to possess."--_The Athenæum._
+
+      "Pasteur's career is set out in the fullest detail, making an
+      absorbing narrative, and the scientific, social, and political
+      environment is sketched with vivid accuracy. It is the picture of
+      a great man, a great career, and a great epoch in the history of
+      France and of science."--_The Times Literary Supplement._
+
+
+  SIR VICTOR HORSLEY. By STEPHEN PAGET. Foreword by LADY HORSLEY.
+
+                                      Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.
+
+      "All the aspects of Horsley's strenuous life are depicted with
+      the writer's accustomed sympathy and skill. Mr. Paget has given
+      us a study of absorbing interest.... We are never allowed to
+      lose sight of the restless energy and indomitable courage that
+      characterised all that Horsley undertook."--_British Medical
+      Journal._
+
+      "No biographer who agreed with Horsley could have given us
+      anything so valuable, so convincing, so vitally defined.... Mr.
+      Paget has never had an equal as a medical biographer, and here he
+      has excelled himself."--_The Observer._
+
+
+  LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH BLACK, M.D. By Sir WILLIAM RAMSAY, K.C.B.,
+    LL.D., F.R.S., etc. Introduction by F. G. DONNAN, F.R.S.
+
+       Demy 8vo. Frontispiece Portrait and Illustrations. 6s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  ROBERT BOYLE: A Biography. By FLORA MASSON.
+
+                                  Frontispiece. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+      "May be recommended as an excellent study of the great Irishman
+      to whose services as natural philosopher and chemist even modern
+      scientists owe a debt of gratitude."--_Pall Mall Gazette._
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF SIR CHARLES TILSTON BRIGHT. By CHARLES BRIGHT, F.R.S.E.
+    Revised and Abridged.
+
+                                Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
+
+      "The life story of Sir Charles Bright presents the career
+      of a famous Englishman with all the charm of simplicity and
+      enthusiasm.... As the chief engineer of the Atlantic cable
+      Sir Charles Bright will always have a memorable place in the
+      scientific progress of this century.... These volumes possess a
+      special interest for men of science, but they tell with clearness
+      and simplicity the career of a man of whom Englishmen must always
+      feel proud."--_Morning Post_.
+
+                                                      [_Spring 1921._]
+
+
+MESSRS. CONSTABLE will be glad to send free on application classified
+Lists of their publications. The following subject headings are ready:--
+
+  POLITICS, POLITICAL SCIENCE, AND SOCIOLOGY.
+
+  HISTORY.
+
+  WAR AND MILITARY HISTORY.
+
+  RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY.
+
+  EDUCATION AND PSYCHOLOGY.
+
+  ECONOMICS AND COMMERCE.
+
+  ART AND ILLUSTRATED BOOKS.
+
+  FICTION.
+
+_Please write to_
+
+10-12 ORANGE STREET LONDON W.C.2.
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been retained except in
+obvious cases of typographical error.
+
+Names and terms which deviated between chapter headings and text have
+been made consistent.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF,
+1845-1916***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 44194-8.txt or 44194-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/4/1/9/44194
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/old/44194-8.zip b/old/44194-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2ebbf32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44194-8.zip
diff --git a/old/44194-h.zip b/old/44194-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e7a8954
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44194-h.zip
diff --git a/old/44194-h/44194-h.htm b/old/44194-h/44194-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1d3080c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44194-h/44194-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,14421 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Life of Elie Metchnikoff, 1845-1916, by Olga Metchnikoff</title>
+    <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" />
+    <style type="text/css">
+
+body {
+    margin-left: 10%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+    h1,h2,h4 {
+    text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+    clear: both;
+    margin-top:4em;
+}
+
+p {
+    margin-top: .51em;
+    text-align: justify;
+    margin-bottom: .49em;
+}
+
+.spaced-above {margin-top: 2.5em;}
+
+hr {
+    margin-top: 2em;
+    margin-bottom: 2em;
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+hr.tb   {
+    width: 45%;
+    margin-left: 27.5%;
+    margin-right: 27.5%;
+}
+
+hr.chap {
+    width: 65%;
+    margin-left: 17.5%;
+    margin-right: 17.5%;
+}
+
+hr.full {
+    width: 95%;
+    margin-left: 2.5%;
+    margin-right: 2.5%;
+}
+
+table {
+    margin-left: auto;
+    margin-right: auto;
+    width:100%;
+}
+
+.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+    /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+    position: absolute;
+    left: 92%;
+    font-size: smaller;
+    text-align: right;
+    text-indent:0em;
+    padding-left:0em;
+    color: #808080;
+} /* page numbers */
+
+.chapter-sub {
+    margin-left: 5%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+    margin-bottom: 2em;
+    text-align:center;
+}
+
+.blockquot {
+    margin-left:2em;
+    margin-right:2em;
+    font-size:0.9em;
+}
+
+.bbox {
+    border: solid 2px;
+    padding:1em;
+}
+
+.narrow{
+    margin-left:auto;
+    margin-right:auto;
+    max-width:25em;
+}
+
+.center {text-align: center;}
+
+.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+.caption {
+    font-weight: bold;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+/* Images */
+.figcenter {
+    margin-top:4em;
+    margin-left:auto;
+    margin-right:auto;
+    margin-bottom:auto;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+/* Footnotes */
+.footnotes {
+    border: dashed 1px;
+    page-break-before:avoid;
+}
+
+.footnote {
+    margin-left:3%;
+    padding-left: 6%;
+    padding-right:2em;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+    font-size: 0.9em;
+}
+
+.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+
+.fnanchor {
+    vertical-align: super;
+    font-size: .8em;
+    text-decoration:
+    none;
+}
+
+/* Poetry */
+.poetry-container {
+    text-align:right;
+    max-width:55em;
+    font-size:0.9em;
+}
+
+.poem {
+    display:inline-block;
+    text-align: left;
+}
+
+.poem br {display: none;}
+
+.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+.quotation {
+    font-size:0.9em;
+    margin-left:50%;
+}
+/* Transcriber's notes */
+.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA;
+    color: black;
+     font-size:smaller;
+     padding:0.5em;
+     margin-top:5em;
+     font-family:sans-serif, serif; }
+    .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+
+.trans-heading {
+    font-size: 1.2em;
+    text-align:center;
+}
+
+.title {
+    font-size:1.5em;
+    text-align:center;
+}
+
+.small {
+    font-size:0.9em;
+}
+.smaller {
+    font-size:0.6em;
+}
+.publisher {
+    text-align:center;
+    margin-top:6em;
+}
+.small-right {
+    font-size:0.9em;
+    text-align:right;
+    margin-right:1em;
+}
+
+.blockquot .small-right, .poetry-container .small-right {
+   font-size:inherit;
+}
+.valediction {
+    text-align:right;
+    margin-right:6em;
+}
+
+.location {
+    font-size:0.8em;
+}
+
+.toc_table {
+    max-width : 50em;
+}
+.toc_chapter-heading {
+    text-align:center;
+    padding-top:1.5em;
+}
+
+.toc_chapter-heading-left {
+    text-align:left;
+    padding-top:1.5em;
+}
+
+.chapter-title {
+    text-align:left;
+    text-indent:-2em;
+    padding-left:2em;
+    font-size:0.9em;
+}
+
+.chapter-sub .chapter-title {
+    display:inline-block;
+    text-align:justify;
+}
+.toc_pagenum {
+    text-align:right;
+    vertical-align:bottom;
+    font-size:0.9em;
+}
+.work-title {
+    text-indent:-1.5em;
+    padding-left:1.5em;
+    text-align:justify;
+}
+.work-year {
+    vertical-align:top
+}
+.work {
+    text-indent:-1.5em;
+    padding-left:1.5em;
+    margin-top:2em;
+}
+.work-list {
+    margin-left:2em;
+}
+.prize {
+    white-space: nowrap;
+    text-align:right;
+    vertical-align:bottom;
+}
+
+div.index { /* styles that apply to all text in an index */
+    font-size: 90%;  /*small type for compactness */
+}
+
+ul.IX {
+    list-style-type: none;
+    font-size:inherit; /* i.e. from the div class="index" container */
+}
+
+.IX li { /* list items in an index: compressed vertically */
+    margin-top: 0;
+    text-indent:-1em;
+}
+.newpage {
+    page-break-before:always;
+}
+
+.covernote {visibility: hidden; display: none;}
+@media handheld {
+  .covernote {visibility: visible; display: block;}
+}
+
+    h1.pg,h4.pg { margin-top:0em; }
+    table.pg { width: auto; }
+    hr.pg   { width: 100%;
+              margin-top: 3em;
+              margin-bottom: 0em;
+              margin-left: auto;
+              margin-right: auto;
+              height: 4px;
+              border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */
+              border-style: solid;
+              border-color: #000000;
+              clear: both; }
+    </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, Life of Elie Metchnikoff, 1845-1916, by Olga
+Metchnikoff</h1>
+<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a
+href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p>
+<p>Title: Life of Elie Metchnikoff, 1845-1916</p>
+<p>Author: Olga Metchnikoff</p>
+<p>Release Date: November 16, 2013  [eBook #44194]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF, 1845-1916***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4 class="pg">E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, Norbert Müller,<br />
+    and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by<br />
+    Internet Archive/American Libraries<br />
+    (<a href="https://archive.org/details/americana">https://archive.org/details/americana</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table class="pg" border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      <a href="https://archive.org/details/lifeofeliemetchn00mechiala">
+      https://archive.org/details/lifeofeliemetchn00mechiala</a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="pg" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>AUTHORISED TRANSLATION FROM THE FRENCH</i></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 569px;">
+<img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="569" height="400" alt="" />
+<div class="caption"><p class="center"><span class="smcap">Dr.</span> METCHNIKOFF IN HIS LABORATORY.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<h1><a name="LIFE_OF" id="LIFE_OF">LIFE OF<br />
+ELIE METCHNIKOFF</a></h1>
+
+<p class="title">1845-1916</p>
+
+<p class="title spaced-above"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br />
+OLGA METCHNIKOFF</p>
+
+<p class="center spaced-above">WITH A PREFACE BY<br />
+<span class="smcap">Sir</span> RAY LANKESTER K.C.B. F.R.S.</p>
+
+<p class="publisher">LONDON<br />
+CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LTD.<br />
+1921</p>
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE">PREFACE</a></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> has been a great satisfaction to me to carry out
+the wish of my dear friend Elie Metchnikoff, and arrange
+for the production of an English translation of his
+biography. The account of his life and work written
+by Olga Metchnikoff is a remarkable and beautiful
+record of the development and activities of a great
+discoverer. It is remarkable because it is seldom
+that one who undertakes such a task has had so
+constant a share in, and so complete a knowledge and
+understanding of, the life portrayed as in the present
+case: seldom that the intimate thought and mental
+&ldquo;adventure&rdquo; of a discoverer presents so clear and
+consistent a history. It is beautiful because it is
+put before us with perfect candour and simplicity
+guided by rare intelligence and inspired by deep
+affection. Madame Metchnikoff has drawn the
+picture of the development of a single-minded
+character absolutely and tenaciously devoted to a
+high purpose&mdash;the improvement of human life. It
+is a story of &ldquo;struggles and adventures,&rdquo; but they
+are wholly in the field of the investigation of Nature.
+We read here little or nothing of the quest for personal
+advancement, for fortune or official position. These
+things had no attraction for Metchnikoff. He left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span>
+Russia and took an unpaid post in Paris in order to
+have a place to work in. He had many devoted
+friends in whose company he sought refreshment and
+relaxation, but all his immense energy and industry
+were concentrated on the development and establishment
+of his great biological theory of &ldquo;Phagocytosis&rdquo;
+and its outcome, the philosophy of life called by him
+&ldquo;Orthobiosis.&rdquo; This volume tells truly of a simple
+life&mdash;a life in which the social incidents which fill so
+large a space in most lives were either non-existent
+or unnoticed because, by the side of the great purpose
+which dominated Metchnikoff&rsquo;s every thought and
+action&mdash;namely, the advancement of Science&mdash;he was
+not touched by them. He was affectionate, kind-hearted,
+and truly considerate of others, but was, in
+a way which is traceable to his racial origin, a practical
+idealist concentrating his whole strength and reason
+on the realisation of what he held to be the highest
+good.</p>
+
+<p>I had as an eager reader of memoirs on biological
+subjects become acquainted with Metchnikoff&rsquo;s
+earliest publications in 1865, when he was twenty
+years of age and I two years younger. I wrote short
+accounts of them, as they appeared, for a chronicle
+of progress in the <i>Quarterly Journal of Microscopical
+Science</i>, then edited by my father. Those on a
+European Land Planarian, on the development of
+Myzostomum (the parasite of the Feather-Star), on
+Apsilus, a strange new kind of wheel-animalcule, and
+his protest against Rudolf Leuckart&rsquo;s treatment of
+him in the matter of his important discoveries concerning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span>
+the Frog&rsquo;s lung-worm&mdash;<i>Ascaris nigrovenosa</i>&mdash;remain
+in my memory, and later, in 1872, I was
+especially struck by his important demonstration of
+the true mode of development of the gastrula of the
+calcareous sponges in correction of Professor Ernst
+Haeckel. Many other papers of his became known
+to me, until in 1881 he published his first observations
+on <i>Intracellular Digestion in Lower Animals</i>,
+which was the starting-point of his life&rsquo;s work on
+&ldquo;Phagocytosis,&rdquo; to which all his subsequent researches&mdash;during
+thirty-five years&mdash;were exclusively dedicated.</p>
+
+<p>In 1888 I was introduced by my friend Lauder
+Brunton to the great Pasteur, and called on him at
+his laboratory in the rue d&rsquo;Ulm. There I met
+Metchnikoff, only lately arrived from Russia, and
+welcomed as one of his staff by Pasteur. The next
+year, 1889, Pasteur was installed in the new &ldquo;Institut
+Pasteur&rdquo; in the rue Dutot, and I met Metchnikoff
+there in his new quarters. Pasteur&rsquo;s assistants were
+carrying on daily his system of inoculation against
+rabies, and many British subjects were amongst those
+treated. I persuaded the Lord Mayor of that year,
+Sir James Whitehead, to visit the Pasteur Institute
+with a view to taking steps to make some recognition
+of the services rendered by Pasteur to our fellow-countrymen
+in treating over two hundred of them
+threatened with hydrophobia. Sir James called a
+meeting on July 1, 1889, at the Mansion House, and
+placed the management of it in my hands. As a
+result we obtained subscriptions to a fund which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span>
+enabled us to assist many poor British subjects to
+visit Paris for the purpose of undergoing M. Pasteur&rsquo;s
+treatment, to make a donation of 30,000 francs to the
+Pasteur Institute, and to initiate with a sum of
+£300 the formation of a fund for the purpose of
+establishing an Institute in London similar in purpose
+and character to the Institut Pasteur. That initial
+fund has step by step received generous additions and
+given us the &ldquo;Lister Institute&rdquo; on Chelsea Embankment
+possessed of buildings, site, and capital valued
+at more than £300,000.</p>
+
+<p>After 1889 it was rare for a year to pass without
+my visiting Paris both in spring and summer, and
+seeing a great deal of Metchnikoff and his friends
+Roux, Duclaux, Laveran, and the great master of the
+Pastorians, who died in 1895. Metchnikoff took me
+to his home and cemented his friendship with me by
+bringing to me that of his gifted and devoted wife.</p>
+
+<p>Madame Metchnikoff had when a schoolgirl studied
+zoology under her future husband at Odessa, and now
+was able to give serious help in some of his researches.
+She published some experimental investigation on the
+sterilisation of the alimentary canal of tadpoles and
+some other researches, and having a thorough knowledge
+of English, which Elie did not possess, she helped
+him in reading and translating from that language.
+But her chief talents were in the arts of painting and
+sculpture, and when they purchased their country
+house at Sèvres, she built a studio in the garden in
+which to pursue her vocation.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff on several occasions came to England<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span>
+to take part in &ldquo;congresses&rdquo; or to give special
+addresses, and often stayed a day or two with me in
+London.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> I was with him at the Darwin Celebration
+at Cambridge in 1909, and the last occasion when he
+came was to give the Priestley Lecture of the National
+Health Society in November 1912. At my request
+he selected &ldquo;The Warfare against Tuberculosis&rdquo; as
+his subject, and gave a most valuable account of the
+history and actual condition of that enterprise,
+relating the important results of his expedition to the
+Kalmuk Tartars for the purpose of studying the
+immunity from and the liability to infection by
+tuberculosis among that nomad population. The
+lecture was delivered in French, and I made a translation
+of it which appeared with numerous illustrations
+in the journal called <i>Bedrock</i>, published by
+Constable &amp; Co. I mention that publication here
+as it is the only one excepting the three lectures on
+&ldquo;The New Hygiene&rdquo; (Heinemann, London, 1906)
+originally published in an English form by Metchnikoff,
+and deserves more attention from the English medical
+public than it has received.</p>
+
+<p>I found Metchnikoff a delightful companion. He
+always had something new or of special interest to
+show to me at the laboratory&mdash;some microscopical
+preparation, the digestive process in Protozoa, the
+microbian parasite of a water-flea, a new method of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span>
+dark ground illumination with high powers (Commandant&rsquo;s
+method for film production), the newly
+discovered Treponema of syphilis, or the experimental
+inoculation of a disease under study. Sometimes I
+would lunch at his house, when, although he neither
+smoked nor took alcoholic drinks himself, he made a
+point of giving me first-rate claret and a good cigar.
+It was about the year 1900 that he arranged for the
+preparation of a pure &ldquo;sour milk&rdquo; made by the use
+of a special lactic ferment (selected and cultivated
+by himself), and this he took regularly. I found it a
+most agreeable food, and for several years made it
+an article of my own diet. He was very careful about
+the possible contamination of uncooked food by
+bacteria and the eggs of parasitic worms, and in
+consequence had &ldquo;rolls&rdquo; sent to him from the bakers
+each in its separate paper bag, whilst he would never
+eat uncooked salads or fruit which could not be
+rendered safe by &ldquo;peeling.&rdquo; This was not an excess
+of caution, but resulted from his characteristic determination
+to carry out in practice the directions given
+by definite scientific knowledge, and to make the
+attempt to lead so far as possible a life free from
+disease. Often when I arrived in Paris he would
+invite me to lunch at one of the leading cafés, and
+though he ate very simple food himself took keen
+pleasure in ordering the best for me and thoroughly
+enjoyed the change of scene and the amenities of a
+first-rate restaurant. During one of his visits to
+London, I remember that he was invited, and I with
+him, on two or three occasions, by leading London<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span>
+physicians to dinner-parties. He was greatly shocked
+at the amount of strong wine which his hosts and
+fellow-guests consumed, and assured me that in Paris
+it would be injurious to the reputation of a physician
+were he not to set an example of either abstinence or
+great moderation.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff was not only exceedingly gentle and
+courteous in his treatment of servants and employés,
+but he and his wife contrived on a very small income
+to help in a most substantial way poor neighbours
+and those who had met with misfortune whether they
+were of French or Russian nationality. They had
+many friends in the world of science and art, real
+workers and thinkers, including those who had not
+and those who had &ldquo;arrived.&rdquo; With them I met
+and spent a long and interesting day with Rodin the
+sculptor and the son of Léon Tolstoï, who was
+working in a Paris studio. Among the pleasures
+which I have derived from the <i>Life</i> are the accounts
+of places such as Naples and Messina, where I
+stayed in order to study the embryology of marine
+animals as Metchnikoff did; and also the appearance
+in these pages from time to time of old friends
+such as Nikolas Kleinenberg, whom Metchnikoff met
+at Messina in 1883. I had formed an intimate
+acquaintance with Kleinenberg at Jena in 1871,
+when he was working at his classical monograph
+on Hydra, and continued it at Naples in 1875.
+From Messina, where he became Professor in 1875,
+Kleinenberg sent me for publication in the <i>Quarterly
+Journal of Microscopical Science</i> his valuable memoir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span>
+on the embryology of a species of Earthworm, and
+also rare and interesting specimens of Cephalopoda.</p>
+
+<p>Another great and noteworthy figure about whom
+all zoologists are glad to learn as much as possible is
+Kovalevsky. Metchnikoff made his acquaintance
+at Naples in 1864, and they formed a close friendship
+for one another. Later, in 1867, they shared the Baer
+Prize of the Petersburg Academy for their discoveries
+in embryology (p. <a href="#Page_58">58</a>). In 1868 Metchnikoff had a
+dispute with Kovalevsky as to the origin of the
+nervous system of Ascidia (p. <a href="#Page_62">62</a>), concerning which
+he subsequently admitted that he was wrong and
+Kovalevsky right. There is no doubt that Kovalevsky,
+by his numerous important investigations of invertebrate
+embryology, and especially of that of Ascidia
+and Amphioxus, laid the foundation of <i>cellular</i>
+Embryology, and the modern study of the embryology
+of Invertebrates. Metchnikoff&rsquo;s contributions were
+also of great value and importance (pp. <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>,
+and pp. <a href="#Page_72">72</a> and <a href="#Page_73">73</a>), though he has not so great a
+triumph in animal morphology to his credit as
+Kovalevsky&rsquo;s discovery of the close identities of the
+development of organs in Ascidia and Amphioxus.
+I had long cherished profound esteem for Kovalevsky
+when in 1896 I met him and his daughter at Wimereux
+with Professor Giard. He came in the autumn of
+that year to London, but left unexpectedly owing to
+some nervous fear of annoyance by the police. The
+great position of Kovalevsky was deliberately ignored
+in a German history of Zoology,<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> published just before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span>
+the Great War. Metchnikoff describes Kovalevsky
+as a young man, small and timid, with shy but cordial
+manners and the clear sweet eyes of a child: he had
+(like Metchnikoff) for Science an absolute cult&mdash;&ldquo;no
+sacrifice was too great, no difficulty too repellent for
+his ardour.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>It is, I think, desirable to assure the reader of
+this book that the actual state of knowledge in
+regard to various subjects discussed in the <i>Life</i> at the
+time when they were made the subjects of study by
+Metchnikoff is fairly and correctly sketched, and the
+growth and development of his views and original
+discoveries are correctly given. But it must be
+remembered that this <i>Life</i> is not a critical discussion
+of the steps by which our knowledge of cell-layers,
+of intracellular digestion, and other factors contributory
+to Metchnikoff&rsquo;s doctrine of Phagocytosis
+and its outcomes were reached. Others played an
+important if a subsidiary part in building up that
+knowledge. What we have here is an account of
+the growth of Metchnikoff&rsquo;s own observations and
+theoretical inferences, which were so independent, and
+founded on such decisive original observations, as to
+make him a solitary figure contending, and successfully
+contending, during the best years of his lifetime for
+the recognition of a great generalisation for long
+opposed by most of the medical and physiological
+authorities of the time, and finally established by his
+lifelong researches and those of his faithful pupils
+and coadjutors. The recognition of the validity of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span>
+<i>the doctrine of phagocytosis</i> in relation to wounds,
+disease, immunity, and normal healthy life is the
+triumphant result of the scientific insight and boundless
+energy of Elie Metchnikoff.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right small">
+E. RAY LANKESTER.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</a></h2>
+
+<table class="toc_table" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="table of contents">
+<tr>
+  <td></td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum">PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading-left">PREFACE</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_v">v</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading-left">INTRODUCTION</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_xxi">xxi</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER I</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1845. Panassovka &mdash; Metchnikoff&rsquo;s parents &mdash; Country life in Little Russia</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER II</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">Metchnikoff&rsquo;s brothers and sister &mdash; Childish characteristics</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_8">8</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER III</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1850. Journey to Slaviansk &mdash; The coach attacked by peasants</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1851. Departure for Kharkoff &mdash; Town life</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER V</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1853-1856. Leo Metchnikoff&rsquo;s illness &mdash; Private tutors &mdash; Botanical studies &mdash; A memorable birthday</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">Ancestors of the Metchnikoff family &mdash; The great &ldquo;Spatar&rdquo; &mdash; Leo Nevahovitch</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</a></span>CHAPTER VII</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1856-1861. The Kharkoff Lycée &mdash; Bogomoloff and Socialism &mdash; Atheism &mdash; Natural History studies &mdash; Private lodgings &mdash; Private lessons in histology from Professor Tschelkoff &mdash; A borrowed microscope &mdash; First article &mdash; Italian opera &mdash; The gold medal</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">An early love &mdash; A schoolfellow&rsquo;s sister &mdash; A pretty sister-in-law</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1862. Journey to Germany &mdash; Leipzig, Würzburg &mdash; A hasty return</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER X</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1863. Kharkoff University &mdash; Physiology &mdash; The Vorticella &mdash; Controversy with Kühne &mdash; <i>The Origin of Species</i> &mdash; Gastrotricha &mdash; University degree</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1864-1866. Heligoland &mdash; Giessen Congress &mdash; Leuckart &mdash; Visit to Leo Metchnikoff at Geneva &mdash; Socialist gatherings &mdash; Metchnikoff&rsquo;s discovery appropriated by Leuckart &mdash; Naples &mdash; Kovalevsky &mdash; Comparative embryology &mdash; Embryonic layers &mdash; Bakounine and Setchénoff &mdash; Cholera at Naples &mdash; Göttingen &mdash; Anatomical studies &mdash; Munich; von Siebold &mdash; Music &mdash; Return to Naples &mdash; Intracellular digestion</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1867-1868. Petersburg &mdash; Baer Prize &mdash; Return home &mdash; Friendship with Cienkovsky &mdash; Odessa &mdash; Naturalists&rsquo; Congress at Petersburg &mdash; Departure from Odessa &mdash; Zoological Lecturer&rsquo;s Chair at Petersburg &mdash; Messina &mdash; Enforced rest &mdash; Reggio &mdash; Naples &mdash; Controversy with Kovalevsky &mdash; Visit to the B. family &mdash; Mlle. Fédorovitch &mdash; Educational questions &mdash; Difficulties of life in Petersburg </td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</a></span>CHAPTER XIII</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1868-1873. Slight illness &mdash; Engagement to Mlle. Fédorovitch &mdash; Marriage &mdash; Illness of the bride &mdash; Pecuniary difficulties &mdash; Spezzia &mdash; Montreux &mdash; Work in Petersburg University &mdash; The Riviera &mdash; C&oelig;lomata and Ac&oelig;lomata &mdash; St. Vaast &mdash; Panassovka &mdash; Madeira &mdash; Mertens &mdash; Teneriffe &mdash; Return to Odessa &mdash; Bad news, hurried journey to Madeira &mdash; Death of his wife (1872) &mdash; Return through Spain &mdash; Attempted suicide &mdash; Ephemeridæ</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIV</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1874. Anthropological expedition to the Kalmuk steppes &mdash; Affection of the eyes &mdash; Second expedition to the steppes &mdash; The eggs of the <i>Geophilus</i></td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XV</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1875. Studies on childhood &mdash; The family in the upper flat &mdash; Lessons in zoology &mdash; Second marriage &mdash; Private life &mdash; Visit and death of Lvovna Nevahovna &mdash; Conjugal affection</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVI</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1875-1880. Metchnikoff at the age of 30 &mdash; Lecturing in Odessa University, from 1873 to 1882 &mdash; Internal difficulties &mdash; Assassination of the Tsar, Alexander II. &mdash; Further troubles in the University &mdash; Resignation &mdash; Bad health: cardiac symptoms &mdash; Relapsing fever &mdash; Choroiditis &mdash; Studies on Ephemeridæ &mdash; Further studies on intracellular digestion &mdash; The <i>Parenchymella</i> &mdash; Holidays in the country &mdash; Experiments on agricultural pests</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVII</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1881-1882. Death of his father- and mother-in-law &mdash; Management of country estates &mdash; Agitation and difficulties &mdash; Departure for Messina with young brothers- and sisters-in-law</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_112">112</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</a></span>CHAPTER XVIII</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1883. Messina &mdash; Inception of the phagocyte theory &mdash; Encouragement from Virchow and Kleinenberg &mdash; First paper on phagocytosis at a Congress at Odessa in 1883 &mdash; The question of <i>immunity</i> &mdash; Article in Virchow&rsquo;s <i>Archiv</i>, 1884</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIX</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1884-1885. Ill-health of his wife and sister-in-law &mdash; Journey to Tangiers through Spain &mdash; Villefranche &mdash; Baumgarten criticises the phagocyte theory</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XX</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1886. A Bacteriological Institute in Odessa &mdash; Unsatisfactory conditions &mdash; Experiments on erysipelas and on relapsing fever</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXI</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1887. Hygiene Congress in Vienna &mdash; Wiesbaden &mdash; Munich &mdash; Paris and Pasteur &mdash; Berlin and Koch &mdash; Failure of anthrax vaccination of sheep &mdash; Decision to leave Russia</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXII</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1888. The Pasteur Institute &mdash; Dreams realised &mdash; Metchnikoff at 50 &mdash; Growing optimism &mdash; Attenuated sensitiveness &mdash; The Sèvres villa (1898) &mdash; Daily routine</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIII</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1892. Opposition to the phagocyte theory &mdash; Scientific controversies &mdash; Experiments in support of the phagocyte theory &mdash; Behring and antitoxins &mdash; The London Congress &mdash; <i>Inflammation</i></td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIV</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">Cholera &mdash; Experiments on himself and others &mdash; Illness of M. Jupille &mdash; Death of an epileptic subject &mdash; Insufficient results</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_154">154</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[xix]</a></span>CHAPTER XXV</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1894. Pfeiffer&rsquo;s experiments &mdash; The Buda-Pest Congress &mdash; Extracellular destruction of microbes &mdash; Reaction of the organism against toxins &mdash; Dr. Besredka&rsquo;s researches &mdash; Macrophages &mdash; The Moscow Congress &mdash; Bordet&rsquo;s experiments</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_158">158</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVI</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1900. Immunity &mdash; Natural immunity &mdash; Artificial immunity</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_168">168</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVII</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1893-1905. Private sorrows &mdash; Death of Pasteur &mdash; Ill-health &mdash; Senile atrophies &mdash; Premature death &mdash; Orthobiosis &mdash; Syphilis (1905) &mdash; Acquisition of anthropoid apes (1903)</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVIII</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">Researches on the intestinal flora &mdash; Sour milk</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIX</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1908. The Nobel Prize &mdash; Journey to Sweden and Russia &mdash; A day with Léon Tolstoï</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_199">199</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXX</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">Intestinal flora &mdash; Infantile cholera &mdash; Typhoid fever &mdash; Articles on popular Science</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXI</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1911. Expedition to the Kalmuk steppes to study tuberculosis &mdash; Plague</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXII</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">Further researches on the intestinal flora &mdash; <i>Forty Years&rsquo; Search for a Rational Conception of Life</i></td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[xx]</a></span>CHAPTER XXXIII</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">Unpleasant incidents &mdash; The fabrication of lacto-bacilli &mdash; St. Léger-en-Yvelines &mdash; Return to Paris &mdash; First cardiac attack &mdash; Evolution of the death instinct &mdash; Notes on his symptoms</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXIV</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1914. Return to St. Léger-en-Yvelines &mdash; Norka &mdash; Studies on the death of the silk-worm moth &mdash; War declared &mdash; Mobilisation</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXV</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1915. Return to Paris &mdash; The deserted Institute &mdash; Memoir on the Founders of Modern Medicine &mdash; Metchnikoff&rsquo;s Jubilee &mdash; Last holidays at Norka</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td align="center" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXVI</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">1916. Bronchial cold &mdash; Aggravated cardiac symptoms &mdash; Farewell to Sèvres &mdash; Return to the Institute &mdash; Protracted sufferings &mdash; Intellectual preoccupations &mdash; Observations on his own condition &mdash; The end &mdash; Cremation.</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading-left">EPILOGUE</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_276">276</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading-left">BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_285">285</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="toc_chapter-heading-left">INDEX</td>
+  <td class="toc_pagenum"><a href="#Page_291">291</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[xxi]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</a></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">On</span> a calm summer evening we were seated together
+on our terrace.</p>
+
+<p>On the preceding day, one who hardly knew my
+husband had come to ask him for information concerning
+his life, with the object of writing his biography.
+We were saying to each other how inevitably superficial
+and incomplete such a biography was bound to
+be; how difficult such a task is for a biographer, even
+when fully informed; how necessary it is to be
+thoroughly acquainted with a man and with every
+phase of his existence in order to give a truthful
+picture of his character and of his life. The intimate
+side is bound to remain more or less closed to a
+stranger; in order to decipher it, it is indispensable
+for the writer of a biography to have lived in complete
+communion of spirit with its subject. Our long past,
+spent together, fulfilled all these conditions.</p>
+
+<p>My husband&rsquo;s whole life was well known to me.
+My mother-in-law had often told me vivid stories of
+his childhood; he himself willingly talked to me
+about his past. As to the second part of his
+existence, we had lived it together.</p>
+
+<p>In order clearly to understand his character, at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[xxii]</a></span>
+once both complex and one-sided, it was necessary
+to possess the key to his psychology. In his life, as in
+his work, everything was so closely knitted that it
+was impossible to understand the whole without knowledge
+of every link of his evolution.</p>
+
+<p>In the soothing calm of that summer evening, I
+submitted my reflections to him; he warmly encouraged
+me, and I then and there resolved to write
+his biography. He advised me to relate his whole
+life without any reticence, considering that thus
+alone does a biography justify its existence. That
+advice was to guide me, within limits, for to dissect
+an individual life without touching other lives as well
+is not always possible.</p>
+
+<p>Numerous were the difficulties before me; yet, I
+considered the task as a mission, hoping, in spite of
+all, that this biography would present a true picture
+of the life and evolution of Elie Metchnikoff.</p>
+
+<p>We talked over this project for a long time. The
+moon now appeared above the trees, the soft light
+tracing silver designs through the ivy leaves. The
+lawn, the walnut tree in front of the house, and everything
+around us was bathed in peaceful radiance.
+Under its mysterious charm, we ceased to speak,
+we listened to the inward voices of nature and of our
+own hearts.</p>
+
+<p>In youth, vague reveries fill our minds; after a long
+life, distant memories.... He whose life I describe
+is no more.... Without his help my task could not
+have been accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>Often, when he was not too tired, he would sit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[xxiii]</a></span>
+comfortably in his armchair and recount to me with
+his usual spirit and animation some period or episode
+of his past. I read to him a sketch of the first part of
+this biography and a few chapters only of the second,
+which was hardly begun. Thus we spent many
+evenings, never to be forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>He wanted this biography written, for he held that
+the evolution of a mind, of a character, of a human
+life is always an interesting psychological document.
+During his long and painful illness, he urged me to
+relate the &ldquo;last chapter&rdquo; of his life; he hoped that
+his attitude in the face of death might diminish the
+fear of it in others. Also he considered that men are
+rare who are conscious until the end; even rarer, those
+who reach the development of the &ldquo;death-instinct.&rdquo;
+Therefore, according to him, an example would be
+interesting.</p>
+
+<p>I have tried to accomplish his desire within the
+measure of my strength.</p>
+
+<p>The only object of this simple and truthful story
+is to show Elie Metchnikoff as he was, a help, a support,
+and a lesson to others.</p>
+
+<p>I dedicate this book to his dear memory.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+OLGA METCHNIKOFF.
+</p>
+<p class="location">
+<span class="smcap">Sèvres</span>, <i>15th Dec. 1918</i>.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Panassovka &mdash; Metchnikoff&rsquo;s parents &mdash; Country life in Little Russia.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> Little Russia, in the steppe region of the province
+of Kharkoff, is situated the land of Panassovka, which
+belonged to the Metchnikoff family. It is now sold,
+it has passed into strange hands, but it was once the
+patrimony of Ilia Ivanovitch, father of Elie Metchnikoff.</p>
+
+<p>The country around Panassovka is neither beautiful
+nor rich: steppes, hillocks covered with low grasses
+and wild wormwood; a poor village, meagre vegetation,
+no river; the whole impression is a melancholy
+one. But what boundless space! What soft, silver
+grey colouring! And, in the mornings and evenings,
+what fresh, cool air, and what a delicious aroma of
+wormwood leaves!</p>
+
+<p>The house of Panassovka, a little way from the
+village, is situated on a hill which slopes gently
+towards a pond. It is like that of any other middle-class
+landowner in Little Russia. It has only one
+storey and two flights of steps on the principal façade,
+opening into a deserted courtyard with no view but
+the high road. On the other side a semicircular
+terrace, with columns and steps, leads to the garden,
+composed of a few meagre flower-beds and fruit trees,
+reaching to the pond. On the bank, a distillery and
+a very well-kept kitchen garden.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The house is arranged inside in a commonplace
+manner, with no claim to beauty or comfort. The
+furniture, devoid of style or elegance, neither comfortable
+nor fashionable, is distributed quite inartistically.
+On the other hand, great care is evident in
+everything that pertains to the table: the cellars
+and larders are full of provisions, and obviously constitute
+the principal preoccupation of the masters of
+the house. And indeed the hospitable table of Panassovka
+is renowned throughout the neighbourhood.</p>
+
+<p>According to a very fine portrait, painted in 1835,
+Ilia Ivanovitch was at that time a handsome young
+man with regular features, tender blue eyes, and curly
+fair hair. He was very intelligent, but his mind had
+that sceptical turn which prevents men from taking life
+seriously and which paralyses activity. Moreover, he
+had an Epicurean temperament and was in the army.</p>
+
+<p>He had married, when very young, Emilia Lvovna
+Nevahovna, sister of one of his brother officers in
+the Imperial Guard, a very attractive and unusually
+intelligent girl. Her beauty was of the Jewish type,
+with splendid dark eyes, and she had a bright and
+lively disposition as well as a kind and tender heart.
+Her friends called her &ldquo;Milotchka,&rdquo; which, in Russian,
+means &ldquo;charming&rdquo;; in her old age she loved to
+relate that the great Russian poet, Pushkin, once said
+to her at a ball, &ldquo;How well your name suits you,
+Mademoiselle!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After his marriage, Ilia Ivanovitch remained in
+Petersburg, leading a merry life with his brothers-in-law,
+and giving no thought to the future; it took
+him but a few years at that rate to spend the whole
+of his wife&rsquo;s inheritance. And three children were
+growing up whose future had to be thought of. It was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
+then that Ilia Ivanovitch&rsquo;s distant estate was remembered,
+away in a remote part of Little Russia. What
+energy, what perseverance had to be displayed by
+his wife before she could persuade him to take refuge
+there! and how hard it must have seemed to the gay
+officer to leave the capital for the lonely and monotonous
+life of the country! However, departure was
+decided upon. The two boys, Ivan and Leo,
+were placed in a school at Petersburg, to be prepared
+for the Lycée and the Law School. Ilia Ivanovitch
+obtained a post as Remount Officer for two Guards
+regiments, and started with his wife, his daughter,
+an aunt, and a younger brother, to settle down in the
+country.</p>
+
+<p>The family settled at first in the old Ivanovka
+house, where a son, Nicholas, was born. Though they
+wished to have no more children, one more child was
+born two years later, on the 16th May 1845&mdash;Elie
+Metchnikoff.</p>
+
+<p>The Ivanovka house was old and inconvenient;
+Ilia Ivanovitch decided to build a new one at the other
+end of his estate, in a place called Panassovka, which
+thus became the family home.</p>
+
+<p>Emilia Lvovna threw herself into her domestic
+occupations with her usual energy and ardour.
+She was anxious to improve the situation, which had
+become precarious, and wished at the same time to
+create for her husband an environment suited to his
+Epicurean tastes. Ilia Ivanovitch loved cards and
+the table, both tastes easy to satisfy in the country,
+and which became the pivot of life at Panassovka.
+The great daily problem was the question of meals,
+and long conversations had to take place with the
+cook and with the housekeeper concerning catering.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Thanks to serfdom, servants were very numerous
+and everything could be manufactured at home.
+The &ldquo;diévitshia&rdquo; (maid-servants&rsquo; room) was crowded
+with maids, seamstresses, needle-women, washer-women,
+etc., under the direction of a fat, middle-aged
+woman named Duniasha. She wore a silk kerchief
+on her head, and was invariably clothed in a white
+dressing jacket and a brown skirt with white spots.
+A regular autocrat, she ruled her little world with a
+rod of iron; as soon as her heavy, felt-slippered steps
+were heard, the maids whispered to each other,
+&ldquo;Avdotia Maximovna!&rdquo; conversations ceased, and
+every one became absorbed in her work.</p>
+
+<p>Among the male retainers, the first place was held
+by Petrushka, the valet. Careless and often drunk,
+he was nevertheless a good fellow; he was usually
+to be found asleep behind the screen in the hall. The
+upper servants, the cook, coachman, and others left
+their work to be done by their underlings, the scullery
+boy, postilion, page-boy, etc. In fact, everything
+followed the routine usual in every Russian household
+in the time of serfdom.</p>
+
+<p>Emilia Lvovna directed the children&rsquo;s education;
+her personal teaching consisted chiefly in tender
+indulgence, but it was she who chose the nurses and
+teachers. As long as the boys were small, their
+great-aunt Elena Samoïlovna looked after them;
+afterwards they were handed over to tutors and
+professors. Ilia Ivanovitch&rsquo;s activities consisted in
+buying horses at fairs and in studs and in convoying
+them to Petersburg. These journeys took a long time,
+by stages and relays of horses. Ilia Ivanovitch took
+advantage of them to gamble heavily and to enjoy
+pleasures which the country did not offer.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Agriculture was very restricted at Panassovka,
+for the property consisted mostly of pasture land for
+horses and sheep. The younger brother, Dmitri
+Ivanovitch, had undertaken the management of the
+estate. He was entirely devoted to the family of his
+elder brother, whom he had followed into the country.
+Though only a few years younger, he used the respectful
+second person plural in speaking to Ilia Ivanovitch,
+whilst the latter said &ldquo;thou&rdquo; to him. Dmitri
+Ivanovitch was tall, thin, and taciturn, a silent pipe-smoker.
+The lively Emilia Lvovna often said to
+him, &ldquo;But why do you never talk, Mitienka?&rdquo; To
+which he invariably answered, &ldquo;It is not every one
+who is as talkative as you are, Emilia Lvovna.&rdquo; Yet
+they were on the best of terms. Dmitri Ivanovitch
+would have gone through fire for his sister-in-law,
+as she well knew. She had the utmost confidence in
+him, and depended upon his support in every difficult
+circumstance.</p>
+
+<p>At Panassovka the men spent the greater part
+of the day, and often even of the night, in playing
+cards; games were organised between neighbours and
+relations, and that occupation was considered most
+important. Meals were prolonged indefinitely; everything
+was served in abundance and eaten with a connoisseur&rsquo;s
+appreciation, each dish being discussed.
+After the meal was over, the cook would make his
+daily appearance, and the next day&rsquo;s <i>menu</i> was drawn
+up by the whole party. After a siesta, gambling was
+resumed. Thus the days went by in the cult of good
+cheer and of cards, interspersed with conversations
+about horses and sometimes about politics.</p>
+
+<p>By this time Ilia Ivanovitch was beginning to
+become bald and obese. It is difficult to define what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+was his inner life; not even to his wife did he ever
+speak of it. As to his children, he petted them when
+they were small, but as they grew up, their intercourse
+with him was limited to kissing his hand morning and
+evening. He was not indifferent to their welfare,
+but left it entirely to his wife&rsquo;s active solicitude.
+The children were on very different terms with their
+mother; not only did she spoil them, but also always
+eagerly shared all their childish interests. Owing to
+that, and to her bright and affectionate disposition,
+they looked upon her as their intimate friend and
+confidante.</p>
+
+<p>Masters and servants were on good terms, relations
+between them were even remarkably human,
+according to the ideas of the time, and in spite of
+certain customs inherent to serfdom. For instance,
+the younger maids were punished by having their
+faces slapped and their hair pulled. Even the kindly
+and peaceable Dmitri Ivanovitch would soundly box
+his valet&rsquo;s ears when he found him drunk. At that
+time such things were not thought cruel or humiliating,
+but looked upon as a paternal correction. The
+peasants had confidence in their &ldquo;barin&rdquo; (master)
+and consulted him or appealed to his generosity when
+in trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Ilia Ivanovitch never opposed the free choice of
+his serfs in matrimony, a rare tolerance at that time.
+According to custom every betrothed couple came to
+salute him, the young man in his Sunday clothes and
+a fine, bright-coloured scarf, the girl wearing an embroidered
+bodice and a head-dress of many-coloured
+ribbons. They knelt before him and bowed three
+times to the ground, then offered him sacramental
+loaves, hard and shaped like pine cones, on beautifully<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+worked diapers. Ilia Ivanovitch and Emilia Lvovna
+blessed the bride and bridegroom with &ldquo;ikons,&rdquo;
+embraced them, and gave them a sum of money for
+the wedding.</p>
+
+<p>The Metchnikoffs were liked by their peasants
+and looked upon as good masters.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Metchnikoff&rsquo;s brothers and sister &mdash; Childish characteristics.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> two elder children, Ivan and Leo, were educated
+at Petersburg, whilst Katia, the only daughter, was
+brought up at home. Like all other girls of noble
+family, she was educated with the object of being
+suitably married. She was a slender, pretty brunette,
+like her mother, but less beautiful. Though sensitive
+and intelligent, she interested herself in nothing but
+the reading of French novels. There was a great
+difference in age between Katia and her little brothers,
+whilst there were only two years between them.
+Kolia (Nicholas) was the old aunt&rsquo;s favourite, a fine,
+handsome boy with velvety black eyes; his slow and
+grave movements had earned for him the nickname of
+&ldquo;Peaceful Papa.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The youngest of the family, Ilia (Elie), on the
+contrary, was full of life and spirits. Fair and slender,
+with silky hair and a diaphanous, pink and white
+complexion, he had small, grey-blue eyes, full of
+kindliness and sparkle. Very highly strung and impressionable,
+his temper was easily roused, and he was
+so restless that he went by the name of &ldquo;quicksilver.&rdquo;
+He always wished to see everything, to know everything,
+and found his way everywhere. When, after a
+long silence, there was a sudden outburst of many
+voices around the card-tables, he would rush to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+drawing-room, saying, &ldquo;Are they going to fight?&rdquo;
+He ran about the house all day, following his mother
+as she attended to her various duties; he examined
+the provisions, tasted everything, and even went to
+the &ldquo;diévitshia&rdquo; to see what the maids were doing.
+He tried to sew or to embroider, exasperated everybody,
+and ended by being turned out. He would then
+look for something else to do, go to see whether the
+table was laid, inquire about the <i>menu</i>, and ask the
+queerest questions. He could only be kept quiet
+when his curiosity was awakened by the observation
+of some natural object such as an insect or a butterfly
+that he was trying to catch, or by watching the
+&ldquo;grown-ups&rdquo; at their card games. But, of all things,
+music fascinated him most, and he would remain for
+hours sitting by the piano listening without a movement.
+He was very much spoilt by his mother, who
+had a weakness for her Benjamin, and who also wished
+to make up for the very obvious preference shown for
+Kolia by the great-aunt.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, Ilia was a frail little boy and often
+suffered from his eyes; the doctor advised that he
+should not be allowed to cry or to rub his eyes, and,
+in order to avoid this, he was permitted to have his
+own way in everything. He was much too intelligent
+not to understand the advantage that the situation
+offered and was quick to profit by it. In the face of
+the least semblance of refusal or reproach, he would
+begin to rub his eyes and announce in a whining tone
+that he was going to cry. He was therefore very much
+spoilt and very capricious; his mother said he was
+&ldquo;neurotic&rdquo;; his sister, who often had differences
+with him, called him a &ldquo;little beast.&rdquo; In reality, Ilia
+was very good-hearted, tender, and loving; he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+affectionate, especially with his mother, and could
+always be managed by an appeal to his feelings. But
+if he was sensitive to kindness, he was equally so to
+the least injustice. He could not forgive his great-aunt
+the predilection which she exhibited on every
+occasion for Kolia; for instance, at table, she would
+choose tit-bits for him, and Ilia observed with bitterness
+that she always reserved the chicken&rsquo;s breast for
+her favourite. Every time a chicken was served,
+poor Ilia followed the dish round the table with
+anxious eyes, and she invariably placed the coveted
+morsel in his brother&rsquo;s plate.</p>
+
+<p>When the day was over, Ilia was put into his little
+bed and told to &ldquo;say his prayers and go to sleep.&rdquo;
+But he did not obey at once: after a thousand merry
+tricks, his eyelids would begin to close in spite of him;
+then he would make up his mind to kneel and say his
+prayers, folding his little hands: &ldquo;Lord, keep and
+preserve father, mother, great&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; But suddenly
+remembering the latter&rsquo;s injustice towards him, he
+would correct himself hastily, &ldquo;No, not great-aunt,
+she is too unkind!&rdquo; and continue, &ldquo;My sister, my
+brothers, everybody, and myself, little Ilia.&rdquo; Still he
+did not go to sleep immediately; a nervous child, he
+was frightened of being alone; now and then he
+would lift his heavy lids to see if the maid was still
+there. Sometimes the latter, thinking he had gone
+to sleep, would leave the room on tiptoe. Ilia,
+seeing her no more, would start, raise his head and,
+stretching his thin neck, send an anxious look around
+the room, faintly lighted by a night-light. The vacillating
+flame threw trembling and dancing shadows.
+Seized with intense terror, he would hide his face in
+his pillow and scream with all his might. Avdotia<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+Maximovna would then rush to soothe him and
+soundly rate the servant girl, &ldquo;Are you not ashamed
+to leave a noble child all alone?&rdquo; Ilia would then
+go on sobbing for a little while, but, reassured after all,
+would presently sink into deep, childish sleep.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Journey to Slaviansk &mdash; The coach attacked by peasants.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> 1850 the children were taken to the baths of
+Slaviansk. On a warm summer day the heavy
+&ldquo;berlin&rdquo; coach, drawn by six horses with a postilion,
+rolled along the high road, across the steppes, followed
+at a distance by a &ldquo;tarantass.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the spacious, antique coach, with its dusty
+hood, sat Emilia Lvovna, with her three children;
+the valet, Petrushka, dozed on the box, next to the
+coachman. The tarantass was occupied by Dmitri
+Ivanovitch and a cousin.</p>
+
+<p>The heat was oppressive. At the start every one
+was excited; Emilia Lvovna was trying to remember
+if anything had been forgotten and was discussing
+with Katia the details of their installation at Slaviansk.
+The boys hung out of the windows, gazing at the
+horses, at the tarantass, and making all sorts of
+comments. Ilia was so restless and talkative that
+he was constantly being told, &ldquo;Do be quiet! Keep
+still!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>By degrees, however, children and &ldquo;grown-ups&rdquo;
+began to feel drowsy, owing to the monotony of the
+road, the heat, and the swinging of the carriage. The
+tarantass had disappeared, for Dmitri Ivanovitch
+wished to visit an aunt whose house was not far from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+the road. The outline of a forest was now seen on
+the horizon; it came nearer and nearer, and soon the
+coach stopped before the forest inn. Everybody woke
+up, the children were delighted to be able to run about
+and stretch their limbs. They begged their mother
+to let them go into the forest whilst the horses were
+resting, and obtained permission to go, but not too
+far, and with Petrushka.</p>
+
+<p>They ate an appetising lunch at the inn and the
+children ran off at a gallop. Everything delighted
+them, the underwood, grass patches, ravines, and
+mysterious paths. But they had hardly entered the
+forest when they heard a sinister, confused rumour
+in the distance; they stopped to listen, and recognised
+the voices of a tumultuous crowd. The children&rsquo;s
+joyous excitement fell; frightened and docile,
+they hastened to return to the inn, from which Emilia
+Lvovna, looking anxiously out of a window, was
+making urgent signs to them to return. The coach
+was still standing without horses, and, a little farther
+off, the latter were surrounded by a crowd of peasants,
+of whom many were completely drunk. They shouted
+vociferously, and closely pressed the coachman and
+the postilion, threatening to confiscate the horses and
+detain the travellers if they were not given a ransom
+of a thousand roubles.</p>
+
+<p>Terrified, the children clung to their distracted
+mother; Ilia felt her trembling, and his own little heart
+fluttered like a bird that has been caught. The
+drunken peasants appeared to him like monstrous
+ogres or brigands about to capture, perhaps kill, his
+family and himself; he could hardly keep back his
+tears. Already the peasants had bound the coachman
+and the postilion and were taking away the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+horses. Clinging close to each other, the mother and
+children listened anxiously; they thought again and
+again that they could hear the bells of the tarantass.
+At last it appeared in the distance, and the children
+joyously whispered, &ldquo;There they are!&rdquo; They
+hastened to inform Dmitri Ivanovitch of what had
+happened. He at once went with his cousin towards
+the crowd, and negotiations were opened, but for a
+long time without result.</p>
+
+<p>At last the cousin had a happy idea; he declared
+he would go back to his aunt&rsquo;s house in the neighbourhood
+and borrow the thousand roubles from her.
+The peasants consented to let him go alone, keeping
+the other travellers as hostages. After a time, which
+to the children seemed endless, the sound of the
+tarantass bells was again heard, accompanied this
+time by numerous heavy footsteps, and the vehicle
+reappeared, escorted by a company of soldiers commanded
+by two officers. Instead of going to his
+aunt&rsquo;s, the cousin had gone to a neighbouring military
+camp and was bringing assistance.</p>
+
+<p>There was a sudden change of scene. Emilia
+Lvovna and Katia furtively made the sign of the
+cross. Ilia had let go of his mother&rsquo;s hand and was
+no longer clinging to her, but, stretching his head
+forward and opening his eyes wide, eagerly waited to
+see what was going to happen. &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; he thought,
+&ldquo;we shall not be captured; it is their turn; I am
+glad!&rdquo; And, perhaps for the first time in his life,
+his little heart was moved by feelings of hatred.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile a repulsive scene was going on:
+a hand-to-hand struggle, invectives and screams. The
+peasants were securely bound. Men and women
+hastened from a neighbouring village; one of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+women slapped an officer&rsquo;s face. Furious, he ordered
+the soldiers to fill her mouth with earth; she was
+thrown on the ground; the new arrivals in their
+turn attacked the soldiers, and a regular battle raged.</p>
+
+<p>Ilia was alarmed, shaken, and profoundly disgusted
+with that exhibition of brutality. The coachman and
+postilion, their bonds unloosed, hastened to put the
+horses in, and whilst reprisals were still going on, the
+family hurried away. They reached Slaviansk without
+further trouble, excitedly talking over their adventure.
+This episode was the first deep and definite
+impression which remained on little Ilia&rsquo;s mind; it
+struck him so much that he kept the memory of it
+during his whole life.</p>
+
+<p>From that moment he held crowds, violence, and
+all manifestations of brute force in the utmost horror,
+whatever their cause might be.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Departure for Kharkoff &mdash; Town life.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> following year was to be spent at Kharkoff.
+Katia was now seventeen and her marriage had to be
+contemplated.</p>
+
+<p>The boys&rsquo; life was still quite a childish one, made
+up chiefly of games and mischief. Kolia had been
+taught to read by the great-aunt; Ilia had learnt by
+himself, asking people now and then for the name of
+some letter. He was able to read fluently quite early.</p>
+
+<p>The departure for Kharkoff was a great event,
+prepared long beforehand. The children, delighted
+at the prospect of a change, impatiently waited for
+the moment to start. At last every one was seated
+in the coaches and, saying to the coachman, &ldquo;Off!
+God keep us,&rdquo; they started to drive along the high
+road through the steppes.</p>
+
+<p>Life at Kharkoff was very much the same as
+at Panassovka, with social elements added. Moreover,
+the children&rsquo;s liberty was somewhat restricted.
+Already on the journey they were given to understand
+that, in a town, they could not go out alone, nor
+shout in the streets, nor point at people and things
+with their finger, and that they should have to make
+less noise, even in the house. For the first time they
+unconsciously realised that their family was not the
+centre of the universe, that there were many others<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+who also had to be taken into account. Ilia did not
+welcome this discovery.</p>
+
+<p>The flat occupied by the Metchnikoffs was on the
+first floor, above that of the owner of the house.
+One day when the children were running about,
+making a fearful noise, some one came up to say that
+the landlady was ill and begged that the noise should
+cease. Ilia, interrupted in the midst of a game,
+became furiously angry; in his rage he seized a
+whistle, and stooping to a crack in the floor, whistled
+with all his might. It was only with much difficulty
+that he was induced to stop and to calm himself.<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>The children&rsquo;s horizon soon widened; Dmitri
+Ivanovitch took them to the theatre and a new
+and fantastic world opened out to them. The very
+next day they attempted a performance of the play
+they had seen; soon, on Kolia&rsquo;s suggestion, they
+began to compose plays for themselves. Kolia wrote
+a drama entitled &ldquo;Burning Tea,&rdquo; in which the hero
+having offered his friend tea that was too hot, the
+latter burnt his tongue; a duel ensued, etc., etc.
+Ilia hastened to follow his brother&rsquo;s example. He
+composed something in the same style, but even more
+absurd. Having realised that it was so, he gave up
+literature. That period was for him a series of disappointments
+which perhaps helped to lead him to
+the path he was ultimately to follow. His brother,
+following the &ldquo;grown-ups&rsquo;&rdquo; example, played cards
+with other boys or with the maids. Ilia attempted
+to do the same, but his nervousness left him no self-control;
+he lost continually and games generally ended
+in quarrels and tears; he became disgusted with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+cards for the rest of his life. Kolia was fond of
+muscular exercises, such as gymnastics, wrestling, etc.
+Ilia, younger and therefore weaker, was constantly
+humiliated, and his pride kept him away from physical
+amusements. Thus, by means of elimination, he
+became gradually isolated from surrounding influences.
+But, at that time, no new element had intervened in
+his daily life and he spent his existence in the gentle
+warmth of his mother&rsquo;s tenderness, absorbed in his
+childish games and studies.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+
+<p class="chapter-title">Leo Metchnikoff&rsquo;s illness &mdash; Private tutors &mdash; Botanical studies &mdash; A
+memorable birthday.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> 1851, in the middle of the winter, the Metchnikoffs
+heard that Leo, their second son, was suffering
+from hip-disease, and the doctors advised that he should
+be taken away from Petersburg. Poor Emilia Lvovna
+was in great despair and shed many tears; her
+brother-in-law, Dmitri Ivanovitch, calmly announced
+that he was going to fetch Leo. He took his great
+fur coat, his fur cap and fur-lined boots, and started
+that very day for Petersburg by coach. He took but
+the necessary time to go and to bring Leo back, only
+stopping at relays to change horses.</p>
+
+<p>The boy was then thirteen years old, handsome,
+gifted, and intelligent; he walked with crutches, but
+his general health seemed good, and it was decided
+that he should work at home to prepare for the Lycée,
+under the tuition of students as tutors. Thus a new
+element was introduced into the family life.</p>
+
+<p>In 1853 Leo had as a tutor a student named
+Hodounof, a very intelligent young man, who wished
+not merely to teach him but to impart to him the
+love of science. Leo was extremely gifted and worked
+with great facility, but he lacked concentration and
+was therefore somewhat superficial. This cooled his
+tutor&rsquo;s enthusiasm, whilst on the other hand he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+became more and more interested in little Ilia. It
+was in the course of country walks that they were
+drawn together. Hodounof used to take Leo for
+walks in order to study the local flora, and Ilia came
+out with them, at first for the sake of the exercise.
+But soon he became interested in the flowers and
+showed so much taste for botany that he attracted
+Hodounof&rsquo;s notice; soon the tutor&rsquo;s interest became
+concentrated on the little boy and he gave him serious
+attention.</p>
+
+<p>It was with a real enthusiasm that Ilia gathered
+and studied plants; he soon became thoroughly
+acquainted with the local flora. He thought himself
+very learned already and wrote memoirs on botany.
+Passionately fond of teaching, he used to offer all his
+pocket-money to his brothers and other children to
+induce them to hear lectures which he gave them.
+His vocation was fixed from that moment. He was
+then eight years old.</p>
+
+<p>When the family returned to Kharkoff he spent
+all he had in buying books on natural history, which
+he read with passionate interest. These contained
+many things that he could not understand, but his
+curiosity was all the greater. When he was eleven
+years old his passion for natural history almost cost
+him his life. While fishing for hydra in a small pond
+he was so eager that he fell into the water and was
+only pulled out with great difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>That particular day, his own and his father&rsquo;s name
+day, was nearly fatal to him, not only through water
+but through fire. It was a family custom to hold a
+great gathering of friends and relations at Panassovka
+on St. Elias&rsquo;s day. Preparations for the feast began
+days beforehand; the whole household was in a turmoil.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On that particular St. Elias&rsquo;s day, so many guests
+came to Panassovka that there was not enough room
+in the house to accommodate them all, and the
+children were transferred to a pavilion outside the
+house.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst in the drawing-room people were talking
+and playing cards, the servants were holding rejoicings
+of their own. Towards night-time the majority of
+the coachmen and footmen brought by the guests
+were completely drunk; a cigarette imprudently
+thrown on some hay started a fire. Soon the stables
+were ablaze and many horses perished in the flames,
+in spite of every effort to save them. Presently the
+wind changed in the direction of the pavilion and the
+thatched roof caught fire. There was a rush to save
+the children, who were with much difficulty taken out
+through a window.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of intense terror, Ilia&rsquo;s first thought was
+for his baby nephew, the son of his sister, who had
+then been married a year; he ran in affright all over
+the house searching for the child, and only became
+calm again after he had ascertained that it had been
+carried out into the garden.</p>
+
+<p>Katia being married there was now no reason to
+spend the winter in the town. The father and mother
+therefore remained at Panassovka and Dmitri Ivanovitch
+took the boys to Kharkoff, where they entered the
+Lycée. They had been well prepared by their tutors,
+and moreover spoke French and a little German,
+having had special teachers for these languages.
+Their French tutor, M. Garnier, was gay, boastful,
+and pretentious; his idea of teaching them French
+literature was to memorise Béranger&rsquo;s <i>chansons</i>. He
+was passionately fond of shooting and gave to that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+sport as much time as he could, greatly to the detriment
+of his pupils&rsquo; studies, for they were not allowed
+to accompany him for fear of an accident. Their
+mother, perhaps on account of her weak heart, was
+so nervous that they were discouraged from any
+sporting tastes. The German tutor also neglected
+the children: his favourite occupation consisted in
+drinking beer. On one occasion he gave so much to
+little Ilia that the boy conceived a lifelong distaste
+for beer. Ilia took advantage of his tutors&rsquo; indifference
+to devote himself to his favourite study of
+natural history. His vocation was so obvious that it
+could not be mistaken. It seems a strange thing
+that a passion for science should have developed in
+so inappropriate an environment. Evidently the
+first impulse was given by Hodounof, but, if his
+influence stimulated this passion, it cannot have
+created it. This vocation probably had a deeper
+source, and in order to discover it we should perhaps
+look back into the antecedents of the Metchnikoff
+family.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Ancestors of the Metchnikoff family &mdash; The Great Spatar &mdash; Leo
+Nevahovitch.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Metchnikoff family made no show of family
+pride; one old aunt, however, was extremely proud
+of one of their ancestors, the Great &ldquo;Spatar&rdquo; (sword-bearer).
+The following is the account given of this
+ancestor by E. Picot, after a Moldavian chronicle.<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Few men led such an adventurous life or made themselves
+glorious through such varied gifts as did Nicholas Spatar
+Milescu.</p>
+
+<p>His name is connected with the history of Moldavian, Greek,
+Russian, and Chinese literature. His origin, his talents, his
+crime, the mutilation he suffered, his audacious journey across
+the whole of Asia to reach Pekin, the valuable information
+which he gathered during his embassy at the Court of the
+&ldquo;Son of Heaven,&rdquo; everything conspires to excite curiosity
+concerning him.</p></div>
+
+<p>Spatar was born in Moldavia in 1625. While yet
+very young he went to Constantinople, where he
+studied theology, philosophy, history ancient and
+modern, Greek, Latin, Slavonic and Turkish. He
+afterwards went to Italy to study natural science and
+mathematics. On his return to Moldavia he soon
+became known for his erudition, acquired great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+influence, and became much appreciated at Court.
+Owing to clever political intrigues he preserved the
+simultaneous favour of several enemy princes, one
+of whom, Stepanita, covered him with benefits and
+honours. Nevertheless, Spatar wrote to Constantine
+Bassarab, in Poland, advising him to come and to
+overthrow Stepanita&rsquo;s throne. He sent his letter
+inside a hollow cane; Constantine, however, did not
+wish to launch himself into such an adventure, and
+indignantly sent the hollow cane and the letter to
+Stepanita himself. At first the prince, naturally
+angry, thought of having Spatar executed; he spared
+his life for the sake of his talents, but condemned him
+to have the tip of his nose cut off. Spatar went to
+Germany, where, says the naïve chronicler, a doctor
+made his nose grow again. He came back to Moldavia
+for a short time and then went to Russia.
+Thanks to his knowledge of languages, he was made
+an interpreter at the Court of the Tsar Alexis
+Michailovitch, and was the first tutor of his son
+Peter the Great, whom he taught to read and to
+write.</p>
+
+<p>In 1674 the Tsar Alexis Michailovitch entrusted
+Spatar with a mission in China, where he was to open
+negotiations with a view to commercial and political
+relations between Russia and China. In the course
+of his journey Spatar carefully collected all possible
+information concerning the countries he traversed.
+He thus gathered much interesting geographical
+knowledge and highly important data concerning the
+commercial value of Asiatic rivers, and specially the
+Amour river.</p>
+
+<p>At Pekin, Spatar rapidly learnt the Chinese language,
+occupied for three years the post of ambassador<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+in China, and returned to Russia bringing back most
+valuable information and many rich presents given
+him by the Emperor of China.</p>
+
+<p>All this had excited the jealousy of the Muscovite
+courtiers; they took advantage of the coincidence
+between the death of the Tsar and Spatar&rsquo;s return to
+deprive him of his treasures and to have him exiled
+to Siberia. But, when Peter the Great ascended the
+throne, Spatar succeeded in making a letter reach him
+relating his misfortunes, and the Tsar recalled him,
+gave him back his property, and showered honours
+upon him. Spatar again became interpreter of the
+Embassy; Peter consulted him in all Far-Eastern
+questions, and gave him confidential documents to
+translate into foreign languages.</p>
+
+<p>Spatar&rsquo;s literary activity was vast and varied.
+He translated the Bible from the Greek into Roumanian;
+he wrote a chronicle on the origin of Roumania,
+articles on theology, a Greco-Latin-Russian dictionary,
+and a work entitled <i>Arithmetic</i>, in which he discussed,
+by means of numbers and figures, questions of Theology,
+Philosophy, and Ethics. He dealt in his writings
+with Art, Archæology, and History; described his
+Siberian travels, China and the Amour river, and made
+numerous translations of diplomatic documents. His
+erudition was such that his contemporaries appealed
+to his knowledge as they would have consulted an
+encyclopædia.</p>
+
+<p>He had married a Muscovite and had several sons
+and grandsons. Three of his nephews came from
+Moldavia to join him and entered the Russian army.
+He died in 1714 at the age of 80. Such is the history
+of the &ldquo;Great Spatar.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The following notice is to be found in Brockhaus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+and Effrone&rsquo;s <i>Encyclopædia</i>: &ldquo;The Metchnikoffs are
+a noble family, descended from a Moldavian Boyar,
+the Spatar (sword-bearer) Joury Stepanovitch,<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> who
+came to Russia with Prince Cantemir. Peter the
+Great gave this Boyar large land estates. His son
+took the name of Metchnikoff (Russian translation
+of Sword-bearer).&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The following generations included military men
+chiefly, one sailor, one mining engineer, one senator,
+but no scientific men.</p>
+
+<p>On the mother&rsquo;s side, Elie Metchnikoff had no
+ancestor as remarkable or as romantic as the great
+Spatar. Yet his grandfather, Leo Nevahovitch, was
+a very intelligent and highly cultivated man. He had
+been Farmer-General for tobacco in Poland. A Jew
+by race, he took to heart the persecutions directed
+against his co-religionists and defended them in
+literary newspaper articles. Nevertheless he accepted
+indirect advice from Alexander I. and let himself be
+baptized. He adopted the Lutheran religion and his
+children were brought up in it.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of the Polish Revolution in 1830,
+Nevahovitch was warned that his house was about
+to be sacked; the warning reached him as he was
+peacefully enjoying a theatrical performance. He
+hurried to prepare for departure and left Warsaw
+with his family for Petersburg, where he lived on his
+income. Having given up business, he took up literary
+work and translated German philosophical works,
+made friends in the literary world, and knew Pushkin
+and Kriloff. His children, Emilia Lvovna amongst
+others, inherited his intellectual gifts. One of his
+sons was a remarkable caricaturist and edited a caricature<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+newspaper which was very well known at the
+time. The Nevahovitch family produced no men of
+science. Metchnikoff himself considered that he had
+inherited his mother&rsquo;s disposition and turn of mind.
+In any case, his ancestors on both sides included
+talented individuals, from whom he may have
+inherited his gifts and his innate taste for science.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">The Kharkoff Lycée &mdash; Bogomoloff and Socialism &mdash; Atheism &mdash; Natural
+History studies &mdash; Private lodgings &mdash; Private lessons in histology
+from Professor Tschelkoff &mdash; A borrowed microscope &mdash; First article &mdash; Italian
+Opera &mdash; The gold medal.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> 1856 Dmitri Ivanovitch took the boys to Kharkoff
+in order to make them enter the Lycée. They passed
+their entrance examination quite satisfactorily; Kolia
+was admitted into the fifth class and Ilia into the one
+below it. They were day boarders and lived in the
+house of one of their former tutors.</p>
+
+<p>This was at a time when the new and liberal reign
+of Alexander II. was giving birth to many hopes;
+the Lycées preserved but insignificant traces of the
+hard regime of Nicholas I. Previous narrow and
+doctrinal teaching was giving way to a current of
+realistic and rational ideas, physical and natural
+science had become the vogue, and professors were
+trying to come into touch with their pupils and to
+influence their intellectual development. The boys
+on their side were founding mutual instruction clubs,
+attending popular Sunday lectures, interesting themselves
+in social questions&mdash;in fact the revolutionary
+movement was beginning to strike root. Life in
+general was intense, aspirations exalted, and hopes
+radiant.</p>
+
+<p>During his first school year Elie worked assiduously
+in all branches of the curriculum, and his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+name soon appeared on the honours list. The
+Russian language teacher became his friend, and
+greatly contributed to his development by choosing
+for him books of general knowledge. Under this
+direction Elie read, among other things, Buckle&rsquo;s
+<i>History of Civilisation</i>, which had at that time a very
+great influence on the young Russian mind. According
+to the author&rsquo;s principal thesis, the progress of
+humanity depended chiefly upon that of positive
+science; this idea sunk deeply into the boy&rsquo;s mind and
+confirmed his scientific aspirations.</p>
+
+<p>When he reached the fifth class he formed a
+friendship with one of his school-fellows, Bogomoloff,
+who had great influence over Elie&rsquo;s ulterior development;
+he was the son of a colour manufacturer, and
+his elder brothers were studying chemistry at the
+Kharkoff University with a view to applying it to
+their industry. They had travelled abroad and had
+brought back novel ideas and books forbidden by the
+Russian censorship; they influenced their young
+brother, who in his turn initiated Elie. It was thus
+that the latter became acquainted with materialistic
+ideas and social theories; he read the <i>Popular Star</i>,
+the <i>Bell of Herzin</i>, and other publications prohibited
+in Russia. Little by little he lost the faith which he had
+held when under his mother&rsquo;s influence. Atheism, however,
+was to him more interesting than disappointing;
+it incited in him a state of general criticism. Ardently
+passionate in this as in all things, he preached atheism
+to others and received the nickname of &ldquo;God is not.&rdquo;
+The course of teaching at the Lycée did not escape his
+criticism; when he had reached the fourth class he
+omitted those exercises which seemed to him devoid
+of interest. On the other hand, he plunged with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+passion into the study of natural science, botany,
+and geology.</p>
+
+<p>He had ceased to be a model student, but his
+scientific aspirations became stronger from day to
+day.</p>
+
+<p>In order to cultivate foreign languages, the two
+brothers had been placed in a boarding-house where
+morals were strict and patriarchal, the food bad, and
+the director&rsquo;s sermons long and tedious. None of
+these things suited Elie. This regime, with the addition
+of dancing lessons, inspired him with the deepest
+aversion; he resolved to obtain from his parents permission
+to take furnished rooms for himself and his
+brother.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the current of political exaltation which
+was then universal in Russia, Elie was too deeply
+immersed in his studies to be carried away in that
+direction. He did at one time attend popular
+lectures and the political gatherings of the students,
+but he felt that science was his real vocation. He
+was so early and so completely absorbed by it that
+he was not interested in the great movement for
+the emancipation of the serfs. It is true that, at
+Panassovka, the question was not acute as elsewhere,
+the serfs being quite happy; however, the fact remains
+that it was his passion for science which kept him,
+in spite of his exalted ideas and ardent soul, apart
+from the noble movement for liberation.</p>
+
+<p>In the third class he made friends with a group
+of students who were devoted to science and to intellectual
+culture. Elie, owing to his ardour and
+vivacity, played the part of a ferment in that little
+circle, each member of which was to make a special
+study of certain scientific branches in order that they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+might together edit a new encyclopædia of human
+knowledge. He studied German so as to read in
+the original the classical materialistic writers, Vogt,
+Feuerbach, Buchner, Moleschott, etc. The Lycée
+lectures were relegated to the background. Nevertheless,
+owing to his great facility of assimilation,
+he was successful in every branch. Plans for his
+ulterior activities were soon definitely fixed.</p>
+
+<p>At that time of intense intellectual effervescence
+in Russia, libraries were invaded by a number of
+translations of works on natural science. Elie absorbed
+them with avidity, and read amongst others a Russian
+translation of Bronn&rsquo;s book on the <i>Classes and Orders
+of the Animal Kingdom</i>. He saw for the first time in
+the plates of that work pictures of micro-organisms,
+amoebæ, Infusoria, Rhizopoda, etc. That world of
+lower beings impressed him so strongly that he resolved
+from that moment to devote himself to the study of
+them, that is, to the study of the primitive manifestations
+of life in its simplest forms.</p>
+
+<p>He was then fifteen years old. The two brothers
+now obtained from their parents permission to live
+in furnished rooms, an independent arrangement
+which allowed each of them to satisfy his individual
+tastes. Apart from the Lycée, Kolia spent his time
+in playing cards and billiards and in other amusements,
+whilst Elie worked with ardour, his only
+recreations being music and debates on abstract
+subjects. When he entered the second class he had
+become completely specialised. In order to tackle
+serious scientific studies, he tried to come into touch
+with one of the University professors. The University
+of Kharkoff was still making use of ancient methods;
+teaching was given by means of manuals, with practical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+application; but Elie, who did not know that,
+dreamt of finding in laboratories assistance and means
+of, at least, undertaking personal scientific work. He
+attended a lecture on comparative anatomy, and, in
+order not to appear too young, he wore his ordinary
+clothes instead of the Lycée uniform. After the lecture
+was over, he shyly approached the professor and
+begged to be allowed to study protoplasm under his
+direction. The professor received him coldly, and
+told him in a pedantic tone that he was in too much
+of a hurry, and that he should first of all finish his
+course at the Lycée and then get admitted into the
+University.</p>
+
+<p>It was a disappointment for the eager boy; however,
+he did not lose heart but continued to attend
+divers University lectures, clinging to the hope that
+another professor might be more sympathetic. He
+was pleased with the lectures of a young physiologist,
+Tschelkoff by name, and decided to make
+another attempt. This time he was successful. The
+professor received him kindly and consented to give
+him private lessons in histology. Then, fired with a
+passionate desire to produce something personal in
+medical science, and attracted by Virchow&rsquo;s cellular
+theory, he dreamt that he might create a general
+theory of his own in medicine. In order to increase
+his scientific knowledge, he undertook with his friend
+Zalensky the translation of Grove&rsquo;s work, <i>The Unity
+of Physical Forces</i>. The professor of chemistry and
+natural history willingly encouraged the two boys
+in this work, to which they gave up the whole of the
+school year. Elie wasted no opportunity of learning;
+during those lectures which did not interest him he
+used to read scientific books. One day that he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+doing so during catechism he did not notice that the
+priest, wishing to know what he was reading, had
+come up to him. The latter, however, was greatly impressed
+by the title of Radlkoffer&rsquo;s learned work on
+<i>The Crystals of Proteic Substances</i>; he returned the
+book without a word and never interfered with him
+again.</p>
+
+<p>Through the assistance of some medical students,
+Elie obtained the loan of a microscope; he studied
+Infusoria and imagined that he had made divers
+discoveries; he hastened to write an article, and sent
+it to the only scientific Russian paper then in existence,
+the <i>Bulletin of the Moscow Society of Naturalists</i>. To
+his great joy his MS. was accepted, but before long
+the young scientist perceived that his deductions were
+erroneous, for he had mistaken phenomena of degenerescence
+for phenomena of development. He was able
+to stop the publication of this article, the first he ever
+wrote, and it never appeared.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to Tschelkoff, who lent him a microscope
+for the duration of the holidays, he was able to study
+the local fauna of inferior animals. At the beginning
+of his last year at the Lycée, he read a text-book of
+geology by a Kharkoff professor and, with juvenile
+assurance, wrote a critical analysis of it. Inserted in
+the <i>Journal de Moscou</i>, this was Elie&rsquo;s first publication;
+he was then sixteen years old. Encouraged
+by this success, he sent several other criticisms, but
+they were not accepted.</p>
+
+<p>The last examinations were coming near: Elie
+wished to obtain the gold medal, not only out of pride,
+but in order to prove to his parents that he deserved
+their assistance in order to go abroad to continue his
+studies. He therefore provisionally suspended his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+favourite pursuits and resumed the study of the long-neglected
+school programme. The last examinations
+took place in the spring of 1862. It happened to be
+the Italian Opera season and Elie could not resist the
+temptations offered him by music. In order to make
+up the time, he often had to work the whole night
+long at the cost of severe fatigue.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of this complication, he passed his examinations
+brilliantly and obtained the gold medal.
+He now wished for nothing but to devote himself to
+scientific study.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">An early love &mdash; A schoolfellow&rsquo;s sister &mdash; A pretty sister-in-law.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> spite of his precocious vocation, Elie was in no
+wise indifferent to his surroundings. His mind was
+sensitive and impressionable and his affections deep
+and tender, especially where his mother was concerned.
+He never undertook anything without consulting
+her, a sweet habit which he preserved even in
+his maturity.</p>
+
+<p>It was already at the age of six that he received
+his first love impression: a lady came on a visit to
+Panassovka with her little girl of eight, a lovely curly-headed
+child, sweet and graceful, a living floweret.
+Ilia could not admire her enough, and was most lavish
+in his attentions, offering her flowers and fruit, inventing
+games to amuse her and trying by every
+means to make himself agreeable to her. The presence
+of this charming little girl caused him great joy and
+tender emotion; he wished that she might never go
+away.... But the visit soon ended, and this first
+idyll was short-lived; new impressions were not long
+in replacing it. Nevertheless the picture of the
+pretty child was so deeply impressed in his mind that
+he never forgot her.</p>
+
+<p>The second time he fell in love was when he was
+already at the Lycée; one of his schoolfellows had a
+very pretty sister whom Elie used to meet on half-holidays.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+He admired her from afar, and tried to
+contrive opportunities of meeting her; she was the
+object of his dreams for the whole of one term.</p>
+
+<p>But he was presently to be seized by a more serious
+feeling. When he was in the third class at the Lycée
+he came as usual to Panassovka for the summer
+holidays and found there a new inmate, his elder
+brother&rsquo;s young wife. Soon, to his own astonishment,
+he found that the image of his last winter&rsquo;s
+passion was being effaced by that of his sister-in-law.
+She, a pretty, fashionable girl, was bored with country
+life; she criticised the simple habits at Panassovka
+which formed a sharp contrast with her tastes; she
+soon became very unpopular and, feeling lonely and
+bored, tried to attract her young brother-in-law.
+Elie, at first a willing comrade, soon found himself
+harbouring a more tender feeling for his sister-in-law;
+she complained to him of the family&rsquo;s hostility,
+declared herself misunderstood, and easily excited
+the pity and sympathy of the sensitive boy. He
+became her ardent defender and went so far as to
+fight her battles, even with his mother, whom he
+reproached with fancied injustice. For nearly four
+years he remained under his sister-in-law&rsquo;s sentimental
+influence. He afterwards freed himself completely
+from it, but the fact remains that she was the first
+woman who inspired real sentiment in his youthful
+manhood.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Journey to Germany &mdash; Leipzig &mdash; Würzburg &mdash; A hasty return.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">During</span> his later years at the Lycée, Elie had attended
+several courses at the Kharkoff University and had
+realised the inadequacy of the teaching and the impossibility
+of any personal research work in the
+laboratories. His greatest desire, therefore, was to
+go abroad to study. At that time, the German
+universities, being nearer, chiefly attracted Russian
+students. Their laboratories were widely opened to
+foreigners, and lectures were being given by a pleiad
+of celebrated professors.</p>
+
+<p>In order to attain his object, Elie took care to
+secure his mother&rsquo;s support. It was not very difficult,
+for she believed in her son&rsquo;s scientific future and
+was anxious to help him; she succeeded in convincing
+his father and, by means of serious sacrifices, the
+necessary sum was procured. Elie, who was especially
+interested in the study of protoplasm, chose
+the University of Würzburg, where the celebrated
+zoologist Kölliker was lecturing. Thinking that in
+Germany the term began in September, as in Russia,
+he hastened to depart. The journey at that time was
+long and complicated; yet, in spite of much fatigue,
+Elie only stopped one day in Berlin and hurried to
+Leipzig, the centre of the book trade, in order to
+procure the necessary books. He reached Leipzig in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+the evening and was greatly embarrassed, not knowing
+where to find a lodging. A young German in the
+station offered him a room in his own family&rsquo;s house
+and took him there. The next morning, very early,
+Elie ran out to buy his books and, in his haste, forgot
+to note the number of the house and the name of
+the street; it was with the utmost difficulty that he
+found the place again. Much disturbed by this misadventure,
+he hastened to start for Würzburg and,
+on arriving there, met with a great disappointment;
+all the professors were absent, this being the middle
+of the holidays, and the lectures were not to begin for
+six weeks. The poor boy, thus alone for the first time
+among strangers, felt completely lost. He was given
+the address of some Russian students and he hastily
+sought them out, full of joy and hope, only to be
+received coldly and distrustfully by his compatriots.
+After this discouraging reception, he sadly proceeded
+to look for a room, and having found one in the house
+of a disagreeable old couple, he brought his bag there.
+But, as he began to unpack it, he was seized with a
+feeling of such utter despair that he hastily put his
+luggage together again and announced to his elderly
+hosts that he was going. Surprised and indignant, they
+abused him so brutally that his distress only increased;
+he rushed to the station, took the first train, and
+returned to Panassovka without a stop. This hurried
+return disconcerted his family, but, seeing the state
+he was in, nobody reproached him. His mother had
+felt much anxiety on his account, and was in fact not
+sorry to keep him a little longer under her wing.
+Thus, in dismal failure, ended that first journey
+abroad, so ardently desired. The result might have
+been very different if Elie had reached Würzburg at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+the right moment, or if the Russian students had been
+more friendly. Too young and too impressionable to
+bear absolute solitude, he could only have been saved
+by his favourite studies or by a friendly environment.
+His plans and fair dreams had been overthrown by a
+series of simple mishaps.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Kharkoff University &mdash; Physiology &mdash; The Vorticella &mdash; Controversy with
+Kühne&mdash;<i>The Origin of Species</i> &mdash; The Gastrotricha &mdash; University
+degree.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">There</span> was now no choice and he had to resign himself
+to the Kharkoff University. There is not much to
+relate about this period, which was but a fugitive
+episode in the course of Elie Metchnikoff, for the
+&ldquo;Alma Mater&rdquo; did not have upon him either the
+influence or the prestige which it generally exerts upon
+youth.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst the stream of new ideas had already reached
+the Lycée, the University of Kharkoff had remained
+extremely conservative; this was owing to the fact
+that the Lycée professors were young men, whilst those
+of the University were elderly and old-fashioned.
+Officials rather than scientists, they were content with
+ancient methods, and lectured without practical work,
+from obsolete and ill-chosen manuals. A few of them
+drank, others neglected their work. In the Medical
+and Natural Science Faculties, only two <i>agrégés</i> were
+newly appointed, Tschelkoff, the physiologist we have
+already mentioned, and a chemist named Békétoff.
+These two were indeed scientists and master-minds,
+and it was only under their direction that any one
+did any serious work; the other lectures were pure
+formalities. Elie wished to go in for medical studies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+but his mother dissuaded him. &ldquo;You are too sensitive,&rdquo;
+she said, &ldquo;you could not bear the constant
+sight of human suffering.&rdquo; At the same time,
+Tschelkoff suggested the Natural Science Faculty as
+being more appropriate to purely scientific activity.
+Elie accepted his opinion and began to study physiology
+under his direction. His great desire was to
+embark at once on personal research, and his teacher
+advised him to study the mobile stalk of a ciliated
+Infusorian, the Vorticella. The question was to determine
+whether this stalk presented any analogy with
+muscular tissue and whether it offered the same
+reactions. Elie set to work with ardour and found
+that the stalk of the Vorticella had no muscular
+character. His memoir on the subject appeared in
+1863 in <i>Müller&rsquo;s Archives</i>. It provoked a severe, even
+brutal, answer from the celebrated physiologist Kühne
+which deeply grieved the young scientist and, stimulating
+his energy still further, incited him to repeat
+his experiments. He obtained the same results as
+the first time, and answered Kühne in a somewhat
+bitter manner, the latter&rsquo;s tone having stirred his
+combativity.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, Elie was yearning for independent and
+more general study. During his unsuccessful journey,
+he had acquired in Leipzig many recently published
+scientific books, and, among them, Darwin&rsquo;s <i>Origin of
+Species</i>. The theory of evolution deeply struck the
+boy&rsquo;s mind and his thoughts immediately turned in
+that direction. He said to himself that isolated forms
+which had found no place in definite animal or
+vegetable orders might perhaps serve as a bond between
+those orders and elucidate their genetic relationships.
+This leading idea made him choose for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+his researches some very singular fresh-water creatures,
+partly like Rotifera and partly like certain
+worms of the Nematode group. He succeeded in
+establishing a new intermediate order which he named
+&ldquo;Gastrotricha,&rdquo; and which was straightway accepted.</p>
+
+<p>The whole of his first year at the University was
+given up to those special studies. As he was fully
+aware that the teaching of the University did not
+answer to his aspirations, he resolved to remain there
+as short a time as possible, and to get through the course
+of studies in two years instead of the four which were
+usual. In order to succeed in doing so, he provisionally
+gave up his scientific researches, attended the
+lectures as a free auditor, and spent the whole of the
+second year in cramming for the &ldquo;candidate&rdquo; examination,
+which answers to a Licentiate in Western
+universities. It happened again this time that the
+examinations coincided with the Opera season, but,
+though he indulged in his passion for music, he
+succeeded, by dint of a supreme effort, in passing them
+very brilliantly.</p>
+
+<p>Having gone through the University at such an
+accelerated pace, he did not come into contact with
+other students, who, themselves chiefly preoccupied
+with politics, took little interest in a youth so exclusively
+absorbed in science. He therefore formed
+none of those attractive juvenile friendships which
+he had enjoyed at the Lycée. His hasty University
+studies necessarily left lacunæ in his general knowledge,
+a fact which he afterwards keenly deplored.</p>
+
+<p>With the exception of Tschelkoff, his teachers
+had had no decisive influence on his career, and his
+two years at the University formed but a colourless
+episode in his life.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Heligoland &mdash; Giessen Congress &mdash; Leuckart &mdash; Visit to Leo Metchnikoff
+at Geneva &mdash; Socialist gatherings &mdash; Metchnikoff&rsquo;s discovery appro&shy;pri&shy;ated
+by Leuckart &mdash; Naples &mdash; Kovalevsky &mdash; Comparative em&shy;bryo&shy;logy &mdash; Embryonic
+layers &mdash; Bakounine and Setchénoff &mdash; Cholera
+at Naples &mdash; Göttingen &mdash; Anatomical studies &mdash; Munich; von
+Siebold &mdash; Music &mdash; Return
+to Naples &mdash; Intracellular digestion.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Elie</span> still had his Licentiate thesis to prepare. In
+order to do so, he decided to spend two months in
+the island of Heligoland, of which the flora and fauna
+were very attractive to naturalists. In spite of his
+previous failure, his parents made no objection to his
+departure; they gave him the little money they could
+spare and Elie started, in 1864.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he arrived in Heligoland he became
+absorbed in his work. He proceeded with his idea of
+bringing light upon the genealogy of organisms through
+the study of isolated forms outside definite groups.<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>His ardour in his work attracted the attention of
+several German scientists, one of whom introduced
+him to the celebrated botanist Cohn, who soon became
+interested in him. During the walks which they took
+together, they held scientific conversations full of
+interest for the youth. Cohn advised him to work
+under the celebrated zoologist Leuckart. Elie received
+this counsel with enthusiasm, but there was a great
+difficulty, which was the lack of money to prolong<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+his stay abroad. He did not wish to ask for more
+from his parents and decided on the following plan,
+which he expounded in the following letter to his
+mother, the constant confidante of all his aspirations:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="small-right">
+<span class="smcap">Heligoland</span>, <i>Aug. 12, 1864</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mamma</span>, ... I am thinking of staying here another
+month, after which I shall go (at least that is my desire) for ten
+days to Giessen, where there will be a General Congress of naturalists
+and physicians from the whole of Europe. This Congress
+tempts me so much that I want to do my utmost to attend it.</p>
+
+<p>Besides all the scientific benefit that I shall reap from
+conversations with scientists, I can also study Professor
+Leuckart&rsquo;s rich collections. This would complete the studies
+which I am successfully pursuing at the seaside.</p>
+
+<p>In order to realise my ardent wish to profit by such treasures,
+I must remain three weeks longer at Heligoland, travel to
+Giessen and live there for ten days; all that out of the money
+which was to keep me here until the 26 Aug. only....
+Therefore, instead of living in the hotel, I have taken a room
+at a fisherman&rsquo;s, for half the price; instead of a dinner and
+coffee I eat what I can get and I only spend 90 centimes a
+day for my food. (Food is dear, as all the provisions come
+from Hamburg and from England.) Instead of changing my
+linen two or three times a week, I only do so once or twice,
+which allows me to spend less on laundry.</p>
+
+<p>The money thus economised, together with the sum which
+I had put aside for my first installation at Petersburg, constitutes
+a sufficient capital to provide the following joys and
+advantages: 1°, I shall stay three weeks longer at the seaside,
+which will allow me to get on with my researches and to
+increase my collections; 2°, I shall attend the Congress; 3°,
+I shall be able to study Leuckart&rsquo;s collections and take advantage
+of his books and counsel.</p>
+
+<p>I beseech you not to look upon this description of my
+present life as a complaint or a murmur; on the contrary I
+am delighted to procure so many advantages at so small a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+cost; I am happy, too, to be able to assure you in all conscience
+that I am not wasting the money that you have found for me
+with so much care and affection. I only wish I could find
+myself oftener in the same conditions.</p>
+
+<p>Please also believe that my health is in no way suffering
+from my work. I give you my word that until now I have not
+had a single headache.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, I do not think work is at all detrimental to
+health; I see here several German scientists who could fell
+an ox with their fist! Altogether I beseech you not to be
+anxious on my account; you have quite enough painful preoccupations
+without that, and I am in such excellent circumstances
+that there really is nothing to worry about. I kiss
+your hands many times.</p>
+
+<p class="valediction">
+Yours affectionately,
+</p>
+<p class="small-right">
+<span class="smcap">Elie Metchnikoff</span>.
+</p>
+
+<p><i>P.S.</i>&mdash;Write to me oftener. Every word from you is so
+precious to me!</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>He did not tell his mother that he never had
+enough to eat. Neither did he wish Cohn and his
+other acquaintances at Heligoland to notice it, and
+he carefully concealed his style of living.</p>
+
+<p>He went to Giessen for the opening of the Naturalists&rsquo;
+Congress and read with success two papers
+dealing with his researches at Heligoland. Engelmann
+(who was to become well known as a physiologist)
+and he were the youngest members of the
+Congress, and their extreme youth attracted general
+attention. Elie at last made Leuckart&rsquo;s acquaintance;
+he was charmed by him and definitely decided
+to begin at once to work under his direction, and, as
+his stay abroad had thus to be prolonged, he asked
+and obtained a <i>bursa</i> from the Russian Ministry of
+Public Education.</p>
+
+<p>The results of his researches at Heligoland had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+led him to suppose that the Nematodes (of the worm
+type) formed an independent group; he now proposed
+to settle that question. Leuckart allowed him
+to work in his laboratory during his absence for the
+holidays; Elie immediately set to work and discovered
+a very curious and quite novel case of alternation
+of generations; hermaphrodite and parasitic
+Nematodes giving birth to a free bisexual generation.</p>
+
+<p>Delighted with his discovery, he hastened to communicate
+it to Leuckart, who was incredulous at first
+but had to give way to evidence when Elie showed
+him all the intermediary stages. Still the German
+scientist was obviously annoyed that this discovery
+should have been made in his absence and independently
+from him. He proposed to the young
+man that they should continue researches in collaboration
+and publish a joint memoir. Elie accepted
+joyfully. In his ardour he worked too much, and
+fatigued his eyesight so that he was forced to limit
+his microscopical researches to a few hours a day, and
+Leuckart advised him to take a rest.</p>
+
+<p>It happened that Elie&rsquo;s brother Leo had just settled
+in Geneva and invited him to stay with him; Elie
+started to join him. The brothers had not met for a
+long time. Leo had been travelling and had resided
+in many different places. He was an extraordinarily
+gifted man, impulsive, brilliant, and artistic, but restless
+and incapable of adhering to a steady course of
+action; he scattered his activities and did not therefore
+produce all that his rich nature was capable of.
+He had a remarkable gift for languages; he knew not
+only a number of European languages but also several
+Oriental languages, having been in the East, where he
+had occupied a post of agent in navigation and commerce.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+He afterwards lived in Italy, took an active
+part in the Garibaldi movement and was wounded.
+A clever painter, he also had real literary talent;
+handsome, witty, agreeable, he was a most attractive
+personality. Elie had great affection for him.</p>
+
+<p>He found him surrounded with young men and
+studying a map. They were discussing the acquisition
+of a piece of ground in Italy in order to found
+a socialistic community, and Leo, who knew the
+country, was to choose the locality. Elie was at once
+made acquainted with the political questions of the
+day; the young scientist was unfavourably impressed,
+for the whole reduced itself to party questions and
+dogmatic discussions founded on hollow grounds.
+Accustomed as he already was to positive scientific
+methods, vague and arbitrary theories could not
+satisfy him.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, he was deeply impressed by
+the personality of the celebrated socialistic Russian
+writer, Herzen, who resided in Geneva at that time.
+The young revolutionaries considered him as too
+literary and too much of a theoretician; they themselves
+yearned for a direct-action policy. Leo Metchnikoff,
+however, admired him fervently. Meetings
+often took place in Herzen&rsquo;s rooms; he used to read
+to his guests with wonderful effect his yet unpublished
+manuscript <i>Passé et pensées</i>. A great and powerful
+figure, the superiority of his intelligence was almost
+crushing, while his sparkling wit and the nobility of
+his whole being endowed him with an incomparable
+and irresistible personal charm. Metchnikoff often
+said that no man had left a deeper impression on his
+life. As a politician, however, he had not the same
+prestige in his sight.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This sojourn in a revolutionary centre interested
+him much, but had the result of confirming his conviction
+that science was immeasurably superior to
+politics, and he congratulated himself on the path he
+had chosen. After he had rested, he started to return
+to Giessen and stopped at Heidelberg, a centre for
+Russian students who gathered around Helmholtz,
+Virchow, and Bunsen. He hurried to the library in
+order to see scientific periodicals; one of the first that
+came under his eyes was a number of the <i>Göttingen
+News</i>, containing a memoir by Leuckart on the Nematodes
+which they had studied together; Leuckart
+described, in his own name, their common researches
+and also those personal to the young man, whom he
+only mentioned incidentally. Elie was shocked and
+indignant. On his return to Giessen he tried to obtain
+an explanation from Leuckart but in vain; the latter
+eluded his questions and gave him no answer.<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>In his despair, the youth confided in Claus, a professor
+of zoology whose acquaintance he had made
+at the Congress, who told him that Leuckart was in
+the habit of such dealings, and urged Elie, as an independent
+stranger, to reveal the fact. He pressed this
+with so much insistence that Elie ended in following
+his advice; he sent an article stating the case to
+Dubois-Reymond&rsquo;s journal. He then departed from
+Giessen without taking leave of Leuckart.</p>
+
+<p>Having had a <i>bursa</i> of 1600 roubles a year granted
+him for two years by the Russian Ministry of Public
+Instruction, he was able to undertake a journey to
+the shores of the Mediterranean in order to pursue
+his researches.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He had heard of a very talented young zoologist,
+Alexander Kovalevsky, who also knew him by hearsay
+and had written him a letter full of enthusiasm concerning
+the rich Mediterranean fauna and the facilities
+for work in Italy. He therefore went to Naples on
+leaving Giessen. Though the journey in itself had
+but a secondary attraction for him, he had expected
+to receive a strong impression; but his imagination
+had painted such grandiose pictures of the country
+that he had to cross, that the reality disappointed
+him, and Italy, like Switzerland on a former occasion,
+fell very far short of his expectations. He stopped
+at Florence, which made but a poor impression
+on him. Museums fatigued him, for he saw a great
+deal too many works of art all at once without
+any previous preparation. Architecture and the
+plastic arts in general did not take any hold of him.
+During his rapid journey he only saw the country
+quite superficially and had no time to become impregnated
+with its beauty. He therefore hastened
+towards Naples, where his work and Kovalevsky
+attracted him far more.</p>
+
+<p>He found in Kovalevsky a young man with shy
+but cordial manners and the clear sweet eyes of a
+pure child, obviously an idealist. He had for science
+an absolute cult, the sacred fire of the worshipper;
+no sacrifice was too great, no difficulty too repellent
+for his ardour. On a closer acquaintance, the small,
+timid young man proved to be a hard fighter where
+science was concerned. The two young men formed
+an excellent impression of each other, and a friendship
+was started between them which was to last a lifetime.
+Though very different from each other, they
+met on common ground, a passion for science. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+worked with the greatest energy, going together on
+zoological excursions, exchanging their ideas, discussing
+their aspirations; a similarity of tastes lent
+great attraction to their friendship.</p>
+
+<p>At Giessen, Elie had read Fritz Müller&rsquo;s <i>For
+Darwin</i>, a book which had a decisive influence on the
+future direction of his researches. Fritz Müller, in his
+embryological works on certain crustaceans, had been
+the first to confirm in a concrete manner Darwin&rsquo;s
+evolutionist theories; he had thus demonstrated that
+it was chiefly in embryology that precious indications
+were to be found concerning the genealogy of organisms.<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>
+Under the influence of this work, Elie, who
+until now had limited himself to introductory researches,
+resolved to concentrate all his efforts on the
+comparative embryology of animals. He started to
+work in that direction, and his researches confirmed
+him more and more in the opinion that the key of
+animal evolution and genealogy was to be sought for
+in the most primitive stages, in those simple phases
+of development where no secondary element has yet
+been introduced from external conditions. In those
+primordial stages, essential characters, common to
+all, reveal the analogy and connections between
+animals from different groups.</p>
+
+<p>Every animal begins by being <i>unicellular</i>, for the
+egg-cell, the reproducing cell, common to all, corresponds
+to a unicellular being. It is only after fecundation,
+when it has become an ovum, that this first
+cell evolves by dividing itself into consecutive
+segments, each of which is a new cell. This phenomenon
+is analogous with the multiplication of unicellular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+beings through division; only, those segments
+of the ovum do not separate but constitute a whole
+under the aspect of a hollow sphere, called a <i>blastula</i>,
+which is the first manifestation of a multicellular
+being. This blastula is formed of superposed layers,
+each of which gives birth to specialised organs in the
+embryo. The outside layer, or <i>ectoderm</i>, produces
+teguments and the nervous system; the internal layer,
+or <i>endoderm</i>, gives birth to endothelial cells, the digestive
+and internal organs; between those two layers comes
+a third, intermediary layer, the <i>mesoderm</i>, from which
+the skeleton is developed and also the muscle and
+blood tissues.</p>
+
+<p>The evolution of these layers in Vertebrates was
+well known, but very little so in Invertebrates, though
+it is only through the development of inferior forms
+that the origin and general evolution of living beings
+can be elucidated. That is why, during many years,
+the principal theme of Metchnikoff&rsquo;s researches was
+the comparative study of the embryonic layers of
+inferior animals and the ulterior fate of their constituting
+elements. By following this train of thought,
+he was able to demonstrate that the development of
+lower animals takes place on the same plan and
+follows the same laws as that of higher animals;
+thus, that there is a real communion between all
+living beings, which is the concrete confirmation of
+the theory of evolution.</p>
+
+<p>By their work, Kovalevsky and Metchnikoff contributed
+to the foundation of Comparative Embryology.
+The comparative study of cells produced from
+the divers embryonic layers, and observations on the
+ulterior development of the functions of those cells,
+gradually led Metchnikoff to his theory of phagocytes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+and to pathological biology. An uninterrupted thread
+can be followed right through his life-work, from the
+beginning until the end.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of his absorbing work he took great
+interest in his surroundings, and during this first stay
+in Italy he became acquainted with two interesting
+personalities, Bakounine the anarchist and the celebrated
+physiologist Setchénoff. Both resided at
+Sorrento. Kovalevsky and Metchnikoff, who greatly
+desired to know them, decided to call on them, after
+much hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>Bakounine, a giant with a leonine head and a
+thick mane of grey hair, struck them as being a fiery
+enthusiast but an intolerant sectarian, easily roused;
+for instance, any small and unimportant local meeting
+was enough for him to predict an imminent revolution
+in Russia. His theories were epitomised in these
+words, &ldquo;We must not leave stone upon stone&rdquo;; but
+when asked what should be built up on those ruins
+he could only say, &ldquo;We shall see later.&rdquo; Elie looked
+upon him as a force powerful by its fire and vitality,
+but thought his mind neither judicial nor profound.</p>
+
+<p>Very different was the impression produced on
+him by Setchénoff. He carried great weight through
+the depth of his intelligence, his persuasive eloquence
+and general thoroughness. He was of a Mongol type
+and his features were plain, but his splendid eyes,
+deep and intelligent, shrewd and yet kindly, illumined
+his face with an unforgettable inward beauty. When
+Elie went to see him, it was with the uneasy feeling
+that his own knowledge of chemistry and physics was
+very restricted, having been very superficially acquired
+during his rapid passage through the University.
+In spite of this cause for bashfulness, a mental compact<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+and exchange of ideas was immediately established
+between the two, and a sympathy was born
+between them which developed into a lifelong friendship.
+Elie expatiated upon his plans for the study of
+the embryology of inferior animals from the evolution
+point of view, and received from the older scientist
+much encouragement, for which he never ceased to
+be grateful.</p>
+
+<p>He worked a great deal during this first stay at
+Naples, in spite of periods of great fatigue. As a
+relaxation, he plunged into philosophical reading.
+After Kovalevsky&rsquo;s departure, he joined Bakounine&rsquo;s
+circle, the members of which took their meals in a
+restaurant which rejoiced in the sonorous name of
+<i>Trattoria della Harmonia</i>. In the autumn of the year
+1865, a cholera epidemic broke out in Naples. Every
+one was nervous and depressed, and this general
+depression was increased still more by some of the
+customs of the country&mdash;continuous lugubrious
+church bells, funeral processions in which penitents
+took part, carrying smoking torches and wearing
+hoods over their heads with holes for their eyes, etc.
+Elie, on whom the epidemic had made a great impression,
+was even more disturbed by the death of one of
+the members of their little circle, a popular Englishwoman,
+liked by everybody. She had no fear of
+cholera and was bright and merry. But one day she
+did not come to the <i>Trattoria della Harmonia</i>; she had
+been struck by the scourge and was dead the next day.</p>
+
+<p>Elie was so struck by her death that his nerves,
+already very tense, gave way and he left Naples, being,
+moreover, worn out with overwork.</p>
+
+<p>He started for Göttingen, for he wanted to begin the
+study of Vertebrates under the direction of Professor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+Keferstein. Keferstein straightway gave him a valuable
+lizard specimen to anatomise. Elie was not
+good at technique, on account of his nervous temperament;
+he used occasionally to lose his patience
+and his temper, to that point that he flung his material
+across the room. It happened so on this occasion;
+having completely wasted the valuable lizard, he conceived
+a still greater horror of technique and soon left
+Professor Keferstein for Henle, the celebrated anatomist.
+He worked with him for a short time at the
+histology of frogs&rsquo; kidneys, a subject chosen by the
+Professor. Soon the young man realised that he was
+no longer capable of submitting to school discipline
+and resumed his independent researches. When he
+had to do with those problems which absorbed him
+he was always able to conquer his aversion for technique
+and to do what was required. He studied the
+embryology of the green-fly from the genealogical point
+of view, and went to Munich for the summer term
+in order to work with the celebrated zoologist von
+Siebold, a typical and venerable old German scientist.
+The latter was too old already to be troubled with
+pupils, and Elie studied his insect embryology independently;
+however, he visited the old man assiduously,
+and they had long scientific conversations. Their
+relations were always extremely cordial, and they
+even kept up a regular correspondence for many years.</p>
+
+<p>During his stay in Germany, music was the young
+man&rsquo;s only recreation. He did not play any instrument;
+his parents, discouraged by the failure of their
+elder children, had not had him taught, and besides,
+his precocious vocation would have left him no time.
+Yet he certainly had a natural talent for music, which
+he passionately loved. He could only whistle, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+with that feeble means succeeded in reproducing complicated
+compositions. Having assiduously attended
+excellent concerts, he had made himself thoroughly
+acquainted with classical music, and Beethoven and
+Mozart always remained his favourite composers.
+His stay in Germany taught him to appreciate the
+great capacity for work of the scientists of that
+country; he admired the organisation of their laboratories,
+allowing every force, great or small, to be
+utilised and making useful collective work possible
+in those complicated researches which demand the
+collaboration of divers specialists. On the other hand,
+he felt a great aversion for the manners and customs
+of German students. Their corporations, duels, and
+long sittings in beer-houses were distasteful to him;
+he could not understand how these coarse &ldquo;Burschen&rdquo;
+could become transformed into cultivated intellectuals
+and respectable scientists. People to whom he
+expressed this wonder merely said, &ldquo;Youth must
+have its fling....&rdquo; Moreover, scientists themselves
+were not particularly courteous to each other. More
+than anywhere else personal questions held a foremost
+place, and kindliness was rare between colleagues.</p>
+
+<p>After staying some time in Munich, Elie returned
+to Naples, war having broken out between Northern
+and Southern Germany. This time, in order to spend
+less on the journey, he took a steamer at Genoa, but
+with fatal results, for a storm was raging; he suffered
+a great deal, and, when he reached Naples, violent fits
+of giddiness made him incapable of doing any work at
+all for some time. Cholera reappeared, and the landlady
+of the rooms he shared with Kovalevsky died of
+it. Much depressed, the two started for Ischia, but
+Elie soon realised with terror that he was not yet well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+enough to work; in order to recover quickly, he went
+to Cava, a pretty little place, renowned for its salubrious
+climate.</p>
+
+<p>There he met Bakounine again, and they saw a
+good deal of each other in a friendly way. Bakounine
+nicknamed him &ldquo;Mamma&rdquo; because of his almost
+maternal attentions, a nickname which, for the same
+reason, was given him later, quite independently, by
+other intimates. Yet, though their relations were
+cordial and even affectionate, there was not really
+much in common between the two. Elie thought
+Bakounine&rsquo;s ideas superficial, and disliked his sectarian
+mentality; they ultimately drifted apart.</p>
+
+<p>His health having gradually recovered owing to the
+rest, he returned to Naples in the autumn, after the
+epidemic had abated, and at last resumed his work.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst studying the history of the development of
+Cephalopoda he found that they had embryonic
+layers similar to those of Vertebrates; this was the
+first time that the fact was established. It was extremely
+important, for it constituted a concrete and
+indisputable proof of the existence of a genetic
+connection between inferior and superior animals.
+Metchnikoff chose this subject for his thesis, and,
+having completed his researches, he returned to
+Russia in 1867.</p>
+
+<p>By this time he had made great use of his three
+years&rsquo; stay abroad. Though he had not showed
+himself a docile pupil, yet he had become initiated
+into the organisation of scientific work in Germany;
+he had carried out independent researches and had
+been able to choose with full knowledge the future
+path of investigations which he was to pursue for
+many years in the field of Comparative Embryology.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Already the observations he had made had in
+themselves a real importance. For instance, his
+studies in divers specimens of the worm type, a type
+which offers very heterogeneous forms, had permitted
+him to establish links of continuity between certain
+groups among them. Whilst studying those animals
+at Giessen in 1865, he had discovered the capital fact
+which proved to be the starting-point of all his future
+work&mdash;the <i>intercellular digestion</i> of an inferior worm,
+a land planarian, the <i>Geodesmus bilineatus</i>. He had
+compared this digestion with that of the superior
+Infusoria and had seen in it one more proof of the
+genetic connection between the type of the Protozoa
+and that of worms.</p>
+
+<p>He did not then realise the full bearing of this
+observation, which really constituted the basis of his
+future phagocyte theory; this was only to appear
+eighteen years later.</p>
+
+<p>He had also made researches on numerous specimens
+of insects and on the scorpion, establishing the
+fact that they all had embryonic layers; he concluded
+that he was &ldquo;entitled to extend the theory of embryonic
+layers to Arthropoda.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Finally, he had discovered embryonic layers similar
+to those of the Vertebrates in inferior Invertebrates,
+the Cephalopoda (Sepiola). This established a link
+of continuity between the higher and lower animals.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Petersburg &mdash; Baer prize &mdash; Return home &mdash; Friendship with Cienkovsky &mdash; Odessa &mdash; Naturalists&rsquo;
+Congress at Petersburg &mdash; Departure from Odessa &mdash; Zoological
+Lecturer&rsquo;s Chair at Petersburg &mdash; Messina &mdash; Enforced
+rest &mdash; Reggio &mdash; Naples &mdash; Controversy with Kovalevsky &mdash; Visit
+to the B. family &mdash; Mlle. Fédorovitch &mdash; Educational questions &mdash; Difficulties
+of life in Petersburg.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">During</span> his stay abroad, Metchnikoff had successfully
+carried out several researches, and this allowed him
+to apply for a post of <i>docent</i> at the new University of
+Odessa, which he had chosen on account of its proximity
+with the sea and its marine fauna. Whilst
+awaiting the result he went to Petersburg in order to
+pass his thesis and to prepare himself to become a
+professor. He received a pleasant welcome, for his
+lively and sociable disposition had made him many
+friends. The brothers Kovalevsky, with whom he was
+already on friendly terms, offered him hospitality;
+he also made the acquaintance of Professor Békétoff,
+and soon became a member of his family circle.</p>
+
+<p>He was well received everywhere, for his scientific
+precocity excited general interest. He was even
+elected <i>magister</i><a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> by the Faculty, without having to
+pass an examination, on account of the work he had
+done. He and Kovalevsky halved Baer&rsquo;s first prize,
+and they were invited and treated with the utmost
+kindness by Baer himself. Metchnikoff had certainly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+entered upon a successful phase; his friends nicknamed
+him &ldquo;the star.&rdquo; As soon as he was made a
+<i>magister</i>, he received his appointment at the Odessa
+University, and, the holidays drawing near, he was at
+last able to return to his home. Needless to say how
+joyfully and lovingly he was received by his family.
+He spent two months with them, utilising his leisure in
+preparing himself to teach.</p>
+
+<p>In his hurry to arrive in Odessa in good time in
+order to take his bearings before starting his lectures,
+he went there much too soon and found nobody at
+the University; he then decided to go to the Crimea
+for some preliminary studies on the fauna of the Black
+Sea. Before long, he made the acquaintance of the
+celebrated botanist Cienkovsky, who invited him to
+stay in his villa. Though the scientist was already
+46 years old and Elie only 22, they soon became fast
+friends. Cienkovsky was a man of great European
+culture; passionately fond of science as he was, his
+critical mind submitted everything to a close analysis.
+He took great interest in young Metchnikoff and
+showed him a marked predilection, but that did not
+prevent him from criticising him severely. He reproached
+him with a lack of self-control, and undertook
+the paternal task of civilising the impulsive, fiery,
+sometimes even violent young man. He preached
+to him tolerance towards the opinions of others, a
+strict self-discipline, and the absolute necessity of
+bowing to certain social conventions against which
+Elie blindly rebelled. Cienkovsky acquired great
+prestige in his young friend&rsquo;s eyes; years later, even,
+Metchnikoff took pleasure in quoting his axioms and
+in trying to conform with them.</p>
+
+<p>He worked with ardour during his stay in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+Crimea; though the heat was great, 50° C. (122° F.)
+in the sun, he undertook zoological excursions
+and surprised every one by his endurance and
+energy.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the holidays, he returned to Odessa
+and began his professorate with much zeal and
+success. His lucid, living lectures stimulated his
+pupils, third-year students, who were all older than
+himself. Friendly relations soon reigned between
+them and their young lecturer; he organised practical
+studies, and his laboratory became a very active
+centre of work.</p>
+
+<p>Thus everything was going well, and perhaps he
+might have remained at Odessa for a long time if it
+had not been for the following incident, due to his
+passionate and intolerant disposition. A Congress of
+Russian naturalists was to take place in Petersburg
+at the end of the year 1867. Elie eagerly wished to
+attend it as a delegate and took steps for that purpose;
+this brought him into conflict with his chief, who
+desired the mission for himself. Knowing that the
+old Professor had no real scientific interests, Elie
+thought himself justified in insisting, and counted
+upon Cienkovsky&rsquo;s support, but the latter was of
+opinion that the younger man should give way. Elie,
+becoming more and more excited, lost all sense of
+proportion and committed the grave error of telling
+his pupils about what he considered a serious injustice.
+The latter, out of sympathy for their young lecturer,
+hooted the old Professor, which naturally embittered
+the quarrel. However, all the agitation ended in both
+zoologists being sent to the Congress in the quality of
+delegates.</p>
+
+<p>When he reached Petersburg, Elie hurried to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+house of his friends B&mdash;&mdash;, who received him with
+open arms; it was a great joy to him to find himself
+in friendly surroundings after the recent strife. Impulsive
+and impressionable as he was, the disagreeable
+incidents he had traversed made him yearn to
+leave Odessa, a desire which was to be promptly
+realised. His communications had great success at
+the Congress; the President even invited him to
+read a paper at the general meeting; but,
+though strongly attracted by this proposal, which would
+have allowed the young scientist to expose his ideas
+on the comparative development of the embryonic
+layers, he refused it, considering that that complicated
+question was not yet sufficiently matured.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, the Congress had brought him into
+prominence and was the cause of his obtaining a
+Professorship of Zoology at Petersburg. Moreover,
+he had the additional good fortune of being given a
+scientific mission and went abroad to work until the
+autumn term.</p>
+
+<p>He went to Naples in the spring of 1868, thinking
+to find Kovalevsky there, instead of which he found
+a letter from his friend awaiting him. The latter had
+had to go to Messina for urgent embryological work
+and begged Elie to look after his wife and new-born
+child. Metchnikoff did so most willingly until he was
+able to send them off to Messina. He himself followed
+soon after, for Kovalevsky wrote him that zoological
+specimens and conditions of work were far better at
+Messina than Naples. This time, Metchnikoff undertook
+the study of Sponges and Echinodermata. The
+two friends worked unceasingly, but Elie&rsquo;s sight was
+too weak for such excessive fatigue; he was again obliged
+to interrupt his studies for a while, and during<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+that period of enforced rest he felt for the first time
+the need of a sentimental affection in his life.</p>
+
+<p>He dreamed of a helpmeet who would conform with
+his tastes. At Petersburg he had become very fond
+of Professor B.&rsquo;s young daughters, the eldest of whom
+was about thirteen years old, and he wondered if he
+could not train one of those little girls to become the
+realisation of his ideal. He was too active by nature,
+however, to linger very long over reveries or over
+a prolonged rest; he therefore undertook a short
+journey through Reggio and Calabria, on his way
+towards Naples.</p>
+
+<p>His eyesight being now restored, he began work
+again as soon as he arrived. This period, however,
+was not a pleasant one: to begin with, he obtained
+in the study of Ascidia a result which differed considerably
+from that obtained by Kovalevsky,<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> and
+this scientific controversy grieved and preoccupied
+them both. Besides, Elie&rsquo;s nerves suffered from his
+constant anxiety about his eyes, the tropical heat and
+the noisy life of Naples. Incessant serenades used to
+keep him awake at night, and, on one occasion, his
+exasperation reached such a point that he poured a
+bucket of water over the head of some persistent
+musicians. Tired with all these things, he left Naples
+for Trieste, where he carried out successful researches
+into the transformations of Echinodermata, from the
+point of view of Comparative Embryology and genetic
+connections between inferior animals.</p>
+
+<p>Having obtained results which interested him, he
+returned to Russia and joined the B. family in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+country, near Moscow. Their young friend Mlle.
+Fédorovitch, whom he had already met in Petersburg,
+was staying with them, and she and Elie became very
+good friends. His affection for the B. children led
+him to ponder over general educational questions.
+He was struck for the first time by the lack of harmony
+in human nature, which was due, he thought, to the
+considerable difference between the organism of the
+child and that of the adult, a difference which does
+not exist in animals to the same degree.<a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> As soon
+as he returned to Petersburg he tried to study this
+subject, and made comparisons between the brain of a
+man and that of a dog at various ages, but without
+result.</p>
+
+<p>He was not long in realising that the conditions
+of work in his new post were extremely unsatisfactory.
+He had no proper laboratory and had to work between
+two specimen cases in a non-heated zoological museum;
+there was no room for practical work. All his enthusiasm,
+all his aspirations towards scientific activity and
+rational teaching struck against indifference, lack of
+organisation, and lack of means. He protested with
+his usual vehemence, but could obtain nothing; being
+equally unable to adapt himself to his uncongenial
+surroundings, he found himself getting more and more
+discontented and unnerved. Moreover, his everyday
+life was most uncomfortable, for he wished to do
+without servants, on principle and in order to economise,
+and to do his household work himself; but he
+soon tired of taking the necessary care of his rooms,
+which became a regular chaos. He left off preparing
+his own meals and went out for them to an inferior<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+restaurant in the neighbourhood. Yet, in spite of
+all his efforts and privations, he never seemed to make
+both ends meet. He resigned himself to giving lessons
+at the School of Mines in order to increase his resources;
+the school was a long way off, he had to walk the
+distance in the coldest weather in order to lecture
+to students who did not interest him. The work
+wearied him without giving him any moral compensation.
+Altogether, the life in Petersburg, on which
+he had founded great hopes, brought him nothing
+but disappointments and made him become more
+and more pessimistic and misanthropical.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Slight illness &mdash; Engagement to Mlle. Fédorovitch &mdash; Marriage &mdash; Illness
+of the bride &mdash; Pecuniary difficulties &mdash; Spezzia &mdash; Montreux &mdash; Work in
+Petersburg University &mdash; The Riviera &mdash; C&oelig;lomata and Ac&oelig;lomata &mdash; St.
+Vaast &mdash; Panassovka &mdash; Madeira &mdash; Mertens &mdash; Teneriffe &mdash; Return
+to Odessa &mdash; Bad news, hurried journey to Madeira &mdash; Death of his
+wife &mdash; Return through Spain &mdash; Attempted suicide &mdash; Ephemeridæ.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was only in the house of his friends the B.&rsquo;s that
+Elie felt at his ease. He was devotedly fond of
+their children, whom he used to take for walks on
+Sundays and to the theatre now and then; he was
+always ready to read to them and to indulge them in
+every possible way.</p>
+
+<p>He continued to entertain the dream of marrying
+one of them some day, and was particularly interested
+in the eldest, a girl of thirteen, intelligent, gifted, and
+lively; however, as he knew her better, he realised
+the incompatibility of their respective tempers, an
+incompatibility which brought about frequent disputes.
+These were generally smoothed down by a
+mutual friend, Mlle. Fédorovitch, who invariably
+showed Elie a marked and cordial sympathy. He
+became ill at this juncture and she nursed him with
+a devotion which brought them together even more,
+as will be seen from the following letter to his mother:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mother</span>&mdash;I have just had an inflammation of the
+throat which lasted two weeks; it is quite gone now and I
+would not even have mentioned it to you if it had not been
+connected with what follows.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When I fell ill, the B.&rsquo;s, knowing me to be alone and uncared
+for, brought me to their house. During my stay with them,
+I acquired the conviction that my darling little girls did not
+love me, especially the eldest, who interested me even more
+than her three sisters.... The dreams I told you of have
+vanished!</p>
+
+<p>It was a grief to me, for, apart from my scientific interests,
+I cherished them more than anything. I have no acquaintances
+and do not require any, but I long to have some one
+with me to whom I could become attached and who could
+share my pleasures and leisure.</p>
+
+<p>My grief would have been greater still if I had not seen
+that Ludmilla Fédorovitch, whom I mentioned to you this
+summer, showed me much sympathy in all my troubles.</p>
+
+<p>We were already very good friends, and have now drawn
+nearer together; who knows? perhaps the 800 roubles which
+are going to be added to my salary will be very useful.</p>
+
+<p>I will keep you informed of everything, dear Mother, for
+I am sure of your sympathy; I love you better than the whole
+world and I have full confidence in you.</p>
+
+<p>Au revoir, dear Mother, I kiss your hands.&mdash;Your</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+<span class="smcap">Elie Metchnikoff</span>.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mlle. Fédorovitch became ill in her turn; the
+sympathy which Elie showed her on this occasion
+brought them still nearer to each other, and he soon
+decided to marry her. He informed his mother of
+this; much alarmed, she tried to dissuade him, for
+she feared that by marrying a girl in delicate health,
+her son would be assuming too heavy a task in his
+difficult circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>He answered as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>I received your letter to-day, dear Mother. It grieves
+me very much. My project inspires you with doubt, you
+counsel prudence and, though you say you believe me to be
+reasonable, yet you fear that I am acting on an impulse. If
+I really am reasonable, why fear a blind impulse? On the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+other hand, if I am blindly carried away, it is not likely that
+I shall listen to reason.</p>
+
+<p>I did tell you that I had great affection for the B. girls,
+and it was true. But did I ever tell you that they had the
+same for me? You are mistaken in thinking that I did not
+like Ludmilla Fédorovitch at first. I was not in love with
+her but we were very good friends, and whilst I did not consider
+her as my feminine ideal, I was sure of her absolutely
+honest, loyal, and kindly disposition. The very fact that I
+knew Ludmilla for a long time before I thought of marrying
+her, should prove to you that there is some chance of my
+being neither blind nor partial.</p>
+
+<p>Her love for me is beyond doubt, as you will see when you
+know her.</p>
+
+<p>I also am very fond of her, and that is a solid basis for
+future happiness.</p>
+
+<p>Yet I will not answer for it that we shall spend our life
+like a pair of turtledoves. A rosy, boundless beatitude forms
+no part of my conception of the distant future.</p>
+
+<p>Yet I do not see the necessity of waiting till I become a
+thorough misanthrope, and I am already inclined that way.</p>
+
+<p>Please do not believe that, if I do not dream of a rosy
+happiness it is that I feel none at all; that is not the case;
+I am in a happy medium.</p>
+
+<p>I like Ludmilla and I feel comfortable with her; but at
+the same time I preserve the faculty of feeling every trouble
+and worry in life. I do not at all think that it is enough
+to love in order to be happy. Therefore I have begun to take
+steps to obtain a Professor&rsquo;s chair, and I am very desirous
+of being successful in that financial operation.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Soon after that, he wrote the following letter to his mother:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mother</span>&mdash;In my last letter I had already spoken
+to you of Ludmilla Fédorovitch. I can now give you information
+about her which will surely interest you.</p>
+
+<p>She is not bad-looking, but that is all. She has fine
+hair; her complexion is not pretty. We are about the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+age, she is a little over 23. She was born at Orenburg; then
+she lived for a long time with her family at Kiahta (Siberia),
+after which she was abroad for nearly two years and finally
+settled in Moscow. Ludmilla, or Lussia, was, as you remember,
+a very zealous intermediary between me and the B. girls to
+whom I was so attached.</p>
+
+<p>She loved me already then, though she said to herself that
+I had too much affection for the B. children ever to return
+her feelings.</p>
+
+<p>And she was perfectly right, as long as my affection for
+those children lasted.</p>
+
+<p>But, when it ceased, I naturally took more notice of Lussia&rsquo;s
+sympathy for me, and I am not surprised that I have acquired
+much affection for her.</p>
+
+<p>She has faults which must seem graver to me than to you,
+but what is to be done?</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately she herself sees them. The greatest of her
+faults is a too great placidity, a lack of vivacity and initiative;
+she adapts herself too easily to her surroundings. But,
+being placid, she is also firm; she can bear a great deal whilst
+preserving complete self-control. She is extremely kind and
+good-natured; I have not yet found a vulgar trait in her
+character.</p>
+
+<p>I have told you of her faults, you must therefore not
+think me partial if I find qualities in her.</p>
+
+<p>The fact is&mdash;and I cannot forget it&mdash;that always, when I
+had any kind of trouble, she soothed me by her attitude
+towards me.</p>
+
+<p>Even though I have dark previsions for the future (as you
+know, I am not given to seeing life through rose-coloured
+glasses), I cannot help thinking that by living with Lussia
+I should become calmer, at least for a fairly long time.</p>
+
+<p>I should cease to suffer from the misanthropy which has
+invaded me lately.</p>
+
+<p>I intend to have no children&mdash;it is an embryologist who
+is speaking. On the contrary, I want to preserve the utmost
+liberty. Nevertheless, one must conform with certain legal
+conventions, which will probably take place in January.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Lussia has no fortune, but we shall be entirely guaranteed
+by the increase in my salary.</p>
+
+<p>It is very regrettable that the event should be retarded by
+the customary formalities; in any case it will certainly end
+by taking place.</p>
+
+<p>I beg you to write to me, dear mother that I love, anything
+that comes into your head <i>à propos</i> of my affair.</p>
+
+<p>Rejoice that I am now very happy and wish that it may
+last.</p>
+
+<p>I ask the same of Papa, whom I beg you to salute from me.
+I embrace you, dear Mamma, and I remain your very affectionate
+son,</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+<span class="smcap">E. Metchnikoff</span>.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>As Elie learnt to know his fiancée better, he became
+more and more attached to her. Their happiness
+seemed likely to be complete, but a cruel Fate had
+decided otherwise. The girl&rsquo;s health was not improving:
+her supposed bronchitis was assuming a
+chronic character. Yet the marriage was not postponed,
+and the bride had to be carried to the church
+in a chair for the ceremony, being too breathless and
+too weak to walk so far.</p>
+
+<p>Elie did his utmost to procure comforts for his wife,
+and hoped that she could still be saved by care and
+a rational treatment. It was the beginning of an
+hourly struggle against disease and poverty; his
+means being insufficient, he tried to eke them out by
+writing translations. His eyesight weakened again
+from overwork, and it was with atropin in his eyes
+that he sat up night after night, translating. There
+was but one well-lighted room in his flat, and he
+turned it into a small laboratory for the use of his
+pupils; his own researches he had to give up, his time
+being entirely taken up by teaching and translations.</p>
+
+<p>He hid his precarious position from his parents
+in order not to add to their heavy expenses nor to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+confirm their previsions concerning his marriage. His
+wife&rsquo;s illness, the impossibility of carrying on scientific
+work, the lack of friendly sympathy to which he
+thought himself entitled, all this weighed on him,
+making him bitter, suspicious, and distrustful; he
+thought himself persecuted. The situation became
+intolerable and, in spite of his pride, he forced himself
+to apply for a subsidy to take his wife abroad
+and to go on with his researches. Having obtained
+it in 1869, he immediately left Petersburg, which he
+now hated.</p>
+
+<p>Youth is elastic: the young couple started full
+of joy, gay as children, and ready to forget all their
+trials. Alas, it was not for long: having halted at
+Vilna in order that the patient should have a rest,
+she had an attack of hæmorrhage of the lungs, to the
+great alarm of her husband, who nevertheless did his
+best to reassure her. They continued the journey as
+soon as her condition allowed it, only to be interrupted
+by another relapse. At last they reached Spezzia,
+chosen on account of the climate and the marine fauna.</p>
+
+<p>Little by little, Ludmilla Metchnikoff&rsquo;s health improved
+and her husband was able to resume work.
+He studied aquatic animals in view of the genealogy
+of inferior groups, and, amongst others, studied the
+Tornaria, which was believed to be the larva of the
+star-fish. However, to his astonishment, he ascertained
+that, in spite of great similarity, it was not
+the larva of an Echinoderm, but that of one of the
+Balanoglossi, of the worm type. This fact established
+a link between the Echinodermata and worms,
+a very important result from the point of view of
+the continuity of animal types.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff felt his courage returning and also<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+his natural high spirits. His wife, who was a clever
+draughtswoman, helped him with the drawings for
+his memoir, and both felt happy and contented; this
+stay at Spezzia was a real oasis in their life.</p>
+
+<p>When the heat became excessive they went to
+Reichenhall, a summer resort prescribed by the
+doctor. There, Metchnikoff completed his previous
+researches on the development of the scorpion, and
+finally established the fact that this animal possesses
+the three embryonic layers which correspond to those
+of the Vertebrates.</p>
+
+<p>As his young wife&rsquo;s health was still too precarious
+to allow her to spend the winter in Russia, Metchnikoff,
+obliged to return to Petersburg, installed her at Montreux
+and asked his sister-in-law, Mlle. Fédorovitch,
+to stay with her. The enforced separation deeply
+grieved the young couple, whose only consolation was
+daily correspondence.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff resumed a life of hard work; he was
+now an <i>agrégé</i> at the Petersburg University and
+had to leave the School of Mines; this diminished his
+resources, but at the same time he obtained an extra
+salary of 800 roubles as Extraordinary Professor.
+His position in the University was nevertheless very
+difficult, for his situation was coveted by different
+parties with which he had nothing to do. They
+wanted it for one of their adherents. His devoted
+friend Setchénoff, Professor of Physiology, then thought
+of proposing him to the Faculty of Medicine as a
+Lecturer in Zoology, and whilst Metchnikoff awaited
+the result of his efforts, he obtained leave to go to the
+seaside to do research work.</p>
+
+<p>He joined his wife and took her to San Remo
+and to Villafranca. Her health had improved and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+she was even able to take part in his work. He was
+engaged in studying Medusæ and Siphonophora,
+animals which interested him, not only from the point
+of view of the origin of embryonic layers, but also
+from that of general morphology, for he was still
+pursuing the problem of genetic links between
+animals. He had already been able to prove the
+presence of embryonic layers in many inferior animals;
+moreover, he had found, while studying the metamorphoses
+of Echinodermata, the proof that the <i>structural
+plan</i>, hitherto considered immutable, could
+become transformed in course of development. Thus
+the bilateral plan of the larva of Echinoderma becomes
+a radial plan in the adult. The structural plan therefore
+is not an absolutely differentiating character,
+since specimens of the same type can show a different
+plan according to their stage of development. One
+of the genetic questions still unsolved was that of the
+body cavity. Always present in higher animals, it
+is totally absent in certain lower groups, such as
+Sponges, Polypi, and Medusæ. It was being questioned
+whether their dissimilar morphological characters
+did not correspond with a duality of origin
+separating animals which possessed a body cavity
+(C&oelig;lomata) from those which did not (Ac&oelig;lomata).</p>
+
+<p>Kovalevsky, it is true, had observed that the
+body cavity of many animals (Amphioxus, Sagitta,
+Brachiopoda) took its origin in the <i>lateral sacs</i> of the
+digestive cavity, sacs which detach themselves from
+it in order to form the body cavity. But, in order
+to establish a genetic connection between those
+animals that have a body cavity and those which
+are devoid of it, it was necessary to show the homology
+of corresponding organs in both groups.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Through his researches on the development of
+C&oelig;lomata (Echinodermata) on the one hand and
+Ac&oelig;lomata (Ctenophora and Medusæ) on the other,
+Metchnikoff succeeded in proving that the lateral sacs
+of the digestive cavity which give birth to the body
+cavity of the C&oelig;lomata (Echinodermata) correspond
+to the canals and vaso-digestive sacs of the Ac&oelig;lomata
+(Ctenophora and Medusæ). The difference
+consists in that the latter do not detach themselves
+in order to form a body cavity, which is therefore
+lacking.</p>
+
+<p>The result of his researches satisfied Metchnikoff;
+moreover, he began to feel again hopeful of his wife&rsquo;s
+recovery. The only dark spot was that Setchénoff&rsquo;s
+efforts had failed. Metchnikoff was not appointed
+by the Faculty of Medicine, for it was found advisable
+to replace the Chair of Zoology by one on Venereal
+Diseases. On the other hand, he was nominated for
+the Odessa University, supported by Cienkovsky and
+unanimously elected.</p>
+
+<p>As he only had to go to his new post in the autumn,
+he went for the summer to St. Vaast in Normandy
+to study Lucernaria; unfortunately the stay was not
+a success; the weather was cold and the sea very
+rough, which made the Lucernaria impossible to find.
+Life conditions were very difficult, all the male population
+being at sea and the women being in the fields.
+In order not to waste this journey he studied Ascidians,
+and found that he had previously been mistaken at
+Naples when he thought that the nervous system of
+those animals originated from the lower embryonic
+layer. Kovalevsky had been right in affirming the
+contrary, and Elie hastened to write to tell him so.</p>
+
+<p>St. Vaast, open to every wind, was not favourable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+to the patient, and Metchnikoff had to take her away.
+They went to Russia to stay with her parents and then
+to Panassovka. The doctors having advised a course
+of treatment by &ldquo;koumiss,&rdquo; or fermented mare&rsquo;s
+milk prepared in a special way by the Tartars, Elie
+engaged a Tartar servant specially for that purpose,
+but in vain. In spite of every treatment, his wife&rsquo;s
+health was steadily growing worse. The cold at St.
+Vaast had been followed by such a dry heat in Russia
+that, in order to procure a little coolness for the
+patient, they had to spread wet sheets around her.
+She constantly had high temperatures and frequent
+attacks of hæmorrhage. It was obvious that she
+must leave Russia, and Metchnikoff, obliged to rejoin
+his post at Odessa, asked Mlle. Fédorovitch to go
+with her to Montreux.</p>
+
+<p>The separation was all the harder that all hope of
+recovery was beginning to wane. The patient, however,
+had been told of the magical effect of Madeira
+in cases of tuberculosis, and she clung to the idea as
+to a plank of safety. Elie resolved to take her there.
+He set to work with renewed ardour in order to obtain
+the sum necessary for the journey; in spite of all his
+self-denial, his normal resources would not have
+sufficed, and he had recourse to translations and
+literary articles. He had a theme ready, which he
+developed in a paper called <i>Education from the Anthropological
+Point of View</i>&mdash;in fact a preliminary sketch
+of his ideas on the disharmonies in human nature.
+In it, he analysed the disharmonies due to the great
+difference of development between the child and the
+adult: whilst the young of animals are very rapidly
+able to imitate the adults and to live like them, the
+man-child is incapable of it. His brain, especially in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+civilised races, demands a long period of development
+in order to equal that of the adult, whilst certain
+instincts in the organism mature, on the contrary, long
+before their function is possible. Moreover, a child&rsquo;s
+sensibility is extremely developed whilst his will is
+by no means so. These causes provoke suffering and
+a series of regrettable consequences.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from frenzied efforts and unceasing labour,
+Metchnikoff was going through a painful moral crisis,
+due to the impossibility of making his conduct accord
+with his convictions. Party intrigues continued to
+be rife at the Odessa University: Poles were being
+persecuted by Nationalists; one professor was refused
+admission on account of his Polish nationality, and
+Cienkovsky resigned by way of protest. Metchnikoff
+shared his views and longed to follow his example,
+but was prevented by his lack of means and felt it
+deeply. It also went against his conscience to ask
+for leave as frequently as his wife&rsquo;s condition made it
+necessary.</p>
+
+<p>She wished to see her parents once again before
+going to Madeira, and he took her to Russia for the
+last time: she never saw her family again.</p>
+
+<p>At last they were able to start. The long journey
+was very fatiguing, the sea voyage was rough, but,
+when she landed in Madeira, the patient thought herself
+saved. The very next morning Metchnikoff started
+feverishly on a voyage of discovery. Nature on the
+island was extremely beautiful; alone the sight of
+numerous sick people reminded him of suffering and
+death. The words &ldquo;a flower-decked grave&rdquo; haunted
+his mind, and a growing despondency warned him that
+he had nothing to expect from this luxuriant spot.
+From the aspect of the rocky coast, beaten by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+waves, he realised that the beach fauna must be very
+poor; his only refuge, research work, was likely to be
+denied him.</p>
+
+<p>He was advised to hire a small house, which would
+be cheaper than a boarding-house, and he did find
+a pretty furnished villa with a garden; it was beyond
+his means, but a young Russian named Mertens, who
+had been a fellow-traveller, proposed to share it with
+them. The arrangement proved highly satisfactory,
+and Mertens, at first merely an agreeable neighbour,
+became a close friend.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving for Madeira, Metchnikoff had
+obtained a scientific mission and a subsidy from the
+Society of Natural Science Lovers of Moscow, and
+felt it a moral obligation to obtain some results. The
+scantiness of the marine fauna was a bitter disappointment;
+he had to fall back upon what little he found,
+and embarked on the study, hitherto unknown, of
+the embryology of Myriapoda. But this research
+work brought him a new source of torment instead of
+satisfaction: he could not master the technique, which
+proved to be very difficult, and this irritated him;
+his failures disappointed him, made him vexed with
+himself; his nerves, already strung to the highest
+point by suffering and anxiety, made the disappointment
+unbearable. On the other hand, the external
+aspect of life formed a striking contrast with the state
+of his mind. A wealth of natural beauty, all flowers
+and perfumes, in an incomparable site, congenial surroundings
+and home comforts formed the frame for
+these two young lives, of which one was waning whilst
+the other was spent in a useless struggle to save it.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s natural pessimism was growing under
+the influence of these painful circumstances. His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+conception of life was a sombre one; he said to himself
+that the &ldquo;disharmonies&rdquo; of human nature must infallibly
+end in a general decadence of humanity. He
+set forth his reflections in an article entitled <i>The Time
+for Marriage</i>, in which he discussed the following
+concrete fact: With the progress of civilisation and
+culture, the time for marriage recedes gradually,
+whereas puberty remains as early as before; the
+result is that the time between puberty and marriage
+is becoming longer and longer, and constitutes a
+growing period in which there is no harmony. The
+statistics of suicides prove that there is a close connection
+between them and the period of disharmonies.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst he worked, his wife tried to make use of
+her leisure: she interested herself in poor children,
+sketched flowers, read novels ... life flowed peacefully
+in spite of the underlying drama.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the thought that he was not fulfilling his
+obligations was intolerable to Metchnikoff. He
+thought of resigning and founding a small book-shop
+at Madeira in order to be independent and not obliged
+to leave his wife, but lack of funds made this plan
+impossible. In his search for new resources, he went
+to Teneriffe to look for a subject for an article. He
+met with several disappointments on this trip; yet
+he saw the Villa Orotava, with its celebrated giant
+dragon-tree, which had already then been brought
+down by a storm. He also visited the Caves of the
+Guancios, the primitive inhabitants of the Canary
+Islands. Having gathered the necessary observations,
+he hastened to return to Madeira, where months passed
+without bringing any change.</p>
+
+<p>The book-shop idea was abandoned as being impracticable
+and Metchnikoff had to return to Odessa,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+asking his sister-in-law to come to Madeira in his
+place. When she had arrived, he confided the two
+girls to Mertens and to the care of the devoted Dr.
+Goldschmidt, and went away conscious of the uselessness
+of his efforts and more deeply pessimistic than ever.</p>
+
+<p>When he reached Odessa, in October 1872, he
+found there his friend Setchénoff, whom he had previously
+proposed for a Physiology Lecturer&rsquo;s chair,
+and whose affection was a great comfort to him at
+this sad time. The correspondence between him
+and his wife during that period is full of an infinite
+tenderness, as if they felt the supreme separation
+coming near, and yearned to express their mutual love.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of January 1873, between two classes,
+Metchnikoff received a letter from his sister-in-law
+telling him to come in haste if he wished to find his
+wife still living. He delivered his lecture like an automaton,
+then went to obtain his leave and hurried off.
+He accomplished the whole journey without a break.
+On arriving at Madeira he found his wife so changed
+that he scarcely knew her, and it was only through
+sheer force of will that he kept his alarm from her.
+She suffered so much that she had to be given morphia
+constantly and could no longer leave her bed.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff himself was in very poor health;
+his eyes were so sensitive from overwork that he had
+to remain in the dark, only going into the garden at
+dusk to observe spiders and snails. Time was progressing
+slowly and miserably, and bringing nothing
+but anxiety as to the means to support this sad
+existence. Metchnikoff had hoped to receive the
+Baer prize for a zoological work, but did not obtain
+it: it was refused on the pretext that his memoir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+had been presented in manuscript instead of being
+printed. In reality, the German party had wished
+to give it to a fellow-German.</p>
+
+<p>A friend of his, who sent him the bad news, offered
+to lend him 300 roubles, and Metchnikoff accepted;
+he could now think of nothing but holding out till
+the end.</p>
+
+<p>One morning the patient&rsquo;s condition suddenly
+became much worse. The doctor was sent for in a
+hurry and declared that it was now a question of a
+few hours.... When Metchnikoff went back to his
+wife he found her with eyes wide open and so full of
+mortal anguish and utter despair that he could bear
+it no longer and went out hastily, not to show her
+his dismay.</p>
+
+<p>This was his last impression; he never saw her again.</p>
+
+<p>Only half conscious, he walked up and down the
+drawing-room, opening and closing books without
+seeing them, his mind full of disconnected pictures;
+he wondered to himself how his family would hear
+the news. Time passed without his realising it.
+Then his sister-in-law came to tell him that all was
+over. This was on the 20th April 1873.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s feelings were complex: a mixture
+of crushing despair and of relief at the thought that
+the terrible agony was at last ended.... During
+the whole of the sad first night he sat with his sister-in-law
+in a distant room, talking of those things
+which are only mentioned in moments such as these.
+When Dr. Goldschmidt came in the morning to offer
+Metchnikoff his sympathy and help he found him
+apparently almost calm. Metchnikoff asked him to
+make a post-mortem examination of the deceased
+and to look after her sister. A Scottish minister<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+came to bring religious comfort and to exhort him
+to look there for consolation. Metchnikoff thanked
+him, but firmly assured him that it was not possible
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>The funeral took place two days later; he did not
+attend it and did not see the corpse. Immediately
+after the funeral he left Madeira with his sister-in-law.
+Being no longer anxious to economise, he took with
+him a sick young Russian who wished to see his mother
+again and could not afford the journey.</p>
+
+<p>After the catastrophe, Metchnikoff felt incapable
+of thinking of the future, his life seemed cut off at one
+blow; he destroyed his papers and reserved a phial
+of morphia, without any settled intention. They
+journeyed back through Spain; it was during the
+Carlist insurrection, and several episodes on the way
+distracted their attention. Elie and his sister-in-law
+reached Geneva, where they found Leo Metchnikoff
+and several relations, among whom he seems
+to have recovered himself. He even related some of
+their travelling experiences, meetings with Carlists,
+frontier incidents, etc., with some spirit. But his
+apparent calm concealed black despair.</p>
+
+<p>He said to himself: &ldquo;Why live? My private
+life is ended; my eyes are going; when I am blind
+I can no longer work, then why live?&rdquo; Seeing no
+issue to his situation, he absorbed the morphia. He
+did not know that too strong a dose, by provoking
+vomiting, eliminates the poison. Such was the case
+with him. He fell into a sort of torpor, of extraordinary
+comfort and absolute rest; in spite of this
+comatose state he remained conscious and felt no
+fear of death. When he became himself again, it
+was with a feeling of dismay. He said to himself that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+only a grave illness could save him, either by ending
+in death or by awaking the vital instinct in him.
+In order to attain his object, he took a very hot bath
+and then exposed himself to cold. As he was coming
+back by the Rhone bridge, he suddenly saw a cloud
+of winged insects flying around the flame of a lantern.
+They were Phryganidæ, but in the distance he took
+them for Ephemeridæ, and the sight of them suggested
+the following reflection: &ldquo;How can the theory
+of natural selection be applied to these insects? They
+do not feed and only live a few hours; they are therefore
+not subject to the struggle for existence, they do
+not have time to adapt themselves to surrounding
+conditions.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>His thoughts turned towards Science; he was
+saved; the link with life was re-established.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Anthropological expedition to the Kalmuk steppes &mdash; Affection of the
+eyes &mdash; Second expedition to the steppes &mdash; The eggs of the <i>Geophilus</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">After</span> the misfortune which had befallen him
+Metchnikoff placed his only hope in work, and the
+condition of his eyes was therefore for him a source
+of great preoccupation. He applied to the Petersburg
+Geographical Society for an anthropological
+mission in order to undertake researches less trying
+to his eyesight than microscopical work.</p>
+
+<p>As he went deeper into anthropology, he was struck
+by the fact that this science lacked a leading thread
+and was guided by no general idea but reduced to
+mere measurements, very precise and detailed, it is
+true. Metchnikoff wondered whether it would not
+be advisable to apply to anthropology the methods
+used in embryology and to establish an analogy
+between the diverse human races and the different
+ages of the individual. In order to solve this problem
+he had thought at first of visiting the Samoyedes
+as being the most primitive of the aboriginal peoples
+of Russia. But the project was not realisable and he
+determined to visit, at his own expense, the Kalmuks
+of the Astrakhan steppes, also a primitive Mongol race.</p>
+
+<p>Before his departure he went to see his family
+and that of his late wife. Long afterwards his sister-in-law,
+Mlle. Fédorovitch, wrote me the following
+account of that interview:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>He was still suffering from an inflammation of the eyes.
+This man, whom I cannot picture to myself without a microscope
+or a book, was, at that sad period of his life, reduced
+to complete inactivity. We had always been struck with
+his power of becoming absorbed in scientific reading, even
+during meals; it inconvenienced no one, for he heard at
+the same time the conversation that was going on and even
+took part in it from time to time. Now, the day after his
+arrival, I came to call him to tea and found him seated in his
+darkened room with scissors in his hands and the floor around
+him littered with small pieces of paper ... such was the
+occupation to which he was reduced.</p>
+
+<p>He told me that, if I liked, he would come to live in Moscow
+and devote his life and his work to our family. I refused
+and told him why; my refusal grieved him, but I was right.
+Besides a feeling of generosity, his offer was actuated by a
+desire for an immediate object in life. Soon after that, he
+started for the Kalmuk steppes in order to undertake anthropological
+researches. I was often haunted by the thought of
+his sad figure in the midst of the steppes.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The journey was difficult and fatiguing. Metchnikoff
+did not know the Kalmuk language and had to
+depend on interpreters. From the very first he was
+painfully impressed by the brutality of the Russian
+officials towards the natives. At every halt the
+Kalmuks declared that they had no horses; the
+Cossack who convoyed Metchnikoff would then begin
+to swear and to play with his &ldquo;nagaika&rdquo; or leather-thonged
+whip, and the required horses appeared as
+by magic. After a while Metchnikoff became used
+to such scenes and looked upon them as a custom of
+the country. He found it more difficult to put up
+with the indescribable dirt, the smell of mutton fat
+which impregnated the food, and the continual barking
+of dogs during the night, details which destroyed the
+charm and poetry of primitive life. In spite of these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+unfavourable conditions, Metchnikoff worked indefatigably.
+The physical measurements of the Kalmuks
+led him to conclude that the development of the
+Mongol race was arrested in comparison with that of
+the Caucasian race; he found that all the relative
+proportions of the diverse parts of the Kalmuk skeleton
+corresponded with that of youth in the Caucasian
+race: a large head, a long torso, short legs, absolutely
+the relative dimensions of our children. This conclusion
+was further confirmed by the structure of the
+eyelid in the Kalmuks, of which the fold (epicanthus)
+in the adult corresponds with that of the fold of the
+eyelid in our children.</p>
+
+<p>These interesting results somewhat raised Metchnikoff&rsquo;s
+<i>moral</i>, the more so that his eyesight began
+to improve; he returned to Odessa but found that
+he was still unable to use a microscope. He therefore
+decided to go back to the steppes in order to proceed
+with his researches, and, this time, began his journey
+by the Stavropol province. The steppes there are
+very fine, with tall, luxuriant grasses and a profusion
+of flowers filling the pure atmosphere with perfume;
+the infinite space and absolute calm offer a peculiar
+and powerful charm. But the population is depressed
+and apathetic, as is the case with that of the Astrakhan
+steppes. The reason must be that the Kalmuks consume
+milk which has undergone alcoholic fermentation,
+and that provokes a slight but chronic intoxication.
+Yet a few among them are extremely
+intelligent and of fairly high culture. Thus, in the
+course of his ethnographical researches Metchnikoff
+came across a priest (bakshâ) who imparted to him
+such instructive facts on the principles of the Buddhist
+religion and on the organisation of its clergy that he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+even planned to go with him to Thibet, where no
+stranger can penetrate without the help of an adept.
+This plan, however, was never executed.</p>
+
+<p>After he had collected numerous anthropological
+data, Metchnikoff went again to the Astrakhan steppes
+in order to verify and to complete his observations
+of the preceding year. Whilst traversing some oases
+where the Russians were making experiments in
+artificial forestry, he had the pleasant surprise of
+finding some Myriapoda (<i>Geophilus</i>) bearing a number
+of eggs. The history of the development of those
+creatures was still unknown&mdash;a notable lacuna in
+embryology. Delighted at the idea of filling it,
+Metchnikoff did not hesitate to undertake a long and
+difficult extra journey and repaired to Astrakhan,
+taking with him his precious material, in order to
+fetch the necessary apparatus for his researches.
+But during the long journey several eggs perished and
+he had to return to the oasis with a borrowed microscope
+to study other eggs on the spot. In spite of
+very difficult conditions and of the persistent weakness
+of his eyesight, he succeeded in filling the lacuna
+in the embryology of the <i>Geophilus</i>.</p>
+
+<p>He had at the same time collected very interesting
+anthropological data. His hypothesis as to the necessity
+of applying to anthropology the comparative
+methods of embryology was fully justified, for, thanks
+to that process, he was able to establish a definite
+correlation between the Mongol race and the adolescence
+of the Caucasian race. He presented a report
+on the subject to the Anthropological Society of
+Moscow, but, his attention being afterwards turned in
+other directions, he never came back to this subject.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a></h2>
+
+<p class="quotation">
+&ldquo;As to thee, Hector, thou art to
+me as a father and a revered mother
+and a brother, and thou art my
+husband.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>The Iliad.</i>
+</p>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Studies on childhood &mdash; The family in the upper flat &mdash; Lessons in zoology &mdash; Second
+marriage &mdash; Private life &mdash; Visit and death of Lvovna
+Nevahovna &mdash; Conjugal affection.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Metchnikoff&rsquo;s</span> anthropological researches led him
+to the study of childhood, which in its turn suggested
+reflections on questions of Pedagogy. His eyesight
+was still weak and his hunger for activity very great;
+in order to satisfy it, he gave lessons in a Lycée and
+public lectures in the Odessa University. Though
+time was passing, Metchnikoff could not get used to
+his solitude; he spent his active kindness on his
+friends and all around him, whilst living like an
+ascetic and giving away all that he could spare. But
+nothing could quench his thirst for a family life and
+affectionate intimacy.</p>
+
+<p>My family at that time lived in the same house
+as he did, on the floor above him; we were eight
+children, our ages ranging from one to sixteen years.
+We were noisy neighbours and we incommoded Metchnikoff,
+who was awakened every morning by the
+noise in our kitchen, where meat was being minced
+for the children. One fine day he could stand it no
+longer and went upstairs to ask if this nuisance could
+not be stopped; my father promised that he would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+see that it ceased. We were all seated round the tea-table
+when he came in, and, seeing a stranger, my
+sister and I hurriedly collected our lesson books, and
+hastened to leave the room. We did not even have
+time to distinguish Metchnikoff&rsquo;s features, but were
+struck by his paleness. Shortly after that incident
+we met him at the house of a mutual friend. He had
+already seen us from his window as we went off to
+the Lycée, and it used to amuse him to see us bravely
+stepping over a large pool of water which was permanent
+in the street.</p>
+
+<p>One of his pupils was a professor in our Lycée,
+and Elie had the opportunity of informing himself
+concerning our studies. Having heard that I was
+interested in natural science, it occurred to him to
+offer to give me lessons in zoology. I was delighted.
+He asked and obtained permission from my parents,
+and we eagerly set to work. Elie, being strongly
+attracted by me, returned to his former idea of
+training a girl according to his own ideas and afterwards
+making her his wife. He might have realised
+his programme of completing my education first and
+marrying me afterwards if he had not been prevented
+by the complete lack of accord between his ideas and
+those of my father. It was the eternal conflict of
+two generations, &ldquo;fathers and children.&rdquo; My father
+was an excellent man, of great nobility of character,
+but he was a type of the old Russian patrician school
+and belonged to a different epoch, with different
+opinions and customs. This caused inevitable and
+frequent disagreements, and Elie decided to ask for
+my hand without further delay.</p>
+
+<p>My mother was much younger than my father,
+and her sympathies were all with the young generation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+She was an idealist, gentle, intelligent and
+artistic, and, in her youth, had painted and played the
+violoncello, but a very early marriage and numerous
+children had forced her to give up the practice of art,
+to her lifelong regret. Great sympathy arose between
+her and Elie; she supported him in everything and
+became for him a tenderly attached friend. He
+explained to her his theories on marriage, and then
+confided to her his feelings towards me. My extreme
+youth troubled her very much, but Elie endeavoured
+to reassure her, saying that he fully understood the
+rashness of his projects, but that he was ready to
+suffer all the consequences; in fact, he declared, if
+he did not succeed in making me happy, he would
+have the strength to help me to create another existence
+for myself. I had not suspected my Professor&rsquo;s
+feelings towards me, and was deeply moved when I
+was told of them; it seemed to me impossible to
+understand that this superior, this learned man could
+wish to marry a little girl like myself! I thought
+with terror that he must be mistaken about me; I
+felt as if I were going up for an examination without
+any previous study. However, I had a great affection
+and admiration for Elie; I was attracted by his
+whole personality, which produced a strong impression
+upon others as well as upon myself. This is how
+Setchénoff describes him, in his own autobiography:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Elie Metchnikoff was the soul of our circle. Of all the
+young men I have known in my life, young Metchnikoff was
+the most attractive with his lively intelligence, inexhaustible
+wit and abundant knowledge of all things. He was, in Science,
+as serious and as productive (he had already done much in
+zoology and acquired a great name in that branch) as he was
+full of life and varied interest in a circle of friends.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Moreover, my young imagination was impressed
+by his sad history and by his interesting appearance,
+at that time not unlike a figure of Christ; his pale
+face was illumined by the light in his kindly eyes, which
+at times looked absolutely inspired. My whole heart
+went out to him, but I was not yet ripe for matrimony
+and was somewhat thrown off my balance by the
+unexpectedness of the event. Fearing that I was not
+up to his level, I used to try beforehand to find
+worthy subjects of conversation in order that he should
+not feel bored in my society, but everything I thought
+of seemed to me so clumsy and stupid that I rejected
+one subject after another until he came and found me
+at a loss. He could not understand how deeply I
+was troubled, and cannot have been satisfied with my
+attitude, which really was that of a zealous pupil.</p>
+
+<p>Our marriage took place in February 1875; it
+was a very cold winter and the ground was covered
+with a thick coating of glistening snow. A few hours
+before the ceremony my brothers came with a little
+hand sledge to fetch me for a last ride. &ldquo;Come quick,&rdquo;
+they said, &ldquo;this evening you will be a grown-up lady,
+and you can&rsquo;t play with us any more!&rdquo; I agreed,
+and we rushed out to the snowy carpet which covered
+the great yard of our house. In the midst of our
+mad race my mother appeared at the window; she
+had been looking for me everywhere and was much
+disturbed. &ldquo;My dear child! what are you thinking
+of? It is late, you have hardly time to dress and
+to do your hair!&rdquo; &ldquo;One more turn, mother! It is
+the last time, think of it!&rdquo; Other childish emotions
+awaited me; my wedding-dress was the first long
+dress I had ever worn, and I feared to stumble as I
+walked. Then, too, I was frightened at the idea of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+entering the church under the eyes of all the guests.
+My little brother tried to reassure me by offering to
+hold my hand, and my mother made me drink some
+chocolate to give me courage.</p>
+
+<p>Elie was awaiting us at the entrance; my shyness
+increased when I heard people whispering around us,
+&ldquo;Why, she is a mere child!&rdquo; The ceremony took
+place in the evening, after which Elie wrapped me
+carefully in a long warm cloak and we set off, the
+sledge gliding like the wind, towards our new home.
+In spite of the day&rsquo;s emotions, I rose very early the
+next morning in order to work at my zoology exercises
+and to give my husband a pleasant surprise. He was
+now free to superintend my education, a very difficult
+and delicate task when having to do with a mind as
+unprepared for life as mine was.</p>
+
+<p>The scientific methods which Metchnikoff applied
+to everything might have constituted a grave error
+at this delicate psychological moment; yet, in many
+ways, he showed himself a strangely clear-sighted
+educator. He made it a principle to give me entire
+liberty whilst directing me through the logic of his
+arguments. It is with deep gratitude that I realise
+how he, so superior to me, took care not to stifle my
+fragile individuality but to respect it and to encourage
+it to develop. Like all Russian young people of the
+time, I was very enthusiastic concerning political and
+social questions that I was not mature enough to
+understand, and my father forbade us to frequent
+political circles with which he had no sympathy, fearing
+that we might be influenced by them. Elie, on
+the contrary, left me full liberty, though he himself
+disapproved of my tendencies. He considered that
+political and social questions belonged to the realm of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+practical experience, in which young people were
+lacking, as also in practical preparation. He never
+prevented me from making myself acquainted with
+the social movement, but submitted it to close analysis
+and criticism; it is owing to this very efficacious
+method that I did not become one of the numerous
+political victims of that time.</p>
+
+<p>Elie took a lively and warm interest in everything
+which concerned me. Not having had time to pass
+my final examinations from the Lycée before my marriage,
+I was now obliged to go up before a special
+board for the whole curriculum. He helped me to
+prepare this, even the catechism, with the utmost
+keenness and gaiety, enlivening the driest subjects
+by means of interesting and instructive reading. I
+was glad to continue my biological studies under his
+direction after I had passed my examinations. Not
+only did he give a general interest, a leading thread,
+to every particular subject, but he also knew how to
+develop independent work. For instance, he made
+me compare representative examples of divers groups
+by practical study in order to let me deduce for
+myself their characteristics and their generic connections.</p>
+
+<p>And it was not my education only which interested
+him; he associated me with every detail of his life
+and initiated me into his thoughts and his work;
+we read together a great deal, he had an excellent
+delivery and liked reading aloud.</p>
+
+<p>He thoroughly enjoyed giving me pleasure; we
+often went to concerts and theatres, and beautiful
+music or dramatic scenes moved him even to tears.
+Musical themes haunted him, and he would whistle
+them softly to himself even at his work. Without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+caring for luxury, he was glad to contribute to the
+simple embellishment of our home because he knew
+I appreciated it. When we travelled, always with
+scientific research as an object, he never failed to
+point out every interesting feature that we happened
+to pass. He had a peculiar talent for making a
+journey instructive as well as attractive; his eagerness,
+infectious gaiety, inquisitive mind, and remarkable
+organising faculty made of him an incomparable
+guide and companion.</p>
+
+<p>We worked together for many years; it was both
+delightful and profitable to work with him, for he
+opened out his ideas unreservedly and made one
+share his enthusiasm and his interest in investigations;
+he could create an atmosphere of intimate union in
+the search for truth which allowed the humblest
+worker to feel himself a collaborator in an exalted
+task.</p>
+
+<p>Though I always took a strong interest in scientific
+questions, Art was the real passion of my life. But,
+imbued as I was with the narrow, utilitarian views
+which surrounded my youth, I had looked upon Art
+as a luxury which should not be indulged in at a time
+when the poorer classes could not read and write.
+When at last I became emancipated from this fallacy,
+my husband did his best to encourage my artistic
+development though he himself did not appreciate
+plastic art. Form and colour in themselves or in
+harmony did not appeal to him; he took much more
+interest in a subject than in the way it was treated;
+he liked psychological or realistic work, landscapes,
+&ldquo;genre&rdquo; pictures, but classical, Renaissance, or Impressionist
+works bored him. In spite of the divergence
+of our tastes in that connection, he never ceased<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+to encourage me or to take an active interest in my
+work; often and often he accompanied me to picture
+galleries, making sincere and somewhat pathetic efforts
+to appreciate the beauty of great masterpieces.</p>
+
+<p>Next to music he enjoyed Nature most, perhaps
+because it offered him an inexhaustible source of
+scientific observation. His wearied nerves caused him
+to seek for soothing impressions, and calm, quiet
+ponds were what he preferred, with their reeds and
+aquatic plants, among which he loved to discover tiny
+beings, hidden under the leaves and below the surface
+of the water.</p>
+
+<p>Teaching and public work took up nearly the whole
+of his time; his leisure was devoted to home life
+and to an intimate circle of friends with whom he
+was bound by a common scientific fervour and by a
+University life. He kept up those friendships even
+after life had scattered them. His active kindness
+made him a centre of attraction to his relations and
+we were always very much surrounded. After his
+father died, in 1878, his mother and two of her grandchildren
+came to live with us. She was at that time
+sixty-four years of age and had the appearance of an
+old lady; she did not follow the fashion but wore her
+white hair simply parted and framing her face; alone
+her fine dark eyes had preserved their youthful
+sparkle and bore witness to her former beauty. She
+had a bright and cheerful disposition and a charming
+kindliness to every one; her desire for activity was
+unfortunately thwarted by the state of her health.</p>
+
+<p>Elie showed his mother a tender solicitude which
+manifested itself in the smallest details; for instance,
+he who detested cards would play Patience with her;
+or he would drive her round the markets, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+interested her like the good housekeeper she was.
+When he came in from the laboratory he never failed
+to go to her to ask her for details of her health; he
+talked to her playfully and affectionately, making
+her laugh, telling her the incidents of the day. She
+continued to be interested in everything, especially
+that which concerned her dear Elie, the &ldquo;consolation
+of her life,&rdquo; as she called him.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of his affection for his mother, he bore
+her almost sudden death very stoically, knowing as
+he did that the grave heart disease from which she
+suffered was bound to cause her increasing pain.</p>
+
+<p>My family became his, and the relations between
+him and my father became such that the latter,
+feeling ill and nearing his end, made him our guardian.
+Until the last my mother preserved for my husband
+a tender friendship which he fully returned. For
+years he bore the burden and responsibilities of the
+family. With my young brothers and sisters he kept
+up a tone of merry affection; always indulgent with
+them, he was anxious to neglect nothing that could
+be useful. Though ever led by the desire to procure
+happiness around him, it sometimes happened that
+he made a mistake in his appreciation and failed to
+reach his goal. The human soul is a riddle, life is
+complicated, and we ought not always to judge by
+results but by motives.... As far as I am personally
+concerned, his affection, kindness, and solicitude have
+always been unbounded. If during early years a few
+misunderstandings arose between us, they were due
+to my youthful obstinacy or to his nervous sensitiveness.
+We had our trials, but our friendship and deep
+affection emerged from them stronger and purer than
+ever. At a certain time, Elie, believing that happiness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+called me elsewhere, offered me my liberty, urging
+that I had a moral right to it. The nobility of his
+attitude was the best safeguard.... As years went
+on, our lives became more and more united; we lived
+in deep communion of souls, for we had reached that
+stage of mutual comprehension when darkness flees
+and all is light.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Metchnikoff at the age of thirty &mdash; Lecturing in Odessa University, from
+1873 to 1882 &mdash; Internal difficulties &mdash; Assassination of the Tsar,
+Alexander II. &mdash; Further troubles in the University &mdash; Resignation &mdash; Bad
+health: cardiac symptoms &mdash; Relapsing fever &mdash; Choroiditis &mdash; Studies
+on Ephemeridæ &mdash; Further studies on intracellular
+digestion &mdash; The <i>Parenchymella</i> &mdash; Holidays in the country &mdash; Experiments
+on agricultural pests.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Elie Metchnikoff</span> was now thirty years old, and his
+personality was fully characterised though it had not
+yet reached the culminating point of its development.</p>
+
+<p>His dominating point was his passionate vocation;
+his worship of Science and of Reason made of him
+an inspired apostle. He had the faults and qualities
+of a rich and powerful nature. Vibrating through all
+the fibres of his being, he shed life and light around
+him. His temper was violent and passionate; he
+could bear no attack on the ideas which were dear
+to him, and became combative as soon as he thought
+them threatened. His was a wrestler&rsquo;s temperament;
+obstacles exasperated his energy and he went straight
+for them, pursuing his object with an invincible
+tenacity; he never gave up a problem, however
+difficult, and never hesitated to face any sacrifice or
+any privation if he thought them necessary.</p>
+
+<p>A strange contradiction with this iron will was
+offered by occasional disconcerting impulses, like that
+which caused the failure of his first journey abroad,
+or by sudden attacks of fury for insignificant reasons<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+such as an unexpected noise in the street, a cat mewing
+or a dog barking, or angry impatience when he could
+not solve a frivolous puzzle, etc. This impulsive
+disposition gradually calmed down as he grew older,
+and ultimately very nearly disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>In his personal relations also he was apt to lose
+his temper, but a reaction very soon followed the
+outburst, and his efforts to be forgiven when he felt
+guilty were very touching. On the other hand, he
+did not easily forget an offence, though no desire for
+revenge ever soiled his soul, and his gratitude for
+kindness was absolutely indestructible.</p>
+
+<p>He harboured pessimistic theories to that extent
+that he looked upon the procreation of other lives as
+a crime on the part of a conscious being; his physical
+and moral sensitiveness was intense. And yet he
+had inherited from his mother a natural gaiety and
+delightful elasticity which always ended by gaining
+the upper hand. He was fond of joking; his wit was
+occasionally somewhat cutting, but that was entirely
+due to the appropriateness of his remarks; he never
+hurt people&rsquo;s feelings intentionally. He sometimes
+gave offence by a professional habit of using personal
+and concrete instances by way of arguments, but he
+applied the process to himself as well; it was the
+objective method, nothing more, and those who knew
+him well never doubted it.</p>
+
+<p>His benevolence was most active and never insipid,
+though marked by an almost feminine sensibility.
+He was an incomparable companion and friend, and
+had the gift of smoothing difficulties and inspiring
+courage, security, and confidence. He took the
+greatest interest in others and easily came down to
+their level, always finding points in common, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>&ldquo;an
+opportunity for the study of human documents,&rdquo; he
+said. Thus he conversed simply and sympathetically
+with the humble as with the great, with the young as
+with the old. It was no mere intellectual interest that
+he bore them, but he put his whole heart into it, which
+made him extremely easy to approach. And yet he
+never departed from absolute freedom of speech, sometimes
+mixed with harshness. Truth and sincerity, for
+him, came above everything; he carried the courage
+of his opinions to the highest degree, even if it was
+likely to shock his hearers or to do him harm. He
+jealously guarded his independence and nothing could
+force him to act against his convictions. Full of
+enthusiasm, always interesting, he enlivened all
+around him. His ideas and his activity were in
+constant effervescence; no serious question left him
+indifferent; he read everything, knew about almost
+everything, and willingly informed others; his vibrating
+expansiveness made him a centre of attraction in
+his private life as in the laboratory or in any other
+sphere of activity.</p>
+
+<p>From 1873 to 1882 his energies were chiefly
+absorbed by teaching and by the inner life of the
+University of Odessa, into which he threw himself
+with his usual enthusiasm. His lectures were full of
+life, always bringing out general ideas to throw light
+upon the most arid facts; he made use of these as
+an architect utilises coarse materials in order to erect
+a harmonious edifice. His creative power endowed
+his lectures with an æsthetic character in spite of
+their extreme simplicity; not that he concerned
+himself much about form, but because of his wealth
+of ideas and the logical way in which he developed
+them, starting from the simple and reaching the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+complex in a harmonious synthesis. His own enthusiasm
+established a living bond between him and his
+audience.</p>
+
+<p>He was on excellent terms with the students,
+though he made no bid for popularity. Not only did
+he give no encouragement to the prevailing tendency
+of the young men towards politics, but he endeavoured
+on the contrary to bring them back to their studies;
+he tried to prove to them that social problems demand
+knowledge and a serious practical preparation. Otherwise,
+said he, social life would be as medicine was
+before it entered into the path of science, and when
+any middle-aged woman, any bone-setter, was allowed
+to practise therapeutics. At the same time, students
+found in him willing protection in the persecutions
+directed against them, and earnest help in their work
+when they showed the least interest in it; he would
+eagerly welcome the smallest spark of the &ldquo;sacred fire.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the absolute independence of his ideas
+and conduct he had great influence on young men,
+and this caused him to be looked upon in administrative
+spheres as a &ldquo;Red&rdquo;&mdash;almost an agitator. In
+reality he was struggling against the inertia and
+reactionary forces which were shackling the normal
+development of culture and science in Russia. He
+called himself a &ldquo;progressive evolutionist,&rdquo; for he
+considered that alone a deep and conscious evolution
+could give stable results and lead to real progress.
+He thought that Revolution, and especially Terrorism,
+merely provoked a reaction which might be long-lived,
+and that, as long as the people were not sufficiently
+educated, a revolution might easily result in
+the transfer of despotism from one party to another.
+Socialistic doctrines did not satisfy him; according<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+to him, they did not leave sufficient scope to personal
+initiative and to the development of individuality,
+two factors which he considered as essential to every
+progress.</p>
+
+<p>He looked upon scientific work as his mission, and
+avoided politics because he did not think himself
+competent to deal with them. But scientific activity
+being closely limited by the state of the University,
+which was badly oppressed at that time by reactionary
+powers, he was led to take part in the
+defence of the University&rsquo;s right to autonomy. He
+brought all his energies into the struggle, though
+trying to keep from party tactics and to act purely
+in the interests of science. For instance, he would
+vote either for a Radical or a Conservative without
+sharing the opinions of either, but merely guided by
+their scientific value.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of his scientific career at Odessa
+he led a very active campaign in favour of the teaching
+of Natural Science. He urged that, in order to teach
+properly, Natural History professors should themselves
+have made independent researches on living
+fauna and flora, and tried to introduce a series of
+measures to allow biologists special holidays and
+missions to desirable places, at the proper seasons, for
+research purposes. &ldquo;There is no doubt,&rdquo; he said,
+&ldquo;that scientific activity would be much increased if
+the proposed measures were adopted. Then, before
+long, our young scientists would not need to go to
+study in German universities, but could go abroad
+already prepared to undertake independent research.&rdquo;
+The Commission which examined his report demanded
+certain modifications, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>&ldquo;because of the Imperial injunction
+to be very strict in granting travelling
+permits to professors.&rdquo; Metchnikoff somewhat altered
+the text, which, after being adopted by the University
+Council, was rejected by the Ministry and remained
+without effect. Thus was every independent suggestion
+stifled, even when it had but a purely scientific
+object.</p>
+
+<p>Soon the situation of the Odessa University became
+even more difficult. Between 1875 and 1880 reaction
+increased considerably, and the inner life of the
+University became very unfavourable to any scientific
+activity. Already before that it was teeming with
+intrigues, the Professors of Ukrainian origin being
+hostile to the &ldquo;Muscovites.&rdquo; Yet it was still possible
+to remain apart from these local intrigues, until
+political reaction, filtering into the University, created
+in it the deepest divisions. The hostility of parties
+was now based on political opinions, either &ldquo;Reactionary&rdquo;
+or &ldquo;Liberal.&rdquo; The students were being
+more and more carried away by this movement and
+no longer took any interest in their studies.</p>
+
+<p>All these conditions made normal teaching and
+scientific work impossible, and Metchnikoff, seeing that
+politics from above and from below now swallowed
+up everything, tried to take refuge in his laboratory
+but in vain; even there he could no longer find the
+necessary calm, and only during the holidays could
+he really work.</p>
+
+<p>Thus passed the years until March 1, 1881, when
+the crime which ended the days of Alexander II.
+was followed by a great reactionary movement. The
+authorities, seeing conspiracies and plots everywhere,
+persecuted without cause all the elements which were
+ticketed as &ldquo;dangerous.&rdquo; Though the University
+still preserved its autonomy, this was entirely fictitious,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+for the Ministry thwarted every desire for independence;
+the nomination of professors elected by the
+University Council was only ratified by the Ministry
+if they were reactionaries, without any regard for
+their scientific value. Soon the Chairs were occupied
+by ignorant men of doubtful morality.</p>
+
+<p>The life and honour of the University became
+endangered, and Metchnikoff found himself obliged
+to take part in the struggle; he did so with vehemence
+and energy; the independence of the University
+was involved, and, as long as he could hope to save it,
+he struggled. At the meetings of the Council and
+of the Faculty he never failed to give vent to his
+critical opinions with a vehement frankness which
+earned him in the University the reputation of an
+&ldquo;<i>enfant terrible</i>.&rdquo; In the meanwhile every resolution
+passed by the Council, if not reactionary in character,
+was systematically quashed by the Ministry, which
+thus paralysed every means of action, and Metchnikoff
+found himself faced with the alternative of submitting
+or handing in his resignation. He decided for
+the latter: his convictions were involved, and moreover
+his health could not withstand the continual
+agitation and strain on his nerves.</p>
+
+<p>As we could not afford to live in independence, he
+applied for a vacant post of entomologist in the
+<i>zemstvo</i><a name="FNanchor_13" id="FNanchor_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> of Poltava, and at the same time wrote out
+his resignation, holding it in readiness for an opportunity
+which was not long in coming.</p>
+
+<p>The Conservative party in the Faculty arose against
+a Liberal professor who had accepted a very clever
+thesis in which the Reactionaries perceived Socialist
+tendencies. The Dean of the Faculty proposed that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
+all such theses should be refused, and the Faculty
+approved. This was the signal for a storm in the
+University, the Dean was hooted by the students, and
+many of them were threatened with being expelled.
+The Curator desired the more influential professors,
+of whom Metchnikoff was one, to intervene with the
+students in order to bring disorder to an end, and the
+professors consented, on condition that the offending
+Dean should resign. The Curator promised that
+he should be asked to do so, and order was immediately
+restored; but the Dean remained and many
+students were severely and unjustly punished. Metchnikoff
+thereupon produced his resignation, which was
+promptly accepted, and thus his University career
+came to an end.</p>
+
+<p>Besides his University lectures, he gave public
+lectures on Natural History which were attended by
+a number of female students, for women at that time
+were only admitted to the Faculty of Medicine, and
+these lectures were extremely useful to them. Metchnikoff,
+though he did not believe that women could
+accomplish creative work in science, was strongly
+in favour of higher education for women, considering
+it as necessary to their general intellectual development.
+Genius, he thought, was peculiar to the male
+sex, no woman having created anything &ldquo;of genius&rdquo;
+even in domains which had always been accessible to
+them, such as music, literature, and the applied arts.
+The very rare exceptions, to his mind, only proved
+the rule; yet he did not draw the conclusion that
+woman was in any sense inferior to man. He merely
+held that her gifts are different from those of men.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s health had been seriously shaken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+by the emotions and annoyances of university life.
+Already in 1877, after political intrigues at the
+University, he had felt the first symptoms of cardiac
+trouble, which were the beginning of a long period of
+ill-health. He consulted Bamberger, a great Viennese
+physician, who, however, found nothing serious, and
+merely forbade him the use of wine and tobacco,
+to neither of which was he addicted.</p>
+
+<p>His health suffered further through the violent
+anxiety which he went through in 1880 whilst I lay
+dangerously ill with typhoid fever, contracted in
+Naples. Though worn out with devoted nursing, he
+tried to make up the time lost to research and over-worked
+himself, with the result that cardiac trouble
+was followed by fits of giddiness and unconquerable
+insomnia. He fell into such a state of neurasthenia
+that, in 1881, he resolved in a moment of depression
+to do away with his life.</p>
+
+<p>In order to spare his family the sorrow of an obvious
+suicide, he inoculated himself with relapsing fever,
+choosing this disease in order to ascertain at the same
+time whether it could be inoculated through the
+blood. The answer was in the affirmative: he became
+very seriously ill. His condition was aggravated by
+anxiety concerning the University; for he was sufficiently
+conscious to be aware of the events which were
+taking place in Russia. The murder of Alexander II.
+caused him to foresee a political reaction of the most
+terrible type; already, a reactionary Rector had been
+appointed. Metchnikoff developed intense jaundice
+and had a serious relapse with alarming cardiac weakness;
+during the crisis he had a very distinct prevision
+of approaching death. This semi-conscious state
+was accompanied by a feeling of great happiness;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+he imagined that he had solved all human ethical
+questions. Much later, this fact led him to suppose
+that death could actually be attended by agreeable
+sensations.</p>
+
+<p>His robust nature, however, triumphed over all
+these grave complications, and, during his convalescence,
+he was filled with a joy of living such as he
+had never experienced before; from that moment his
+moral and physical balance was completely restored.
+There was one unpleasant sequel to his illness, an
+acute affection of the sight (choroiditis), but it fortunately
+disappeared without leaving any traces, and,
+in fact, he never suffered again from his eyes, in spite
+of his constant use of the microscope.</p>
+
+<p>After his recovery he had a renascence of vital
+intensity; the life instinct developed in him in a high
+degree; his health became flourishing, his energy and
+power for work greater than ever, and the pessimism
+of his youth began to pale before the optimistic
+dawn of his maturity. However, the relapsing fever
+had very probably increased, if not started, the cardiac
+trouble which eventually caused his death.</p>
+
+<p>During the time when Metchnikoff was forbidden
+the use of the microscope on account of his eye weakness,
+he studied Ephemeridæ from the point of view of
+natural selection. He wished to elucidate the manner
+in which this selection operates during the very short
+life of those insects: the rudimentary structure of
+their buccal organs does not allow them to feed
+themselves, and they have no time to adapt themselves
+to external conditions.</p>
+
+<p>During the 1875 holidays, at Gmunden and on the
+Danube, he observed the nuptial flight of the mayflies,
+a phenomenon which constitutes their short<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+adult existence, preceded by a long period in the
+larval state. Thousands of these diaphanous, ephemeral
+insects swarm above the water in a compact
+cloud; now and then, dead Ephemeridæ fall like
+snow-flakes, and that is the final and tragic completion
+of the nuptial flight. Metchnikoff wished to unveil the
+mechanism of this sudden death, evidently due to
+a physiological cause; but he obtained no definite
+results either that year or the following, when he
+continued his observations in the Caucasus. He
+realised that the life of these insects was too short to
+allow him to solve the problems which interested him,
+and, his eyes now being cured, he went back to his
+studies on the origin of multicellular beings or <i>metazoa</i>.</p>
+
+<p>He studied the development of inferior sponges
+and ascertained that they possess the three embryonic
+layers which correspond to those of other animal
+types, but that these layers have not the same degree
+of independence or differentiation. He found that
+in certain inferior sponges the mesoderm develops
+before the endoderm and gives birth to it. These two
+layers, born one from the other, manifest common
+primordial characters. Therefore he was in no wise
+surprised to discover that, in these inferior sponges,
+the am&oelig;boid and mobile cells of the mesoderm fulfil
+digestive functions equally with, and even more than
+those of the endoderm; in fact, with primitive beings,
+functional characters are not more strictly delimitated
+than morphological characters. It is only a
+more advanced differentiation which separates them.</p>
+
+<p>He connected these new facts with that which he
+had observed in 1865 in one of the lower worms, the
+earth planarian <i>Geodesmus bilineatus</i>. This worm is
+actually without a digestive cavity, for the latter is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+entirely filled by parenchymatous cells inside which
+digestion takes place.</p>
+
+<p>By their primitive structure, lower sponges and
+worms come near the higher Infusoria, to which they
+are even more closely related by this intercellular
+digestion which is common to them.</p>
+
+<p>This led Metchnikoff to ask himself whether this
+was not, generally speaking, <i>the primitive mode of
+digestion</i>. He carried out numerous researches on
+this point during the following years, and found the
+same intercellular digestion in other lower worms,
+such as the <i>Mesostoma</i> and aquatic planarians, and
+afterwards in some lower C&oelig;lentera and some Echinoderma.
+He was thus enabled to establish definitely
+that the primitive mode of digestion was really intercellular,
+for the lower multicellular animals either do
+not possess any digestive cavity or else their digestive
+cavity develops late, as for instance with lower jelly-fish
+or with hydropolypi. Even when the cavity is
+developed in these inferior animals, the digestive
+functions are fulfilled by the mesodermic cells.</p>
+
+<p>The question as to what are the ancestral forms of
+multicellular animals cannot be solved through direct
+observation, for there is a lacuna between them and
+unicellular beings, a lacuna which is due to the disappearance
+of intermediary forms. It can only be
+filled by hypotheses, based upon the embryology
+of those animals which, in their embryonic development,
+repeat the inferior forms from which they are derived,
+thus reflecting the general evolution of living beings.
+It was therefore to the embryology of lower multicellular
+beings that Metchnikoff turned, in order to endeavour to
+reconstitute their origin and to show the
+link between them and unicellular beings.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We know that the <i>ovule</i> or primitive genital cell
+of every animal may be compared to a unicellular
+organism. After fertilisation the egg undergoes consecutive
+divisions or segmentation; each segment
+constitutes a new cell, and their aggregation forms a
+hollow sphere called a <i>blastula</i>, which is similar to a
+colony of unicellular beings. The blastula differentiates
+itself into embryonic layers, the <i>ectoderm</i>, <i>endoderm</i>,
+and <i>mesoderm</i> already mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>In the majority of animals the origin of the first
+two layers, ectoderm and endoderm, is due to the
+invagination of one of the poles of the blastula; the
+invaginated part of the walls forms the internal layer,
+the endoderm, and lines the cavity produced by
+invagination; this cavity thus becomes a <i>digestive</i>
+cavity. This stage of development, called <i>gastrula</i>,
+is similar to a cup with a double wall, of which
+the outer is the ectoderm and the inner the endoderm.</p>
+
+<p>This stage, discovered by Kovalevsky, is to be
+found in the evolution of most animals and corresponds
+to the adult stage of some of them. It was
+consequently considered as the <i>primitive type</i> of multicellular
+beings.</p>
+
+<p>Haeckel founded thereupon his theory of the
+<i>gastræa</i>, according to which the common ancestor
+of animals was a lower animal, now disappeared,
+and similar to that stage of development. He
+therefore gave to this hypothetical animal the name
+of <i>gastræa</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff, however, discovered among primitive
+multicellular animals, such as sponges, hydroids, and
+lower medusæ, a stage of development still more
+simple than the gastrula; this stage is without a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+digestive cavity and only assumes the gastrula form
+in its ulterior evolution. He also made the remarkable
+discovery that, in the most primitive multicellular
+animals, the endoderm is formed, not by means
+of invagination, but by the <i>migration</i> of a number of
+flagellated cells from one pole of the wall of
+the blastula into the central cavity. These cells draw in
+their flagellum, become am&oelig;boid and mobile, multiply
+by division, fill the cavity of the blastula, and become
+capable of digesting. They originate the digestive
+cells of the complete organism and give birth to the
+mesoderm, which explains how the latter comes to
+contain a number of devouring cells even though
+these do not constitute digestive organs properly
+so called. Metchnikoff gave to that stage the name
+of <i>parenchymella</i>, for the migrating cells constitute
+the endoderm in the condition of a parenchyma.</p>
+
+<p>The invariable presence of this stage in the simplest
+multicellular animals, the primitive am&oelig;boid state
+of the endodermic cells, cases of ulterior transformation
+of the parenchymella into the gastrula form in
+certain animals, the absence of a differentiated
+digestive cavity,&mdash;all that proved, according to
+Metchnikoff, that the parenchymella is more primitive
+than the gastrula, and is therefore entitled to be considered
+the prototype of multicellular beings.</p>
+
+<p>He saw a confirmation of this in the fact that
+primitive adult animals also have no digestive cavity
+but merely an intracellular digestion (sponges, turbellaria).</p>
+
+<p>He concluded that the common ancestor of
+multicellular beings was a being constituted by an
+agglomeration of cells without a digestive cavity, but
+endowed with intracellular digestion, like that of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+&ldquo;parenchymula&rdquo; stage of development. He therefore
+gave to that hypothetical ancestor the name of
+<i>parenchymella</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Later, in 1886, he definitely formulated his theory
+of the genesis of multicellular beings, and having
+already stated the phagocyte theory, he substituted
+for the name <i>parenchymella</i> that of <i>phagocytella</i>, which
+indicated at the same time the primitive mode of
+digestion of that hypothetical ancestor.</p>
+
+<p>Reduced to its simplest form, it presented, according
+to Metchnikoff, a certain analogy with a colony
+composed of unicellular beings of two kinds: the
+first, flagellated, forming the external layer, and the
+others, am&oelig;boid, occupying the centre of the colony
+and capable of digesting.</p>
+
+<p>It may be interesting to mention here that, in this
+hypothetical description, Metchnikoff foresaw the
+existence of similar, but real, beings discovered a year
+later by Saville Kent, namely, the flagellated colonies
+of <i>Protospongia</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the link between the unicellular and the
+multicellular beings could be constituted through the
+intermediary of flagellated colonies on the one hand
+and, on the other hand, of beings similar to a <i>phagocytella</i>.
+The <i>indivisible colony</i> became the <i>multicellular
+individual</i>.</p>
+
+<p>While studying the genealogy of beings, Metchnikoff
+continued his researches on intracellular digestion.
+In 1879, at Naples and at Messina, he was
+able to establish the fact that the mesodermic cells
+of many larvæ of Echinodermata and C&oelig;lenterata,
+endowed with a digestive tube, nevertheless contained
+strange bodies. Therefore, even complicated organisms
+with a differentiated digestive system could still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+contain at the same time some primitive cells with
+an autonomous digestion.</p>
+
+<p>All these researches on the unity of the origin of
+multicellular beings and their morphological elements,
+and also those concerning intracellular digestion, were
+gradually preparing Metchnikoff&rsquo;s mind for the conception
+of the phagocyte theory.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>We spent the summer of 1880 with my family in
+the country. The cereals were invaded by a harmful
+beetle, the <i>Anisoplia austriaca</i>, which was devastating
+the country. Metchnikoff took the study of this
+scourge to heart and tried to find a remedy. He
+had, the preceding year, observed a dead fly enveloped
+with a sort of fungus which had evidently been the
+cause of its death. Hence he conceived the idea that
+it might be possible to combat harmful insects by
+provoking epidemics among them. He now returned
+to this idea; on dead bodies of <i>Anisoplia</i> he found
+a small fungus, the <i>muscardine</i>, which was invading
+the insects by means of filaments, and he succeeded
+in infecting healthy beetles.</p>
+
+<p>At first he confined himself to laboratory experiments;
+then a great landowner, Count Bobrinsky,
+placed experimental fields at his disposal. As the
+acquired results were very encouraging, Metchnikoff,
+forced to leave the neighbourhood, left a young
+entomologist in charge of the application of his
+method. So far as he himself was concerned, this
+study proved the starting-point of his researches
+on infectious diseases.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Death of his father- and mother-in-law &mdash; Management of country estates &mdash; Agitation
+and difficulties &mdash; Departure for Messina with young
+brothers- and sisters-in-law.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the spring of 1881, Metchnikoff having recovered
+from relapsing fever, we went to stay with my parents
+at Kieff and found my father dying. He entrusted
+Elie with the care of the family, and they came to
+live with us at Odessa. But, the following year, we
+had the misfortune to lose my mother also. From
+that moment my husband took upon himself the
+responsibility of the whole family.</p>
+
+<p>Our resources came from landed property, and he,
+who had never concerned himself with rural questions,
+had to make himself acquainted with them. In this
+he was greatly helped by a neighbour, Count Bobrinsky,
+through whose influence he came to abandon the purely
+theoretical opinions he had hitherto held concerning
+agrarian questions. He had considered communal property
+as a desirable agrarian system: Count Bobrinsky
+showed him that it was not so, at any rate in Little
+Russia.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff came to the country with the keenest
+desire to make himself useful. First of all he devoted
+the gratuity which he had received on leaving the
+University, to a school which my sister and myself
+desired to open in our family property. But we were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+met by administrative opposition which nearly
+wrecked our plan, under the pretext that it was
+intended for political propaganda. And though
+cordial relations were established from the first
+between Metchnikoff and the peasantry, many complications
+were unavoidable, due to the general
+agrarian situation, to the insufficiency of the peasants&rsquo;
+allotments, and to their primitive methods of cultivation.</p>
+
+<p>My father, whose property was in the province of
+Kieff, had inherited another domain in that of
+Kherson; Metchnikoff therefore had to manage both
+estates and to adapt himself to their very different
+respective circumstances. The majority of the farmers
+in Little Russia at that time were Jews and were
+beginning to be persecuted both by the Government
+and by the peasants; Elie was constantly obliged to
+intervene. In the province of Kherson, it was a
+tradition with the peasants that the land should
+belong to them, and they imagined that this could
+be brought about by the simple elimination of the
+farmers. Therefore they inflicted constant vexations
+upon the latter, allowing cattle to pasture in their
+crops, pulling up their beetroots, etc. Metchnikoff
+attempted in vain to re-establish peace by means of
+compromise; he persuaded a farmer to sub-let part
+of the land to the peasants, but this had to be given
+up, for the latter did not carry out their engagements.
+Relations between the farmers and the peasants were
+getting worse and worse, and Metchnikoff, foreseeing
+a catastrophe, warned the local administration that
+the situation was getting very grave and would lead
+to irreparable consequences. He was merely told that
+preventive measures would be useless; hereupon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+peasants brutally murdered a keeper who was turning
+the cattle away from the crops. Then at last the
+administration awoke, arrested the murderers, and
+twelve men were exiled to Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>All this caused Metchnikoff the deepest anxiety,
+the more so that he was absolutely incapable of
+altering the situation. As soon as it became possible,
+he sold to the peasants that portion of the land which
+belonged to us personally; until then, the property
+had been common to the whole family, of which the
+younger members were not yet of age. This, however,
+was not a general solution, and these moral preoccupations,
+as well as the heavy responsibility incumbent
+upon him, kept him from his scientific work.
+He was therefore very pleased to hand over the
+management of the property to one of my brothers
+who had just completed his studies in a Higher
+Agricultural School, and, in spite of difficult conditions,
+Elie had the satisfaction of giving up everything
+in good order.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to my parents&rsquo; inheritance, he was able
+to abandon his share of the Panassovka patrimony
+to the children of his brother and to live henceforth
+independently. He wished to pursue researches on
+the shores of the Mediterranean: therefore, in the
+autumn of the year 1882, we went to Messina with
+my two sisters and my three young brothers. The
+children were no trouble to Elie, who loved them;
+on the contrary, he enjoyed organising the journey
+and arranging all sorts of pleasures for them. The
+children, accustomed to his kindly indulgence, always
+came to &ldquo;the Prophet&rdquo; for everything they wanted.<a name="FNanchor_14" id="FNanchor_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Messina &mdash; Inception of the phagocyte theory &mdash; Encouragement from
+Virchow and Kleinenberg &mdash; First paper on phagocytosis at the
+Odessa Congress in 1883 &mdash; The question of Immunity &mdash; Article in
+Virchow&rsquo;s <i>Archiv</i>, 1884.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">At</span> Messina, we settled in a suburb, the Ringo, on the
+quay of the Straits, in a small flat with a garden and
+a splendid view over the sea. We did not have
+much room, and the laboratory had to be installed in
+the drawing-room, but, on the other hand, Elie only
+had to cross the quay in order to find the fisherman
+who provided him with the material needed for his
+researches and with whom we frequently went sailing.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff loved Messina, with its rich marine
+fauna and beautiful scenery. The splendid view of
+the sea and the calm outline of the Calabrian coast
+across the Straits delighted him. He enjoyed it all
+the more after the many excitements of life at the
+University, and eagerly gave himself up to his
+researches. Often, in later years, he delighted to
+recall memories of that period, the more so that this
+was connected with the principal phase of scientific
+activity which led to the formation of his phagocyte
+theory. After the earthquake in 1908, he wrote a
+few pages on Messina and ended his article by the
+following lines:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Thus it was in Messina that the great event of my
+scientific life took place. A zoologist until then, I suddenly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+became a pathologist. I entered into a new road in which
+my later activity was to be exerted.</p>
+
+<p>It is with warm feeling that I evoke that distant past
+and with tenderness that I think of Messina, of which the
+terrible fate has deeply moved my heart.</p>
+
+<p>They say that Messina will be rebuilt in the same place
+but in a different way. Houses will be constructed of light
+materials, they will be low, and the streets broad....</p>
+
+<p>The town will be a new Messina, not &ldquo;my Messina,&rdquo; not
+that with which so many dear memories are associated in
+my mind....</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff continued to study intracellular digestion
+and the origin of the intestine. He foresaw
+that the solution of those problems would lead to
+general results of great importance. The study of
+medusæ and of their mesodermic digestion confirmed
+him more and more in the conviction that the mesoderm
+was a vestige of elements with a primitive
+<i>digestive</i> function. In lower beings, such as sponges,
+this function takes place without being differentiated,
+whilst with other C&oelig;lentera and with some Echinoderma
+the <i>endoderm</i> gives birth to a digestive
+cavity; yet, the mobile cells of the <i>mesoderm</i> preserve
+their faculty of intracellular digestion. As he
+studied these phenomena more closely, he ascertained
+that mesodermic cells accumulated around grains of
+carmine introduced into the organism.</p>
+
+<p>All this prepared the ground for the phagocyte
+theory, of which he himself described the inception
+in the following words:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>I was resting from the shock of the events which provoked
+my resignation from the University and indulging enthusiastically
+in researches in the splendid setting of the Straits
+of Messina.</p>
+
+<p>One day when the whole family had gone to a circus to see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+some extraordinary performing apes, I remained alone with
+my microscope, observing the life in the mobile cells of a
+transparent star-fish larva, when a new thought suddenly
+flashed across my brain. It struck me that similar cells
+might serve in the defence of the organism against intruders.
+Feeling that there was in this something of surpassing interest,
+I felt so excited that I began striding up and down the room
+and even went to the seashore in order to collect my thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>I said to myself that, if my supposition was true, a splinter
+introduced into the body of a star-fish larva, devoid of blood-vessels
+or of a nervous system, should soon be surrounded by
+mobile cells as is to be observed in a man who runs a splinter
+into his finger. This was no sooner said than done.</p>
+
+<p>There was a small garden to our dwelling, in which we had
+a few days previously organised a &ldquo;Christmas tree&rdquo; for the
+children on a little tangerine tree; I fetched from it a few
+rose thorns and introduced them at once under the skin of
+some beautiful star-fish larvæ as transparent as water.</p>
+
+<p>I was too excited to sleep that night in the expectation of
+the result of my experiment, and very early the next morning
+I ascertained that it had fully succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>That experiment formed the basis of the phagocyte theory,
+to the development of which I devoted the next twenty-five
+years of my life.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This very simple experiment struck Metchnikoff
+by its intimate similarity with the phenomenon which
+takes place in the formation of pus, the diapedesis<a name="FNanchor_15" id="FNanchor_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>
+of inflammation in man and the higher animals. The
+white blood corpuscles, or <i>leucocytes</i>, which constitute
+pus, are mobile mesodermic cells. But, while
+with higher animals the phenomenon is complicated
+by the existence of blood-vessels and a nervous
+system, in a star-fish larva, devoid of those organs,
+the same phenomenon is reduced to the accumulation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+of mobile cells around the splinter. This proves that
+the essence of inflammation consists in the reaction
+of the mobile cells, whilst vascular and nervous intervention
+has but a secondary significance. Therefore,
+if the phenomenon is considered in its simplest expression,
+inflammation is merely <i>a reaction of the mesodermic
+cells against an external agent</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff then reasoned as follows: In man,
+microbes are usually the cause which provokes inflammation;
+therefore it is against those intruders
+that the mobile mesodermic cells have to strive.
+These mobile cells must destroy the microbes by
+digesting them and thus bring about a cure.</p>
+
+<p>Inflammation is thus a <i>curative reaction</i> of the
+organism, and morbid symptoms are no other than
+the signs of the struggle between the mesodermic
+cells and the microbes.</p>
+
+<p>In order to verify these conjectures, he started
+studying the englobing of microbes by mesodermic
+cells in larvæ and in other marine invertebrates
+which he inoculated.</p>
+
+<p>At that time, a well-known German scientist,
+Kleinenberg, was Professor of Zoology at Messina.
+Metchnikoff imparted his ideas to him and showed
+him his experiments. Kleinenberg encouraged him
+very much; he looked upon his theory as &ldquo;an
+Hippocratic thought&rdquo; and advised him to publish
+it at once.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff was also greatly encouraged by
+Virchow, who happened to pass through Messina and
+came to see his preparations and his experiments,
+which seemed to him conclusive. However, Virchow
+advised him to proceed with the greatest prudence
+in their interpretation, as, he said, the theory of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+inflammation admitted in contemporary medicine was
+exactly contrary to Metchnikoff&rsquo;s. It was believed
+that the leucocytes, far from destroying microbes,
+spread them by carrying them and by forming a
+medium favourable to their growth.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff always preserved a deep gratitude
+towards Virchow and Kleinenberg for the moral
+support which they gave him at that time.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>When the hot weather came, we left Messina for
+Riva, a delicious summer resort on the shores of the
+Lake of Garda. There, Metchnikoff wrote his first
+memoir on the reaction of inflammation and on the
+digestion of microbes by the mesodermic cells of
+lower invertebrates. On the way back to Russia
+through Vienna, he went to see the Professor of
+Zoology, Claus; he found other colleagues with him
+and expounded his theory to them. They were much
+interested, and he asked them for a Greek translation
+of the words &ldquo;devouring cells,&rdquo; and that is how they
+were given the name of <i>phagocytes</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Claus asked him for his memoir for the Review
+which he edited and in which it appeared soon afterwards,
+in 1883.<a name="FNanchor_16" id="FNanchor_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> The new-born &ldquo;phagocyte theory&rdquo;
+was thus very well received by naturalists and by
+Virchow, the father of cellular pathology.</p>
+
+<p>Having returned to Russia, we went to the country,
+where Elie had to attend to family business; nevertheless,
+he continued his researches in every leisure
+moment. He had observed in Echinoderma that,
+during the transformation of their larvæ, the parts
+becoming atrophied were englobed by mesodermic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+mobile cells. In those observations he was delighted
+to have found an example of <i>physiological inflammation</i>,
+<i>i.e.</i> one which presented itself in normal and
+non-morbid conditions. He thought he might observe
+it also during the metamorphosis of the tadpole into
+a frog, whilst the tail was being atrophied. But he
+found that, instead of the leucocytes of the blood,
+certain cells from the muscular tissue were those which
+devoured the enfeebled elements of the tail; he thus
+learnt that phagocytes might be, not only the white
+blood corpuscles, but other cells of mesodermic origin.<a name="FNanchor_17" id="FNanchor_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+
+<p>In autumn 1883 he read his first paper on phagocytosis
+to a congress of physicians and naturalists at
+Odessa.<a name="FNanchor_18" id="FNanchor_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> He compared the phagocytes to an army
+hurling itself upon the enemy and looked upon the
+phagocytic reaction as a defensive force of the
+organism.</p>
+
+<p>In that paper itself and from that moment onwards,
+the trend of his ideas towards optimism becomes visible.
+By discovering the phagocytic reaction of the organism,
+he made a first breach in his philosophy of human
+nature, hitherto so pessimistic; he discovered within
+it a salutary element which could be utilised by
+science to combat its discords. He began to have
+some faith in the power of knowledge, not only for
+this struggle, but also for the establishment of a
+rational conception of life in general. Thus he said
+in his paper to the Odessa Congress:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>The theoretical study of Natural History problems (in
+the largest sense of the word) alone can provide a critical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+method for the comprehension of truth and lead to a definite
+conception of life, or at least allow us to approach one.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And yet, until then, the theory of phagocytosis
+as a curative force of the organism was but a hypothesis,
+for he had not yet observed <i>spontaneous
+phagocytosis in diseases</i> and did not know pathogenic
+microbes. He therefore sought to study them in lower
+animals, whose simple structure made the observation
+easier. He found some small, transparent, fresh-water
+crustaceans, called <i>daphniæ</i>, which were diseased
+and easy to place alive under a microscope. These
+crustaceans are often infected by a parasite fungus
+(<i>Monospora bicuspidata</i>), of which the spores, shaped
+like sharp needles, are introduced with food into the
+digestive tube, traverse the walls of it, and thus
+penetrate into the general cavity of the body. They
+are immediately attacked by mobile phagocytes,
+which either singly or in groups englobe them; if the
+phagocytes succeed in digesting the spores, the
+daphnia recovers; in the contrary case, the spores
+germinate and develop into small fungi which invade
+the organism and kill it. The recovery or death of
+the daphnia depends therefore on the issue of the
+struggle.<a name="FNanchor_19" id="FNanchor_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> This observation gave final confirmation
+to the hypothesis of the curative forces of the organism.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff was not content with observing lower
+animals but wished to study the reaction of the
+organism of mammals in infectious diseases. At that
+time, the best-known microbe was the bacillus of
+anthrax. He therefore chose that for his researches
+and ascertained that phagocytosis varied with the
+virulence of the microbes; thus, while phagocytes did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+not attack virulent bacteria, they attacked and
+rapidly digested attenuated bacteria. Moreover, he
+observed a very active phagocytosis in refractory
+animals and the reverse in sensitive ones.</p>
+
+<p>He thus came face to face with the question of
+<i>immunity</i>.</p>
+
+<p>He approached it by a comparative examination
+of the reaction of the organism of vaccinated rabbits
+and of non-vaccinated ones, and ascertained that an
+active phagocytosis was only manifested in a previously
+vaccinated organism. Metchnikoff explained
+these facts by the theory that the phagocytes became
+accustomed, gradually, through vaccination, to strive
+against more and more virulent microbes.</p>
+
+<p>From that moment, immunity appeared to him as
+being no other than this progressive hardening. He
+published his researches in 1884 in Virchow&rsquo;s <i>Archiv</i>,
+and impatiently awaited medical reviews, hoping to
+find some answer, but the memoir passed unnoticed;
+the full significance of it had not been grasped.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Ill-health of his wife and sister-in-law &mdash; Journey to Tangiers through
+Spain &mdash; Villefranche &mdash; Baumgarten criticises the phagocyte theory.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> 1884, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s work was interrupted by the
+ill-health of my eldest sister and of myself; physicians
+considered that we had weak lungs and advised that
+we should spend the winter in the South. Elie, full
+of anxiety, hastened to take us there.</p>
+
+<p>My younger brothers were now old enough to
+remain at school in our absence so as to go on with
+their studies; we therefore started with my two
+sisters. As cholera was raging in Italy, we went to
+Spain, hoping to find a place with a mild climate and
+conditions favourable to my husband&rsquo;s work. But
+we traversed the whole country without finding the
+right combination, and, as we had come too far to
+go back, we decided to spend the winter on the
+African coast, at Tangiers, close to Gibraltar where we
+were.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff had not much taste for sight-seeing,
+but, with his inquisitive and observing mind, liked to
+understand what he saw, and never failed to acquaint
+himself with the history of the countries which we
+traversed and which, with his ever-ready solicitude, he
+wanted us to see. We therefore saw every interesting
+town on our route through Spain. In the evenings we
+read together works on the history and art of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+country, and in the day-time we went for long rambles
+in order to examine all that there was to see. The
+history of the country, full of the sombre fanaticism
+which is reflected in its art, the austere aridity of the
+central plateau of the land, the reserved temper of
+the population&mdash;none of that found any echo in the
+vibrating, sunlight-loving soul of Metchnikoff.</p>
+
+<p>Gentle Italy, her exuberant life and highly-cultured
+past, charmed him much more. He was consequently
+better pleased with Southern Spain, which
+is more similar to Italy. He was greatly impressed
+by the grandiose site and luminous atmosphere of
+Granada and the Alhambra and by the superb gardens
+of Malaga, with their tropical plants and avenues of
+palm trees.</p>
+
+<p>At Gibraltar, he was greatly interested as a zoologist
+in the only monkeys (<i>Macaques</i> or Barbary
+apes) which have remained wild in Europe; he never
+tired of watching their habits whilst those amusing
+creatures jumped from tree to tree above our heads.</p>
+
+<p>He had ample leisure to do so, for a frightful tempest
+kept us at Gibraltar, preventing the crossing of the
+Straits. As Metchnikoff was very anxious to set to
+work, we took the first steamship which ventured out,
+but the sea was still running so high that our ship
+was damaged and we had to go back. A panic
+took possession of the passengers, during which my
+sisters and I were struck by the calmness of Elie,
+who did not seem to realise the danger. After a delay
+of a few days, we were at last able to cross.</p>
+
+<p>Our first impression of Tangiers, an Arab port of
+a thoroughly Oriental type, was extremely vivid.
+The city lay before us with its tall minarets and flat
+roofs, shining white under the burning sun. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+steamer dropped anchor some distance from the landing
+stage, and we were taken ashore on small boats,
+immediately to be surrounded by a motley crowd with
+faces varying from the pale olive of the pure Arab
+to the coal-black of the negro. All these people, in
+brilliant and picturesque garments, were shouting,
+gesticulating, fighting for the possession of passengers
+and their luggage, dragging them into the boats or
+carrying them on their backs, themselves standing
+up to their waists in water.</p>
+
+<p>That feverish agitation, noise, and glaring sunlight
+introduced us suddenly to new and violent
+sensations.</p>
+
+<p>Already at Gibraltar, Metchnikoff had made
+arrangements with a Spanish-speaking Arab from
+Tangiers who undertook our installation. He provided
+us with a very primitive dwelling, himself serving as
+our guide, cook, and general factotum.</p>
+
+<p>We hastened to look for zoological material:
+alas, the sea was almost a desert. After a long
+search we only found a few rare sea-urchins, and
+Metchnikoff had to content himself with this meagre
+fauna during the whole of the winter. He resigned
+himself to the study of the embryology of sea-urchins
+in order to fill a few lacunæ in his previous researches.
+As he could not work much for lack of materials, he
+came with us for long excursions, during which he
+used to improvise interminable and very amusing
+tales with which to entertain my little sister.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of our stay we were greatly
+interested by the life and customs of the country.
+The picturesque and varied crowd, the dignified and
+biblical types of Arabs, the bronzed Berbers, negroes,
+fanatical sects of Aïssawas, snake-charmers, the jousts,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+and mad races of cavalry across the sandy beach;
+opium smokers; mysterious silhouettes of veiled
+women; the call to prayer from the tall minarets&mdash;all
+that strange and exotic life fascinated us.
+But after a time the wild customs, continual shouting
+on the occasion of every ceremony, vendettas,
+cruel fanaticism, and also the absolute lack of intellectual
+resources, began to tell on our nerves.
+Inactivity weighed heavily upon Metchnikoff; nevertheless,
+he bore his ill-luck with his usual courage
+and gaiety, finding great consolation in the excellent
+influence that the climate of Tangiers had upon all
+our healths.</p>
+
+<p>At last, in the spring, we started for Villefranche,
+where he immediately set to work with success upon
+the embryology of jelly-fish; an important monograph
+on that subject was published by him in 1886.
+In it he gave definite form to his theory of the <i>phagocytella</i>
+and the genetic relationships of animals and
+of their primitive organs, a theory already mentioned
+above (p. <a href="#Page_110">110</a>).</p>
+
+<p>From Villefranche we went to Trieste, where
+Metchnikoff studied star-fish and filled the lacunæ in
+his researches on the origin of the mesoderm.</p>
+
+<p>In a medical review which he read at Trieste, he
+found the first account of his phagocyte theory;
+it was an unfavourable and hostile criticism by a
+German scientist of the name of Baumgarten, endeavouring
+to prove that Metchnikoff&rsquo;s deductions
+were inadmissible. This grieved and pained him very
+much, but he immediately recovered himself and
+strongly determined to study the medical side of the
+question in order to prove on that ground that his
+theory was well-founded.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">A Bacteriological Institute in Odessa &mdash; Unsatisfactory conditions &mdash; Experiments
+on erysipelas and on relapsing fever.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> results of Pasteur&rsquo;s antirabic inoculations were
+published in 1885. The Municipality of Odessa,
+desirous of founding a bacteriological station in that
+town, sent Dr. Gamaléia to Paris to study the new
+method. Metchnikoff was appointed Scientific Director
+of the new institution, and Drs. Gamaléia and
+Bardach, former pupils of his, were entrusted with the
+preparation of vaccines and preventive inoculations.
+The Institute, opened in 1886, was founded at the
+expense of the Municipality of Odessa and of the
+<i>Zemstvo</i> of the Kherson Province.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff himself describes as follows the short
+time he spent in that Institute:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>... Having given up my State work, I placed myself
+at the service of the city and the <i>Zemstvo</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Absorbed as I was by the scientific part of the work, I
+confided to my young colleagues the practical part, i.e. the
+vaccinations and the perfection of vaccines.</p>
+
+<p>It was to be supposed that all would go very well.</p>
+
+<p>Work in the new Institute began with ardour. But, very
+soon, a strong opposition manifested itself against it.</p>
+
+<p>The medical administration began to make incursions into
+the Institute, with a view to finding some infractions of the
+regulations.</p>
+
+<p>Medical society was hostile to every work which issued<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+from the laboratory. The institutions which had subscribed
+funds for the Institute were demanding practical results,
+while all necessary work towards that object was met by
+every sort of obstacle.</p>
+
+<p>For instance, in order to destroy certain voles, very
+harmful to the cereals of Southern Russia, we proposed to
+make experiments as to infecting those rodents with the
+microbe of chicken cholera. Laboratory experiments were
+begun with that object. But, one day, I received an order from
+the Prefect peremptorily forbidding those experiments. This
+measure had been taken at the instigation of local physicians;
+having seen in a Petersburg newspaper an article by some
+one who had not a notion of bacteriology, they had assured
+the Prefect that chicken cholera could turn into Asiatic cholera.</p>
+
+<p>I had to appeal to the General Governor, who ended by
+countermanding the Prefect&rsquo;s order; nevertheless this incident
+was not without regrettable consequences concerning the
+ulterior activities of the Institute.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from all that, a deep scission took place between the
+members, though they were so few, of the Institute itself, and
+this had fatal consequences.</p>
+
+<p>The men who were in charge of the practical work ceased
+to work in concert; I could not take their place, being overwhelmed
+with scientific researches, besides which, holding no
+medical degree, I was not qualified to perform vaccinations
+on human beings.</p>
+
+<p>Under those conditions, I understood that in my quality
+as a theoretician, I should do well to retire, leaving the
+laboratory to practitioners who, bearing full responsibility,
+would fill the part better.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>During his stay at the Odessa Bacteriological
+Institute, Metchnikoff had busied himself with infectious
+diseases in order to answer the first objections
+to his theory. He began by the microbes of erysipelas
+and showed that the phenomena of the disease, as
+well as those of recovery, were in full accord with
+the postulates of the phagocyte theory.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And then he studied relapsing fever in order to
+answer Baumgarten&rsquo;s objections, affirming that there
+was no phagocytic reaction in that disease, though it
+almost invariably ended in recovery. Experiments
+on man not being possible, Metchnikoff procured
+some monkeys, which he inoculated with relapsing
+fever, and ascertained that Baumgarten&rsquo;s error was
+due to the fact that he had only looked for phagocytosis
+in the patient&rsquo;s blood, whilst it really took
+place in the spleen.</p>
+
+<p>These researches on erysipelas and relapsing fever
+were published in Virchow&rsquo;s <i>Archives</i> in 1887. Besides
+this scientific work, he was also giving lectures on
+bacteriology to some physicians, and was in full productive
+activity when external opposition and the
+discord among his collaborators in the Institute itself
+forced upon him the conviction that he could remain
+there no longer.</p>
+
+<p>At that very moment the Prince of Oldenburg,
+having founded a Bacteriological Institute at Petersburg,
+invited Metchnikoff to take charge of it. He
+had to refuse, fearing the Northern climate for my
+health, and knowing from experience that it was
+impossible for a layman to manage an Institute with
+a medical staff. Yet he could not do without a
+laboratory. Seeing no possibility of having one in
+Russia, he decided to look abroad for a refuge and a
+laboratory.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Having learnt from experience at Odessa,&rdquo; he
+wrote, &ldquo;how difficult was the struggle against an
+opposition coming from all sides and devoid of
+reasonable causes, I preferred to go abroad to look
+for a peaceful shelter for my scientific researches.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>We were no longer held back by family considerations;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+our links with Russia had gradually loosened.
+He had resigned from the University, discord reigned
+at the Odessa Bacteriological Institute, conditions of
+life in Russia were very unfavourable to scientific
+activity; in a word, &ldquo;obstacles from above, from
+below, and from all sides,&rdquo;&mdash;as Metchnikoff expressed
+it,&mdash;gradually led to his resolution to leave his native
+country.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Hygiene Congress in Vienna &mdash; Wiesbaden &mdash; Munich &mdash; Paris and Pasteur &mdash; Berlin
+and Koch &mdash; Failure of anthrax vaccination of sheep &mdash; Decision
+to leave Russia.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> 1887 we went to Vienna, where a Congress of
+Hygienists was held, in which, for the first time,
+bacteriologists took part. Metchnikoff thus had the
+opportunity of becoming acquainted with many of
+them and to make inquiries concerning bacteriological
+laboratories. Professor Hueppe, of Wiesbaden, very
+kindly invited him to come to work in his own. The
+idea pleased Metchnikoff, who thought that a peaceful
+little University town would be very favourable to
+his work. But he found that his situation would be
+very difficult at Wiesbaden on account of the lack of
+harmony between the different laboratories in the
+town; he therefore gave up the project which had
+seemed to him so tempting.</p>
+
+<p>By this time many objections had been raised
+against the phagocyte theory, and, Emmerich having
+attacked him very violently, Metchnikoff went to
+Munich to have an explanation with him. This gave
+him the opportunity of realising that Munich, like
+Wiesbaden, was not a place where he would care to
+settle.</p>
+
+<p>He had a great desire to know Pasteur and his
+collaborators, who had just been playing such an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+important scientific part, and, finding ourselves within
+easy reach of Paris, we repaired thither, without the
+slightest idea of settling there. This is how Metchnikoff
+himself described his first interview with Pasteur:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>On arriving at the laboratory destined for the antirabic
+vaccinations, I saw an old man, rather undersized, with a
+left hemiplegia, very piercing grey eyes, a short beard
+and moustache and slightly grey hair, covered by a black
+skull-cap. His pale and sickly complexion and tired look
+betokened a man who was not likely to live many more years.
+He received me very kindly, and immediately spoke to me of
+the question which interested me most, the struggle of the
+organism against microbes.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I at once placed myself on your side,&rdquo; he told me, &ldquo;for I
+have for many years been struck by the struggle between
+the divers micro-organisms which I have had occasion to
+observe. I believe you are on the right road.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Pasteur at that time was chiefly occupied with
+antirabic vaccinations and with the building of a
+new Institute in the rue Dutot. Seeing the vast
+dimensions of the edifice and learning that the
+scientific staff was not large, Metchnikoff asked
+Pasteur if he might hope to work in one of the laboratories
+in an honorary capacity. Pasteur not only
+acceded to this request but offered him a whole
+laboratory. He was most kind, invited us to his
+home and introduced Metchnikoff to his collaborators,
+who produced an excellent impression on my husband.</p>
+
+<p>Though all this made him incline more and more
+towards the Pasteur Institute, he still dreaded life
+in a large and noisy city, thinking that a peaceful
+little University town would be more favourable
+to his work. Therefore, before making a final decision,
+he desired to visit a few more bacteriological laboratories.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On our way back we passed through Berlin, where
+Metchnikoff wished to see Professor Koch and to
+show him some interesting specimens of phagocytosis.
+The great <i>savant</i> received him very coldly. For a
+long time, while examining specimens of the spleen in
+relapsing fever, he refused to recognise in them an
+example of phagocytosis. Though he was at last
+obliged to bow to evidence, he yet remained unfavourable
+to the phagocyte theory, and all his assistants
+followed his example. Metchnikoff was much surprised
+and grieved by this hostility towards his
+ideas, notwithstanding that they were based on well-established
+facts. We hastened to leave Berlin.</p>
+
+<p>Many years later, when phagocytosis was generally
+admitted, even in Germany, Professor Koch and many
+other German scientists welcomed Metchnikoff very
+kindly, which somewhat counterbalanced the unpleasantness
+of early memories. But, at that time,
+the contrast between our impression of Paris and of
+Germany was so great that all hesitation was at an
+end: the choice was made.</p>
+
+<p>On returning to Odessa, Metchnikoff began to
+prepare his resignation and his departure. Yet he
+still had time to make some researches on phagocytosis
+in tuberculosis, in reply to the objections
+which rained upon his theory.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring, he handed over the direction of the
+Institute to Dr. Gamaléia and took leave; we went
+to the country for a while before our final departure.
+During that time, Drs. Gamaléia and Bardach were
+making anthrax vaccinations on a large scale in a
+vast private property in the province of Kherson.
+When we were settled in our country home, Metchnikoff
+received a telegram announcing that the first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+anthrax vaccine had killed many thousand sheep.
+Though, as a matter of fact, his personal responsibility
+was not involved, the blow was a terrible one; he
+hastened back to Odessa to elucidate the cause of
+the catastrophe. But it remained obscure....</p>
+
+<p>This painful episode was the last drop which made
+the cup brim over; it strengthened Metchnikoff in
+his resolve to leave Russia.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">The Pasteur Institute &mdash; Dreams realised &mdash; Metchnikoff at fifty &mdash; Growing
+optimism &mdash; Attenuated sensitiveness &mdash; The Sèvres villa &mdash; Daily
+routine.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Having</span> decided to settle in France, we hastened to
+make ourselves acquainted with contemporary French
+literature, thinking to find in it a reflection of the
+soul and manners of the nation. But the realistic
+literature of the time, in spite of the great artistic
+worth of many of the authors, gave us an erroneous
+idea of life in France, of which it represented but one
+of many aspects. It was therefore with apprehension
+that we asked ourselves if we should ever be able to
+adapt ourselves to the new conditions, and whether
+our isolation would not be great.</p>
+
+<p>We arrived in Paris on the 15th of October 1888,
+and we lodged at a small hotel in the Latin quarter,
+not far from the rue d&rsquo;Ulm where the old Pasteur
+Institute stood, the new one not being completed.
+There was but little room in the laboratory, and
+Metchnikoff felt rather uneasy, fearing that he was
+in the way. But the new Institute soon was sufficiently
+advanced for him to settle there.</p>
+
+<p>He was given two rooms on the second floor; I
+served as his assistant; he was perfectly happy at
+being at last able to give himself up in peace to his
+work. Soon, young physicians came to work under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+his direction. Their number having increased, he
+was given a whole floor in which to instal them,
+two rooms on that floor being reserved for his own
+use. He occupied these rooms until the end of his
+life.</p>
+
+<p>His dreams were at last realised. This is from
+a narration of the causes which led to his departure
+from Russia, in his own words:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Thus it was in Paris that I succeeded at last in practising
+pure Science apart from all politics or any public function.
+That dream could not have been realised in Russia because
+of obstacles from above, from below, and from all sides. One
+might think that the hour of science in Russia has not yet
+struck. I do not believe that. I think, on the contrary,
+that scientific work is indispensable to Russia, and I wish from
+my heart that future conditions may become more favourable
+than in the time of which I have spoken in the above
+lines.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Soon he was able to appreciate the great French
+qualities: humanitarian manners, tolerance, and gentleness,
+real freedom of thought, loyal and courteous
+intercourse, all of which made life easy and agreeable.
+And most precious of all were the true friendships
+which he contracted with his colleagues and his
+pupils. Indeed the Institut Pasteur and France
+became for him a second Motherland, and when in
+later years he was invited to other countries with
+more liberal conditions, he habitually replied that
+only for one place would he leave the Pasteur Institute,
+&ldquo;the neighbouring cemetery of Montparnasse.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>However, after his death, the Pasteur Institute
+which he had so loved continued to give him hospitality
+and harboured his ashes....</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Pasteur himself ever was most kind and helpful
+to Metchnikoff. During the first years, when his
+health still allowed it, he used often to come to the
+laboratory, questioning Metchnikoff on his researches
+with much interest and always warmly encouraging
+him. He even attended assiduously his course of
+lectures on inflammation. After his state of health
+no longer allowed him to go out, Metchnikoff used
+to visit him every day, and tried to cheer him by
+talking to him of current researches.</p>
+
+<p>MM. Duclaux and Roux became his closest friends;
+they were at first brought together by scientific
+interests and by questions concerning the Institute;
+but, gradually, personal sympathy grew up between
+them, binding them by that solid bond which is made
+up of daily occurrences, inducing respect, confidence,
+and affection. Moreover, Metchnikoff felt the deepest
+gratitude towards Pasteur and his collaborators, who
+had given him the possibility of working in so favourable
+an atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>From the very first, Pasteur sympathised with the
+phagocyte theory; the other members of the Institute
+thought it too biological, almost vitalistic. But when
+they had made themselves thoroughly cognisant with
+it, they also adopted it. Thus, having found in the
+Pasteur Institute not only favourable working conditions
+but also moral support, Metchnikoff became
+deeply attached to it, and the interests of &ldquo;the House&rdquo;
+became his.</p>
+
+<p>In 1915, on the occasion of Metchnikoff&rsquo;s seventieth
+anniversary, M. Roux, in a Jubilee speech, gave of
+him and of his work the following appreciation which
+describes, better than anything I could say, what his
+part was in the Pasteur Institute:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>In Paris as in Petrograd, as in Odessa, you have become
+a leader of thought, and you have kindled in this Institute a
+scientific focus which has radiated afar.</p>
+
+<p>Your laboratory is more alive than any in the house;
+workers come to it in crowds. There, the bacteriological
+events of the day are discussed, interesting preparations
+examined, ideas sought for that may help an experimenter
+to solve difficulties in which he has become involved. It is
+to you that one comes to ask for a control experiment on a
+newly observed fact, for a criticism of a discovery that does
+not always survive the test.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, as you read everything, every one comes to you
+for information, for an account of a newly published memoir
+which there is no time to read. It is much more convenient
+than to consult the library and also much safer, for errors of
+translation and interpretation are avoided.</p>
+
+<p>Your erudition is so vast and so accurate that it is made
+use of by the whole house. How many times have I not
+availed myself of it? One never fears to take advantage of
+it, for no scientific question ever finds you indifferent. Your
+ardour warms the indolent and gives confidence to the
+sceptical.</p>
+
+<p>You are an incomparable collaborator as I know, I who
+have had the good fortune of being associated with your
+researches on several occasions. Indeed, you did nearly all
+the work!</p>
+
+<p>More even than your science, your kindliness attracts;
+who amongst us has not experienced it? I have had a
+touching proof of it when, many times, you have nursed me
+as if I were your own child. You are so happy in doing
+good that you even feel gratitude towards those whom you
+serve.</p>
+
+<p>This is such an intimate gathering that I may be allowed
+to say quite openly that it is so painful to you not to give
+that you prefer being exploited rather than close your hand.</p>
+
+<p>The Pasteur Institute owes you much; you have brought
+to it the prestige of your renown, and by your work and that
+of your pupils you have greatly contributed to its glory. You<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+have given a noble example of disinterestedness by refusing
+any salary in those years when the budget was balanced
+with difficulty and by preferring to the glorious and lucrative
+situations that were offered to you the modest life of this
+house. Still a Russian by nationality, you have become
+French by your choice, and you contracted a Franco-Russian
+alliance with the Pasteur Institute long before the diplomats
+thought of it.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the beginning the members of the Pasteur
+Institute were few, and the association bore a quasi-family
+character, Pasteurians often being compared
+with a monastic order, united by the worship of
+science. The progressive growth of the Institute
+inevitably destroyed its character of intimacy, but it
+remained a precious scientific focus, and this is what
+Metchnikoff said of it in 1913, <i>à propos</i> of the twenty-fifth
+anniversary of its foundation:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>If we weigh the for and against of the Pasteur Institute,
+it is indisputable that the first surpasses the second by a
+great deal. I do not think another institution exists that is
+equally favourable to work. Innumerable proofs have been
+adduced to attest this in the twenty-five years that our
+House has existed.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was especially the development of pure scientific
+research in the Institute which interested Metchnikoff;
+he continually considered means of contributing
+towards it; he thought it necessary to attract active
+scientific forces regardless of their origin, to institute
+generous scientific &ldquo;scholarships,&rdquo; and to stimulate
+by every means scientific activity and spirit.</p>
+
+<p>As the rapid development of bacteriology necessitated
+having recourse to chemistry, physics, and
+physiology, he considered it indispensable to organise
+collective work in which specialists in these divers
+branches should take part, thus collaborating to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+solution of the same problem. Later he was able to
+realise this project, up to a certain point, in his own
+laboratory, when studying intestinal flora.</p>
+
+<p>He thought it would be useful to extend this
+method, as far as possible, to researches such as that
+on tuberculosis and on cancer, such researches being
+complicated and protracted and demanding co-ordinate
+efforts and an organisation that should prevent the
+repetition of individual first steps. A clinic attached
+to the Pasteur Institute and adapted to scientific
+researches seemed to him indispensable.</p>
+
+<p>He also considered that the experimental study
+of those human diseases which can only be inoculated
+in anthropoid apes should be carried out through
+the breeding of those animals in the colonies, for
+infantile diseases demand very young apes as subjects
+for experiments, and they cannot be brought to Europe
+in sufficient numbers without great loss. A mission
+of workers might carry out experiments on the spot.</p>
+
+<p>He thought the popularisation of science a very
+useful thing and wished the Pasteur Institute to
+participate in it by appropriate courses of public
+lectures. He attached great importance to the penetration
+into ordinary life of results acquired by science,
+for the struggle against disease consists chiefly in
+prophylactic and hygienic measures which can only
+be applied by a well-informed public. For that
+reason he was always willing to be interviewed on
+scientific questions by journalists and, indeed, by any
+one, however ignorant. In order to instruct the public
+he often wrote popular articles on questions of hygiene
+and medicine.</p>
+
+<p>Science in general never was a dead letter for him;
+his most abstract conceptions were always narrowly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+bound to life; he saw one through the other and
+considered that they should serve each other.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from scientific researches, he took part in the
+courses given at the Pasteur Institute. He prepared
+his lectures with infinite care, and, in spite of his long
+experience, he never could give them without some
+nervousness, especially during the last years of his
+life. He used even to write down the first sentences
+and to read them out in order to give himself time to
+recover; but very soon his self-control would return,
+and he would proceed with animation and lucidity;
+his lectures were living and suggestive.</p>
+
+<p>I have mentioned above Roux&rsquo;s masterly appreciation
+of his influence at the Pasteur Institute. The
+following was written to me, a year after Metchnikoff&rsquo;s
+death, by one of his closest disciples and collaborators,
+and describes in a vivid manner the deep feelings
+with which he inspired his pupils:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"You say that you love to think that he continues to live
+in others. Could it have been otherwise? A character as
+powerful as his is capable of influencing and illuminating the
+life, not of one individual, but of a whole generation. I look
+upon it as the greatest good fortune of my life that I was
+able to spend my best years in his orbit and to impregnate
+my mind with his spirit, not his scientific spirit, but that
+which he manifested in facing life and humanity.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;This bond has become so much part of myself that my first
+impulse is always to act in the way he would have approved.
+I even feel the need to share with others what I received from
+him. I do not know whether it will be given to me to solve
+certain problems posed by him, but I have the conviction
+that his spirit, in its purity, will be preserved among us. He
+will ever live in those who worked by his side, and in those
+who will come to work in his laboratory. It cannot be
+otherwise.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff on his part never remained indifferent
+to his pupils. His solicitude towards them was warm,
+sometimes paternal, always ready and active. Many
+of his pupils remained his friends and collaborators
+for years afterwards. His fiery and exclusive temperament,
+however, made him take up a very different
+attitude in exceptional cases, when he found himself
+in front of one who persisted in a path which Metchnikoff
+himself considered the wrong path, or before an
+action which he thought disloyal or work done without
+conscience. Then he became beside himself, and
+positively dangerous to those who had exposed themselves
+to the paroxysm of his indignation.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately such cases were rare; as a general
+rule, the atmosphere of his laboratory was impregnated
+with scientific spirit and ardour; all forces in it converged
+towards the same goal, being bound together
+by a community of aspirations and activity of which
+he was the soul.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The first period of his life in France was taken up
+by the strengthening and development of the phagocyte
+theory and by an eager struggle in its defence.
+He displayed in it his full energy as a scientist and
+a fighter, and this was perhaps the most agitated,
+the most tense period of his life.</p>
+
+<p>When at last his theory was securely established
+and began to be accepted, he continued his researches
+with the same passionate ardour but in an atmosphere
+of peace. It was joy and bliss to him to be able to
+work apart from other preoccupations, and the years
+of his life between fifty and sixty were the happiest
+he ever had.</p>
+
+<p>The state of his soul and his ideas had considerably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+evolved in the course of years; the great moral and
+physical sensitiveness which had so often made him
+miserable in his youth had decreased and he had
+become much less impulsive. Unpleasant sensations
+no longer caused him so much suffering; he could
+bear the mewing of a cat or the barking of a dog;
+personal vexations no longer made him take such a
+horror of life as to wish to be rid of it: he now merely
+tried to conquer them.</p>
+
+<p>At first this change operated less upon his ideas
+than upon his sensations and sentiments. Accustomed
+as he was to analyse his emotions, he realised the
+development within himself of a new sense of appreciation;
+less sensitive now to extreme impressions,
+he had become more so to ordinary ones. For
+instance, though less enchanted by music, and less
+irritated by discordant noises, he enjoyed absolute
+calm more fully. Now indifferent to rich food, which
+he formerly used to enjoy, he appreciated simple fare,
+bread and pure water. He did not seek for picturesque
+sites but took infinite pleasure in watching the growth
+of grass or the bursting of a bud. The first halting
+steps or the smile of an infant charmed and delighted
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Demanding less from life, he now appreciated it as
+it was, and experienced the joy of mere living. The
+instinct, the sense of life had been born in him. He
+now saw Life and Nature under a different aspect
+from that which they had borne for him in his youth,
+for he had gradually acquired more balance; he had
+become adapted.</p>
+
+<p>In their turn, his ideas evolved towards a more
+optimistic conception of life. His reflections, freed from
+the yoke of his juvenile sensitiveness, tended towards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+the possibility of a correction of the disharmonies
+of human nature through knowledge and will. This
+evolution had taken years. &ldquo;In order to understand
+the meaning of life,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;it is necessary to live
+a long time, without which one finds oneself in the
+position of a congenitally blind man before whom
+the beauties of colour are spread out.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>During the twenty-eight years that he lived in
+France, nearly all his time was devoted to the laboratory.
+Whilst the Institute was still in its beginning,
+work there was calm and collected; but, as its
+growing renown attracted many people, this quietude
+decreased considerably. Metchnikoff felt this, but
+could not bring himself to refuse to admit those who
+came; he compensated himself by peaceful Sundays
+and holidays.</p>
+
+<p>For a long time we inhabited the neighbourhood
+of the Institute and spent the summers at Sèvres;
+in 1898 we bought a small villa there with a sum
+of money which we inherited from an aunt. In 1905
+we settled there altogether, for Metchnikoff, confined
+in the laboratory all day, felt the need of fresh air;
+the daily walk that he was obliged to take to reach
+the house and the absolute calm, away from the noise
+of the city, suited him; he even fancied that the hill
+on which the house was built provided him with a
+wholesome exercise for his heart.</p>
+
+<p>The return to Sèvres, which he greatly liked, was
+to him a daily source of pleasure. I can see him now,
+hastily coming out of the train, his pockets full of
+papers and brochures which he read in the train and
+parcels in his hands, for he loved to bring home little
+presents. A kindly smile illumined his face and he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+never failed to express the pleasure he felt at coming
+home. &ldquo;How pure the air is! How green the grass!
+What peace! You see, if I did not go to Paris to work
+I should not be so alive to the charm of Sèvres and the
+pleasure of rest.&rdquo; He used to come home at seven and
+do no more work; it was his daily rest. He then gave
+himself up to complete relaxation, joked, related the
+incidents of the day, spoke of his researches, planned
+experiments for the next day, read aloud part of the
+evening and then listened to music, not only because
+he liked it, but also because he wanted to &ldquo;switch
+on to another line,&rdquo; <i>i.e.</i> rest his mind completely.</p>
+
+<p>He was an incomparable companion, always alive
+and communicative, generously giving out the treasures
+of his heart and his intelligence. He liked a
+simple life; all artifice, all convention displeased
+him. He disliked luxury in his person to that
+extent that he never consented to possess a gold
+watch nor any object with no particular use. His only
+luxury was to gratify others. He enjoyed peaceful
+family life and a circle of intimate friends. Yet,
+appreciating as he did all serious manifestations of
+life, he was glad to have the opportunity of meeting
+people who were interesting either in themselves or for
+the knowledge which they could impart.</p>
+
+<p>In Life as in Science he found precepts to help
+the evolution of his moral and philosophical ideas,
+which he placed in their turn at Life&rsquo;s service. If he
+could not solve a problem, he at least pointed out its
+importance.</p>
+
+<p>His attentive penetration of things in themselves,
+coupled with a creative imagination, was the force
+which enabled him to open out new prospects and
+new paths.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On looking back upon his own life, he used to say
+that the period spent at the Pasteur Institute had
+been the happiest, the most favourable to his scientific
+work; he therefore remained deeply attached to it
+until the end of his life.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Opposition to the phagocyte theory &mdash; Scientific controversies &mdash; Experiments
+in support of the phagocyte theory &mdash; Behring and antitoxins &mdash; The
+London Congress &mdash; Inflammation.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">As</span> long as Metchnikoff was but a zoologist, the
+scientific atmosphere around him remained calm and
+serene. But everything changed suddenly when he
+entered the domain of pathology with his theory of
+phagocytes and phagocytosis.</p>
+
+<p>Here was the realm of secular traditions, deeply
+rooted, and of theories generally admitted but resting
+on no biological basis. Attacks and objections against
+his theories came following upon each other with a
+rush, only to be compared with the racing clouds of a
+stormy sky or the hurrying waves of a tempestuous
+sea. An epic struggle began for Metchnikoff which
+was to last for twenty-five years, until the moment
+when the phagocyte theory, his child now grown
+up, emerged victoriously. To each attack, to each
+objection, he answered by fresh experiments, fresh
+observations annihilating objections; his theory was
+assuming a wider and wider scope, becoming more
+solid, more convincing.... But only his intimates
+knew how much the struggle cost him in vital force,
+what sleepless nights, due to continuous cerebral
+tension and to the effort to conceive some new and
+irrefragable experiment, what alternations of hope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+and depression.... In an ardent, stormy life such
+as this, each year counted for many.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he arrived at the Pasteur Institute
+he undertook active researches with the object of
+developing and defending the phagocyte theory.</p>
+
+<p>By experiments on the <i>rouget</i> of pigs he refuted
+the objections of Emmerich, who affirmed that, in
+that disease, the destruction of the microbes was not
+due to phagocytes. By experiments on the anthrax
+of pigeons he answered the attacks of Baumgarten
+and his pupils. To Behring, who affirmed that
+immunity was due to the bactericidal power of the
+serum, he replied by a series of experiments on the
+anthrax of rats.</p>
+
+<p>By all these researches Metchnikoff proved that
+recovery and immunity depended on the absorption
+and digestion of <i>living, virulent</i> microbes by
+phagocytes. Natural or artificial vaccination by
+attenuated microbes allows the phagocytes to become
+gradually accustomed to digest more virulent ones,
+and this confers immunity upon the organism. That
+phenomenon is comparable to that by which we can
+accustom ourselves gradually to doses of poison which
+would be very harmful if taken at the start (arsenic,
+opium, nicotine, etc.).</p>
+
+<p>Little by little, the accuracy of Metchnikoff&rsquo;s observations
+began to be realised, and, moreover, other
+scientists supported him by their personal investigations.
+The part played by phagocytosis was
+becoming more and more evident and the question
+was ripening in France and in England, but in Germany
+it still met with great opposition.</p>
+
+<p>At the Berlin Congress in 1890 the theory was
+received very favourably by Lister, whilst Koch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+attacked it, trying to prove that phagocytes played
+no part in immunity, which, according to him,
+depended upon the chemical properties of the blood.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after that, Behring discovered antitoxins,
+and this seemed to favour the chemical or humoral
+theory of immunity. According to the latter, microbes
+and their poisons were rendered harmless by the
+chemical properties of the blood serum, properties
+similar to those of disinfecting substances.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of his firm conviction of the solidity of the
+phagocyte theory, this discovery was a shock to
+Metchnikoff, for it was in apparent contradiction with
+the cellular theory of immunity. He hastened to
+undertake a series of researches; his overflowing
+eagerness infected his whole circle, every one taking
+the warmest interest in the progress of his experiments.</p>
+
+<p>This was just as preparations were being made to
+take part in the London Congress, where the question
+of immunity was to be debated and had indeed been
+placed at the head of the programme. Many papers
+were being prepared, and a veritable tourney of
+opinions was to take place at this Congress.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff had already been to England once,
+in the spring of 1891, on the occasion of his reception
+as an Honorary Doctor by the University of Cambridge.
+This gave him the opportunity of making
+closer acquaintance with the English, who inspired
+him with great sympathy; years only increased this
+feeling. He appreciated the originality of their
+earnest and generalising spirit, their loyalty and
+energy; he was grateful to them for the attentive
+and favourable attitude with which his scientific
+work and himself had been received.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He was therefore delighted that this Congress,
+which was to be the scene of his final struggle against
+his contradictors, should take place in England and
+not in Germany, a country hostile to his ideas.</p>
+
+<p>In view of the importance of the coming debate,
+a series of fresh experiments was made. This time
+Metchnikoff undertook them not only in person, but
+also in collaboration with M. Roux and with some
+students. The whole laboratory was in a state of
+effervescence.</p>
+
+<p>The principal papers to be read at the Congress
+on the question of immunity were those of Messrs.
+Roux and Büchner, the first entirely in favour of the
+phagocyte theory and the second supporting the
+humoral theory.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff read an epitome of his researches and
+of his answers to attacks on his theory. Towards the
+end of the Congress the latter had visibly acquired
+the suffrage of numerous scientists. Roux wrote to
+me from London concerning my husband&rsquo;s paper:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Metchnikoff is busy showing his preparations and, besides,
+he would not tell you how great is his triumph. He spoke
+with such passion that he carried everybody with him. I
+believe that, this evening, the phagocyte theory is the richer
+by many friends.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Thus the researches made in recent years and the
+results of the London Congress allowed us to consider
+the phagocyte theory of immunity as being solidly
+established.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, Behring&rsquo;s discovery of antitoxins still hung
+over it like a sword of Damocles; it was imperative
+that the respective parts played by antitoxins and
+by phagocytes should be elucidated. With that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+object in view, Metchnikoff undertook new researches
+and succeeded in ascertaining once for all the narrow
+link between immunity and the function of the
+phagocytes which probably elaborate the antitoxins
+as a product of their digestion of vaccinal toxins. He
+drew this conclusion from the fact that, in a rabbit
+vaccinated against hog-cholera, the exudate devoid
+of phagocytes<a name="FNanchor_20" id="FNanchor_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> is neither bactericidal, nor antitoxic,
+nor attenuating, while it is so if it contains phagocytes.
+Therefore a relation of causality exists between cells
+and the acquired properties of humors. And the
+resistance of the animal is in visible correlation with
+the degree of phagocytosis which is manifested by it.</p>
+
+<p>These results having been established, it seemed
+as if the last rampart of the humoral theory had been
+taken by storm.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile the persistent and bitter opposition
+of physicians to the phagocyte theory made a
+great impression on Metchnikoff, and, while stimulating
+his energy in defence of his ideas, it maintained
+him in a state of nervous excitement and even
+depressed him.</p>
+
+<p>He asked himself why this obstinate opposition
+to a doctrine based on well-established facts, easily
+tested and observed throughout the whole animal
+kingdom? To him, a naturalist, it seemed clear and
+simple and all the more admissible that it was confirmed
+by the generality of its application to all
+living beings.</p>
+
+<p>But, he thought, perhaps the real cause of the
+attitude of the contradictors lies in the very fact
+that medical science only concerns itself with the
+pathological phenomena of higher animals, leaving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+their evolution entirely out of account, as well as
+their starting-point in lower animals&mdash;whilst it is
+the very simplicity of the latter which allows us to
+penetrate to the origin of the phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps a general plan of the whole, in the shape
+of a comparative study, embracing the whole animal
+scale, would throw light over the generality of phagocytic
+phenomena and would make their continuity
+understood through normal and pathological biology.
+He determined to make this effort. In order to place
+in a fresh light the biological evolution of phagocytosis
+phenomena <i>in disease</i>, he chose one of the principal
+manifestations of pathological phagocytosis, <i>inflammation</i>,
+and, in 1891, gave a series of lectures on this
+subject which he afterwards published in a volume.
+According to his usual method, he began by the
+most primitive beings, taking as a starting-point the
+lower organisms which do not yet possess differentiated
+functions, and whose normal digestion is, if necessary,
+used as a means of defence against noxious agents.
+Then, by a comparative study in every grade of
+the animal kingdom, he proved that the same mode
+of struggle and defence persists in the mesodermic
+cells, the phagocytes in all animals in general.
+In all of them, thanks to a special sensitiveness,
+<i>Chimiotaxis</i>, phagocytes move towards the intruder,
+to englobe it and digest it if they can. This reaction
+for defence by the organism takes place in beings
+endowed with a vascular system by the migration
+of the blood-phagocytes which traverse the walls of
+the blood-vessels in order to betake themselves to
+the invaded point.</p>
+
+<p>In higher animals, all the symptoms which accompany
+this phenomenon of defence and which constitute<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+the classical picture of inflammation (a heightened
+temperature, pain, redness, tumefaction) are due to
+the complexity of the organism; but the <i>essence</i>, the
+<i>primum movens</i> of inflammation, with them also, is
+a <i>digestive</i> action of the phagocytes upon the noxious
+agent, therefore a salutary reaction of the organism,
+essentially similar to the normal digestion of inferior
+beings. Metchnikoff adduced numerous examples
+giving evidence of the genetic link which exists
+between inflammation and normal intracellular
+digestion, and while establishing the evolution of
+the former on biological and experimental bases, he
+showed at the same time the close connection which
+binds normal biology and pathological biology.</p>
+
+<p>This series of lectures formed a volume which
+appeared in 1892 under the title of <i>Leçons sur la
+pathologie comparée de l&rsquo;inflammation</i>, a book which
+contributed to the acceptation of the phagocyte
+theory and which showed the importance of Natural
+History applied to Medicine.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Cholera &mdash; Experiments on himself and others &mdash; Illness of M. Jupille &mdash; Death
+of an epileptic subject &mdash; Insufficient results.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> acute period of the struggle in defence of the
+phagocyte theory now seemed to have come to an
+end and Metchnikoff turned his thoughts towards a
+new field of ideas.</p>
+
+<p>Having elucidated the essence of inflammation,
+he wished to study the origin of another pathological
+symptom, <i>i.e.</i> the rise in temperature which constitutes
+a feverish condition. To that end he undertook a
+succession of experiments on cold-blooded animals; he
+injected microbes into crocodiles and serpents, hoping
+thus to provoke a rise in their temperature. But
+those experiments did not give the results expected.</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile (1892) cholera had made its
+appearance in France; the specificity of the cholera
+vibrio was not finally established at that time. The
+observations made by Pettenkoffer on the immunity
+of certain regions, despite the presence of the cholera
+vibrio in the water, and the experiments made upon
+himself by that scientist, seemed to plead against the
+specificity of the cholera vibrio; but other facts spoke
+in its favour. Desirous of solving this question,
+Metchnikoff went to a cholera centre in Brittany
+in order to fetch the necessary materials. Having
+done so, he attempted to produce cholera in divers
+kinds of animals, but without success.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As he failed to solve the problem of the specificity
+of the cholera vibrio on animals, he resolved to experiment
+upon himself and consumed a culture of cholera
+vibriones. He did not contract cholera, which made
+him doubt the specificity of the vibrio, and therefore
+he consented to repeat the experiment on one of his
+workers (M. Latapie) who offered to submit to it:
+the result was the same. He then did not hesitate
+to accept the offer of a second volunteer (M. Jupille).
+The preceding results having led him to suppose that
+the cholera vibrio became attenuated <i>in vitro</i> and
+might perhaps serve as a vaccine against cholera, he
+gave a culture of long standing to the young volunteer.</p>
+
+<p>To his astonishment and despair, Jupille began
+to manifest the typical symptoms of cholera, and a
+doctor who was particularly conversant with the
+clinical chart of the disease declared the case a
+severe one because of the nervous symptoms which
+accompanied it.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff was in mortal anxiety, and even said
+to himself that he could not survive a fatal issue.
+Fortunately the patient recovered, and this terrifying
+experiment proved indisputably the specificity of the
+cholera vibrio. Yet the irregularity of its action
+showed that in certain cases conditions existed which
+prevented the inception of the disease, and Metchnikoff
+supposed that this might be due to the action of
+the different intestinal micro-organisms.</p>
+
+<p>In order to simplify the question, he began by
+making experiments outside the organism. He sowed
+the cholera vibrio with divers other microbes and
+saw that some of them facilitated its culture whilst
+others prevented it. Similar experiments within the
+organism of animals gave no conclusive results; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+simultaneous ingestion of the cholera vibrio and of
+favourable microbes did not induce cholera.</p>
+
+<p>The flora of the intestines, complex as it is, probably
+played a part on which it was difficult to throw any
+light. Yet Metchnikoff did not give up the idea of
+producing a vaccine against this disease with attenuated
+microbes, or, if not, to prevent its inception by
+preventive microbes. His thesis was strengthened
+when one of his pupils, Dr. Sanarelli, discovered a
+series of choleriform bacilli in the absence of any
+cholera epidemic, one of those microbes being found
+at Versailles, a town which had remained immune
+during every cholera epidemic.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff thought that this microbe, or some
+choleriform bacillus, similar though not specific, probably
+served as a natural vaccine against cholera in those
+localities which were spared by the epidemic though
+the cholera vibrio was brought there. This was a
+question that could only be solved by experiment.</p>
+
+<p>At the time when he had himself absorbed a
+cholera culture, Metchnikoff admitted the risk of
+catching the disease; still, his eagerness to solve the
+problem had silenced in him all other considerations
+and feelings opposed to his irresistible desire to attempt
+the experiment. This &ldquo;psychosis,&rdquo; as he himself
+called it later, recurred now, in spite of all the emotions
+he had gone through on the previous occasion, and he
+decided once again to experiment on man. It is true
+that he now only had to deal with choleriform microbes
+from Versailles which he believed to be quite harmless
+as they came from the water of a locality free
+from cholera. He therefore ingested some of the
+Versailles choleriform vibriones and gave some to
+several other people. Contrary to expectation, one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+of the latter, an incurable epileptic, showed some
+symptoms of cholera, but recovered. But as, a
+short time later, this patient died from a cause
+which remained obscure, Metchnikoff thought that
+possibly the experiment might have had something
+to do with it, and finally resolved to perform no
+other experiments on human beings.</p>
+
+<p>How could that unforeseen result be explained?
+Metchnikoff supposed that the intestine of the subject
+contained favourable microbes which had exalted the
+virulence of the bacillus, in itself weak and innocuous.
+If it were so, then certain intestinal microbes would
+influence the inception of diseases and the action of
+the micro-organisms would vary according to the
+society in which they found themselves. As such
+problems could only be solved through experiment,
+he again energetically sought for a means of conferring
+cholera upon animals. After many failures
+and difficulties, it occurred to him to try new-born
+animals whose intestinal flora, not yet developed,
+could not interfere with the swarming of the ingested
+bacilli. He chose young suckling rabbits for his
+experiments and, with the aid of <i>favourable</i> microbes,
+he succeeded at last in giving them characteristic
+cholera, through ingestion; thus it became possible
+to study intestinal cholera on these animals.</p>
+
+<p>However, numerous researches on the prevention
+of cholera by means of divers microbes gave no results
+sufficiently conclusive to permit their application
+to human beings. The problem was rendered extremely
+complicated and difficult by the many and
+varied influences of numerous intestinal microbes and
+the inconstancy of microbian species in the same
+individual.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Pfeiffer&rsquo;s experiments, 1895 &mdash; The Buda-Pest Congress &mdash; Extracellular
+destruction of microbes &mdash; Reaction of the organism against toxins &mdash; Dr.
+Besredka&rsquo;s researches &mdash; Macrophages &mdash; The Moscow Congress,
+1897 &mdash; Bordet&rsquo;s experiments.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Metchnikoff</span> had scarcely recovered from all the
+emotions caused by his experiments on cholera, which
+he was still studying, when, in 1894, a work appeared
+by a well-known German scientist, Pfeiffer, bringing
+out new facts in favour of the extracellular destruction
+of microbes.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst studying the influence of the blood serum
+within the organism and not outside it as his predecessors
+had done, he had found that cholera
+vibriones, injected into the peritoneum of a guinea-pig
+vaccinated against cholera, were nearly all killed
+in a few minutes and that they then presented the
+form of motionless granules in the peritoneal liquid.
+This granular degenescence, said Pfeiffer, took place
+apart from the phagocytes and therefore without
+their intervention. Metchnikoff repeated the experiment
+at once and ascertained that it was perfectly
+accurate.</p>
+
+<p>The complexity of biological phenomena being
+very great, he fully admitted the possibility of other
+means of defence in the organism besides that of
+the phagocytic reaction. However, this new fact
+disagreed so much with his own observation, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+seemed so isolated, that Metchnikoff supposed an
+error of interpretation must have been made and
+tried to throw light upon it. He spent sleepless
+nights seeking the conclusive experiment which might
+explain Pfeiffer&rsquo;s phenomenon.</p>
+
+<p>His excitement was all the greater that he was
+very soon going to the International Congress at
+Buda-Pest, where he intended to expose the results
+of his new researches, and he feared that he should
+not have time to make all the experiments which he
+required in support of his arguments. However, the
+general impression of the Congress was clearly favourable
+to the phagocyte theory. This is how M. Roux
+picturesquely described the scene at Metchnikoff&rsquo;s
+Jubilee in 1915:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>"I can see you now at the Buda-Pest Congress in 1894,
+disputing with your antagonists; with your fiery face,
+sparkling eyes, and dishevelled hair, you looked like the
+Dæmon of Science, but your words, your irresistible arguments
+raised the applause of your audience.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The new facts, which had at first sight seemed to contradict
+the phagocyte theory, now entered into harmony with it.
+It was found to be sufficiently comprehensive to reconcile the
+holders of the humoral theory with the partisans of the
+cellular theory.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This is how Metchnikoff had reconciled the apparent
+disagreement of Pfeiffer&rsquo;s phenomenon with the
+phagocyte doctrine: he demonstrated, by a series of
+experiments, that the extracellular destruction of the
+cholera vibriones in the peritoneum of a guinea-pig
+vaccinated against cholera, did in no wise depend on
+the <i>chemical</i> properties of the blood serum, but was
+simply due to the digestive juices which had escaped
+from the inside of the leucocytes, damaged by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+intraperitoneal injection. Those digestive juices, or
+<i>cytases</i>, poured into the peritoneal liquid were what
+killed the injected cholera vibriones and transformed
+them into &ldquo;Pfeiffer&rsquo;s granulations.&rdquo; On the other
+hand, if by means of various precautions the phagocytes
+were left unmolested, the extracellular destruction
+did not take place and the vibriones were digested
+within the phagocytes.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff used other experiments to prove that
+the bactericidal property of blood juices did not exist
+without intervention from the phagocytes. For
+instance, in a guinea-pig vaccinated against cholera,
+the bacilli are not destroyed if they are injected into
+parts of the organism that are devoid of pre-existing
+phagocytes, such as in the subcutaneous tissue, in
+the anterior chamber of the eye or in an aseptically-obtained
+&oelig;dema. On the other hand, if, in the same
+medium, some exudate is injected containing damaged
+leucocytes from which the digestive juice is leaking,
+the vibriones introduced are destroyed. The same
+results are obtained <i>in vitro</i>.</p>
+
+<p>All these experiments proved that the extracellular
+destruction of the cholera vibrio was accomplished
+by the digestive juices which had passed from
+the phagocytes into the humors and not at all through
+a special property of those humors. Once again the
+phagocyte theory rose triumphant from the test.</p>
+
+<p>After having finally proved that it is by means of
+its phagocytes that the organism fights <i>microbes</i>,
+Metchnikoff wished to find out whether it was by
+the same process that it struggled with their poisons,
+or <i>toxins</i>. This problem, far more difficult to solve,
+took him many years&rsquo; study. Whilst every phase
+of the phagocytes&rsquo; struggle against microbes can be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+followed with the eyes, it is impossible to do so where
+poisons are concerned, since they are invisible; it
+is necessary to proceed by a different road.</p>
+
+<p>Faithful to his method of taking as a starting-point
+the simplest expression of the phenomenon to be
+studied, Metchnikoff began by lower beings. Unicellular
+organisms, such as myxomycetes, am&oelig;bæ,
+and infusoria, sometimes manifest a natural immunity
+to certain poisons. It is also possible to endow
+them with artificial immunity by accustoming them
+gradually to substances which, ingested straight away,
+would infallibly have killed them. Such phenomena,
+seen in unicellular beings, could only be ascribed to
+the reaction of the cell itself. Therefore Metchnikoff
+supposed <i>a priori</i> that the phagocytes, being
+similar primitive cells of multicellular beings, would
+also react against poisons. And, in fact, he ascertained
+that the number of phagocytes in a rabbit&rsquo;s
+blood diminished considerably under the influence of
+a fatal dose of arsenic, whilst it increased under the
+influence of small doses of the poison, to which it was
+possible to accustom the animal.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Besredka, a disciple of Metchnikoff, made some
+very interesting researches, which entirely confirmed
+the share of the phagocytes in the reaction against
+sulphides of arsenic. He had chosen the trisulphide,
+a very slightly soluble salt of an orange colour, in
+order to find it again easily within the organism.
+After having injected non-fatal doses of it into the
+peritoneal cavity, he obtained an exudate in which
+all the orange granules of the salt were to be found
+included within those leucocytes which have a large,
+non-lobed nucleus&mdash;the <i>macrophages</i>. These cells
+gradually digested the salt they had englobed, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+ended by disappearing entirely within them, and the
+rabbit remained safe and sound. On the other hand,
+it died if the same doses of the same salt had been
+protected from the leucocytes by an elderberry bag,
+or when the leucocytes had been attracted elsewhere
+by a previous injection of carmine for instance.
+Those experiments removed all doubts as to the
+share of the phagocytes in the destruction of mineral
+poisons.</p>
+
+<p>Certain experiments on <i>microbian</i> poisons spoke
+in the same sense. Thus MM. Roux and Borrel had
+observed that the diphtheritic toxin, which is inoffensive
+to rats even in large doses, kills that animal
+if a small quantity of it is introduced into the brain,
+the probable explanation being that, in cases of subcutaneous
+injections, the poison, &ldquo;phagocyted&rdquo; on the
+way, was destroyed before it reached the nerve cells.</p>
+
+<p>Thus experiments seemed to plead in favour of
+the view that the part played by phagocytosis is not
+limited to the struggle against microbes, but also
+extends to the defence against poisons and toxins.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>After having studied the mode of destruction of
+these, Metchnikoff wished to elucidate the origin of
+the counter-poisons, the specific antitoxins discovered
+by Behring in the humors of immunised organisms,
+a question of which the study was even more difficult.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff began by asking himself whether the
+microbes themselves did not produce antitoxins in
+order to defend themselves against enemy micro-organisms.
+He made many experiments but only
+obtained negative results, and concluded that the
+antitoxins must be manufactured by the organism
+itself.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The origin of this property must be more recent
+than that of the phagocytic reaction, for it does not
+exist in plants or in inferior animals. It was only
+from superior cold-blooded vertebrates, such as the
+crocodile&mdash;and that only in artificial conditions&mdash;and
+upwards, that Metchnikoff succeeded in finding a
+specific antitoxic power in the humors.</p>
+
+<p>He ascertained that the vaccination of animals by
+toxins conferred, after a time, antitoxic powers to the
+blood and humors <i>which contained leucocytes</i>. He
+concluded therefrom that the presence of antitoxins
+depended on that of the phagocytes. Experiments on
+divers higher animals having proved that, in them
+also, antitoxins were localised in <i>humors containing
+phagocytes</i>, Metchnikoff concluded that the antitoxins
+were manufactured by the cells themselves. As
+toxins are absorbed and digested chiefly by <i>macrophages</i>,
+it is probable that it is the latter also which
+manufacture specific antitoxins, or the final product
+of the digestion of corresponding toxins. Metchnikoff
+could only propound this idea as an hypothesis,
+for the complexity and difficulty of a material demonstration
+did not yet allow of a definite solution of the
+problem. However, certain observations on toxins
+and antitoxins pleaded in favour of this thesis.</p>
+
+<p>For instance, working in collaboration with MM.
+Roux and Salimbeni, he had found that it is by
+soluble poisons that the cholera vibrions harm the
+organism or kill it, but that small doses of the same
+<i>poisons</i> are vaccines and make the blood of the vaccinated
+animal <i>antitoxic</i>. On the other hand, a
+<i>microbian</i> vaccination is preventive against <i>microbes</i>
+only but not against toxins and the blood does not
+become antitoxic. This is explained by the fact that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+it is not the same cells which digest cholera microbes
+and cholera toxins: the <i>microphages</i> digest the
+vibriones whilst the <i>macrophages</i> digest the poisons
+and, probably, manufacture as products of this
+digestion, the corresponding antibody, the cholera
+antitoxins.</p>
+
+<p>On the contrary, in cases of the inclusion of
+<i>microbes</i> by <i>macrophages</i>, as, for instance, in plague,
+the blood acquires an <i>antitoxic</i> power by injection of
+the microbes themselves and not by their toxins, as
+was demonstrated by M. Roux and his collaborators.
+The same fact was observed by Metchnikoff on the
+alligator, in whom also microbes are digested by
+<i>macrophages</i>. In those cases, when microbes and toxins
+are digested by the same cells, the latter manufacture
+antibodies against both.</p>
+
+<p>These facts rendered legitimate the supposition
+of the macrophagic origin of antitoxins.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>In 1897 an International Congress took place in
+Moscow. Metchnikoff read a paper on the phagocytic
+reaction against toxins and another dealing
+with the whole of the knowledge acquired concerning
+human plague. He ended this by a plea in favour of
+Science, so often accused of having contributed
+nothing to the solution of the most important human
+problems, particularly ethical ones, and of having,
+on the contrary, sanctioned the law of Might by
+tabulating the laws of the struggle for existence.
+Metchnikoff objected that, far from doing so, Science,
+by revealing the laws of Nature, applied to humanity
+the benefits derived from them, whilst striving to
+counterbalance their cruel or harmful effects. The
+struggle against plague and other diseases was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+concrete example of this, for here medical science
+opposed itself to the cruelty of &ldquo;natural selection.&rdquo;
+He wound up his speech by the following words,
+&ldquo;Just as, in order to satisfy his æsthetic tastes,
+Man revolts against the laws of Nature which creates
+races of sterile and fragile flowers, he does not hesitate
+to defend the weak against the laws of natural
+selection. Science has been faithful to her mission
+and to her generous traditions. Let her, then, progress
+unhindered.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s friend and companion, M. Nocard,
+wrote to me concerning Metchnikoff&rsquo;s paper:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Do not believe a word that Metchnikoff tells you. He
+had tremendous success. The somewhat free form of his
+paper contributed to its success, as it only made his conviction
+and enthusiasm more apparent. Thus the Sibyl on her
+tripod.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff had at this period a very talented
+disciple, M. I. Bordet, who opened a new path by
+a series of researches of the greatest importance.
+He found, among other things, that &ldquo;the figured
+elements&rdquo; can be destroyed outside the cells, in the
+humors. Thus, if red blood corpuscles from one animal
+are injected into an animal of a different kind, these
+globules are destroyed, not within the phagocytes,
+but outside them, in the ambient humors. Metchnikoff
+studied this phenomenon and proved that the explanation
+was the same that he had previously given of
+Pfeiffer&rsquo;s phenomenon in the case of cholera vibrions.
+In Bordet&rsquo;s experiments, the leucocytes which were
+already existing in the humors were also damaged by
+the experimental shock; but, if this was carefully
+avoided, the phagocytes, remaining intact, englobed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+and digested the injected red corpuscles and no
+phenomenon similar to Pfeiffer&rsquo;s took place.</p>
+
+<p>These observations led Metchnikoff to a thorough
+study of the destruction of cellular elements by the
+phagocytes. He had already observed that, whilst the
+struggle with microbes is chiefly undertaken by small
+leucocytes with a lobed nucleus&mdash;the <i>microphages</i>&mdash;it
+is the great leucocytes with a single large nucleus&mdash;the
+so-called <i>macrophages</i>&mdash;which undertake the
+destruction of cells, &ldquo;figured&rdquo; elements, as well as that
+of toxins. The <i>macrophages</i> are to be found not only
+in the blood but also in different organs such as the
+liver, spleen, kidneys, etc.; they seize upon living
+cells by means of mobile protoplasmic prolongations
+with which they draw them in and end by ingesting
+them completely. Not only do they thus absorb
+foreign cellular elements such as red corpuscles,
+spermatozoa, etc., but also all the weakened cells
+of the organism itself.</p>
+
+<p>This weakening may be due to normal phenomena
+such as the metamorphosis of insects or tadpoles,
+when certain organs, as they weaken, become useless
+or inactive. But, oftener, this weakening is due to
+pathological causes, as in morbid atrophies or poisoning
+by microbian toxins. In any case, the enfeeblement
+of cells exposes them to be devoured by macrophages,
+which brings about the atrophy of the cells
+or even of the organs which contain them.</p>
+
+<p>These observations suggested to Metchnikoff the
+idea that senile atrophy might be due to the same
+mechanism, and his thoughts turned towards the
+problem of the causes of old age.</p>
+
+<p>But, before undertaking researches in a new
+direction, he wished to conclude those he had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+pursuing for twenty years on the phenomenon of
+phagocytosis. He therefore started to complete his
+investigations on immunity in order to epitomise
+them and to give a definite form to his doctrine on
+that subject.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">1900. Immunity &mdash; Natural Immunity &mdash; Artificial Immunity.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">For</span> centuries the question of immunity has occupied
+the human mind because the prevention of disease
+has ever been one of the greatest preoccupations of
+Man. Savages had already observed that man can
+become refractory to the venom of serpents, either
+through a slight bite or by the application of certain
+preparations of that venom on scarified skin. It
+was also a popular and very ancient notion that the
+contact of a slightly scratched hand with the pustules
+of cow-pox conferred immunity against human small-pox.
+It was on this observation that Jenner founded
+his method of antivariolic vaccination. The latter,
+in its turn, suggested to Pasteur the idea of attempting
+antimicrobian vaccinations. Having ascertained that
+old cultures of chicken cholera, previously very virulent,
+had become harmless, he wondered whether they
+had become a vaccine and proved by experiment
+that they had. That led him to the principle of the
+attenuation of viruses and to that of vaccination
+by attenuated microbes. Thus the problem of the
+mechanism of immunity was stated.</p>
+
+<p>The first theories propounded on the subject concerned
+the humors. Pasteur supposed that immunity
+was due to the absorption, by the vaccinating
+microbes, of certain nutritive substances in the humors,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+which, not being renewed for some time, were missed
+by the microbes afterwards introduced into the organism,
+which therefore could not develop completely.
+Chauveau, on the other hand, thought that, in cases
+of immunity, the humors contained substances which
+were unfavourable to microbes. Those theories explained
+particular facts, but were not applicable to
+the generality of cases.</p>
+
+<p>Other theories,<a name="FNanchor_21" id="FNanchor_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> whilst attributing an active part
+to the organism itself, failed to account for the
+mechanism of immunity in general. This was due
+to the fact that knowledge at that time lacked the
+two essential elements, <i>i.e.</i> the modifications suffered
+by the organism which was becoming immunised, and
+the fate of the microbes in the refractory organism.</p>
+
+<p>The disappearance of the microbes in the cured
+or refractory animal had indeed been observed;<a name="FNanchor_22" id="FNanchor_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> the
+inflammatory reaction of the organism in the course
+of immunisation had been noted;<a name="FNanchor_23" id="FNanchor_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> microbes had
+long ago been observed inside the white globules of
+pus;<a name="FNanchor_24" id="FNanchor_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> but, either an erroneous interpretation was
+given to the facts observed, or, rather, the links of
+causality between those factors failed to be established
+because they were observed solely in the complicated
+organism of superior beings. Humoral theories, less
+easy to test, preserved an appearance of generality
+and were easily admitted.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the state of the question when Metchnikoff
+approached it from a naturalist&rsquo;s point of view.
+He knew the life of unicellular beings and that of the
+lower multicellular organisms in their complete simplicity;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
+he knew their mode of defence by ingestion
+and intracellular digestion. Having become familiar
+with these phenomena, visible in the single cell, he
+was better able to see his way in the complicated
+<i>milieu</i> of higher beings. He was therefore able to
+discover the connection between the divers factors
+which other scientists had observed singly. He was
+able to prove that it is the combination of these
+factors, <i>i.e.</i> inflammation, the ingestion of living and
+virulent microbes, and their disappearance by means
+of intracellular digestion which makes immunity
+possible. He demonstrated that &ldquo;there is but one
+permanent element in natural or acquired immunity,
+and that is phagocytosis.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The extension and importance of this factor,
+applicable to the whole animal kingdom, proved the
+truth and general scope of the phagocyte doctrine
+of immunity.</p>
+
+<p>In 1900, Metchnikoff presented to the International
+Congress in Paris a complete tabulation of
+his researches and fought his contradictors for the
+last time, after which, convinced that his deductions
+were solid, he began to write a work on <i>Immunity in
+Infectious Diseases</i>. In it he epitomised, as in a great
+harmonious chord, the results of his researches, reaching
+over a period of nearly twenty years; he affirmed
+and gave final expression to his doctrine of immunity,
+based on the comparative study of the mechanism of
+that phenomenon and of its evolution along the whole
+scale of living beings; he related his controversies,
+analysed the objections to his doctrine, expounded
+the theories of other scientists concerning immunity,
+and gave a general view of the present state of
+the question. This book is a living picture of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+long and important part of Metchnikoff&rsquo;s scientific
+achievements.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The question of immunity is of such great importance,
+the mechanism of this phenomenon and
+the physiology of intracellular digestion are so complicated,
+that I have thought it useful to epitomise
+here the exposition given of it by Metchnikoff in his
+book. Readers who do not care to go further into
+the subject can pass over the next few pages without
+hindering their comprehension of the following
+chapters.</p>
+
+<p>Diseases affect all living beings, and the greater
+number of plants and animals would cease to exist
+without innate or acquired immunity.</p>
+
+<p>Unicellular beings are generally immune against
+infectious diseases, which are rarely observed in them.
+Their body being almost entirely made up of digestive
+protoplasm, the microbes which they absorb are
+directly introduced into a noxious medium and are
+destroyed therein like any other food. If the
+microbes are indigestible, they are immediately
+rejected; hence, in the majority of cases, they
+cannot become harmful.</p>
+
+<p>This resistance of unicellular beings to many
+microbes and microbian toxins is due not only to
+the intense digestive power of the cell but also to
+the extreme sensitiveness which rules over the choice
+of food. Owing to this protoplasmic sensitiveness
+(<i>chimiotaxis</i>) protozoa are attracted towards certain
+microbes or substances (positive chimiotaxis) and repelled
+by others (negative chimiotaxis). Thus, many
+ciliate infusoria choose bacteria only for their food;
+they are sharply repelled by dead infusoria, etc.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Therefore, in the <i>natural</i> immunity of unicellular
+beings, two fundamental elements may already be
+observed: sensitiveness and intracellular digestion.
+No researches have yet been made on the possibility of
+conferring on protozoa an artificial immunity against
+certain pathogenic microbes and their poisons. But
+unicellular beings, insensible to microbian poisons, are
+the reverse to many chemical substances which, in their
+normal life, they have no opportunity of ingesting.</p>
+
+<p>It has been proved by experiment that, against
+many of those chemical substances, an artificial immunity
+may be given to the protozoa by accustoming
+them gradually. Very diluted solutions are added at
+first to the medium in which they live and, by gradually
+concentrating those solutions, an artificial immunity
+is conferred; the negative chimiotaxis becomes
+positive, allowing the protozoa to absorb and digest
+the poison, now become a food.</p>
+
+<p><i>Habit</i> is therefore the fundamental condition of
+artificial immunity; it must be that also of immunity
+naturally acquired. Having accidentally digested
+enfeebled microbes or having suffered an attack of
+disease, the unicellular being becomes accustomed to
+a stronger virus and becomes immune against it.
+The fact that so many unicellular beings have become
+thus accustomed is therefore connected with their
+sensitiveness and their digestion. Accordingly,
+sensitiveness, habit, and digestion are the fundamental
+factors of the mechanism of immunity in
+protozoa; this immunity thus indisputably belongs
+to the category of purely <i>cellular</i> phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>Having arrived at this conclusion, Metchnikoff
+thought that the same mechanism of immunity must
+be found in other primitive and analogous cells, such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+as the phagocytes of multicellular beings. This was
+proved by a whole series of observations and by the
+fact that the immunity of higher animals is connected
+with an intense phagocytosis. In fact, as he ascended
+the scale of beings and studied their natural and
+artificial immunity, he ascertained that, in all of them,
+the essence of immunity, masked by the complexity
+of the organism, reduced itself to the <i>phagocytes
+becoming accustomed</i> to noxious agents. The mechanism
+of immunity in protozoa could therefore really be
+compared with that of immunity in multicellular
+beings.</p>
+
+<p>Becoming accustomed and becoming immune are
+phenomena of a general order, for they can be manifested
+not only by animals, but also by plants. They,
+too, have to defend themselves against numerous
+diseases. Lower vegetables, such as myxomycetes
+(beings which stand on the limit between the animal
+and vegetable kingdoms), have an am&oelig;boid phase,
+in which they are but a simple heap of formless
+protoplasm. During that stage of their life, myxomycete
+behave towards noxious agents exactly in
+the same way as unicellular beings and, like them,
+acquire immunity by becoming gradually accustomed.</p>
+
+<p>In higher vegetables, the mechanism is different
+because of their structure. The cells of nearly all
+plants are immobilised by rigid membranes; therefore
+they cannot surround their prey, but protect
+themselves by the production of tough membranes
+(cicatrisation) and by the secretion of various juices.
+Certain of these juices (gums and resins) become
+solid when exposed to the air and constitute a sort
+of natural (dressing); others (essences) are antiseptic.
+The secretion of these cellular juices in plants is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+therefore a powerful means of defence. This defence
+is due to the extreme sensitiveness of the protoplasma
+of vegetable cells: they react against irritation by a
+defensive secretion. Vegetables, as well as unicellular
+beings, can accustom themselves or become artificially
+accustomed to noxious influences and acquire immunity.</p>
+
+<p>As to animals, Metchnikoff had already proved
+long ago that they defend themselves against morbid
+agents by phagocytosis, <i>i.e.</i> by intracellular digestion.
+It is always to be found in cases of immunity and is
+indispensable to it, on the same grounds as in unicellular
+beings. The organism of multicellular animals
+possesses various cells which play the part of phagocytes.
+There are some in the blood and humors, as
+also in the divers organs and in the tissues. These
+phagocytes are either mobile&mdash;leucocytes, or fixed&mdash;tissue-cells.
+However, all those cells may be classed
+into two principal groups: the microphages and the
+macrophages. Both categories of cells are capable of
+digesting microbes, but it is chiefly done by the microphages,
+whilst macrophages more especially digest
+figured elements (cells) of animal origin and poisons.
+It may be said that the microphages are vegetarians
+whilst the macrophages are chiefly carnivorous.</p>
+
+<p>What, then, is the mechanism of phagocytic
+digestion?</p>
+
+<p>Intracellular digestion by phagocytes is accomplished
+by means of digestive ferments, similar to
+those of our own digestive organs. &ldquo;In both cases,&rdquo;
+says Metchnikoff, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>&ldquo;a diastasic action is due to soluble
+ferments produced by living elements. In intracellular
+digestion, the diastases digest within the
+cells, whereas in extracellular digestion the phenomenon
+takes place outside the cells, in the cavity of
+the gastro-intestinal tube.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Only gradually has intracellular digestion given
+place to the digestion by secreted juices. The link
+between these two modes is to be found in certain
+transparent Invertebrates, such as the floating mollusc
+<i>Phyllirhoë</i>. The nourishment is first digested
+in the cavity of the digestive tube by secreted juices,
+and its treatment is completed within the am&oelig;boid
+cells of the cæcum.</p>
+
+<p>In higher animals, the digestion of food is due
+to several digestive ferments (rennet, pepsin, trypsin,
+enterokinase, etc.) produced by divers organs
+(stomach, pancreas, intestines). The phagocytes
+also manufacture several digestive ferments; their
+principal digestive juice is a soluble ferment of the
+trypsin category, to which Metchnikoff gave the
+name of <i>cytase</i>.<a name="FNanchor_25" id="FNanchor_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p>
+
+<p>To the morphological difference of the phagocytes
+corresponds also a difference in the properties of their
+cytases, which are suited to the digestion of this or
+that food. The cytases are kept within the interior
+of the cells and only escape into the humors when
+the phagocytes are damaged (Pfeiffer&rsquo;s phenomenon).
+This kind of ferment does not withstand a temperature
+above 55° to 58° C. In natural immunity, it
+plays the principal part by digesting morbid agents
+inside the phagocytes like any other food. But, in
+artificial immunity, other soluble ferments come into
+play, developed in consequence of vaccination.</p>
+
+<p>The principal of those is the <i>fixator</i>.<a name="FNanchor_26" id="FNanchor_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> It is less
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>sensitive than cytasis to high temperatures and can
+bear a temperature of 65° to 68° C. It is incapable,
+by itself, of killing and digesting, but by <i>fixing</i> on
+them, it <i>bites</i> them, so to speak, and makes them
+sensitive to the action of the phagocytic cytases,
+which can thus digest them more easily.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>fixator</i> may be compared to <i>enterokinase</i>, a
+special ferment in the small intestine of higher animals
+which also does not by itself digest food but which
+activates in a high degree the digestive power of
+pancreatic ferments. However, it has the property
+of fixing itself on fibrin; it is obvious that enterokinase
+and the fixator have the same essential
+properties. This similarity again proves that the
+destruction of morbid agents by the phagocytes
+really corresponds with actual digestion.</p>
+
+<p>It is in consequence of the digestion of vaccinal
+products that the phagocytes manufacture the <i>fixator</i>.
+Created at the expense of a given vaccinal substance,
+the <i>fixator</i> has a specific character which corresponds
+with that substance, whereas the cytase already
+existing within the phagocytes never has a specific
+character.</p>
+
+<p><i>Artificial</i> immunisation generally produces the
+formation of so great a quantity of fixators that the
+phagocytes are unable to retain them and excrete them
+in part in the ambient humors, <i>i.e.</i> the blood plasma,
+or serum. When, afterwards, virulent morbid agents
+(microbes or figured elements) are introduced into
+an organism which has been immunised against them,
+they are at once faced, in the humors, with <i>fixators</i>,
+which immediately exert a biting action on them
+and render them sensitive to the action of the
+intracellular cytasis of the phagocytes. The same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+mechanism explains the specificity of the serums of
+vaccinated animals.</p>
+
+<p>The quantity of specific fixators in the humors
+depends on the surplus production of that ferment by
+the phagocytes and is not always the same. That is
+why different serums are preventive in different
+degrees. They are inactive if the phagocytes have
+not produced enough fixators to pass any out into
+the humors. For a serum is only preventive when it
+brings into the new organism into which it is injected
+a sufficient quantity of fixators ready to
+sensibilise the morbid agents afterwards introduced
+into the organism.</p>
+
+<p>The over-production of antibodies&mdash;fixators or antitoxins&mdash;corresponds
+up to a certain point with the
+frequency and quantity of vaccinal injections; that
+is why serums are usually preventive in artificial
+immunity and very rarely so in natural immunity.
+Through successive inoculations, the cells become
+accustomed to digesting the microbes, or figured
+elements, and manufacture, in consequence of that
+digestion, growing quantities of fixators.</p>
+
+<p>In natural conditions, on the other hand, morbid
+agents do not usually penetrate into the organism in
+massive or repeated doses; therefore digestion under
+natural conditions results in a less abundant production
+of fixators which can be contained in the interior
+of the phagocytes without leaking into the humors
+in sufficient quantities to render the latter preventive.</p>
+
+<p>It might be thought that immunity against pathogenic
+microbes is accompanied by immunity against
+their toxins. In reality that is not always the case,
+and very often the organism, now made refractory
+to certain microbes, remains sensitive to their toxic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+products. Thus antimicrobian immunity and antitoxic
+immunity constitute in most cases two distinct
+properties. In order to confer antitoxic immunity
+recourse must be had to vaccination by soluble poisons
+and toxins.</p>
+
+<p>Immunity, acquired naturally, is so especially
+against microbes and not against toxins, for, in nature,
+it is almost always by microbes that the organism
+is threatened. As to <i>antitoxic</i> immunity, it is very
+probably due to the intracellular digestion of toxins
+by the different macrophages. This hypothesis is
+supported by the experiments quoted in the preceding
+chapter. During antitoxic vaccination, the
+macrophages manufacture, probably at the expense
+of vaccinal toxins, a certain quantity of <i>antitoxins</i>,
+substances which offer a great similarity with the
+fixators. Like them, they are specific; they are
+also produced in great quantities and excreted into
+the humors, which they render antitoxic when sufficiently
+abundant; finally, they are not very sensitive
+to high temperatures. That is why, in spite of the
+impossibility of proving their origin directly, it is
+quite probable that it is analogous to that of the
+fixators and that antitoxins are manufactured by
+cellular elements, the macrophages in particular. For
+it is they which absorb and digest toxins as well as
+soluble poisons.</p>
+
+<p>This deduction is also supported by the antitoxic
+immunity which may be conferred on <i>unicellular</i>
+beings in which the cell alone enters into play.</p>
+
+<p>Phagocytes no doubt manufacture many other
+soluble ferments corresponding with the elements
+which they absorb, for, in a vaccinated organism,
+divers new specific properties of the serum are to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+found, such as that of agglutination, precipitation, etc.
+Humoral properties may be more or less durable,
+in proportion as the products manufactured by the
+phagocytes are more or less rapidly evacuated by the
+organism.</p>
+
+<p>All these humoral properties, traced back to their
+first source, depend upon the digestive activity of the
+phagocytes, since they are the products of that
+digestion. In cases where it has not yet been possible
+to make a direct demonstration of this, it becomes
+evident through analogy and experiments pointing in
+that direction.</p>
+
+<p>To sum up, according to Metchnikoff, &ldquo;<i>Immunity in
+infectious diseases is linked with cellular physiology,
+namely, with the phenomenon of the resorption of
+morbid agents through intracellular digestion.</i> In a final
+analysis, the latter (as also the digestion of food in
+the gastro-intestinal tube) reduces itself to phenomena
+of a physico-chemical order; however, it is a real
+<i>digestion</i> accomplished by the living cell.... The
+study of Immunity, from a general point of view,
+belongs to the subject of Digestion.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Immunity against diseases is but one of the manifestations
+of an immunity on a much larger scale,
+always based, in final analysis, on the sensitiveness
+of the living cellular protoplasm. The sensitiveness
+of the nervous cells extends this phenomenon to
+the psychical domain. They also are capable of
+becoming accustomed to external irritations of all
+kinds, hence constituting a psychical immunity for
+the organism. We all know that one can become
+accustomed to many painful or violent sensations;
+and, as Metchnikoff says: <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>&ldquo;... It is very probable
+that the whole gamut of Habit, starting from the
+unicellular beings, who accustom themselves to live in
+an unsuitable medium, to cultured men who acquire
+the habit of not believing in human justice, rests on
+one and the same fundamental property of living
+matter.&rdquo;</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+<p> <span class="pagenum">
+<a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a>
+</span>
+</p>
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Private sorrows &mdash; Death of Pasteur, 1895 &mdash; Ill-health &mdash; Senile atrophies &mdash; Premature
+death &mdash; Orthobiosis &mdash; Syphilis &mdash; Acquisition of anthropoid
+apes.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Metchnikoff&rsquo;s</span> health had suffered from the numerous
+emotions provoked by the struggle in defence of the
+phagocyte doctrine and also from a series of sad
+events. In 1893, sickness and death fell upon our
+family; I lost a sister and a brother at a short interval
+and had myself to undergo a serious operation. My
+husband nursed me night and day, as a mother might
+have done, and went through the deepest anxiety
+on account of post-operative complications. All this
+told on him all the more that he had just endured
+cruel moral suffering during the experiments on cholera
+mentioned above. In 1894, an agricultural crisis in
+Russia influenced our material situation and gave him
+many worries. In the autumn of 1895, M. Pasteur&rsquo;s
+health became worse and, soon afterwards, he died.</p>
+
+<p>This series of calamities depressed Metchnikoff, his
+old cardiac trouble returned, and he again became a
+prey to insomnia. We spent part of the holidays in
+the mountains, thinking it might do him good, but
+he did not care for a prolonged rest; he was preoccupied
+by the thought of his interrupted experiments
+and only thought of returning to the laboratory.</p>
+
+<p>In 1898, he had some disquieting symptoms of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+kidney trouble, a little albumen. He consulted the
+celebrated German physician, von Noorden, who
+found nothing serious, but this did not reassure him
+and he continued to worry about himself.</p>
+
+<p>Already some time previously, theoretical considerations
+on senile atrophies had directed his thoughts
+towards old age. His reflections now turned towards
+the psychological aspect of the problem; he analysed
+his personal sensations and realised that he, at the
+age of 53, felt an ardent desire to live. This imperious
+instinct for life, in spite of the inevitable evolution
+towards personal death and old age, brought his
+thoughts back to the disharmonies of human nature.
+But now, through all his gloomy reflections, he was
+borne up by the unshakable conviction that Science
+would succeed in correcting those disharmonies and
+he continued to work with untiring energy.</p>
+
+<p>He had prescribed for himself a hygienic diet,
+based on the idea that the cause of his own condition
+and senility in general was due to a chronic poisoning
+by intestinal microbes. This diet consisted in avoiding
+raw food in order not to introduce noxious microbes
+into the intestines, and in absorbing their useful
+enemies, the acid-forming microbes of sour milk.
+This diet was very favourable to his health.</p>
+
+<p>After he had finished his book on immunity he at
+last allowed himself to pass on to the new questions
+which preoccupied him, <i>i.e.</i> senility and death.</p>
+
+<p>He set forth a sketch of his ideas in 1901 in a
+paper which he read at Manchester (Wilde Lecture)
+on the &ldquo;Flora of the Human Body.&rdquo; He reviewed
+this flora and pointed out the harmful effect of the
+microbes, especially those of the large intestine the
+toxins of which effect a chronic poisoning of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+cells of our organism and thus provoke their gradual
+weakening. He then indicated the means of combating
+this evil, on the one hand by stimulating the vital
+activity of the cells exposed to enfeeblement, by
+means, for instance, of small doses of specific cytotoxins,
+and, on the other hand, by direct action on
+intestinal microbes. He concluded by saying that
+&ldquo;the intestinal flora is the principal cause of the
+too short duration of our life, which flickers out
+before having reached its goal. Human conscience
+has succeeded in making this injustice obvious;
+Science must now set to work to correct it. It will
+succeed in doing so, and it is to be hoped that the
+opening century will witness the solution of this great
+problem.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff considered that our chronic poisoning
+by intestinal microbes weakens our cellular elements;
+he supposed that the same cause might provoke
+senile phenomena, manifestly due to weakness of the
+tissues.</p>
+
+<p>One of the first manifestations of senility being the
+whitening of hair, he began to study the mechanism
+of that. He had previously observed the dominant
+part played by phagocytosis in all phenomena of
+atrophy, and it occurred to him that it may be phagocytes
+which destroy the colouring matter of hair, a
+substance which, in the form of tiny granules, is
+enclosed within the hair cells. In fact, he found
+that the whitening process is accompanied by a
+stimulation of the am&oelig;boid cells which introduce
+their protoplasmic prolongations into the periphery
+of the hair. They absorb the coloured granules, or
+pigment, and digest it, partly on the spot, partly
+after carrying it into the root of the hair, often even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+in the connective tissue which supports the hairy
+scalp. As the pigment becomes destroyed, the hair
+loses its colour and whitens. The cells which devour
+the pigment&mdash;pigmentophages&mdash;belong to the category
+of macrophages which, in general, absorb all the
+enfeebled cells in the organism.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff was able to note similar phenomena
+in divers other senile atrophies either by his own
+ulterior researches or by collaboration with his pupils
+(MM. Salimbeni and Weinberg).</p>
+
+<p>In the same way that the whitening of the hair
+depends on the destruction of pigment by pigmentophages,
+the wrinkles of the skin, weakness of the
+muscles, friability of the bones, and senile degenerescence
+of divers organs are caused by the destruction
+of weakened cells which do not defend themselves
+and thus become the prey of the stronger and more resisting
+macrophages. Senility is thus no other than
+a generalised atrophy. What is it that provokes it?
+The answer is: The swarming microbes in our large
+intestine. They form the permanent source of a
+slow poisoning of our organism. This fact alone
+suffices to explain one of the principal causes of the
+enfeebling of our tissues. It is not simultaneous in
+all the cells because of their different powers of
+resistance. The struggle and destruction of the weak
+by the strong is the cruel law of nature; therefore
+the macrophages, more resisting to poisons, take
+advantage of the weakening of other cells in order
+to devour them, and this is one of the causes of
+senility.</p>
+
+<p>These reflections and the biological researches which
+confirmed them allowed Metchnikoff gradually to
+build up a philosophical doctrine, which he expounded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+in 1903 in his work, <i>Études sur la nature
+humaine</i>.</p>
+
+<p>He considered &ldquo;old age&rdquo; as a pathological phenomenon.
+He saw in it one of the most important disharmonies
+of human nature, because of the fact that
+neither senility nor death is accompanied by a natural
+instinct. The accomplishment of every physiological
+function leads to satiety or to a desire for rest; after
+a busy day, man feels an instinctive need for rest and
+sleep. But, in his maturity, he has no desire to grow
+old, and in his old age none to die. It is rare that
+one should aspire to die, and nobody wishes to grow
+old. These facts are in contradiction with other
+natural phenomena; they are all the more discordant
+that they play an immense part in our psychical life.</p>
+
+<p>After a general review of opinions on human nature,
+Metchnikoff analysed it from the biological point of
+view; he revealed its discords and concluded that it
+is far from being perfect. In his eyes, the lack of
+harmony in the human being is an inheritance from
+our animal ancestors; they have handed down to us
+a whole series of remains of organs which are not only
+useless but even harmful in the new conditions of
+human existence.</p>
+
+<p>The large intestine, inherited from mammalian
+ancestors, holds the first place among those noxious
+organs. This reservoir of food refuse was very useful
+to our animal forebears in their struggle for existence;
+it allowed them not to interrupt their flight whilst
+pursued by their enemies. In man, whose life conditions
+are different, a large intestine of that size,
+without offering the same advantages, is a source of
+slow and continuous poisoning and a cause of premature
+senility and death.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Man, after acquiring a still higher development,
+realised these evils and made concentrated efforts to
+fight them and to soothe his own terrors. It is for
+that object that the divers religious and philosophical
+systems were created, in which humanity sought for
+consolation. Finding none there, man turned to
+Science, which, at first, neither solved his doubts nor
+eliminated his sufferings. But Science provided him
+with rational methods of research, owing to which he
+gradually progressed and conquered a series of truths,
+allowing him gradually to struggle against some of
+his troubles and to solve some of his problems.
+Science has already done much to diminish the diseases
+which are among the chief scourges of humanity.
+It has thrown light upon the causes of many of them
+and has found preventive and curative remedies for
+several.</p>
+
+<p>Surgery, antiseptics, serotherapy, vaccinations
+already yield secure results. Hygiene and prophylaxis
+are in course of development, and a vast prospect
+is open to them in the future. But our heaviest
+burdens, senility and death, common to all, have yet
+scarcely been studied. Having expounded his views
+on senility and proved that it is a pathological phenomenon,
+Metchnikoff concluded that to struggle against
+it was quite as possible as to struggle against disease.</p>
+
+<p>The principal causes which bring about <i>premature</i>
+senility are: alcoholism, chronic poisoning by intestinal
+microbes, and infectious diseases, headed by
+syphilis. Surely Science will discover efficacious
+means against all these.</p>
+
+<p>The strengthening of the beneficent cells in our
+organism; the transformation of the wild intestinal
+flora into a cultivated flora, by the introduction of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+useful microbes; the struggle against infectious
+diseases and alcoholism&mdash;all these are workable means
+of fighting pathological and premature senility.</p>
+
+<p>When old age becomes physiological and no longer
+painful it will become proportionate with the other
+epochs of our lives and cease to alarm us. But how
+is the fear of death to be explained, since it is a general
+and inevitable phenomenon? How is it that we have
+no <i>natural instinct</i> for death? Metchnikoff supposes
+that this lack of harmony in our nature comes from
+the fact that death is as <i>premature</i> as senility and
+arrives before the <i>natural instinct for it</i> has had time
+to develop. This supposition is confirmed by the
+fact that old people who have reached an exceptionally
+advanced age are often satiated with life
+and feel the <i>need</i> of death as we feel a need of sleep
+after a long day&rsquo;s work. That is why we have a
+right to suppose that, when the limit of life has been
+extended, owing to scientific progress, the instinct of
+death will have time to develop normally and will
+take the place of the fear which death provokes at
+the present day. Both death and old age will become
+physiological and the greatest discord in our nature
+will be conquered.</p>
+
+<p>Our manner of life will have to be modified and
+directed according to rational and scientific data if
+we are to run through the normal cycle of life&mdash;<i>orthobiosis</i>.
+The pursuit of that goal will even influence
+the basis of morals. Orthobiosis cannot be accessible
+to all until knowledge, rectitude, and solidarity
+increase among men, and until social conditions are
+kinder.</p>
+
+<p>Man will then no longer be content with his natural
+inheritance; he will have to intervene actively in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+order to correct his disharmonies. &ldquo;Even as he
+has modified the nature of plants and animals Man
+will have to modify his own nature in order to make
+it more harmonious.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In order to obtain a new race, one forms an ideal
+in relation to the organism to be modified. &ldquo;In
+order to modify human nature, it is necessary to
+realise what is the ideal in view, after which every
+resource of which Science disposes must be taxed in
+order to obtain that result. If an ideal is possible,
+capable of uniting men in a sort of religion of the
+future, it can only be based on scientific principles.
+And if it is true, as is so often affirmed, that it is impossible
+to live without faith, that faith must be
+faith in the power of Science.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In those words, Metchnikoff ends his book on
+Human Nature.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>The public at large and many critics did not understand
+the deep and general meaning of Metchnikoff&rsquo;s
+thoughts. They reproached him with having an insufficiently
+exalted ideal, for they only saw in his
+doctrine the desire of postponing senility and living
+longer. They did not understand that to revolt
+against the lack of harmony in nature, through which
+all humanity has to suffer, not only physically but
+morally, was to aspire to perfection. They did not
+consider that, in order to attain that end, all human
+culture and the whole social state would have to be
+modified; that this could only be done through many
+virtues, intense energy, and great self-control. They
+had not understood the elevation and power of an
+ideal which aspired to perfect not only the direction
+of life but human nature itself. They had not understood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+the audacious beauty of such a struggle, the
+benefit conferred by the belief that the human will
+and the human mind are capable of transforming
+Evil into Good according to a conceived ideal!...</p>
+
+<p>In the meanwhile Metchnikoff, convinced that
+Knowledge is Power and that &ldquo;Science alone can
+lead suffering Humanity into the right path,&rdquo; quietly
+continued his task.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>One of the most characteristic symptoms of old
+age is the hardening of the arteries&mdash;arterio-sclerosis.
+He therefore especially wished to elucidate the mechanism
+of that phenomenon.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst many, yet unknown, factors come into
+play in senility, one disease, syphilis, often provokes
+arterio-sclerosis, indisputably due to a morbid agent.
+Metchnikoff therefore began to study this disease,
+of which the origin is infectious&mdash;especially as he
+thought he could do so experimentally.</p>
+
+<p>Long before this, he had conceived the idea that
+the study of those human diseases which cannot be
+transmitted to ordinary laboratory animals might be
+carried out on anthropoid apes, of all animals the
+nearest to man. He had spoken of it to M. Pasteur,
+but, at that time, the Institute could not afford to
+acquire these costly animals. In 1903, at the Madrid
+Congress, Metchnikoff received a 5000 fr. prize and
+utilised this money in the acquisition of two anthropoid
+apes. The same year M. Roux won the Osiris
+prize of 100,000 fr. which he devoted to the same
+object, and it was decided that the two together
+would undertake researches on syphilis. Other donations,
+30,000 fr. from the Morosoffs of Moscow and
+250 roubles from the Society of Dermatology and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+Syphilography of the same city, completed the capital
+required to execute the projected plan.</p>
+
+<p>The following is a short sketch of the researches that
+were undertaken and the results that were obtained.</p>
+
+<p>The inoculation of anthropoid apes with syphilis
+was successful. The chimpanzee was found to be
+most sensitive to the disease; it manifests primary
+and secondary symptoms identical with those of
+man. Lower monkeys, though less sensitive, also
+contract syphilis but generally only show primary
+characteristic manifestations. The possibility of
+rapidly provoking in apes, even of the inferior kinds,
+syphilitic lesions similar to those of man has a very
+great importance, for it provides a sure means of
+diagnosis in doubtful human cases. Owing to the
+liability of apes to contract syphilis, experimental
+vaccination and serotherapy could be attempted on
+them; but, though these experiments were sometimes
+encouraging, the results obtained were not constant
+enough to justify their application to man. Thus,
+it was found possible to attenuate the virus by
+successive passages in certain lower apes, and yet,
+though attenuated for the chimpanzee, it did not
+confer upon him immunity against the active virus.</p>
+
+<p>In 1905, Schaudinn discovered the syphilitic treponema
+in man. By using this discoverer&rsquo;s method,
+the same microbe was found in apes inoculated with
+human virus, which confirmed the specific character
+of the treponema.</p>
+
+<p>An observation was then made which was of great
+importance on account of its consequences: it was
+ascertained that the syphilitic microbe was absorbed
+by the less mobile mononuclear phagocytes and remained
+localised near the entrance point long enough<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+to allow of a local treatment which might succeed
+in being curative as it had time to act before the
+microbes had passed into the general circulation of
+the organism. This supposition was proved to be
+correct by a series of experiments on monkeys, and,
+in 1906, a young doctor, M. Maisonneuve, inoculated
+himself with syphilis and applied the treatment with
+a perfectly satisfactory result.</p>
+
+<p>It might have been thought that this simple, safe,
+and innocuous method would at once come into practice,
+but it was not so. Between opposition on the
+one hand, and carelessness of the subjects themselves
+on the other, this useful discovery remained for a long
+time without being utilised. All the above results were
+obtained through experiments on anthropoid apes,
+and the study of syphilis, until then purely clinical,
+entered at last into the field of experimental science.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Researches upon syphilis were but an interlude;
+Metchnikoff, returning to his principal work, resumed
+the study of senility and of the intestinal flora.
+During many years he applied himself to researches
+concerning the part played by the latter within the
+organism.</p>
+
+<p>He was able to confirm the deductions expounded
+in his <i>Études sur la nature humaine</i>, and in 1907 he
+published a new work, <i>Essais optimistes</i>, in which he
+developed the same ideas, amplified by the results
+of his new researches, and answering the criticisms
+excited by his first book.</p>
+
+<p>In the <i>Essais optimistes</i> he studied first of all the
+phenomena of old age in the different grades of the
+scale of living beings, of which he compared the life
+duration. He concluded that there was an indubitable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+connection between this and the intestinal flora.</p>
+
+<p>The shorter the intestine, the fewer microbes it
+contains and the longer the relative duration of life.
+As an example, he quoted the relatively great longevity
+of birds and bats. Those animals, adapted to
+aerial life, have to weigh as little as possible. To
+that end, they empty their intestine very frequently
+and this in consequence is not used as a reservoir
+for alimentary refuse; as it is but little developed, it
+contains a much smaller number of microbes. The
+longevity of flying animals is relatively much greater
+than that of mammals with a large intestine full of
+microbes, a constant source of slow poisoning.</p>
+
+<p>After treating the question of longevity, Metchnikoff
+dealt with that of death.</p>
+
+<p>Living beings die, in the great majority of cases,
+in consequence of diseases or accidents with an
+external cause; one involuntarily wonders whether
+there is such a thing as &ldquo;natural death,&rdquo; <i>i.e.</i> arising
+exclusively from causes due to the organism itself.
+A review of known facts allowed Metchnikoff to draw
+the following conclusions: unicellular inferior beings
+have no <i>natural</i> death; they merely die by accident.
+Their individual life is very short and comes to an
+end by multiplication or division of a unit into two;
+there is no trace of a <i>corpse</i> in this loss of previous
+individuality.</p>
+
+<p>Among superior plants, certain trees attain considerable
+dimensions (dragon-tree, baobab, oak,
+cypress), live for centuries, and die from external
+causes. Their organism presents no <i>internal</i> necessity
+for a natural death. On the other hand, a multitude
+of other plants have but a short life and their natural<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+death coincides usually with the ripening of the seed.
+It has even been observed that it is possible to
+retard the death of a plant by preventing it from
+fructifying. For instance, lawns made up of grass
+mown before it runs to seed remain green and living
+whilst grass allowed to flower and bear seed becomes
+yellow and dries up. It is a well-known fact that
+fruits and seeds are frequently poisonous. Therefore
+Metchnikoff supposed that the death of the plant may
+be due to an auto-intoxication by poisons manufactured
+by it in order to defend its seeds and ensure
+the next generation; in Nature, the individual does
+not count, but the species. Once the survival of this
+is ensured the individual may disappear.</p>
+
+<p>A similar phenomenon of auto-intoxication is manifested
+by lower vegetables, yeasts, and microbes.
+Pasteur, who discovered the microbe of lactic fermentation,
+found that this micro-organism, which itself
+produces lactic acid, perishes because of the over-production
+of this substance. Yeasts, again, cannot
+bear an excess of alcohol, their own product. Thus
+the vegetable kingdom offers us examples of the
+absence of natural death as well as examples of a
+natural death due to an auto-intoxication of the
+organism.</p>
+
+<p>In the animal kingdom examples of natural death
+are also to be found, but only very exceptionally.
+Those examples are provided by Rotifera (inferior
+worms) and by Ephemeridæ. Their adult life is
+reduced to the sexual act, almost immediately followed
+by death without an external cause. Their life is so
+short that they do not even feed and lack developed
+buccal organs. That in itself constitutes an organic
+cause of inevitable, <i>i.e.</i> natural, death.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Among human beings natural death is extremely
+rare. It sometimes occurs in very old people, under
+the shape of a peaceful last sleep. The likeness it
+bears to sleep is so striking that Metchnikoff thought
+himself authorised to form the following hypothesis
+concerning the analogy in their mechanism.</p>
+
+<p>According to a theory of Preyer&rsquo;s, fatigue and sleep
+are due to a periodical auto-intoxication set up by
+the products of the vital activity of our organism.
+These products are destroyed by oxidation during
+sleep, after which fatigue disappears and awakening
+comes. According to Metchnikoff it may be that the
+mechanism of natural death also consists in an auto-intoxication
+by the progressive accumulation of toxic
+products during the whole of life. The analogy between
+sleep and natural death allows the supposition
+that, as before going to sleep an instinctive desire for
+rest is felt, in the same way <i>natural</i> death must be
+preceded by an instinctive desire to die. Moreover,
+this is confirmed by concrete examples. Thus that of
+an old woman of ninety-three who expressed that desire
+in the following terms to her great-nephew: &ldquo;If ever
+you reach my age, you will see that death becomes
+desired just like sleep.&rdquo; The same thought had been
+expressed by the biblical patriarchs who fell asleep
+satiated with life.</p>
+
+<p>When, owing to the progress of Science, men reach
+the development of the instinct of death, they will
+look upon Death with the same calm as do very old
+people, and it will cease to be one of the principal
+causes of pessimism. It is for that reason that we
+must learn to prolong life and to allow all men to
+realise their complete and natural vital cycle, thus
+ensuring their moral balance.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Psychological observations allowed Metchnikoff to
+conclude that pessimism is much more frequent in
+youth than in maturity or in old age. He attributes
+this to the gradual development of the <i>vital instinct</i>
+which is only completely manifested in middle age.
+Man then begins to appreciate life; made wiser by
+experience, he demands less and is therefore better
+balanced.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff proffers examples in support of his
+theory. He analyses the psychic evolution of Goethe
+as reflected in his <i>Faust</i> and describes that of &ldquo;an
+intimate friend.&rdquo; These examples prove that natural
+psychological evolution already leads to a relative
+optimism. But, as long as senility is pathological and
+death premature, the apprehension that they inspire
+antagonises the normal evolution of optimism. A
+victory over those present evils will direct the normal
+course of life in the right way; one normal active
+period will succeed another; the accomplishment of
+individual and social functions corresponding with
+each period will become realisable; the death instinct
+will have time to develop, and Man, having
+been through his normal vital cycle, will sink, peacefully
+and without fear, into eternal sleep.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Researches on intestinal flora &mdash; Sour milk.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> problem of our intestinal flora is so vast and so
+difficult that it demands years of research. Numerous
+facts had already been accumulated by Science on
+this subject, but it was still far from being elucidated.</p>
+
+<p>Certain scientists affirmed that microbes favour
+digestion by decomposing food residues in the intestine
+and are therefore not merely useful, but necessary
+to the organism. Others entertained a diametrically
+opposed opinion. The first thing, therefore, was to
+know which of the two opinions was founded on fact.
+Metchnikoff studied the case of the bat, in which the
+digestive tube is short and the large bowel not even
+differentiated. As he had supposed, <i>a priori</i>, in this
+animal, whose life duration is relatively long, the
+intestine contains few or no micro-organisms, which
+proves that digestion can be accomplished without
+their intermediary. Moreover, this was before long
+amply confirmed by the researches of MM. Cohendy,
+Wollman, and other scientists who succeeded in
+bringing up chickens and tadpoles in conditions of
+absolute sterility.</p>
+
+<p>Having acquired the conviction that microbes are
+not indispensable to digestion, Metchnikoff studied the
+part they play in the organism. It is universally
+admitted that the products of putrefaction are toxic,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+and he enquired whether the intestine sheltered
+putrefying microbes. This question had not yet been
+solved; certain bacteriologists thought that little or
+no putrefaction exists in a normal intestine. Metchnikoff
+ascertained through systematic researches that
+the intestinal flora includes several kinds of putrefying
+microbes which secrete highly toxic products.</p>
+
+<p>With his pupils and collaborators, MM. Berthelot
+and Wollman, he carried out a series of experiments
+which established the fact that this intoxication is
+due to poisons of the aromatic group, such as phenols
+and indols. With these substances, they succeeded
+in artificially provoking arterio-sclerosis in the organs
+of animals, and also other modifications similar to
+those which are observed in senility. Having proved
+that putrefying microbes provoke the intoxication
+of the tissues, Metchnikoff set to work to find a
+means of struggling against those microbes.</p>
+
+<p>It was known that they could only live in an
+alkaline medium which is precisely that of the intestinal
+juices. Metchnikoff thought that if means were
+found to render the intestinal contents acid, without
+harm being done to the organism, the putrefying
+microbes might thus be destroyed. It had been
+known for a long time that sour milk does not
+suffer putrefaction, that being prevented by the acid
+fermentation. The lactic microbes of this fermentation
+must therefore be antagonistic to the putrefying
+microbes. He drew a conclusion in favour of
+the utility of sour milk, containing acid-producing
+microbes; once introduced into the intestine, these
+should prevent the breeding of the noxious microbes
+which require an alkaline medium.</p>
+
+<p>His hypothesis seemed confirmed by the fact that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+populations who feed almost exclusively on curded
+milk live a very long time. In Bulgaria, for instance,
+whole villages, thus fed, are known for the longevity
+of their inhabitants. Starting from these considerations,
+he made experiments upon himself and systematically
+introduced into his diet sour milk carefully
+prepared with pure cultures of certain lactic bacilli.
+His health was benefited by it, and his friends followed
+his example. Certain doctors recommended sour
+milk, the use of which gradually spread as a hygienic
+food. Metchnikoff considered the result acquired as
+a first step towards the artificial transformation of
+the wild intestinal flora into a cultivated and useful
+flora.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, the study of the intestinal flora is
+extremely complicated because of the innumerable
+species of micro-organisms and the extreme difficulty
+of disentangling the many influences which cross each
+other. He therefore considered collective researches
+as indispensable, the life and science of one man being
+insufficient to solve so vast a problem. Up to a
+certain point he succeeded in realising this scientific
+collaboration within his own laboratory.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">The Nobel Prize &mdash; Journey to Sweden and to Russia &mdash; A day with
+Léon Tolstoï.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> 1908 Metchnikoff received the Nobel Prize, together
+with Ehrlich, for his researches on immunity. According
+to the statutes of that prize, the laureate is invited
+to give a lecture in Stockholm. Metchnikoff chose for
+his theme the &ldquo;present state of the question of immunity
+in infectious diseases,&rdquo; and, in the spring of
+1909, we went to Sweden and thence to Russia. The
+whole journey was a series of fêtes and receptions in
+his honour. He was touched and grateful at this
+welcome, but with his usual humour, declared that
+it was the Nobel Prize which, like a magic wand,
+had revealed to the public the value of his researches.</p>
+
+<p>We only stopped for a short time at Stockholm,
+where the kindest hospitality was shown to Metchnikoff.
+Sweden made an unforgettable impression
+upon us. Her deep, dark waters, wild rocks, and
+sombre pines make of it a land of legends. Elie was
+impressed not only by Nature in Scandinavia but
+also by Scandinavian Art, which reproduces it admirably.
+He was specially pleased with Lilienfiorse&rsquo;s
+pictures, representing animals against a background
+at the same time real and legendary.</p>
+
+<p>We went to Russia by way of the Baltic. The
+nights at that time were &ldquo;white,&rdquo; and rocky islands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+covered with pines emerged from the sea like ghosts,
+in the mysterious silvery midnight light; the impression
+was fairy-like.</p>
+
+<p>A warm welcome awaited Metchnikoff in Russia.
+At Petersburg, as in Moscow, he was received with
+cordial and enthusiastic sympathy not only by scientific
+and medical societies, but by all the intellectual
+youth of those cities. This warm reception contributed
+to efface the bitterness sometimes aroused in
+him by distant recollections of the reasons which
+caused him to leave his native country.</p>
+
+<p>During our stay in Russia we made the acquaintance
+of our great writer, Léon Tolstoï. We spent a
+day with him in his estate, Iasnaïa Paliana, and the
+day left a lifelong impression upon us.</p>
+
+<p>It was at dawn that we reached the little railway
+station where a carriage had come to meet us. It
+had been raining in the night and now, in the first
+morning light, everything shone with dew. We were
+excited by the sight of the Russian country, cool
+meadows, forest, fields, all that simple landscape that
+we had not seen for so long, and we were also greatly
+moved at the idea of meeting Tolstoï.</p>
+
+<p>The village appeared in the distance and, a little
+way apart, the wide open entrance gate of the old
+park of Iasnaïa Paliana. We entered a long shady
+avenue leading to the home of Tolstoï. The spring
+was at its best, flowers and perfumes everywhere.
+The house and the old park had the poetic charm of
+the ancient &ldquo;nests of nobility&rdquo; in Russia.</p>
+
+<p>Tolstoï&rsquo;s daughter greeted us on the steps; her
+kindly simplicity at once put us at our ease. We
+had hardly entered the vestibule when we saw Léon
+Tolstoï himself coming down the stairs with a brisk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+step. We knew him at once, though he seemed to
+us different from all his portraits. We were first of
+all struck by his eyes, deep, piercing, and yet as clear
+as those of a child. He had nothing of that hardness
+and severity that one is accustomed to see in his
+portraits; his features, too, seemed to us much finer
+and more idealised. He looked straight into our eyes
+as if he wished to read the depths of our souls. But
+we were at once reassured by the kind and benevolent
+expression of his whole face. He looked strong and
+healthy and did not seem old, but full of inner life.
+After the first words of welcome, he said to us, &ldquo;You
+resemble each other; that happens after living
+happily together for a long time.&rdquo; He questioned us
+concerning our journey and on the impression made
+upon us by Russia after our long absence; then he
+said he had to finish his morning task.</p>
+
+<p>His daughter and son took us for a walk through
+the park and the village, and the friendly words they
+exchanged with the peasants indicated excellent
+relations between the villagers and the people of the
+château. As soon as we came in, Léon Tolstoï reappeared,
+declaring that he gave himself holiday for
+the day. He questioned Metchnikoff on his researches,
+on the present state of hygiene, and on the application
+of scientific discoveries. He listened attentively and
+with visible interest. At the end of the conversation
+he declared that it was quite erroneously that he was
+thought to be hostile to Science, and that he only
+denounced pseudo-science, which has nothing to do
+with human welfare. &ldquo;In reality,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;you and
+I are aiming towards the same goal by different lines.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>All his words were impregnated with a deep
+love for, and an ardent desire to serve, humanity.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+Literature and Art were mentioned; Tolstoï said
+that he was now so far from it all that he had
+even forgotten some of his own works and appreciated
+them much less than his writings on spiritual questions.
+He thought that sometimes beauty of form
+acted at the expense of the moral bearing of the subject.
+To the objection that Art embellishes Life, he
+answered that it has some value in that it serves as
+a link between men and makes them purer, but that
+its moral importance surpasses its æsthetic value by a
+great deal.</p>
+
+<p>He related that he had conceived a new work on
+the social movement in Russia and, <i>à propos</i> of that,
+the conversation fell upon political reprisals. The
+subject of deportations, prisons, and executions was
+visibly painful to him; his eyes, now sad and suffering,
+revealed his vibrating soul.</p>
+
+<p>On the agrarian question, he was in favour of the
+nationalisation of land, and showed great enthusiasm
+for Henry George. He thought the suppression of
+the commune in Russia a great mistake. Metchnikoff
+explained to him that his personal observations in
+Little Russia spoke, on the contrary, in favour of
+individual property, which gave better agricultural
+results. Tolstoï manifested perfect tolerance, and
+conversation flowed on peacefully concerning various
+subjects. In everything he said the beauty and elevation
+of his soul was perceptible.</p>
+
+<p>After lunch he desired to have a serious conversation
+with Metchnikoff and took him out driving, he
+himself holding the reins. On the way he returned to
+the question of Science. He thought that humanity
+was so overwhelmed with misery and had so many
+urgent questions to solve that work ought to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+turned in that direction, and that we had no right to
+busy ourselves with abstract questions unrelated to
+life. &ldquo;What good can it do man to have a notion
+of the weight and dimensions of the planet Mars?&rdquo;
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff answered that theory is much nearer
+to life than it seems, and that many benefits have been
+acquired for humanity by scientific observations of
+an abstract order. Thus, the discovery of the great
+unchanging laws of Nature give to Man the consciousness
+of being submitted to logical laws instead of
+an arbitrary force, and that is a benefit. When
+microbes were discovered, their part in human life
+was not suspected, and yet this discovery was afterwards
+of the greatest service to human welfare since
+it enabled man to fight against disease.</p>
+
+<p>On the way back, Tolstoï gave his place to his son
+and himself returned on horseback, an exercise in
+which he indulged almost daily, in spite of the
+approach of his eighty years. He still rode
+splendidly, sitting quite upright, and seemed even
+younger than before.</p>
+
+<p>After that he went to take a little rest, whilst
+Countess Tolstoï gave us immense pleasure by reading
+to us two yet unpublished works by her husband,
+the charming story <i>After the Ball</i> and the tragic
+<i>Sergius the Monk</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In the late afternoon a friend of our host, an
+accomplished musician, sat at the piano and played
+some Chopin. In the spring twilight the charm of
+that music filled us with emotion. Léon Tolstoï,
+seated in an armchair, listened; the lyrical beauty
+of the sound sank deeper and deeper into his soul, his
+eyes became veiled with tears, he leant his forehead<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
+on his hand and remained motionless. Metchnikoff
+also was deeply moved, and the effect of music on
+two such men, the pleasure that it gave them, was
+the strongest plea in favour of pure Art.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;I do not know what takes place in my mind
+when I listen to Chopin,&rdquo; said Tolstoï a few moments
+later, after the closing sounds had vanished, &ldquo;Chopin
+and Mozart move me to the depths. What lyrism!
+what purity!&rdquo; Metchnikoff liked Mozart and Beethoven,
+but Tolstoï thought Beethoven too complicated.
+As to Wagner and modern music, they both
+agreed about it, thinking it unintelligible and lacking
+harmony and simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>Around the tea-table conversation turned on
+senility, and Metchnikoff developed his theory of the
+discords of human nature. He illustrated his affirmations
+by the example of Goethe&rsquo;s <i>Faust</i>, who, according
+to him, formed the best picture of the evolution
+of human phases. To his mind the second part of
+<i>Faust</i> is but an allegory of the disharmonies of old age.
+It is a striking picture of the dramatic contest between
+the yet ardent and juvenile feelings of old Goethe
+and his physical senility. Tolstoï seemed interested
+by this interpretation and said he would read the
+second part of <i>Faust</i> over again, but that he himself
+would never offer an example of a similar lack of
+harmony. <i>À propos</i> of Metchnikoff&rsquo;s theory, according
+to which the fear of death exists because Death
+itself is premature, Tolstoï affirmed that he had no
+fear of death, but added, laughingly, that he would
+nevertheless try to reach the age of 100 in order to
+please Elie.</p>
+
+<p>Our train only left late in the night, and, until we
+started, the conversation never ceased to be animated.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+In every one of his words Tolstoï&rsquo;s exalted soul was
+perceptible, a soul in which there was room but for
+preoccupations of a spiritual order. He would have
+given the impression of floating above the earth if
+his ardent and compassionate heart had not constantly
+brought him back to the miseries and faults of
+human beings. The atmosphere around him was
+pure and vivifying as on high peaks, and the place
+seemed sanctified by his presence.</p>
+
+<p>That interview had been a meeting of two superior
+minds, two exalted souls, but how different! The
+one, scientific and rational, always leaning on solid
+facts in order to soar and to spread his wings in the
+highest spheres of thought; the other an artist and
+a mystic, rising through intuition to the same spiritual
+heights; both pursuing the same goal of human perfection
+and happiness, but going along such different
+roads....</p>
+
+<p>As we took leave of him, Léon Tolstoï said, &ldquo;Not
+farewell, but <i>au revoir</i>!&rdquo; And as we sat in the
+carriage and started to go, he appeared in a lighted
+window, as in an aureola, waving his hand, &ldquo;Au
+revoir, au revoir!&rdquo; he repeated for the last time....
+The night was calm and beautiful under the immensity
+of the starry vault, and its greatness was
+confounded in our souls with the greatness of Léon
+Tolstoï.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Intestinal flora &mdash; Infantile cholera &mdash; Typhoid fever &mdash; Articles on popular
+Science.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> he returned home, Metchnikoff immediately
+resumed his work. He continued, with his collaborators,
+researches on the normal intestinal flora
+and on the microbian poisons which provoke arterio-sclerosis.</p>
+
+<p>They were able to ascertain that certain microbes
+of the intestinal flora, such as the <i>bacillus coli</i> and
+<i>Welch&rsquo;s bacillus</i>, produce poisons (phenol and indol)
+which are reabsorbed by the <i>normal</i> intestinal walls
+and which provoke arterio-sclerosis and other lesions
+of the organs. A part of those poisons is eliminated
+by the urine, and the quantity found therein allows
+one to estimate the quantity contained in the
+organism. An exclusively vegetarian or carnivorous
+diet increases its production, while a mixed diet
+reduces it. During the rest of his life Metchnikoff
+made systematic and periodical analysis of his own
+urine in correlation with his diet.</p>
+
+<p>From certain facts and certain experiments he concluded
+that the reciprocal influence of microbes might
+be utilised to attenuate or to eliminate the noxious
+action of some of them. Thus, by cultivating the
+lactic bacillus in the presence of those microbes which
+produce poisons belonging to the aromatic group, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+decrease in quantity and even the disappearance of
+phenol and indol is observed. All those facts confirmed
+anterior results which Metchnikoff had obtained,
+and indicated the route to be followed in his
+struggle against those toxins which gradually poison
+the organism and induce premature senility.</p>
+
+<p>Having thus elucidated certain questions concerning
+the part played by microbes in a normal organism,
+he studied the pathogenic intestinal flora. He began
+by infantile cholera because this question is simplified
+by the fact that new-born children are fed exclusively
+on milk. It was then believed by practitioners that
+this intestinal disease of infants came from their
+mode of feeding, from summer heat, and other external
+influences. Metchnikoff, however, succeeded in demonstrating
+that the contents of the intestines of infants
+suffering from &ldquo;cholera&rdquo; always included a special
+kind of microbe, the <i>B. proteus</i>; he was also able to
+give the disease to young anthropoid apes by making
+them ingest food soiled by the intestinal contents
+of sick infants, thus establishing the infectious character
+of infantile cholera.</p>
+
+<p>He then attacked another intestinal disease,
+typhoid fever, of which the microbe (<i>Eberth&rsquo;s bacillus</i>)
+had been known for some time, but had not been
+studied experimentally, ordinary laboratory animals
+being refractory. Metchnikoff had again recourse to
+anthropoids, and succeeded in infecting a chimpanzee
+by making him eat food soiled by the intestinal contents
+of a typhoid patient.</p>
+
+<p>With the collaboration of Dr. Besredka, he undertook
+a series of experiments on anthropoid apes and
+on macaques. The former alone took typical typhoid
+fever, similar to that of man. It could be given them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+by pure cultures of Eberth&rsquo;s bacillus, which definitely
+confirmed the specificity of that microbe.</p>
+
+<p>Antityphoid vaccination by means of killed bacilli
+not being at that time either safe or durable, Metchnikoff
+advised measures of simple preventive hygiene:
+the use of cooked food, great personal cleanliness,
+cleanliness of streets and dwellings, and the destruction
+of insects, especially flies, which often infect food.
+In order to popularise these notions, he wrote a series
+of articles in newspapers. Later, several scientists
+found efficacious means of vaccination against typhoid
+fever.</p>
+
+<p>In 1912 Metchnikoff, in collaboration with Dr.
+Besredka (the author of the antityphoid vaccination
+method by means of sensitised bacilli), demonstrated
+on anthropoid apes that antityphoid vaccination
+by living sensitised microbes is certain, and
+that it presents no danger of diffusing the disease, for
+these microbes, harmless to the vaccinated individual,
+cannot prove a source of danger for his entourage,
+since they are phagocyted at the very place where
+they are inoculated.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff always considered that it was very
+useful to keep the public at large informed of the
+results acquired by Science, because &ldquo;it is only by
+becoming a part of daily life that measures of hygiene
+and prophylaxis will have efficacious results.&rdquo; He
+therefore lost no opportunity of spreading scientific
+principles and facts. In 1908 he had given in Berlin
+a lecture on &ldquo;The Curative Forces of the Organism.&rdquo;
+In a Russian review, the <i>Messenger of Europe</i>, he
+developed the same subject and included an epitome
+of his lecture in Stockholm on immunity. In that
+article he expounded the phagocyte theory of immunity.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+Among concrete examples of its application,
+he quoted the indications concerning the evolution of
+an infectious disease provided by the quantity of
+leucocytes in the blood, and the process employed
+by certain surgeons to diminish the danger of infection
+during an operation: just as, in case of an enemy
+menace, the Government mobilise an army, certain
+surgeons employ divers means to attract an army of
+phagocytes and to stimulate their activity in case
+any microbes should penetrate into the wound.</p>
+
+<p>In 1909 he gave another lecture at Stuttgart, &ldquo;A
+Conception of Nature and of Medical Science,&rdquo; in
+which he summed up his two works <i>Études sur la
+nature humaine</i> and <i>Essais optimistes</i>. The title
+of this lecture was intended to emphasise his view of
+human nature, according to which &ldquo;Man, as he
+appeared on the earth, is an animal and pathological
+being belonging to the realm of medicine.&rdquo; But he
+ended his paper by the same optimistic thought which
+illumines the whole philosophy of his later years.
+&ldquo;With the help of Science, Man can correct the imperfections
+of his nature.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>He unveiled these imperfections and the ills which
+proceed from them, not only from a love of truth or
+scientific honesty, but always with the object of
+finding means to combat them. He never allowed
+sight to be lost of the fact that Science lights up
+the tortuous and painful path which leads to an issue
+that suffering humanity will find by gradually widening
+the limits of knowledge with the help of Work and
+of Will.</p>
+
+<p>Thus all his writings offer us encouragement and support.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">A bacteriological expedition to the Kalmuk steppes, 1911.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">During</span> his preceding journeys in the Kalmuk steppes,
+Metchnikoff had often heard it said that tuberculosis
+was almost unknown there, but that the Kalmuks
+took it very easily when brought into contact with
+foreigners. As all means of combating this disease
+had hitherto given very unsatisfactory results, Metchnikoff
+thought that researches should be started along
+a new path. He had long thought that observations
+on the extreme liability of Kalmuks to tuberculosis
+might perhaps provide some new data. But the
+study of the question necessitated a very distant
+journey which he now at last had the opportunity of
+realising.</p>
+
+<p>According to Metchnikoff&rsquo;s hypothesis, a <i>natural</i>
+vaccination takes place among us against tuberculosis
+which would explain the resistance of the majority
+of human beings in spite of the enormous diffusion
+of the disease. He concluded that some attenuated
+breeds of microbes become introduced into our
+organism during our childhood, thus vaccinating us
+against the virulent tuberculous bacillus. This supposition
+seemed to him plausible, for he had long
+ago found that some micro-organisms (Cienkovsky&rsquo;s
+bacillus, the cholera bacillus, etc.) become modified
+in different environment and conditions, both in form<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+and in virulence. He had described this phenomenon
+in 1888 in a memoir entitled <i>Pleomorphism of
+Microbes</i>. His hypothesis would explain the liability
+of the Kalmuks, since, if no tuberculous bacilli
+existed in the steppes, the inhabitants could not
+acquire a natural vaccination. When placed in an
+environment which was not free from tuberculosis,
+they became infected very easily, being in no wise
+prepared for the struggle against the virus.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition to the Kalmuk country was therefore
+planned in order to ascertain whether tuberculosis
+was really absent from the steppes. This could
+easily be done by Pirquet&rsquo;s test,<a name="FNanchor_27" id="FNanchor_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> which at the same
+time would show whether the number of Kalmuks
+infected increased from the centre to the outer limit
+of the steppes and corresponded with the greater
+degree of contact with the surrounding population.
+If the enquiry confirmed the hypothesis, there would
+remain to be seen which microbes might best be used
+as vaccines.</p>
+
+<p>The expedition was also intended to elucidate a
+few questions on the etiology of endemic plague in
+the Kirghiz steppes. When this intention became
+known, the Russian authorities desired to add to it
+a local mission on the study of plague epidemics in
+the steppes. Metchnikoff, who was chiefly concerned
+with the question of tuberculosis, was only able to
+draw up a plan of work for the Russian mission and
+to start it going in one of the plague centres.</p>
+
+<p>The Pasteur Institute expeditionary party comprised,
+besides Metchnikoff, MM. Burnet, Salimbeni,
+and Iamanouchi. They were joined at Moscow by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+Drs. Tarassevitch and Choukevitch, and at Astrakhan
+by the physicians of the Russian plague mission.
+The Institut Pasteur party left Paris on May 14, 1911,
+full of spirits; Metchnikoff, eager to make the journey
+pleasant for his companions, was doing the honours
+of his country to the best of his ability; he fully
+succeeded, owing to the warm welcome and liberal
+hospitality which they received in Russia, where
+every one tried to contribute not only to the success
+of the expedition but to the comfort and pleasure
+of its members. The latter, indeed, preserved a most
+pleasant recollection of this journey, and, in later
+years, always spoke of it with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>Navigation on the Volga from Nijni Novgorod to
+Astrakhan was full of peculiar charm. That five days&rsquo;
+journey was one of the rare periods of complete
+rest in Metchnikoff&rsquo;s life. He indulged in the <i>dolce
+far niente</i> as he watched the peaceful landscape on
+the passing banks. The Volga, then in flood, covered
+immense spaces. Here and there, whole forests
+emerged from the river which reflected them as in an
+enchanted dream. From time to time, little isolated
+villages appeared with the gilt cupola of a church
+or a monastery, then meadows, forests, steep cliffs,
+or gentle slopes down to the river. What poetry,
+what grandeur in simplicity! As in a kaleidoscope,
+types of varied populations and pictures of local
+customs followed upon each other.</p>
+
+<p>Along the banks now and then were seen processions
+of pilgrims. Their humble, gray, stooping
+figures breathed deep faith and resignation. Sometimes
+popular songs arose from the Volga, sad,
+expressive, soul-penetrating chants.</p>
+
+<p>This contemplative quietude was only interrupted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+by stations in the ports of large towns where deputations
+of the educated inhabitants came to wish the
+mission welcome. These functions had a cordial
+and touching character, for it was obvious that such
+enthusiastic demonstrations had for their source a
+sincere cult for the knowledge whose representatives
+were being fêted; it was touching to see such a living
+ideal in this distant and oppressed land.</p>
+
+<p>At Tsaritsine, several Kirghiz embarked on our
+boat in order to go to a large fair which the inhabitants
+of the steppes attended in numbers. Metchnikoff
+thought this was a unique opportunity to learn whether
+there were any carriers of the plague bacillus among
+those many natives coming from all parts of the steppes.
+He therefore decided that those members of the expedition
+who had come to study plague would go to
+the fair with the Kirghiz, whilst he, with the rest of
+the expedition, would make observations on the
+Kalmuks of the Astrakhan region.</p>
+
+<p>A most hospitable welcome awaited us there; people
+vied with each other in their efforts to assist the
+expedition. The Governor-General of Astrakhan had
+ordered all preparations to be made, and the mission
+was provided not only with necessaries but with comforts
+which did much to alleviate the fatigue of the
+long journey.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst waiting for our companions, we had time
+to verify several diagnostical reactions, the Kalmuks
+lending themselves willingly to the operation. We
+heard later that they thought they were being vaccinated
+against small-pox, a disease much feared in
+the steppes.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the plague mission arrived, we started
+towards the Kirghiz steppes, for there was a plague<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+centre north of the Caspian Sea. When we were out
+at sea, an intense north wind began to blow the waves
+away from the Kirghiz bank, and soon the depth
+lessened to such an extent that we could make no
+progress. The sailors were perpetually making soundings,
+and their repeated cries of &ldquo;Two and a half feet!&rdquo;
+became a regular nightmare. The situation seemed
+critical, and returning to Astrakhan was suggested;
+an idea which infuriated Metchnikoff; he would not
+hear of it. At last, after several incidents we reached
+the Kirghiz bank, the crossing having lasted three
+days instead of the usual twenty-three hours.</p>
+
+<p>As we arrived, we could see from afar a sort of
+Valkyries&rsquo; ride of natives clad in brilliant colours and
+riding up at full gallop with wild cries and exclamations.
+Before us spread a barren and sandy steppe,
+producing the sad impression of a land forsaken by
+God and man. How could life be possible there?
+But gradually, as we became captivated by the charm
+of the boundless space, the purity of the air, the
+harmonious colouring and the scent of wild heliotrope
+and wormwood which alone can grow in those sands,
+we began to understand that it was not only possible
+to live in those steppes, but also to love them.</p>
+
+<p>The plague centre stood among sandy hills with
+low-growing grass; the summit of one of them was
+black with charred remains of burnt objects; the
+corpses were buried in the same place. Only a few
+wretched forsaken hovels remained. In order to
+throw light upon endemic plague in the steppes, it
+was first of all necessary to ascertain whether the
+plague microbes remained alive for some time in
+places where the scourge had raged; if they were
+preserved in dead bodies which had been singed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+rather than burnt; if the worms, insects, rodents, and
+domestic animals on the spot were or were not carriers
+of the plague microbe, and could or could not transmit
+it to a distance from the initial focus.</p>
+
+<p>After organising a small emergency laboratory,
+the corpses were exhumed, and Dr. Salimbeni made
+a post-mortem examination. These corpses, having
+been in the ground for three months, were in a state
+of advanced decomposition and contained no living
+microbes.</p>
+
+<p>Having set the work of the plague mission going,
+Metchnikoff parted from it in order to accomplish
+the projected investigations on tuberculosis in the
+Kalmuk steppes. He made a very solemn entry
+into these steppes; a Kalmuk deputation welcomed
+the mission and presented Metchnikoff with a bronze
+Buddha.</p>
+
+<p>The aspect of those natives is sad and humble,
+their movements are slow, their eyes dull. In this
+they contrast with their neighbours, the quick and
+intelligent Kirghiz, and one reason for it is that the
+latter, being Moslems, absorb no alcohol, while the
+Kalmuks consume fermented milk (alcoholic fermentation)
+which poisons them slightly but continuously;
+this observation had already been made
+by Metchnikoff at the time of his previous visit.</p>
+
+<p>The Kalmuks live in tents covered with coarse
+felt; they transport these dwellings on camels from
+one place to another when their herds of sheep or
+horses have consumed the scanty pasture grass
+around the camp. There is no attempt at cultivation,
+and the steppes become more and more barren as
+the pastures become exhausted. In order to remedy
+this evil, the Russian administration has begun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+various experimental plantations. In some places
+the steppes are covered with small tamarisk bushes
+or with silky grass, but, as a rule, the chief growth is
+of silver wormwood. The monotony is not so great as
+one might think, for the steppes, like a mirror, reflect
+all the divers light-changes, and wonderful natural
+phenomena take place there. During the great heat,
+mirages are to be seen in the distance&mdash;a river, lakes,
+reed-grown shores; sometimes a sand-storm supervenes,
+more infernal than fairy-like, called here
+&ldquo;smertch.&rdquo; The wind raises the sand in tongues of
+flames or in funnels running up to the sky with giddy
+rapidity. Gradually, all the separate turmoils join
+in a gigantic wall of sand, advancing in an orgy of
+movement; the heavy clouds fall towards the
+ground, the sand rushes upwards, everything becomes
+confounded in darkness and chaos.</p>
+
+<p>One feels so entirely in the power of natural forces
+that the fatalism of the poor inhabitants of the land
+is easily understood. The Kalmuks, primitive and
+nomadic, produce the impression of ghosts from
+distant centuries.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff noticed that since his last visit in
+1874, fatal influences had worked havoc on the
+population. Four scourges, all of them coming from
+outside, are destroying the Kalmuks: syphilis,
+alcoholism, tuberculosis, and the Russians who are
+constantly pushing them back. Those poor people
+realise the fate which is awaiting them, and resign
+themselves like a sick man who knows his sickness
+to be incurable.</p>
+
+<p>The spiritual life of the Kalmuks reduces itself to
+their religious cult. There are many Buddhist convents
+where children are being brought up for a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+monastic life. Religious rites are performed by
+priests dressed in purple and brilliant yellow; for
+the uninitiated, their part consists in unrolling interminable
+bands on which prayers are inscribed, and
+in executing a religious music which seemed a mixture
+of a camel&rsquo;s grunt, a dog&rsquo;s howling, and an infinitely
+sad plaint. Of the pure cult of Buddha, nothing
+seems to remain but an empty form. However,
+there is a convent in the steppes&mdash;Tshori&mdash;a sort of
+religious academy, where an effort is being made
+to restore the cult to the original level of Buddhist
+doctrines.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst gathering observations on tuberculosis, we
+traversed the steppes in a north-easterly direction
+as far as Sarepta. This town seemed like a civilised
+centre after the steppes, where the conditions of life
+were somewhat hard in spite of the cordial reception
+accorded us everywhere. The food, consisting solely
+in tinned goods and mutton, had caused intestinal
+trouble in nearly all the members of the expedition;
+on the other hand, we were greatly incommoded by
+the heat, lack of water, and abundance of insects of
+all kinds.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of all, Metchnikoff had hitherto borne the
+journey fairly well. However, since we left Moscow
+he had had frequent cardiac intermittence, accompanied
+sometimes by sharp pains along the sternum.
+But the stay at Sarepta especially tried his health;
+the heat reached 35° C. (95° F.) in the shade and 52° C.
+(about 125° F.) in the sun; in the evening the windows
+could not be opened because of the mosquitoes.
+Metchnikoff, who had shown so much endurance,
+now became weak, drowsy, and nervous; he attributed
+his condition to the excessive heat. Yet he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+could not leave Sarepta, for all the members of both
+branches of the mission had agreed to meet there in
+order to sum up the results of their observations.</p>
+
+<p>The researches of the expedition for the study of
+plague were not finished, and the Russian mission
+had agreed to complete them. So far, it was established
+that neither the corpses&mdash;after a certain time&mdash;nor
+the ground, nor the surrounding animals contained
+any plague microbes, and no carriers had been
+found among the Kirghiz population.</p>
+
+<p>The data gathered among the Kalmuk population
+justified Metchnikoff&rsquo;s hypothesis. In the centre of
+the steppes, where the Kalmuks were still isolated,
+tuberculosis was completely unknown; diagnosis
+reactions were negative. They became positive more
+and more frequently as we came nearer the periphery
+of the steppes and the Russian population. The
+extreme sensitiveness of the Kalmuks must therefore
+depend on the fact that they have suffered no
+natural vaccination in the steppes, which would
+support the idea that some natural vaccine exists
+amongst us. Metchnikoff therefore concluded that
+he might direct ulterior researches towards the quest
+of natural tuberculous vaccines. Such were the
+scientific results of the expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from that, the journey to Russia had a
+strong personal influence on Metchnikoff. He had
+formerly left his country under the impression of the
+fatal error committed by the revolutionaries in
+killing Alexander II., an error which had led to a
+protracted reaction. He had therefore remained very
+sceptical concerning the Russian revolutionary movement;
+he thought that the necessary reforms might
+come from a Government evolution. But, during his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+sojourn in Russia, he was able to appreciate events
+which modified his ideas to a great extent. He was
+impressed by the contrast between the progressive
+aspirations of the &ldquo;intellectuals&rdquo; and the inertia or
+noxious activity of the rulers. The policy of Casso,
+the Minister of Public Instruction, who ordered
+regular raids in the universities, the persecution of
+Poles and Jews, the encouragement of the &ldquo;black
+band&rdquo; obscurantism, giving plenary powers to
+creatures of darkness like Rasputin and his peers,
+all these things excited indignation in a man who
+placed the free development of human culture above
+everything.</p>
+
+<p>He thus ceased to count upon the progressive
+evolution of a Government which was incapable of
+solving the complicated problems of Russian life, and
+henceforward thought that those problems would be
+solved by the &ldquo;intellectuals&rdquo; apart from the Government
+and in opposition to it.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Further researches on the intestinal flora&mdash;<i>Forty Years&rsquo; Search for
+a Rational Conception of Life.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Since</span> Metchnikoff had conceived the idea that a considerable
+part was played in human life by the intestinal
+flora, his thoughts had centred around a study
+which he thought profitable: that of the influence of
+intestinal microbes on the normal and on the pathological
+organism.</p>
+
+<p>So, on his return from Russia, he took advantage
+of the fact that an epidemic of infantile cholera had
+broken out in order to continue his former investigations
+of that disease. The numerous cases which he
+thus studied allowed him finally to establish the
+specific part of the <i>B. proteus</i> as well as the similarity
+between infantile cholera and Asiatic cholera. This
+time he succeeded in contaminating, not only young
+anthropoid apes, but also new-born rabbits, and that
+not only through sick children&rsquo;s excreta, but by pure
+cultures of the <i>proteus</i>, which eliminated every doubt
+of the specificity of this microbe.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff explained the contamination of children
+exclusively breast-fed, either by the presence of
+a carrier personally refractory, among the entourage,
+or by the transport of dirt, by means of flies, on the
+objects which infants so readily put into their mouths.
+He therefore advised preventive means of absolute<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+hygiene and cleanliness, especially where suckling
+infants are concerned.</p>
+
+<p>During the year 1912, he studied the intestinal flora
+and the influence of divers food diets. He experimented
+upon the rat, an omnivorous animal whose
+mode of feeding resembles that of man. The rats
+were divided into three lots, of which one was kept
+to a meat diet, another to a vegetarian régime,
+and the third to a mixture of both. The meat diet
+was least favourable, and the best results obtained by
+the mixed food.</p>
+
+<p>These observations led Metchnikoff to the study
+of other problems intimately connected with the
+same question.</p>
+
+<p>He undertook a series of researches in collaboration
+with his pupils, MM. Berthelot and Wollman, on
+the conditions which cause the diminution within the
+organism of the toxic products of intestinal microbes.
+They found that the quantity of these products was
+very small in those animals which feed on vegetable
+or fruit containing much sugar, such as carrots,
+beetroot, dates, etc. This is explained by the fact
+that the products of the decomposition of sugar are
+acids which prevent the development of putrefying
+microbes. But the sugar, rapidly absorbed by the
+walls of the small intestine, only reaches the large
+intestine in a much reduced quantity, for it is only
+up to a certain point during its journey that the
+cellulose of vegetables, rich in sugar, protects that
+substance. The question, therefore, was to find the
+means of making it reach the large intestine in
+greater quantities. In the intestine of a normal
+dog, an innocuous microbe was found, the <i>Glycobacter
+peptonicus</i>, which decomposes starch into sugar.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff made some laboratory animals ingest
+this microbe together with food, and ascertained that
+it reached the large intestine and decomposed in it
+the starch of farinaceous food into sugar, of which the
+acid products prevented the swarming of putrefying
+microbes. By this process it is possible to reduce to
+a minimum and even sometimes to eliminate the
+production of phenol and indol in rats subjected to
+a mixed diet and made at the same time to ingest
+cultures of the lactic bacillus and of the glycobacter.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff applied these different diets to himself
+and to other individuals and obtained concordant
+results.</p>
+
+<p>However, he ascertained that it is not only the
+food diet which regulates the quantity of microbian
+poisons contained in the organism; that quantity
+sometimes varies very much in spite of an identical
+diet. He thought that a very important part of
+influence is due to pre-existing microbes which prevent
+or favour the development of microbes of putrefaction.
+All these questions, complicated by the
+richness and variety of the intestinal flora, still demanded
+a long series of laborious researches.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the winter he felt tired, and we
+went to the seaside during the holidays. But the
+sharp sea air did not suit him; he had a beginning of
+cardiac asthma and nearly fainted during a walk.
+We therefore had to come away from the sea, and
+went inland, to Eu. At the beginning of our stay,
+Metchnikoff did not feel well, walking tired him, he
+suffered from cardiac intermittence; it was only
+gradually that his condition improved and he was
+able to write the preface to a Russian edition of his
+philosophical articles.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This book was entitled <i>Forty Years&rsquo; Search for a
+Rational Conception of Life</i>, and the articles record
+the evolution of his ideas and his search &ldquo;not only
+for a rational understanding of life, but also for the
+solution of the problem of death, which is so full of
+contradictions.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>This collection of articles enables us at the same
+time to follow the gradual transition from the pessimism
+of his youth to the optimism of his maturity.
+His first writings<a name="FNanchor_28" id="FNanchor_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> relate to the discords of human
+nature and the lack of a solid basis for morals.</p>
+
+<p>But, already in 1883, he concluded an opening
+<i>Causerie</i> at the Naturalists&rsquo; Congress in Odessa, by
+the following words: &ldquo;The theoretical study of
+natural history problems, in the widest sense of the
+word, alone can give a sound method for the comprehension
+of truth and lead to a definite conception
+of life&mdash;or at least to an approach to it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Another article, <i>The Curative Forces of the Organism</i>,
+sums up his phagocyte theory, and states the
+fact that the organism possesses special powers of
+struggle against enemy elements.</p>
+
+<p>In 1891, he wrote <i>The Law of Life</i>, in which we find
+the dawning idea that the lack of harmony in human
+structure does not make a happy existence and a
+rational code of morals impossible. Morals must
+consist &ldquo;not in rules of conduct adapted to our
+present defective human nature, but on conduct
+based upon human nature modified, according to
+the ideal of human happiness.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p><i>The Flora of the Human Body</i>, published in 1901,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+is a study in which Metchnikoff&rsquo;s optimism assumes a
+definite form, for he speaks of the efficacy of certain
+means of struggling with our lack of harmony.</p>
+
+<p>The last chapter in the book, &ldquo;A Conception of
+Life and of Medical Science,&rdquo; introducing the word
+Orthobiosis, strikes the optimistic chord, winged and
+conclusive, which must result from victory over the
+disharmonies of human nature. This is Metchnikoff&rsquo;s
+ultimate formula, summing up the problems of life
+and of morals:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>The ethical problem reduces itself to this: to allow the
+majority of human beings to reach life&rsquo;s goal, that is, to accomplish
+the whole cycle of a rational existence to its natural end.
+We are still very far from that. We can but sketch the rules
+to follow in order to attain this ideal. Its final realisation will
+demand more scientific researches, which must be allowed
+the widest and freest scope. It is to be foreseen that existence
+will have to be modified in many ways. Orthobiosis demands
+an active, healthy, and sober life, devoid of luxury and excess.</p>
+
+<p>We must therefore modify present customs and eliminate
+those extremes of wealth and poverty which now bring us so
+many evils. As time goes on, when Science has caused present
+evils to disappear, when men no longer tremble for the life
+and welfare of their dear ones, when individual life follows
+a normal course&mdash;then Man can attain a higher level and
+more easily devote himself to exalted goals.</p>
+
+<p>Then Art and pure Science will occupy the place which
+is due to them and which they lack at the present moment in
+consequence of our many cares. Let us hope that men will
+understand their true interests and contribute to the progress
+of orthobiosis.</p>
+
+<p>Many efforts are necessary, much self-sacrifice, but they
+will be attenuated by the consciousness of an activity
+directed towards the real goal of human existence.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII</a></h2>
+<div class="poetry-container">
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">First our pleasures die, and then<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our hopes, and then&mdash;our fears, and when<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">These are dead&mdash;the debt is due.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dust claims dust&mdash;and we die too.</span>
+<p class="small-right">
+<span class="smcap">Shelley.</span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Unpleasant incidents &mdash; The fabrication of lacto-bacilli &mdash; St. Léger-en-Yvelines &mdash; Return
+to Paris &mdash; First cardiac attack &mdash; Evolution
+of the death-instinct &mdash; Notes on his symptoms.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> end of 1912 had some unexpected emotions in
+store for us.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff had always been able to congratulate
+himself on the cordial hospitality which he had found
+in France, and to the end of his life he remained
+deeply grateful for it.</p>
+
+<p>But, in any country, incidents may occur about
+which it would be unjust to generalise when they are
+due to individuals or to particular limited circles,
+as was the fact in the present case. In spite of
+the broad and generous ideas so widespread in
+France, a sudden current of narrow nationalism
+became manifest, at this moment, in certain quarters.
+Foreigners were accused of invading the country, of
+occupying lucrative posts and increasing the difficulties
+of the bitter struggle for existence. At first,
+only vague allusions were made, but, little by little,
+the attacks of that nationalist circle went beyond all
+bounds of justice and decency and turned into brutal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+provocations. The contemptuous word <i>métèque</i> was resuscitated.</p>
+
+<p>One newspaper especially led a furious propaganda
+and hesitated at no means of overwhelming its
+victims, one of whom was Metchnikoff.</p>
+
+<p>Those coarse attacks might have been ignored
+with the contempt which they deserved had they not
+been echoed by a writer in a serious publication.
+Dr. Roux then wrote a reply in the same paper, and
+the campaign ceased.</p>
+
+<p>A proverb says with truth, &ldquo;Slander away! something
+will always stick.&rdquo; And it was thus in this
+case. Metchnikoff was reproached with having made
+money by his scientific discoveries. The story of his
+whole life and the fact that he left no fortune should
+suffice to answer this calumny, yet I am obliged to
+dwell on it, though I should have preferred not to do
+so. The incident is too characteristic of Metchnikoff
+to be omitted in this biography, which must be a
+faithful testimony. The calumny was based on a real
+fact, but the interpretation of it was absolutely false.
+After Metchnikoff&rsquo;s experiments on the lactic bacillus,
+a notion of the hygienic power of pure sour milk
+began to spread among the public. A manufacturer
+had the idea of preparing it on a large scale, according
+to the new scientific principles, and wished to form
+a company to that effect; he asked Metchnikoff to
+recommend to him some one whom he could entrust
+with the technical work of preparing the pure curded
+milk. It happened that we were just then trying to
+find a post for a young couple in whom we were
+interested, and whose child was my husband&rsquo;s goddaughter.
+He trained his protégé in the technique
+required, and was therefore able to recommend him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+A short time later, the manufacturer declared that he
+could not be sure of the success of his enterprise without
+the guarantee of the name of Metchnikoff, whose
+researches had proved the advantages of the preparation
+in question. After consulting the legal adviser
+of the Pasteur Institute, Metchnikoff consented to
+this, without of course having any pecuniary interest
+in it; the formula chosen was, &ldquo;sole provider of
+Professor Metchnikoff.&rdquo; The undertaking succeeded,
+and our protégé&rsquo;s future was assured. Metchnikoff
+himself, however, was attacked and accused most
+unjustly, though he had never made any personal
+profit whatever from the enterprise. And yet, when
+his friends told him that it had been very reckless on
+his part thus to expose himself, he answered that he
+thought it impossible to hesitate between the welfare
+of a whole family and the possibility of gossip. His
+reasoning was imprudent and perhaps erroneous, but
+he never hesitated between doing a kindness and the
+possible unpleasant consequences it might have for
+himself. If some people could not understand him,
+it was because he was far from the commonplace,
+&ldquo;not like other people,&rdquo; a quality often misunderstood
+and unforgiven.</p>
+
+<p>Such are the facts. &ldquo;Honi soit qui mal y
+pense!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The desire to lessen the ills around him was, in
+general, the cause of heavy anxieties in his later years.
+He had learnt that the discovery of an industrial
+process, of which the realisation required capital,
+would be an excellent investment. He immediately
+wished to make his friends profit by it, as well as himself,
+in order to alleviate material difficulties. But
+until the end of his life the undertaking had no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
+results, and he was obsessed by the fear of having
+given bad advice to those who followed him.</p>
+
+<p>He knew not how to refuse, even when he should
+have done so; therefore he was odiously exploited.
+Often he worked, in his rare leisure moments, for
+people who were unworthy of his kindness. During
+the last years of his life, all these incidents grieved
+him so much that he used to say he felt the burden
+of existence. His soul was darkened, he felt very
+depressed, and his health suffered.</p>
+
+<p>We spent the summer holidays of 1913 at St.
+Léger-en-Yvelines, a pretty place on the edge of the
+Rambouillet forest. In his choice of a holiday resort,
+my husband was always guided by the desire to find
+a place favourable to my sketching, and St. Léger
+answered the purpose wonderfully. The fields with
+their vast horizons, the forest with its graceful
+bracken and carpets of softly-tinted heather, the
+mysterious ponds, all went to compose an admirable
+symphony, full of artistic suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>Elie himself was gay and full of spirits. He
+worked in the morning, and we spent the rest of the
+day in the forest. He often read aloud; he rested
+and enjoyed the peaceful calm, pure air, and verdure
+which he loved so much.</p>
+
+<p>He had arranged to take advantage of these
+holidays to execute work of which he had been thinking
+for a long time. As it has been said above, he
+thought that the life instinct was only developed
+gradually and produced at the same time an optimistic
+conception of life; he wished to verify this personal
+impression by the psychological evolution of
+divers other thinkers. He turned to Maeterlinck, as
+a representative of modern ideas. This author,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
+mystical and pessimistic in his youth, had acquired
+in his maturity a far more optimistic conception of
+life. He himself explained this change by the
+influence of circumstances, but Metchnikoff saw in
+it a deeper cause, connected with the progressive
+evolution of the vital instinct which, by bringing
+equilibrium with it, suggests optimism. The study
+of Maeterlinck&rsquo;s works confirmed his opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Time flowed peacefully between rest and these
+occupations; at the end of the holidays, we congratulated
+ourselves on their result on my husband&rsquo;s
+health; on our return, his friends thought him looking
+well. Yet on the 19th October, about seven in the
+morning, he had a terrible cardiac attack without
+any apparent cause. I found him seated at his desk,
+and was terrified by his appearance; his lips were
+blue, and he was breathing with difficulty. And yet
+he was writing, and this is what he was writing:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="small-right">
+<span class="smcap">Sèvres</span>, <i>19th October 1913</i>, 7.45 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>This morning, after a good night, my heart was working
+well; I had from 58 to 59 regular pulsations. But, as I rose,
+I suddenly felt acute pain along the sternum; at the same
+time began a strong crisis of tachycardia. I had never in my
+life felt anything like it....</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Here he had to stop as the crisis was becoming
+intolerable, but a few hours later he took up his pen
+again:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="small-right">
+
+<i>19th October</i>, 3 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The crisis lasted till one o&rsquo;clock (six hours&rsquo; duration).</p>
+
+<p>There were times when the pain in the chest was unendurable.</p>
+
+<p>I was thirsty and drank hot, weak tea; I vomited; I felt
+wind in the stomach and the intestine. About noon the
+pain decreased, but the heart-beats were frequent and extremely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+irregular. I lunched in order not to alarm my wife, though I
+feared to aggravate the attack by filling my stomach.</p>
+
+<p>But the opposite happened. From the first mouthfuls (I
+naturally eat very little) the pain became more tolerable
+and the pulse less frequent. After lunch, everything became
+normal again; the pain ceased, the pulsations slackened (78-80
+per min.) and became much more regular. Intermittence
+was rare, and I several times counted 100 regular beats in
+succession. I remained absolutely conscious during the whole
+crisis, and what chiefly pleased me is that I felt no fear of
+death, which I was expecting at every moment. It was not
+only <i>reasoning</i> which made me understand that it was better
+to die now, whilst my intellectual powers had not yet gone
+from me and I had evidently accomplished all of what I was
+capable; I resigned myself also <i>in feeling</i>, and quite serenely
+to the catastrophe which was coming upon me and which
+would be far from unexpected.</p>
+
+<p>My mother, who had suffered from heart attacks during
+a great part of her life, died at 65. My father died of apoplexy
+in his 68th year.</p>
+
+<p>My eldest sister succumbed to an &oelig;dema of the brain;
+my brother Nicholas died at 57 of <i>angina pectoris</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Undoubtedly my cardiac heredity is a bad one. Already
+in my youth, I suffered from my heart. At 33 I had such
+cardiac pains that sometimes I had to rest after walking a
+few paces. At 34, I had much giddiness and a feeling of
+heaviness in the head. I could not read a few lines, a poster
+even, without a painful sensation. In 1881, during relapsing
+fever, I had severe cardiac intermittence, very fatiguing and
+only relieved by small doses of digitalin.</p>
+
+<p>I afterwards had periodical attacks of intermittence but
+never any tachycardia, at least none that lasted more than a
+few seconds. A little tincture of strophanthus used to relieve
+me during intermittence. I ended by consulting Dr. Vaquez,
+but the treatment he prescribed gave me no relief. As I
+attributed my condition to poisoning by the toxins of intestinal
+microbes, I resolved to give up raw food and to purge myself
+now and then with Carabaña water. The success of this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+treatment was indisputable, and in 1897 the intermittence
+ceased. In the autumn of 1898 I was beginning to suffer
+from polyuria; I consulted Albaran, who counselled Contrexéville
+water, but this cure caused the appearance of <i>albumen</i>
+in my urine. In 1898 I consulted Norden at Frankfort and
+Leube in Paris during the Exhibition of 1900. Neither found
+anything alarming. Norden had told me that I had <i>symptoms
+of arterio-sclerosis inherent to my age</i> (53). I adopted a
+mixed diet; I took, regularly, sour milk prepared with
+cultures of the Bulgarian lactic bacillus, and, during some
+years, my health was quite satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>It was only after my journey to Russia in 1909 that a
+notable aggravation supervened. I felt acute pains in the
+chest, along the sternum, especially after eating or walking.</p>
+
+<p>In 1911 the intermittence reappeared. In January 1911,
+I consulted Dr. Heitz in order to know whether I could undertake
+an expedition in the Kalmuk steppes, where hygienic
+conditions are very unfavourable. Dr. Heitz found my heart
+hypertrophied, some slight galloping noise, the blood-pressure
+(Pachon&rsquo;s apparatus) 17-16-15. He said, however, that I
+might undertake the journey, but added, &ldquo;People die suddenly
+with less the matter than that with their hearts.&rdquo; The journey
+went well, though I suffered from frequent intermittence and
+pains along the sternum when I walked.</p>
+
+<p>After my return, my heart was fairly satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>What consoles me especially is that I have preserved my
+activity, my passion for work, and my intellectual powers.
+But, naturally, I am ready to die at any moment.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of the summer I was sounded by Dr.
+Manoukhine and Professor Tchistovitch; both thought the
+heart-sounds satisfactory, but Manoukhine was rather struck
+by the weakness of the first aortic sound whilst the second was
+very strong. I had frequent intermittence, but with intervals
+of normal pulsations. Latterly I have felt better in that
+respect, and the pain along the sternum only occurred in
+exceptional cases.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst preparing for my end, I am glad that I can face it
+with courage and serenity.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As I look back upon my life, it seems to me to have been
+as &ldquo;orthobiotic&rdquo; as possible.</p>
+
+<p>If it may seem premature to die at 68 years and 5 months,
+it must not be forgotten that I began to live very early (I
+published my first scientific work at 18); that I have had
+many emotions during my life; that I was, so to speak, in a
+state of continual ebullition.</p>
+
+<p>The polemics concerning phagocytosis might have killed or
+finally enfeebled me much earlier. At times (for instance, I
+refer to Lubarsch&rsquo;s attacks in 1889 and those of Pfeiffer
+in 1894) I was ready to rid myself of life.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, I only began to follow a rational hygiene (according
+to my opinion) after I was 53 years old and already had
+symptoms of arterio-sclerosis. I have been fairly successful
+in combating intestinal putrefaction (phenols and indols),<a name="FNanchor_29" id="FNanchor_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a>
+but I could not succeed in getting rid of abundant <i>clostridium
+butyricum</i> which were implanted in my intestine.</p>
+
+<p>To sum up, I rejoice that I have had an existence not devoid
+of sense, and I feel some satisfaction in considering my conception
+of the problem of life as being accurate.</p>
+
+<p>As I prepare to die, I have not the shadow of a hope of a
+life beyond, and I calmly look forward to complete annihilation.</p>
+
+<p>It is possible that having very early begun a very intense
+life, I have attained at 68 a precocious satiety of living, just
+as certain women cease to menstruate earlier than the great
+majority.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+<span class="smcap">El. Metchnikoff.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p><i>P.S.</i>&mdash;I believe everything is in order in view of my end
+(my will, my affairs, etc.).</p>
+
+<p><i>P.S.</i>&mdash;Let those who think that, according to my principles,
+I should have lived a hundred years, &ldquo;forgive&rdquo; me my premature
+end in view of the extenuating circumstances above-mentioned
+(intense and precocious activity, excitable temperament,
+nervous disposition, and late beginning of the rational
+diet).</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+E. M.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span></p>
+<p>The very next day he felt well enough to return
+to his work.</p>
+
+<p>When urged to settle down in Paris in order to
+avoid the fatigue of the journey, he replied that the
+peace and pure air of Sèvres were indispensable to
+his health, that the journey did not fatigue him in
+the least, but on the contrary provided him with
+wholesome exercise and a pleasant walk. Knowing
+how prudent he was, I did not dare to insist for fear
+of mistaking what was really best for him. And life
+gradually resumed its normal course....</p>
+
+<p>For a long time Metchnikoff had been observing
+himself very attentively; he took regular notes on
+the influence of the food diet which he followed; by
+the analysis of his urine, he sought for indications
+respecting the toxic products of his intestinal flora;
+he studied upon himself the advance of senility,
+whitening of hair, etc.</p>
+
+<p>Since his crisis he had adopted the habit of writing
+occasional notes on his psychical state. This is what
+he wrote on the 23rd December 1913 at Sèvres:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Two months and more have passed since I wrote the preceding
+lines. During that period my health has been satisfactory;
+nevertheless I have wondered every day whether it
+would be my last.</p>
+
+<p>I am therefore hastening to write my memoir on infantile
+cholera.</p>
+
+<p>The cardiac intermittence has been more or less frequent,
+yet every day I have had periods of regular pulsations (58-66-72
+per minute) as usual.</p>
+
+<p>The day before yesterday I contracted a bad cold,
+accompanied by a little fever. Wondering if it would degenerate
+into pneumonia, I faced anew the possibility of a
+near end, and I resumed the analysis of my thoughts, feelings,
+and sensations.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As my 70 years draw near to their close, it seems to me
+that a feeling of satiety with life, what I call the &ldquo;natural
+death instinct,&rdquo; is gently beginning to evolve.</p>
+
+<p>When, in autumn 1910, experimenting with typhoid
+cultures, I had soiled my face and mouth, I naturally said
+to myself that it might give me typhoid fever. I washed my
+face and beard with soap and a solution of sublimate without
+considering that I was safe against the infection. I <i>reasoned</i>
+that it would be preferable to contract the disease and to die
+of it. (At my age typhoid fever is almost always fatal. I
+had never had it, and might therefore consider myself in a
+state of receptivity.) It is fine to fall on the battlefield,
+especially at an age when life and activity are already on
+the wane. But all that was pure <i>reasoning</i>; <i>instinctively</i> I
+still felt a great desire to live, and it was with joy that I
+counted the days which separated me from the danger of
+having contracted typhoid fever. I felt much relieved a
+fortnight after the incident, considering that the limit of
+incubation was passed.</p>
+
+<p>Thus <i>reasoning</i> and feeling or <i>instinct</i> were not in accord.</p>
+
+<p>Since then, in the three following years, a modification has
+taken place in my psychical condition.</p>
+
+<p>The prospect of death <i>frightens me less than before</i>. During
+my cardiac crisis of the 19th October 1913 I even felt no fear of
+death, and my satisfaction at my recovery was <i>less</i> than before.</p>
+
+<p>I think it is that difference in quantity which constitutes
+the first symptoms of <i>indifference</i> towards death, an indifference
+which is hardly perceptible at first.</p>
+
+<p>Satiety with life is sometimes observed in old people of
+80; it is not surprising to feel the first approach of it
+about 70, especially in the case of a man like myself who
+began very early to lead a very intense life.</p>
+
+<p>Other special circumstances influence even more this
+precocious satiety of life. As I become more indifferent to
+my own life I feel a more and more acute anxiety for the
+health, life, and happiness of those who are dear to me.</p>
+
+<p>I am especially troubled by a consciousness of the imperfection
+of modern medicine. In spite of the progress<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>
+realised in these latter days, it is still powerless against a
+multitude of diseases, threatening us on all sides.</p>
+
+<p>Pulmonary lesions (tuberculosis, pneumonia, etc.), the
+nephrites, and an infinite quantity of other diseases can
+yet neither be prevented nor cured. So we live in constant
+fear for those we love. When medicine shall (as I am persuaded)
+have conquered all these evils, one cause of the
+bitterness of life will cease&mdash;but that is not yet the case.</p>
+
+<p>That is why, besides the weakening of the life-instinct, a
+resignation towards death grows in us, as a means of no
+longer feeling the ills which afflict our neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>With time, when that source of unhappiness has been
+eliminated by medicine, old age will be more attractive, and
+an orthobiotic life will become normal and realisable.</p>
+
+<p>At the ages of 50, 60, 65, I felt an intense joy in
+living, such as I described in my <i>Studies on Human Nature</i>
+and <i>Optimistic Essays</i>. In the last few years it has lessened
+markedly.</p>
+
+<p>Scientific work still provokes in me an invincible enthusiasm,
+but I am becoming more indifferent to many of the
+pleasures of life.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And indeed he no longer had the joyous soul of
+former days; into his life a funereal note had crept,
+low but continuous and obstinate. He gave all the
+more energy to the study of those questions the
+solution of which was to bring about the reign of
+orthobiosis. He spent the whole winter in researches
+on the intestinal flora and on the completion of his
+studies on infantile cholera.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring, on the occasion of his anniversary,
+he wrote the following:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="small-right">
+
+<span class="smcap">Sèvres</span>, <i>16th May 1914</i>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>I have to-day entered my 70th year; it is a great event
+for me. As I analyse my feelings, I realise more and more
+the <i>weakening</i> of my &ldquo;life-instinct.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In order to verify my impressions, I wished to hear again<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>
+the musical compositions which formerly used to make me
+shed tears of enthusiasm (for instance, Beethoven&rsquo;s 7th
+Symphony or Bach&rsquo;s aria for the violin). Well, my impressionability
+towards music has very much lessened. In spite
+of the facility with which old people weep, I hardly shed a
+single tear, save with rare exceptions.</p>
+
+<p>I observe the same change in other circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>This spring, the blossoming of flowers, buds, bushes, and
+trees, all this renascence of nature, has not excited in me a
+shadow of the emotion of preceding years.</p>
+
+<p>Rather I felt a melancholy, not on account of my coming
+end, but because of the consciousness of the burden of existence.</p>
+
+<p>There is no question for me now of the old joy of living;
+my predominant feeling is <i>infinite anxiety</i> for the health and
+happiness of those I love. I now so well understand Pettenkoffer,
+who committed suicide at 84 after losing all his
+family. Their death had evidently been precocious because
+of the impotence of medicine. At every step, one comes
+across cases where neither hygiene nor therapeutics can do
+anything. How many are infected with tuberculosis, no
+one knows how or where. What is to be done to avoid it?
+And the consequences of measles, of scarlet fever, perhaps of
+a simple sore throat, followed sometimes by tuberculosis
+or nephritis!</p>
+
+<p>What is the use of being able to foretell, by means of the
+proportion of urea in the blood, the precise moment of the
+death of an &ldquo;azotemic&rdquo; patient when you cannot prevent it
+or cure him?</p>
+
+<p>This imperfection of medical science prevents many
+from reaching true <i>orthobiosis</i>, and it is understandable that,
+seeing the present state of medicine, the feeling of the &ldquo;burden
+of existence&rdquo; may be precocious, as in my case.</p>
+
+<p>But it is indubitable that, in spite of the slowness with
+which medical science is developing, it will in the future
+reach a degree which will enable us to cease to tremble any
+longer before all sorts of incurable diseases. Orthobiosis will
+then appear, no longer under its present incomplete form,
+but as the solid and essential basis of life.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Return to St. Léger-en-Yvelines &mdash; Norka &mdash; Studies on the death of the
+silk-worm moth &mdash; War declared &mdash; Mobilisation.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> drawback of the holidays consisted, for Metchnikoff,
+in coming away from his laboratory and in
+the impossibility of following his diet in a hotel or
+a boarding-house. We therefore resolved to hire a
+cottage in some quiet place, to organise a small
+laboratory, and to continue our usual mode of life.</p>
+
+<p>St. Legér-en-Yvelines, where we had spent part of
+the preceding summer, answered all our requirements.
+We took a small villa there and called it &ldquo;Norka,&rdquo;
+which means in Russian &ldquo;little hole,&rdquo; &ldquo;little refuge,&rdquo;
+and came there for the holidays in July 1914.</p>
+
+<p>Elie seemed pleased to be there; thanks to the
+laboratory, he could easily vary his occupations, for
+continuous reading fatigued him. His reflections
+having led him to the problem of natural death, he
+had for some time been seeking for a subject on which
+he could study the mechanism of the phenomenon.
+He had formerly studied the May-flies (Ephemeridæ),
+predestined to a natural death by their rudimentary
+buccal organs, incapable of use in feeding. But
+the life of those insects, a life of a few hours or a
+few days at the most, was too short to allow the
+necessary researches. The males of the Rotifera,
+which are also deprived of buccal organs and even of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+digestive organs, were too small in size for physiological
+experiments. Thus, those two examples of
+natural death among multicellular beings were unsuitable
+to the projected study.</p>
+
+<p>He found a more favourable subject in the moth
+of the silk-worm (<i>Bombyx mori</i>); the rudimentary
+buccal organs of that insect make all feeding impossible
+and predestine it to a natural death. The
+dimensions of the silk-worm moth are large enough
+and it has a life duration of twenty-five or thirty
+days, therefore sufficient to allow the study of the
+mechanism by which its death is brought about.
+Metchnikoff procured a quantity of silk-worms, and
+soon the moths hatched and covered all the mantelpieces
+and tables in Norka with white flakes. He
+ascertained that it was not hunger which brought
+about the death of the moths, for their organism was
+not in the least exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>The nutrition of the latter takes place at the
+expense of the fatty substance which remains after
+the metamorphosis of the chrysalis into a moth. The
+dissolution of this fatty substance produces toxins
+which pass into the urine. Thus the obvious cause
+of the death of the moth is an acid intoxication by
+toxic urine secreted in the bladder. As the latter
+does not empty itself, uræmia becomes inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>The majority of moths contain no micro-organisms
+which could suggest death by infection.</p>
+
+<p>The only theoretic objection against a natural
+death might consist in the existence of &ldquo;invisible
+microbes.&rdquo; Indeed, the question of invisible microbes
+revealed in certain infections perturbed Metchnikoff&rsquo;s
+mind to such an extent that, during his last illness, he
+used to say that it would have been a curse to his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+ulterior activity, a sort of ghost preventing all definite
+conclusions in problems connected with the absence
+or presence of microbes. The last word on natural
+death, he said, will only be spoken when, owing to
+the improvement of the microscope, those microbes
+which are as yet invisible to us will become visible.
+Nevertheless, as far as can be judged at present, the
+death of the <i>Bombyx mori</i> is due, not to external
+causes, but to the structure of the insect itself, and
+is therefore a natural death.</p>
+
+<p>During these holidays, Metchnikoff also wrote
+reminiscences of his friend the physiologist Setchénoff.<a name="FNanchor_30" id="FNanchor_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p>
+
+<p>We went quietly for fairly long walks; Metchnikoff
+rested on the shores of his favourite lake (Vilpert),
+and his health was very satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>After the intense heat, some rain came and the
+weather became ideal; there was a perceptible
+lull in nature; the underwood was becoming purple
+with heather; the corn was ripening; harvest had
+begun, and sheaves stood up in the fields. All was
+calm and peaceful; we never tired of the charm
+of the forest, of the fields, of the beautiful rustic
+surroundings, and our souls sang in unison with Nature....</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly, like a flash of lightning in the pure sky,
+the news of the war burst out!</p>
+
+<p>The possibility had so often been mentioned in
+late years that no one believed in it. Even now, on
+the eve of the catastrophe, it was hoped that all
+would settle down....</p>
+
+<p>Until the last moment Metchnikoff refused to
+believe in it; he could not admit that a pacific<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+solution was impossible. &ldquo;How is it possible that
+in Europe, in a civilised country, mutual interests
+should not be reconciled without killing?&rdquo; he said.
+&ldquo;A war would be madness, even from the point of
+view of Germany, who risks having to face three
+great powers. No, war is not possible.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And yet war was spreading all over Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The situation of France seemed critical, for the
+country had just gone through a series of internal
+storms. The labour question, that of income tax,
+and that of the three years&rsquo; military service had
+raised sharp controversies; the Caillaux affair had
+revealed hidden sores in political life; the insane
+assassination of Jaurès, of which the reason was
+still unknown, gave rise to the blackest prognostications.</p>
+
+<p>Already on the 28th July, date of the declaration
+of war by Austria against Serbia, anxiety had become
+intense, but it was hoped that Russia would settle
+matters between the two countries, and that the
+trouble would remain local.</p>
+
+<p>On the 1st August, Germany declared war on
+Russia, and it became obvious that the storm was
+coming on apace. The aspect of life suddenly
+changed; a feeling of dread and expectancy unnerved
+everybody; mobilisation was mentioned;
+automobiles at full speed hurried along the roads;
+the harvest was hastily gathered.... We could
+no longer work, go for walks, or admire nature without
+a feeling of heavy anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>We went about like automatons, all our thoughts
+centred on one point&mdash;the threatening, inevitable
+war. Everything had put on a sinister aspect, and
+Nature herself joined in the general gloom; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+weather became stormy, thunder rolled alarmingly,
+heavy clouds hurried and met in a gigantic struggle,
+evoking the image of other coming struggles. During
+the night of the 1st August the storm never ceased,
+we could not sleep; all night long, frenzied automobiles
+raced along the high road, sounding their
+lugubrious horns. In the middle of the night, we
+heard some one knocking at the doors of the police
+station opposite. What was happening? In the
+darkness, illumined by flashes of lightning, we saw
+horsemen with lanterns; they were messengers
+bringing the orders for mobilisation. It was proclaimed
+the next day.</p>
+
+<p>The population gathered at the <i>mairie</i>, a grave,
+silent crowd; the few words exchanged only concerned
+war and partings. Old men, who had lived
+through 1870, were low-spirited; young ones, on the
+contrary, were excited.</p>
+
+<p>We had to think of our return home, which might
+be difficult later. We went into the forest for the
+last time; the evening was mild and calm after the
+storm. The peace and beauty around us were such
+that we longed not to believe in the terrible reality.
+But we had to bid farewell to all that had charmed
+us. We went once again into the meadows near
+Norka. The hayricks were standing in rows, their
+soft, golden silhouettes harmoniously outlined against
+the hilly background purple with heather. We sat
+down on the mown grass. Suddenly, in the calm of
+the evening, bells began to sound. It was not the
+distant and poetic call for vespers, nor the sad sound
+of the passing bell, but the hard, sinister, ill-omened
+tocsin, warning the whole countryside, down
+to the most distant, most peaceful hamlets and to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+wood-cutters in the forest, that mobilisation had
+commenced....</p>
+
+<p>Another storm broke out in the night. Again the
+rolling of the thunder shook our nerves and seemed
+like the echo of distant battles; again mysterious
+automobiles and horsemen raced along the road, and
+everything, every sound, every shadow seemed
+sinister.</p>
+
+<p>We did not feel any fear, but a kind of insupportable
+nervous tension. Later, when we were much
+nearer real danger, we did not experience this electric,
+almost morbid feeling.</p>
+
+<p>The next day, Germany had declared war on
+France.</p>
+
+<p>It was only with much difficulty that we found
+a carriage to take us to the station. On the road
+we were constantly being passed by various vehicles,
+crowded with soldiers and young men going off. The
+little station was full of people, the train also. Moved
+and excited, the people shouted, &ldquo;Vive la France!&rdquo;
+and sent friendly salutes to unknown soldiers in the
+train. Women, seeing their men off, were trying to
+be gay; they encouraged the departing ones, and
+only wept after they were gone. The general impression,
+both moral and material, was excellent;
+every one seemed equal to his task, conscious of
+his duty, and desirous of fulfilling it well. The
+mobilisation seemed well organised, everything was
+being accomplished without any flurry or bustle,
+even the trains were almost punctual.</p>
+
+<p>All small personal interests and party quarrels
+which had latterly poisoned life now suddenly disappeared;
+everywhere the desire to be useful was
+noticeable; people became better, there was more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+sympathy, more solidarity; the distance between
+classes seemed to decrease, the common trial made
+all equal.</p>
+
+<p>There was beauty in that moment, for it showed
+that the greatest of evils might yet exalt and purify
+the human soul.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV">CHAPTER XXXV</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Return to Paris &mdash; The deserted Institute &mdash; Memoir on the Founders of
+Modern Medicine &mdash; Metchnikoff&rsquo;s Jubilee &mdash; Last holidays at Norka.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">This</span> was but the beginning of the war; soon it
+spread with vertiginous rapidity, and made its cruel
+destructive force felt.</p>
+
+<p>On our return from Norka, we found everything
+on a war footing. The very next morning,
+Metchnikoff hurried to the laboratory. He only
+reached Paris with some difficulty, all means of
+communication being encumbered by soldiers. He
+had left the house nervous and excited but full of
+courage and energy. I shall never forget his return
+home....</p>
+
+<p>I was awaiting him as usual, just outside the
+station, and, as he got out of the train, I did not
+recognise him. I saw a stooping old man, bent as
+under a heavy burden; his usual vivacity was gone,
+and had given place to the deepest depression.</p>
+
+<p>He told me in a broken voice that the Institute
+was already deserted; that it was under the orders of
+the military authorities, and completely disorganised
+for scientific work. The younger men were mobilised;
+the laboratories empty; the animals used for experiments
+had been killed on account of the departure
+of the servants, and for fear of a lack of food. Everything
+that had been devoted to the service of science<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
+and of research into means of preserving life had
+been handed over to the service of war. Normal and
+cultured life was arrested. And that was the outcome
+of civilisation.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff felt as if he had suddenly been dropped
+into the abyss of centuries, into the times of human
+savagery. He could not accustom his mind to the
+idea of such a fall; it seemed to him a paradox, an
+impossibility, that civilised peoples could not do
+without sanguinary fights in order to solve questions
+of mutual relations.</p>
+
+<p>The events which were taking place agitated and
+depressed him all the more that he had not the
+possibility of becoming absorbed in scientific investigations;
+he was completely thrown off his balance.</p>
+
+<p>And as, one by one, the news came of the death
+in action of several of the young men who had left
+the Institute, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s grief knew no limits. He
+could not bear the idea, now a terrible reality, that
+these brilliant young lives should be sacrificed,
+victims of those who should have directed the peoples
+towards peace and a rational life, and who, instead of
+that, threw the most precious part of humanity into
+the abyss of death. War became a dark, sinister
+background to his daily life. The victims of war
+were not only those who fell on the battle-field, but
+included him whose whole life-effort had been
+directed towards the conservation of human existence
+and the search for rational conceptions. The
+contrast between his aspirations and the cruel reality
+had been to him a blow which his sensitive and suffering
+heart was not fit to bear.</p>
+
+<p>The Germans were advancing rapidly. Then
+came the sad days of panic, when the inhabitants<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+were leaving Paris in numbers and the Government
+started for Bordeaux. At night, the sky was swept
+by the gigantic, luminous sword of the searchlights;
+the rumble of cannon could be heard in the distance....</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff, however, had no personal fear whatever.
+He very simply decided on his course of
+action, which was to remain at the Institute if his
+presence there could be of use; if not, to retire to some
+quiet place where he could work. As there was
+hardly any staff left at the Institute on account of
+the mobilisation, he did not go away, but, on the
+contrary, we came to live in Paris, the communication
+with Sèvres being very difficult.</p>
+
+<p>The day we arrived was that on which the first
+German aeroplanes appeared, and they dropped bombs
+near the St. Lazare station just as we were alighting
+from the train. For some time after that, they
+carried out a raid above Paris every Sunday.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the disorganisation of his whole life,
+Metchnikoff had succeeded in resuming his work to a
+certain extent. He took advantage of an opportunity
+to observe an old dog who was suffering from
+diabetes, and hastened to examine his organs as soon
+as he died, whilst they were still fresh. He had for
+some time supposed that diabetes might be an infectious
+disease; yet he was unable to discover any
+specific microbe either in the humors or in the organs
+of the dog. But he succeeded in provoking symptoms
+of the disease (traces of sugar in the urine) in a
+healthy dog, by inoculating him with the pancreatic
+gland of the diabetic dog. He was much encouraged
+by this result, and would have liked to continue
+his researches, but was unable to do so because<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+of the general disorganisation and the impossibility
+of obtaining animals for experiments. He had to
+content himself with continuing his memoir on
+infantile cholera and his observations on the silk-worm
+moth.</p>
+
+<p>As he was almost altogether precluded from
+laboratory work, he began to write a study on &ldquo;The
+Founders of Modern Medicine,&rdquo; in order to demonstrate,
+by concrete examples, the importance of
+positive science in its application to life. This is
+what he said in his preface to the book:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>These pages were written under special circumstances. If
+not in the actual hearing of guns, it was in expectation of it
+that I had to spend several weeks in my Paris laboratory,
+now under war conditions. These meant an almost complete
+cessation of any scientific activity in our Institute.</p>
+
+<p>For fear of a lack of food, the animals used for our experiments
+had been killed, which deprived us of the possibility
+of proceeding with our researches.</p>
+
+<p>The stables of the Institute were filled with cows who
+provided milk for the hospitals and children&rsquo;s homes.</p>
+
+<p>The greater number of our young collaborators, assistants,
+or laboratory attendants were mobilised, and only the female
+employees and old men remained. One of the latter, I
+found myself in the impossibility of pursuing my investigations
+and in possession of much leisure. I made use of it to
+write this book in the hope that it might be helpful.</p>
+
+<p>It is not intended for physicians, for they know all that is
+expounded in it, but for young men who are seeking a scope
+for their activities.</p>
+
+<p>We may be sure that the insane war which broke out in
+consequence of the lack of knowledge or of power of those
+who should have watched over peace, will be followed by a
+long period of calm. It is to be hoped that this unexampled
+butchery will, for a long time, do away with the desire for
+fighting, and that soon the need will be felt of a more rational<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
+activity. Let those who will have preserved the combative
+instinct direct it towards a struggle, not against human beings,
+but against the innumerable microbes, visible or invisible,
+which threaten us on all sides and prevent us from accomplishing
+the normal and complete cycle of our existence.</p>
+
+<p>The results acquired by the progress of the new medical
+science allow us to hope that, in a more or less distant future,
+humanity will be freed from the principal diseases which
+oppress it.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>After describing the state of medical science before
+Pasteur, Lister, and Koch, Metchnikoff compared
+with it modern medicine, created by these three
+Founders, and showed the great horizons opened by
+them to the medicine of the future.</p>
+
+<p>On the 26th of September 1914, whilst we were still
+in Paris, he had, in the laboratory, an attack of tachycardia,
+which lasted three hours but was much less
+violent than that of the year before. The winter,
+however, passed fairly well in spite of the emotions
+and continuous excitement caused by the war, and he
+had no other attack until April 1915, when again he
+had a slight tachycardiac crisis of a short duration.
+Yet he was very much changed: his hair was much
+whiter, his movements were slow, and his figure bent.
+His infectious gaiety and vivacity had disappeared,
+but he remained energetic and enthusiastic in his
+work, and gained more and more in serenity.</p>
+
+<p>Little children in the street called him &ldquo;Father
+Christmas,&rdquo; and came confidingly to ask him for
+presents. They knew him well, and were aware that
+his pockets were always filled with sweets for them.
+He used to say that his growing love for children
+was the revelation of the grandfatherly instinct, for
+which he had reached the proper age. He especially<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+loved one of his god-daughters, little Lili; he had
+become attached to the child on account of her kind
+heart and exceptional sweetness, and also because,
+from the cradle, she had shown a marked preference
+for him. And yet his love for children was not to
+him a source of joy, for anxiety on their account predominated
+over other feelings.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the physical change which had supervened,
+his brain continued to work untiringly as in
+the past, and he tackled new problems with youthful
+courage and boldness. He had planned a work on
+the sexual question, which, according to him, was
+treated erroneously, with the result that grave disharmonies
+occurred in human existence.</p>
+
+<p>Thus he reached some quite revolutionary conclusions
+respecting education and marriage. He
+thought that morality should be set upon a quite
+different basis, new and rational; and that was the
+question which he prepared to treat.</p>
+
+<p>The 16th of May of that year was his seventieth
+anniversary.</p>
+
+<p>His satisfaction was great at having reached the
+normal limit of age, for he saw in that a conclusive
+proof of the efficacy of his hygiene. Indeed, he
+showed on that day a sort of rejuvenation: his aspect
+was quite different, he was gay and animated as he
+had not been for a long time.</p>
+
+<p>The Pasteur Institute celebrated his jubilee. In
+spite of the absence from &ldquo;The House&rdquo; of many
+members on account of the war, the library filled with
+people, and the fête had a cordial and intimate
+character. Dr. Roux&rsquo;s speech<a name="FNanchor_31" id="FNanchor_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> will remain the best
+description of E. Metchnikoff and of his scientific<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
+activity. He himself responded to all those manifestations
+of sympathy by a spirited speech, in which,
+<i>à propos</i> of his own particular case, he expounded his
+ideas on senility and the duration of life in general.
+This is what he wrote on that same day in his note-book:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>16th May 1915. To-day I have at last accomplished my
+seventy years! I have attained the normal limit of life, a
+limit mentioned by King David and confirmed by the statistical
+researches of Lexis and Bodio.<a name="FNanchor_32" id="FNanchor_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> I am still capable of
+work and of reflection. But the changes in my psychical
+state which I had observed a year ago have become sensibly
+accentuated. The difference in acuteness both of pleasant
+and painful sensations is becoming more and more marked.
+Agreeable sensations are becoming weaker; I am now indifferent
+to many things which I used to appreciate very
+much.</p>
+
+<p>It is useless to say that I am indifferent to the quality of
+my food; my need of musical impressions has become so
+much less that I hardly feel the desire to satisfy it. The
+charm of spring no longer touches me and only provokes
+sadness in my mind.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, my anxiety for the health and happiness
+of those I love is getting more and more acute. I find it
+difficult to understand how I ever could bear it.</p>
+
+<p>The powerlessness of medicine grieves me more and more,
+and, as a last straw, the war has interrupted all the work that
+had been undertaken against disease. In these conditions, it
+is not astonishing that I should feel a growing satiety with
+existence. Last year [16th May 1914 to 16th May 1915] I
+had two attacks of tachycardia, during which I should have
+been glad to die, but in general my health is satisfactory and
+that sustains me. What would have become of me if, to
+crown my misfortunes, I had fallen ill! I certainly no longer
+fear death, but I desire to die suddenly during a heart attack
+and not to go through a long illness.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>My comparative longevity is not due to family heredity
+(my father died in his 68th year, my mother in her 66th, my
+sister also, my eldest brother at 45, my second brother at 50,
+the third in his 57th year; my grandparents I have not known).
+It is to my hygiene that I give the credit for having attained
+my 70 years in a satisfactory condition. I have taken no raw
+food for eighteen years and I introduce as many lactic bacilli
+as possible into my intestines. But it is but a first step; in
+spite of all, I am being poisoned by the bacteria of butyric
+fermentation. However, I have practically reached the normal
+term of life and I must be satisfied. I have, so to speak,
+accomplished the programme of a &ldquo;reduced orthobiosis.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>When macrobiotics become more perfect, when people have
+learnt how to cultivate a suitable flora in the intestines of
+children as soon as they are weaned from their mother&rsquo;s
+breast, the normal limit of life will be put much further back
+and may extend to twice my 70 years. Then, also, satiety
+with existence will appear much later than it has done in
+my case.</p>
+
+<p>To-day they celebrated my jubilee at the Pasteur Institute,
+which touched me very much, in spite of my distrust of sentimental
+manifestations, for I realised their sincerity. I should
+have liked to set out a programme of the researches which
+should be accomplished by the Pasteur Institute, but I feared
+to detain my audience too long.</p>
+
+<p>I believe that Science will solve all the principal problems
+of Life and Death and that she will enable human beings to
+accomplish their vital cycle by real orthobiosis, not by a
+reduced caricature of it as in my case. Nevertheless, I consider
+the experiment practised upon myself as having already
+given some result and that is to me a real satisfaction.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We spent that summer a few weeks at Norka,
+where Metchnikoff completed his researches concerning
+the death of the silk-worm moth.</p>
+
+<p>We went for delicious walks; we spent all the
+afternoon by the lake or under the pines in the
+heather, reading and working. Once only, during a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+walk, he had a strong cardiac intermittence, but as
+a rule he felt well. I could see, however, that he was
+obsessed by a grave preoccupation which he did not
+express. Later, during his last illness, he confessed
+to me that during the whole of that stay at St. Léger
+he had feared to die suddenly during one of our walks.
+The thought of my isolation weighed on his mind and
+he hid his anxiety so as not to alarm me....</p>
+
+<p>With a view to the work which he had planned on
+the sexual question, he interested himself in the
+influence that their sentimental life had had on the
+activity of great men, and we read together the
+biographies of Beethoven, Mozart, and Wagner.
+Elie was more than ever desirous of making our
+holidays as pleasant as possible, as if he already felt
+that they were our last. Here are more extracts from
+his note-book:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="small-right">
+
+<span class="smcap">St. Léger-en-Yvelines</span>, <i>24th June 1916</i>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>When saying that I did not fear death, I had in view the
+dread of annihilation. That fear, manifested during a long
+period of life and disappearing towards the end, may be compared
+with the fear of darkness which children instinctively
+feel and which also disappears gradually and naturally. When,
+towards the end of life, the fear of nothingness ceases, no
+desire remains for a future life, for the immortality of the
+soul. It would even be painful to me to think that the soul,
+surviving the body, could watch, from beyond, the misfortunes
+of those who remain on the earth. On the contrary, towards
+life&rsquo;s decline, a desire for complete annihilation becomes
+developed.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>He spent the autumn collecting and preparing
+the materials he required for his book on the sexual
+function. It was a relief from the sad impressions
+of the war and the deserted laboratory. But new
+troubles were in store for us; I became ill, and had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+scarcely recovered when we heard the news of the
+death of a nephew who was very dear to us. The
+death of the young had always deeply moved Metchnikoff,
+and it was so in this case. It was another
+weight thrown into the already descending scale.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of all, he continued to work with enthusiasm,
+planting young trees that future generations
+might enjoy their shade.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI">CHAPTER XXXVI</a></h2>
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="chapter-title">Bronchial cold &mdash; Aggravated cardiac symptoms &mdash; Farewell to Sèvres &mdash; Return
+to the Institute &mdash; Protracted sufferings &mdash; Intellectual preoccupations &mdash; Observations
+on his own condition &mdash; The end &mdash; Cremation.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">If</span> in this sad last chapter I occasionally dwell on
+details which may seem insignificant in themselves,
+it is because, at this supreme moment of Elie Metchnikoff&rsquo;s
+existence, everything was full of significance, for
+everything converged to emphasise the powerful
+unity and the ascending and continuous progress of
+his ideas.</p>
+
+<p>His attitude in the face of illness and death was a
+teaching, a support, and an example. That is why,
+relating the story of his last days, I piously describe
+everything.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the end of November, he caught a slight
+cold, which did not prevent him from leading his
+usual life, but which, nevertheless, was the starting-point
+of the illness which took him from us.</p>
+
+<p>On the 2nd of December, during a walk, he suddenly
+felt a cardiac commotion such that he thought he
+was dying. For hours, his pulse remained intermittent
+and very rapid, and from that day he felt
+unwell but continued to go to the laboratory.</p>
+
+<p>On the 9th of December his condition became worse
+and forced him to interrupt his normal life. All the
+doctors were away or very busy on account of the war,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>
+and it was only on the 11th that Dr. Renon could give
+him a consultation at the Laënnec Hospital. He found
+Metchnikoff&rsquo;s heart very tired and nervous, prescribed a
+treatment, and told us to come back in twenty-five days.</p>
+
+<p>But the disease was making giant strides. In the
+night of the 12th to 13th a first attack of cardiac
+asthma supervened, an extremely painful one; we
+had the impression that the end was near. Elie
+suffered agonies but remained morally calm and
+ready for death, as he had ever been since his first
+heart attack, two years previously. He repeated that
+he had accomplished his task and run through his
+vital cycle; that what he could yet do would be but
+a supplement, and that it was better to die than to
+outlive his own decadence.</p>
+
+<p>He only wished not to suffer too long, but that
+humble desire was not to be realised. We spent two
+more nights at Sèvres, terrible nights not to be
+forgotten if one had centuries to live, and we then
+decided to go to a nursing home in Paris, as it was
+imprudent to remain any longer isolated as we were.</p>
+
+<p>Having heard of Metchnikoff&rsquo;s illness, Dr. Roux
+offered to receive us at the Pasteur Institute in a
+small lodging which was now free, the house-physician
+who had occupied it having been killed.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Widal, in whom Metchnikoff had absolute confidence,
+came to Sèvres on the 14th and found myocarditis.
+Thanks to an absolutely incomprehensible
+phenomenon, Elie had suddenly ceased to realise the
+rapidity of his pulse; he had 160 beats in a minute
+and only perceived less than half; it was therefore
+easy to keep the truth from him.</p>
+
+<p>After a last night of suffering we left our Sèvres
+nest, which we had so loved. Leaning on my arm,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
+he slowly walked through the little garden and gazed
+for the last time at the home that we were leaving
+for the unknown.... He looked worn and bent
+under the weight of suffering, but he was quite calm,
+and his eyes, though firm and gentle, already seemed
+to me to be looking very far away.</p>
+
+<p>The automobile bore us slowly from Sèvres to the
+Pasteur Institute, and we found ourselves in the
+small flat which had been inhabited by the young
+doctor who had been killed in the war. He had only
+spent a short stage of his life there. How long should
+we remain? And what road should we take when
+we left it? We tried to smile, though our hearts
+were terribly heavy, in order to cheer each other.</p>
+
+<p>But, in the course of the day, we were surrounded
+by friends full of solicitude, the tension relaxed, and
+we felt a growing sense of comfort and security. No
+more nights of mortal dread and loneliness, with no
+help at hand! That thought alone inspired courage
+and hope. In case of need, I had only to send down
+to the next floor to ask for a doctor.</p>
+
+<p>For a few days, Elie felt much better, perhaps on
+account of the mental relief, but his heart was weak
+and his pulse extremely rapid. Drs. Widal, Martin,
+Veillon, Salimbeni, and Darré came to see him every
+day; during the whole of his long illness, they never
+ceased to show him the most attentive and devoted
+care. They attempted by every means to save him
+from pain, for, alas, they had no hope of curing him.
+Nothing was neglected, and many still greater sufferings
+were spared him.<a name="FNanchor_33" id="FNanchor_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The war was an inexhaustible and passionately
+interesting subject of conversation; Elie read a
+number of newspapers and listened with avidity to
+every news from private sources. Often, too, scientific
+questions were discussed, which continued to
+interest him intensely. These talks were an invaluable
+relaxation.</p>
+
+<p>Feeling infinitely grateful towards his medical
+advisers and friends, he showed himself a most docile
+patient, following their prescriptions with absolute
+punctuality. When his condition grew worse and
+he felt no hope whatever of his recovery, he often
+used to say, &ldquo;What is to be done? the doctors can
+do nothing, for medicine is powerless. Unhappily,
+it will remain so for a long time. Much work will
+have to be done to rid humanity of the scourge of
+diseases. But, surely, one day science will succeed
+in doing so; that will be chiefly through prophylaxis
+and rational hygiene. There will also be a new
+science&mdash;the science of death; it will be known how
+to make it less hard.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>After lunch and a short sleep, he received the daily
+visit of his friend Dr. Roux, with whom he talked in
+the full intimacy of friendship and affection. He
+confided to him his apprehensions and desires, and
+felt unlimited gratitude for his kindness to us, often
+saying to me, with tears in his eyes, &ldquo;I knew Roux
+was a kind man and a true friend, but I see now that
+he is incomparable.&rdquo; Other friends also did their
+utmost to serve him and to show their sympathy.
+He had the great joy of feeling himself beloved and
+surrounded with an atmosphere of real kindness.
+Many times he said to me, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>&ldquo;Now, only, have I
+appreciated the warm-heartedness of the French
+at its full value. Do not fail, in my biography, to
+emphasise how deeply I feel it, and how grateful I
+am. I want them to know it.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Yet all the care and devotion of which he was the
+object could neither arrest the fatal progress of disease
+nor spare cruel suffering to him who had thought of
+nothing but relieving the pains of others. All our
+efforts were as flowers scattered over a tomb; he,
+poor tortured one, was slowly, consciously sinking
+into it through the implacable logic of Fate. From
+the beginning of his illness, he foresaw the issue; he
+lived in constant expectation of death, on the threshold
+of which his calm and serenity remained as unalterable
+as were his patience and resignation.</p>
+
+<p>After a temporary and comparative lull, which
+lasted until the end of December, the disease began
+to progress again, and almost every week brought a
+fresh alarming symptom. It was especially during
+the night that the pain, treacherously, reappeared.
+After dropping asleep fairly early, he would begin to
+breathe with difficulty and then awake in an indescribable
+state of anguish; perspiration drenched his
+head, neck, and chest, several towels often being
+required to dry him. His breathing was hard;
+during bad attacks, the wheezing of his bronchial
+tubes was terrifying.</p>
+
+<p>He would sit up, his hands clenched, his face blue
+and contracted by suffering, his darkened lips apart,
+his eyes dilated&mdash;the face of a man on the rack. He
+gasped like a suffocating man; at last a tearing
+cough supervened, followed by expectoration, and
+the attack gradually subsided.</p>
+
+<p>For a time we were able to relieve him without the
+use of narcotics. As long as there was a ray of hope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>&mdash;not
+of recovery, but of a bearable life and further
+work&mdash;he wished at all costs to avoid the influence of
+narcosis. He breathed fumes of pyridin or ether, he
+smoked Escouflaire cigarettes, and inhaled various
+other things. In order to sleep after an attack, he
+ate a few biscuits, and I sprinkled his head with a
+menthol solution, with which I damped his temples
+and forehead. That eased him, and sometimes he
+slept again for a few hours.</p>
+
+<p>But how many were the nights of insomnia and
+suffering! How many times did he call for death
+as a deliverer, and say that he <i>resigned</i> himself to
+live for my sake only!</p>
+
+<p>And in spite of the martyrdom he endured, he
+always had gentle words, a caress, a consolation
+even! He constantly returned to the thought that
+he had nothing to complain of, that he had had a
+large share of happiness and good fortune in having
+accomplished his task, and even arrived at the development
+of the natural death-instinct.</p>
+
+<p>All those who saw him every day knew that he
+was courageous and patient, every one admired his
+serenity, but no one could realise the <i>degree</i> of his
+courage and patience, for no one had seen and lived
+through those miserable nights.</p>
+
+<p>Often, even, when asked how he was, he said &ldquo;not
+bad!&rdquo; after a terrible night, saying to me afterwards
+in explanation, &ldquo;Why grieve them, since it cannot
+be helped?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of our stay in the Institute, he
+was not yet quite bedridden. After his morning
+toilet, he would lie for some hours on a sofa, reading
+almost continuously, newspapers, scientific reviews,
+and many works in connection with the book he had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
+planned on the sexual function, of which he wrote
+only the introduction and a few lines of the first
+chapter.<a name="FNanchor_34" id="FNanchor_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p>
+
+<p>Another question occupied him at that time, that
+of first-born children. Certain data led him to think
+that men of genius were but rarely the first-born of
+their parents, and he sought for every possible
+information on the subject. In his constant desire
+to improve life-conditions, he even thought that a
+demonstration of this fact might have a desirable
+influence on the increase of population in France
+after the war; if it were proved that the most successful
+children are not the first-born, perhaps the system
+of having two children only would be given up in
+order to have a chance of giving the country a more
+capable population.</p>
+
+<p>His reflections on the sexual questions led him to
+seek for experimental means of studying gonorrh&oelig;a.
+He thought of inoculating the gonococcus into the eye
+of new-born mice and entrusted M. Rubinstein, the
+only worker left in the laboratory, with these experiments.
+The latter began them and obtained encouraging
+results, but he left Paris in the spring and
+the work remained unfinished.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s mind never ceased to work unless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>
+interrupted by acute pain; until the very end, his
+brain never failed him. He often used to say
+how far he was from any mystic aspirations, and
+how sure he was of remaining a rationalist
+until the end. And such was the case. Faithful
+to himself, not even in the most painful moments
+did he feel a desire to look for support outside
+the ideas and principles of his whole life. Yet
+his soul was sad and full of care; the war grieved
+him utterly, every newspaper he read renewed his
+sorrow. When a severe engagement, Verdun for
+instance, was going on, he lost the little sleep he had,
+and his agitation became painful.</p>
+
+<p>He was deeply disillusioned by the Germans.
+Having always felt great esteem for their scientific
+work, he had believed in their high culture, and now
+he was absolutely disconcerted by the mentality
+which they manifested during the war.</p>
+
+<p>Neither could he understand how the war had
+been allowed to come about. He thought it ought
+to have been avoided, and considered the authorities
+guilty for not having done so. He said that nothing
+could compensate the harm done by this insane
+butchery.</p>
+
+<p>The deserted laboratories, the interruption of
+scientific work, filled his soul with melancholy. For,
+he said, all the great, all the real questions should
+have been solved by Science and were kept waiting....</p>
+
+<p>He also had material worries, the war having
+brought great perturbation in his affairs. The fate
+of his mobilised pupils preoccupied him constantly.
+The least indisposition, however trifling, of those he
+loved made him unhappy. His sensibility, which had
+always been very marked, increased still more, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>
+consumed him; it surely was one of the causes that
+had worn his heart out. When already very weak
+and ill, he constantly thought of giving pleasure to
+those who were with him; he read innumerable
+reviews and periodicals, and would tell each friend
+what he had found of particular interest to the latter,
+even when speech was difficult to him. His gentleness
+and cordiality were most touching during the
+whole of his illness, though he preserved his usual
+outspokenness.... It seemed to me that this
+offended no one; they all understood Elie now.</p>
+
+<p>He sought a refuge from his sufferings in his own
+ivory tower; these sufferings themselves were to him
+a source of observations. He studied his body and
+his soul as he would have studied any subject under
+experiment. Every day he wrote down his auto-observations,
+and carefully read the diary which I
+kept for him.</p>
+
+<p>During the whole of the winter he had ups and
+downs. Towards the end of December the cough and
+respiratory symptoms increased, and at the beginning
+of January he expectorated clots of blood, due to
+a passive congestion of the right lung.</p>
+
+<p>On the 19th January, some liquid appeared in the
+pleura on the same side. Pleurisy persisted for a
+whole month and necessitated three punctures.
+Every time we feared to tell him that the puncture
+was necessary, but he received the news with complete
+coolness, saying that he had always been in
+favour of radical measures.</p>
+
+<p>After the third puncture, which took place on the
+19th February, a marked relief supervened, and the
+improvement lasted for some time; it was the only
+moment when we saw a ray of hope.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Though keeping to his bed, he worked a great deal,
+read, and received not only his friends but other
+visitors. At the beginning of March and at the end
+of April he again expectorated blood, and the terrible,
+tragical nights began again. Yet the days were
+fairly good.</p>
+
+<p>During that period, he had the pleasure of seeing
+some of his pupils again, and of receiving several
+Russian deputies and journalists. They talked to
+him of political events, of the war, of the moral state
+of Russia. All that interested him immensely; he
+plied them with the most varied questions. It must
+be remembered that, before that interview, we had
+lost all touch with Russia.</p>
+
+<p>During the whole of May he again had ups and
+downs, but the progress of the disease was indisputable.</p>
+
+<p>Tachycardia was constant, urine more and more
+scanty, the swelling of the legs never decreased, cough
+and oppression occurred frequently even during the
+day. Elie awaited his seventy-first birthday with
+impatience. Often during the night, after a painful
+attack, he would count the days, hours, and minutes
+which separated him from that date. At last it
+arrived. Here are the lines which he added to his
+notes on that day:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>16th May. Against all expectation, I have lived until
+this day. I have reached my 71 years. My dream of a rapid
+death without a long illness has not been realised. I have
+now been bedridden for five months. After several crises of
+tachycardia, following upon a slight grippe with asthma, I
+had congestion of one lung with pleuritic exudate. Though
+some improvement followed after that, nevertheless I am
+tormented by fits of sweating followed by cough and oppression.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
+I suffer chiefly in the night from those attacks;
+they provoke insomnia which can only be combated by
+pantopon.</p>
+
+<p>My psychical state is twofold. In one way, I should like
+to get well, but, on the other hand, I see no sense in living
+any longer. Illness has not provoked in me any fear of
+death, and I am more deprived than formerly of the joy of
+living. The reawakening of spring leaves me quite indifferent.
+There can be no question for me of that pleasure which convalescents
+often feel, nor indeed of any pleasure. To the
+despair that I feel in the face of medicine&rsquo;s powerlessness to
+cure the ills of my friends is added the feeling of its powerlessness
+towards my own illness. I think that my desire to recover
+and to continue to live is connected with practical
+causes.</p>
+
+<p>The war has compromised our finances, our income from
+Russia has practically disappeared. If I die, my wife may
+find herself in a very difficult situation. Given her lack of
+practical notions, that may lead to very sad results. Yet it
+is quite impossible to straighten our affairs before the end of
+the war and the re-establishment of normal conditions.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>These were the last words he wrote in his book of
+notes; his hand had become weak and trembling;
+he tired very soon, and henceforth I wrote under his
+dictation. On the 18th June, one month before his
+cremation, he dictated to me for the last time, and
+this is what he said:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>This is the seventh month that I have been ill and it
+brings my thoughts back to the gravity of my condition.
+I therefore continually realise how much satisfaction I have
+derived from life during my long years. The gradual disappearance
+of my &ldquo;life-instinct,&rdquo; which already began a few
+years ago, is now more marked, more precise. I no longer
+feel that degree of pleasure which I felt only a few years ago.
+My affection for my nearest and dearest shows itself much more
+by the anxiety and suffering provoked by their diseases and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>
+sorrows than by the pleasure I derive from their joys or
+normal health.</p>
+
+<p>Those to whom I describe my feelings tell me that satiety
+with living is not normal at my age. To that I oppose the
+following: Longevity, at least to a certain point, is hereditary.
+Now I have already mentioned, on the occasion of my 70th
+anniversary, that my parents, sister, and brothers died before
+reaching my present age. I knew neither of my grandparents,
+which shows that they could not have been very old
+when they died.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now turn to the profession, since it is an established
+fact that it has an influence on the duration of life. Pasteur
+died at 72, but for a long time he had been unable to do
+scientific work. Koch did not reach the age of 67. Other
+bacteriologists died at a much earlier age than I (Duclaux,
+Nocard, Chamberland, Ehrlich, Büchner, Loeffler, Pfeiffer,
+Carl Fraenkel, Emmerich, Escherich).</p>
+
+<p>Among those bacteriologists of my generation who are still
+living the majority have already ceased from working. All
+that should indicate that my scientific life is over and confirm
+at the same time the fact that my &ldquo;orthobiosis&rdquo; has actually
+reached the desirable limit.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>He was anxious to prove that his end, which
+seemed premature at first sight, did not contradict
+his theories, but had deep causes such as heredity
+and the belated introduction of a rational diet. He
+had only begun to follow it at fifty-three. Facts
+corroborated him after his death, for the post-mortem
+examination showed that the heart lesions were of
+long standing. He himself thought they went back
+at least to 1881, when he had had a very grave
+relapsing fever. The doctors even wondered how he
+had lived with his heart in such a state, and only
+accounted for it by the strict régime which he had
+followed during the latter part of his life.</p>
+
+<p>And indeed when it is remembered how pugnacious,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+how vehement he was&mdash;always, so to speak,
+in a state of ebullition, feverishly active, intensely
+sensitive&mdash;it must be admitted that his life really
+held more than an ordinary life of longer duration.</p>
+
+<p>He was very desirous that the example of his
+serenity in the face of death should be encouraging
+and comforting. It should prove that, at the end of
+his vital cycle, man fears death no longer; it has
+lost its sting for him.</p>
+
+<p>Early in June his condition became still worse.
+The nights were so painful that, every evening, recourse
+had to be had to pantopon.<a name="FNanchor_35" id="FNanchor_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> It was with the greatest
+impatience that he awaited his &ldquo;dear Darré and dear
+Salimbeni,&rdquo; as he called them.</p>
+
+<p>After Dr. Darré had finished his complete and
+thorough medical examination, we three remained
+talking around Elie&rsquo;s bed for a short hour. He often
+recalled his personal or scientific memories when he
+was not too weary; we talked of the war, of medical
+questions; often, too, we would evoke, with Salimbeni,
+recollections of our journey to the Kalmuk Steppes.</p>
+
+<p>We loved that peaceful hour, which ended by an
+injection of pantopon, the only relief, alas, that could
+be procured for him. He would thank Dr. Darré with
+gratitude, and drop his poor weary head on the pillow,
+awaiting in absolute security the blessed sensation of
+warm heaviness which pervaded him, for he knew
+that sleep and rest from his sufferings would not be
+long in coming. The spectre of tragical nights never
+ceased to haunt us.</p>
+
+<p>Until the hot weather came, he was quite comfortable
+in the small flat in the Pasteur hospital; the
+temperature there had been perfectly regular all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>
+through the winter; but now he began to be incommoded
+by the heat.</p>
+
+<p>M. Roux then proposed that we should be transferred
+to Pasteur&rsquo;s old flat; the rooms were spacious
+and much cooler. This idea rejoiced and touched
+Elie very much. As he thanked M. Roux, he said to
+him: &ldquo;See how my life is bound with the Pasteur
+Institute. I have worked here for years; I am
+nursed here during my illness; in order to complete
+the connection I ought to be incinerated in the great
+oven where our dead animals are burnt, and my
+ashes could be kept in an urn in one of the cupboards
+in the library.&rdquo; &ldquo;What a gruesome joke!&rdquo; answered
+M. Roux, really taking those words for a joke. But
+directly after he was gone Elie turned to me with an
+anxious look and said, &ldquo;Well, what do you think of
+my idea?&rdquo; I saw by his earnest expression that he
+meant what he said, and I answered that I thought it
+a very good idea. The Pasteur Institute had become
+his refuge, the centre of all his scientific interests;
+he loved it; he had spent his best years there. Let
+his ashes be laid there some day; it would be in
+perfect harmony with his past. Let us only hope
+that would not be too soon! But why had he given
+his words that jesting form which must have misled
+M. Roux? He explained it to me: knowing how
+deeply conscientious his friend was, he did not wish
+to express his desire as a dying wish in order that he
+should feel no obligation. A simple jest, on the
+contrary, left him absolutely free.</p>
+
+<p>On the 26th June, Elie was carried into Pasteur&rsquo;s
+flat; it was a very great satisfaction to him, it brought
+him nearer his laboratory. Now and then, very
+seldom now, he thought he might return there one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>
+day; he said I should wheel him there in his bath-chair.
+&ldquo;I know I could scarcely work there myself.
+But perhaps I might still play the part of a ferment,
+be useful to my pupils by giving them advice. I am
+leaving so much unfinished work which it would be
+interesting to go on with: the question of intestinal
+flora, that of diabetes, which surely is an infectious
+disease&mdash;but that will have to be proved,&mdash;and my
+experiments on the subject were scarcely begun. I
+think the study of gonorrh&oelig;a will give very interesting
+results when they succeed in inoculating it in new-born
+animals. And the question of tuberculosis is
+well started! I could still help my pupils and encourage
+them if I were a little better!... But I
+have no illusions! I must live now only from day
+to day....&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Those words were uttered with heart-rending
+resignation.</p>
+
+<p>He continued to get worse....</p>
+
+<p>It was fortunate that pantopon should have given
+him good nights, for attacks of oppression now supervened
+several times during the day; tachycardia was
+continuous, the heart was weakening. The quantity
+of urine diminished; it often did not surpass 250 cubic
+centimetres, and no diuretic succeeded in increasing
+it; the legs remained swollen, ascitis was beginning to
+become visible; in the night he occasionally grew
+slightly delirious.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of July he wished to sit up; he
+spent part of the afternoon in an armchair, his legs
+lying on cushions. We thought it was a good sign,
+but in reality he found it difficult to breathe lying
+down. Several times he asked me to play to him,
+very soft music, as noisy sounds wearied him. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>
+played him some Beethoven, some Mozart; the last
+time it was a Chopin prelude.</p>
+
+<p>On the 9th his temperature went down in an
+alarming way to 35.2° C. (95 F.). For the first time
+he would not write down his ordinary observations.
+&ldquo;What is the good?&rdquo; said he, &ldquo;it has no longer any
+interest.&rdquo; Yet the next day he did so, for the last
+time. On the 11th and 12th he put down his temperature,
+and glanced superficially at the notes I
+had written. On the 12th, about five o&rsquo;clock in the
+morning, he had a bad fit of breathlessness followed
+by coughing, and brought up large clots of very red
+blood. He smiled faintly. &ldquo;You understand what
+that means,&rdquo; he said, adding some tender words.</p>
+
+<p>I wheeled him to his bed, which he never left again.</p>
+
+<p>On the 13th, in the early morning, he felt very ill.
+Calmly and gently he warned me to be ready. &ldquo;It
+will surely be to-day or to-morrow.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>My heart breaking, I asked him why he said that;
+was he feeling very weak? or suffering very much?</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;it is difficult to say what I feel;
+I have never felt anything like it; it is, so to speak, a
+death-<i>sensation</i>.... But I feel very calm, with no
+fear. You will hold my hand, will you not?&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>How can I describe those last three days? He
+preserved all his lucidity and serenity, often smiling
+at me and drawing me towards him. He inhaled
+oxygen very often, as breathlessness became almost
+continuous.</p>
+
+<p>On the 14th there was to be a <i>matinée</i> performance
+of <i>Manon Lescaut</i>, and remembering that his
+god-children had long wished to see that opera, he
+had had a box taken for them. He was now quite
+uneasy about it. &ldquo;What ill-luck,&rdquo; he said, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>&ldquo;if <i>it</i>
+happened just before and prevented them from
+going. In any case they must not come here on
+their way to the theatre, so that if <i>it</i> happens they
+will not know, and can still enjoy the performance.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to pantopon, he spent a very good night.
+He awoke about five o&rsquo;clock, but remained so quiet
+that I thought him asleep. When I rose about six
+he held out his hand to me and told me he had been
+awake for a long time. He talked to me tenderly, in
+the full intimacy of our affection; he spoke sweet,
+unforgettable words. He made me promise once
+again not to give way to grief. &ldquo;At first, our friends
+will help you, and then work, that infallible remedy,
+and duty.... You will have that of writing my
+biography. Remember how much I wish the <i>last</i>
+chapter to be complete. You alone can write it, for
+you have seen me all the time; I have told you all
+my thoughts, and yet....&rdquo; I understood that he
+had occasionally, out of pity for me, hidden his sufferings
+and his sad thoughts. But he did not know how
+often I guessed what he did not say; love and pain
+have a dumb language, more eloquent than any
+human words.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;You will hold my hand when the moment comes,&rdquo;
+he repeated. &ldquo;But do not think I am afraid, now
+that it is near. No, I assure you, I have an absolute
+serenity of soul! I spent a divine night. It seemed
+to me that I was already half outside life. This night
+has taught me many things.... Everything which
+troubled me, everything that seemed so disturbing, so
+terrible, like this war for instance, seems so transitory
+now, such a small thing by the side of the great
+problems of existence!... Science will solve them
+some day.&rdquo; He ceased speaking. He seemed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>
+illumined by a very exalted feeling; it was like the
+last chord of his harmonious soul. What a consolation
+if he could have died then!</p>
+
+<p>But life is cruel. He lived through two more
+days of suffering. On the 14th he inhaled oxygen
+almost continually. He asked for pantopon, but we
+feared to give him too much. I told him it would
+induce such continuous sleep that he would not even
+be able to enjoy it. &ldquo;But an eternal sleep is precisely
+what I want! Do understand that now
+nothing is left to me but pantopon. What is the
+good of making me last? Is this a life? A few
+days or a month have no importance when
+one is not going to recover. And you cannot
+wish to prolong my sufferings.&rdquo; His breathlessness
+increased; he said, &ldquo;Give me your hand; stay near
+me!&rdquo; I knew what he meant; he had the &ldquo;death-sensation.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>His poor hands were hot and warmed my cold
+ones.... The next day I could not warm his hands,
+ice-cold for ever.</p>
+
+<p>The whole day he awaited with impatience the
+hour for pantopon. About nine o&rsquo;clock, when Dr.
+Darré came in, he said, &ldquo;Dear Darré, at last!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>There was no talk that evening, he was so weary.
+With what anguish I awaited the stroke of midnight,
+which ended those two dread days! He had been
+mistaken by barely one day. The night was not bad,
+in spite of breathlessness and some fits of coughing.
+The next morning he felt better. He had not read
+the papers the day before, to-day I read him the communiqués
+in the <i>Petit Parisien</i>, he said it was enough.
+He also turned the pages of a book he had recently
+begun to read, <i>La Science et les Allemands</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I told him how pleased I was to see him better.
+&ldquo;It is true,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;to-day I have no death-sensation,
+but I beg you, have no illusions!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Always that preoccupation of breaking the shock
+for me. He made me bring a pocket-book with some
+money in it and a few envelopes; in each of them he
+made me place notes of similar value, then with his
+already shaking hand, he himself wrote on each
+envelope the value of the notes multiplied by their
+number, and explained that it was to help me to find
+quickly what I should require after the catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>He ate better at lunch than he had done lately; but
+already at two o&rsquo;clock the breathlessness increased.
+Yet he did not look pale; he had preserved his
+rosy complexion. As he inhaled the oxygen, he was
+shaken by a hiccough. He pressed my hand. &ldquo;It
+is the end,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;the death rattle; that is
+how people die.&rdquo; He looked at his watch on the
+small table, it marked four o&rsquo;clock.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;it must have stopped. Four
+o&rsquo;clock struck some time ago.&rdquo; And he smiled.
+&ldquo;Is it not strange that it should have stopped before
+I? Go and see what time it is.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>I ran out to see the clock from the window of
+another room; it was twenty minutes to five. I met
+some one in the passage and asked him to go quickly
+to fetch one of the Institute doctors. Then I begged
+Elie not to have such ideas, and tried to cheer him.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;But, my child, why do you want to calm me? I
+am quite calm; I am only stating facts,&rdquo; he said,
+adding tender words.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment Salimbeni came in. Elie said to
+him: &ldquo;Salimbeni, you are a friend; tell me, is it
+the end?&rdquo; And as he protested, he added, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>&ldquo;You
+remember your promise? You will do my post-mortem?
+and look at the intestines carefully, for I
+think there is something there now.&rdquo; MM. Roux and
+Martin then arrived. The feeling of weight in the
+intestines of which he complained was mentioned.
+He did not know that he had ascitis in the peritoneum.</p>
+
+<p>As I was attending to him I felt him move suddenly,
+and said, &ldquo;I beg you, do not make such sudden
+movements; you know it is not good for you.&rdquo; He
+did not answer. I raised my head; his was thrown
+back on the pillows, his face had assumed a blue
+tinge, the white of the eyes alone could be seen under
+the half-closed lids.</p>
+
+<p>Not a word, not a sound.</p>
+<p>All was over.<a name="FNanchor_36" id="FNanchor_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p>
+
+<p>Then an abyss of oblivion....</p>
+
+<p>I saw him again, stretched on his deathbed. He
+was white, cold, and dumb. His face bore a calm
+and very serious expression. He looked like a
+martyr who had at last entered into rest. Death
+had marked his face with no dread seal. The lids
+had closed of their own accord, and he seemed to be
+sleeping after great lassitude; one might have
+thought that, with his usual kindness, he wished to
+spare us all too painful an impression....</p>
+
+<p>All through the night and the next morning his
+face preserved the same expression.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon Salimbeni performed the autopsy.
+Then he was laid in his coffin; twenty-four hours had
+elapsed since the end. Wrapped in a white sheet,
+which framed his fine face, he had the appearance of
+a biblical prophet.</p>
+
+<p>Now his expression had assumed absolute serenity,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>
+illumined by gentleness and kindness. He had a look
+of elevation, grandeur, and beauty which was really
+divine. It was an apotheosis. His beautiful soul
+beamed in its full purity; neither suffering nor any
+earthly preoccupation had any hold on it. He gave
+an impression of eternal rest.</p>
+
+<p>It was his final image, a splendid one, the last ...
+for ever.</p>
+
+<p>The bier was closed and covered with a heavy
+black pall. On life also a blacker and heavier pall
+had fallen. The light had gone out.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later, on the 18th July, he was carried
+to the cemetery of the Père Lachaise, to be cremated
+in all simplicity, as he had wished. Faithful to his
+ideas, he had wished for a lay funeral, with no speeches,
+flowers, or invitations.</p>
+
+<p>His bier disappeared into a large sarcophagus; on
+each side black curtains fell to hide what was going
+on.... Then one hour of heavy silence whilst the
+poor body was being consumed by the flames....</p>
+
+<p>A death silence....</p>
+
+<p>And that was all....</p>
+
+<p>The mercurial, vivacious child, good-hearted,
+intelligent, and precocious; the young man, ardent,
+impetuous, passionate, a lover of science and of all
+that was exalted; the mature man, a bold thinker,
+an indefatigable investigator, eager, generous, tender,
+and devoted; the old man, in everything faithful
+to himself, but progressing in serenity, shining
+with an ever softer light, like a mountain peak in the
+setting sun; the martyr at last, enduring suffering
+with patience and resignation, seeing the approach
+of death without fear, observing it as he had observed
+life....</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The hour of silence was over; the incineration
+accomplished. Of his body, little was left&mdash;a handful
+of ashes. They were enclosed within an urn and
+placed in the library of the Pasteur Institute.</p>
+
+<p>But his beautiful, ardent soul, his audacious and
+fertile ideas, all that rich inner life which had
+developed into a harmonious and puissant symphony,
+all <i>that</i> cannot be dead, cannot disappear!
+The ideas, the influence we give to life must persist,
+must live; they are the sacred flame which we hand
+on to others and are eternal.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="EPILOGUE" id="EPILOGUE">EPILOGUE</a></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> life and work of Elie Metchnikoff are so intimately
+bound together that, in a biography, it is impossible
+to separate them. That is why the description
+of his work necessarily has been dispersed along
+the story of his life; but, just as, in order to judge of a
+work of art, one has to draw back and contemplate
+the whole, we must also, after following the evolution
+and successive stages of E. Metchnikoff&rsquo;s scientific
+works, take a full view of his work as a whole.</p>
+
+<p>He was a born biologist; everything connected
+with life interested him. In his childhood, he observed
+plants and animals. At the age of fifteen, he
+became acquainted with microscopic beings; they
+aroused in him such powerful interest towards the
+primitive forms of life that, from that moment, not
+only his future path was marked out for him but also
+his method of starting from the simple to elucidate the
+complex. He was imbued with Darwin&rsquo;s theory
+of evolution; having begun by the study of inferior
+animals, he began to look for their connections with
+other groups.</p>
+
+<p>He endeavoured to establish the continuity and
+the unity of phenomena in all living beings. According
+to his method of studying first what was simplest,
+he turned to embryology, for in the egg and the
+embryo it is possible to follow step by step the transformation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
+of the simple to the complex and to see the
+origin and development of all the constituent parts
+of the organism. Moreover, the embryo is exempt
+from secondary complications, due to the multiple
+external conditions of post-embryonic life.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff was able to establish, from embryological
+data, that the development of lower animals
+takes place according to the same plan and under
+the same laws as that of higher animals. In all of
+them, the segmentation of the egg is followed by the
+formation of embryonic layers, of which each gives
+birth to cells and to definite organs. Superior forms
+repeat, in their embryonic life, the evolution cycle of
+inferior forms.<a name="FNanchor_37" id="FNanchor_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p>
+
+<p>This common plan in the embryology of all
+animals established their genealogical continuity and
+strengthened the Darwinian theory.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s studies, carried out on the various
+groups of animals, contributed towards the foundation
+of comparative embryology. Owing to the
+comparative method, he had made himself familiar
+not only with the morphological and functional continuity
+of divers organisms, but also with that of
+their constituting cells; a comparison between the
+latter and unicellular beings was inevitable. That is
+why, having ascertained that the mobile cells of the
+lower Metazoa absorbed foreign bodies by inclusion,
+he naturally concluded that that phenomenon was
+similar to digestion in unicellular beings.</p>
+
+<p>Having established the fact of intracellular digestion
+in lower animals, he extended it to certain cells
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>of the higher animals; thus his phagocyte theory
+was born.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that unicellular beings, like the mobile cells
+of Metazoa, englobe, not only food, but foreign
+bodies, he asked himself whether this was not at
+the same time a defensive action. Such a possibility
+brought no surprise to a zoologist, accustomed
+to see that, in the struggle for existence, animals
+often devoured their enemies.</p>
+
+<p>All the materials for the building up of the phagocyte
+theory were therefore ready in Metchnikoff&rsquo;s
+mind when he asked himself, as by an intuition,
+whether the white globules of our blood, globules
+so similar to am&oelig;bæ, do not play the part of a
+defensive army in our organism when they envelope
+in accumulated masses intrusive bodies injurious to
+the organism.</p>
+
+<p>The thought was but the result of a preparatory
+work already accomplished; it was the butterfly
+escaping out of the chrysalis.</p>
+
+<p>Metchnikoff had recourse to his method of simplification
+in order to solve the question.</p>
+
+<p>The organism of the higher animals being extremely
+complicated, he went down as far as the
+transparent larva of the starfish (bipinnaria) in order
+to watch with his own eyes the phenomena which
+take place within it. He introduced a rose-thorn
+into the transparent body of the larva, and noted
+the next day that the mobile cells in the latter had
+crowded towards the splinter, like an army rushing
+to meet a foe.</p>
+
+<p>The analogy of this phenomenon with inflammation
+and the formation of an abscess was striking.
+Metchnikoff said to himself that since most diseases<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>
+in the higher animals are accompanied by inflammation
+and provoked by microbes, it was chiefly
+against these microbes that our defensive cells had
+to struggle. He named the defensive cells <i>phagocytes</i>.</p>
+
+<p>He confirmed his hypothesis by another observation,
+equally simple. In a little transparent crustacean
+(Daphnia) infected by a small parasitic fungus,
+(<i>Monospora bicuspidata</i>), he was easily able to
+observe the struggle between the animal&rsquo;s mobile cells
+and its parasites.</p>
+
+<p>These two simple observations served as foundation
+and supports to the bridge by which Metchnikoff
+connected normal biology with pathological biology.
+Having entered the domain of the latter, he studied
+various microbian diseases, and asked himself why
+the organism was sometimes liable and sometimes
+refractory. In order to elucidate this question, he
+turned again to lower animals, in which he could easily
+observe the most intimate phenomena, simplified.</p>
+
+<p>He ascertained that liability in an animal corresponded
+with the fact that microbes introduced into
+the organism remained free and invaded it, whilst
+immunity coincided with the inclusion and digestion
+of the microbes by phagocytes.</p>
+
+<p>He also found that, in artificial immunity, the
+phagocytes are accustomed gradually, by preventive
+inoculations, to digest microbes and their toxins.</p>
+
+<p>Thus he established the fact that phagocytosis
+and inflammation are curative means employed by
+the organism.</p>
+
+<p>All his ulterior researches, his studies on the
+various categories of phagocytes and their properties,
+on their digestive liquids, on the formation of antitoxins,
+on the different properties acquired by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
+blood, etc., were but the natural development of
+those premises.</p>
+
+<p>He had proved that the part played by the phagocytes
+consists, not only in the struggle against microbes
+and their poisons, but also in the destruction of all
+the mortified or enfeebled cells of the organism, and
+that atrophies are nothing more than the absorption
+of cellular elements by the phagocytes.</p>
+
+<p>He found that senile atrophies have the same
+cause, and asked why the cells of old people&rsquo;s
+organisms should become enfeebled.</p>
+
+<p>He demonstrated that the principal cause is the
+chronic poisoning of the cells by toxins manufactured
+by microbes in the intestine. Premature senility was
+the result&mdash;a phenomenon as pathological as any
+disease.</p>
+
+<p>The source of the evil, therefore, resides in the
+intestinal flora. Accordingly he started to study the
+latter, as also senility, in order to find means of
+struggling against both.</p>
+
+<p>His researches enabled him to indicate a series of
+means, based, on the one hand, on the struggle against
+microbes, and, on the other, on the defence of the
+noble cells against destructive ones.<a name="FNanchor_38" id="FNanchor_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p>
+
+<p>The study of old age led him to that of syphilis,
+a disease which provokes an arterio-sclerosis which is
+similar to that of old people; the study of the normal
+intestinal flora was followed by that of intestinal
+diseases, such as typhoid fever and infantile cholera.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, he progressed towards the last phenomenon,
+the most mysterious in nature, Death.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Researches on the silk-worm moth&mdash;a rare example
+of an animal the life of which ends in natural
+death&mdash;allowed him to conclude that the latter is
+due to an auto-intoxication of the organism.</p>
+
+<p>But he only just raised the veil of the great
+mystery; it was his last work....</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s philosophical evolution ran on
+parallel lines with his scientific researches.</p>
+
+<p>When studying the laws and the unity of vital
+phenomena he found that their harmony was occasionally
+broken by the collision of internal conditions
+with the environment and that regrettable consequences
+ensued. He saw an example of that in human
+nature, full of disharmonies due to its animal origin.</p>
+
+<p>These considerations caused the pessimism of his
+youth. But his energetic, pugnacious temperament
+could not remain content with a passive acceptance
+of facts.</p>
+
+<p>He started to study the lack of harmony in human
+nature and its causes, and sought for means to combat
+these causes. Gradually he reached the conclusion
+that the greatest human disharmonies are provoked
+by the rupture of the normal cycle of our life, by the
+precocity of senility and of death, chiefly arising from a
+chronic poisoning by the toxins of intestinal microbes.</p>
+
+<p>But having acquired the conviction that it is
+possible to struggle against that intoxication, he concluded
+that science, which has already done so much
+to fight diseases, would also find means of struggling
+against <i>premature</i> old age and <i>precocious</i> death, thus
+leading us to the normal vital cycle, <i>orthobiosis</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Then disharmony, transformed into harmony, will
+cause the greatest of ills to disappear.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Faith in the power of Science and in the possibility
+of modifying human nature itself through Science
+was the foundation of the optimistic philosophy of his
+maturity. Thoughts full of strength and hope shine
+like leading stars all along his philosophical works.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Alone, Rational Science is capable of showing
+humanity the true path.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The real goal of human existence consists in an
+active life in conformity with individual capacity;
+in a life prolonged until the appearance of the <i>death-instinct</i>,
+and until Man, satisfied with the duration of
+his existence, feels the desire for annihilation.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Man is capable of great works; that is why it
+is desirable that he should modify human nature and
+transform its disharmonies into harmonies.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;If an ideal capable of uniting <i>men</i> in a sort of
+religion is possible, it can only be founded on scientific
+principles. And, if it is true, as is often affirmed,
+that man cannot live without faith, it must be faith
+in the power of Science.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Thus Elie Metchnikoff had begun by the study of
+nascent life in inferior beings; by a logical and continuous
+chain, he had followed the whole cycle of
+development of living beings in their continuity and
+their whole.</p>
+
+<p>From the initial question of intracellular digestion
+he had reached the most exalted problems which can
+occupy our minds, the harmonising of human discords
+through knowledge and will.</p>
+
+<p>Such is the harmonious edifice which he has
+built.</p>
+
+<p>No vital question was indifferent to him. He
+tackled the most difficult and most mysterious among
+them with courage, moved by an invincible impulse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>
+towards Truth and sustained by enthusiasm and
+faith in the power of Science.</p>
+
+<p>The beauty of a work of art consists in the harmony
+and unity of a realised conception.</p>
+
+<p>Thus a Gothic cathedral, by its graceful and harmonious
+lines, expresses an impulse towards higher
+spheres; it leans solidly on the earth only in order
+to soar better towards the heavens.</p>
+
+<p>Such is also the character of Elie Metchnikoff&rsquo;s life-work.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="BIBLIOGRAPHICAL_APPENDIX" id="BIBLIOGRAPHICAL_APPENDIX">BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX</a></h2>
+<p class="center">WORKS OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF</p>
+<div class="small">
+<table summary="list of works">
+<tr><td class="work-year">1865.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Chaetopoden,&rdquo; Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche
+Zoologie, xv. 3, p. 328.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über einige wenig bekannte Thierformen,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+xv. 4, p. 450.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über Geodesmus bilineatus Nob. (Fasciola terrestris), eine europäische
+Landplanarie, Mélanges biologiques&rdquo; (Bull. de l&rsquo;Académie
+des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg, vol. v.).</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1866.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Untersuchungen über die Embryologie der Hemipteren (vorläufige
+Mitteilung),&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xvi. 1, p. 128.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte von Myzostomum,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen.
+Zool. xvi. 1, p. 326.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Apsilus lentiformis, ein Räderthier,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xvi. 3,
+p. 1.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Embryologischen Studien an Insecten,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xvi.
+Entgegnung auf die Erwiederung des Her. Prof. Leuckart in
+Giessen, in Betreff der Frage über die Nematodenentwicklung
+(Göttingen, Verlag von Adalbert Rente).</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1867.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Würmer,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+xvii. 4, p. 539.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Embryology of the Sepiola&rdquo; (in Russian), Archives des Sciences
+physiques et naturelles, Genève, vol. 21.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1868.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Entwicklungsgeschichte der Chaetopoden&rdquo;
+(in collaboration with Ed. Claparède), Zeit. f. wissen.
+Zool. xviii.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1869.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Embryology of Nebalia&rdquo; (in Russian), Mélanges biologiques de
+l&rsquo;Académie de Saint-Pétersbourg, vi. p. 730.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Untersuchungen über die Metamorphose einiger Seethiere,
+Tornaria,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xx. p. 131.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über ein Larvenstadium von Euphausia,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+xix. 4, p. 179.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über die Entwicklung der Echinodermen und Nemertinen,&rdquo;
+Mémoires de l&rsquo;Acad. de Saint-Pétersbourg, xiv. 8, p. 33.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1870.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Bemerkungen über Echinodermen,&rdquo; Bulletins de l&rsquo;Acad. de
+Saint-Pétersbourg, xiv. p. 51.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Embryologie des Scorpions,&rdquo; Zeitschr. f. wissen. Zool. xxi.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1871.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über die Metamorphose einiger Seethiere,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+xxi. 2, p. 235.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Entwicklungsgeschichte des Chelifers,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xxi.
+p. 513.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über den Naupliuszustand von Euphausia,&rdquo; ibid. Bd. xix.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1872.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der einfachen Ascidien,&rdquo; Zeit. f.
+wissen. Zool. xxii. 3, p. 339.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Vorläufige Mitteilung über die Embryologie der Polydesmiden,&rdquo;
+Mélanges biologiques des Bullet. de l&rsquo;Académie des Sciences
+de Saint-Pétersbourg, vol. viii.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Kalkschwämme,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen.
+Zool. xxiv. p. 1.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Studien über die Entwicklung der Medusen und Siphonophoren,&rdquo;
+Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xxiv. p. 15.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Embryologie der doppelfüssigen Myriapoden,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen.
+Zool. xxiv. p. 253.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1874.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Embryologisches über Geophilus,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xxv.
+p. 313.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1876.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Beiträge zur Morphologie der Spongien,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+xxvii. p. 275.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1878.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Spongiologische Studien,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xxxii. p.
+349.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1879.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Spongiologische Studien,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xxxii. p. 374.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1880.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über die intracelluläre Verdauung bei Coelenteraten,&rdquo; Zoologischer
+Anzeiger, No. 56, p. 261.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Untersuchungen über Orthonectiden,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+xxxv. p. 282.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über die systematische Stellung von Balanoglossus,&rdquo; Zoologischer
+Anzeiger, pp. 139, 153.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1881.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Zur Lehre über die intracelluläre Verdauung niederer Tiere,&rdquo;
+Zoologischer Anzeiger, p. 310.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title"><i>Vergleichend-embryologische Studien</i>:</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">1. Entodermbildung bei Geryoniden.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">2. &ldquo;Über einige Studien der Cunina,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xxxvi.
+p. 433.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1882.</td><td class="work-title">3. &ldquo;Über die Gastrula einiger Metazoen,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+xxxvii. p. 286.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Die Embryologie von Planaria polychroa,&rdquo; Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+xxxviii. 3, p. 331.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1883.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Untersuchungen über die intracelluläre Verdauung bei wirbellosen
+Tieren,&rdquo; Arbeiten d. zool. Instituts zu Wien, v. 2, p. 14
+(Quarterly Journal of Micr. Science, vol. 93).</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Untersuchung über die mesodermalen Phagocyten einiger Wirbeltiere,&rdquo;
+Biologisch. Centralblatt, No. 18, p. 560, Bd. iii.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1884.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Embryologische Mitteilungen über Echinodermen,&rdquo; Zoologischer
+Anzeiger, vii. Nos. 158, 159.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über eine Sprosspilzkrankheit der Daphnien; Beitrag zur Lehre
+über den Kampf der Phagocyten gegen Krankheitserreger,&rdquo;
+Virchow&rsquo;s Archiv, vol. 96, p. 177.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über die Beziehung der Phagocyten zu Milzbrandbacillen,&rdquo;
+Virchow&rsquo;s Archiv, vol. 97, p. 502.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über die pathologische Bedeutung der intracellulären Verdauung,&rdquo;
+Fortschritte der Medizin, 1884, p. 558, No. 17.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1885.</td><td class="work-title"><i>Vergleichend-embryologische Studien</i>:</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">4. &ldquo;Über die Gastrulation und Mesodermbildung der Ctenophoren,&rdquo;
+648.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></td><td class="work-title"></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">5. &ldquo;Über die Bildung der Wanderzellen bei Asterien und Echiniden,&rdquo;
+Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xlii. p. 656.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1886.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Medusologische Mittheilungen,&rdquo; Arbeiten d. zool. Instituts zu
+Wien, vi. 2, p. 1.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">Embryologische Studien an Medusen, ein Beitrag zur Genealogie
+der Primitivorgane, Wien, 1886.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1887.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Sur l&rsquo;atténuation des bactéridies charbonneuses dans le sang des
+moutons réfractaires,&rdquo; Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, i. p. 42,
+No. 1.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über den Kampf der Zellen gegen Erysipelkokken, ein Beitrag
+zur Phagocytenlehre,&rdquo; Virchow&rsquo;s Archiv, vol. 107, p. 209.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über den Phagocytenkampf bei Rückfalltyphus,&rdquo; Virchow&rsquo;s
+Archiv, vol. 109, p. 176.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Sur la lutte des cellules de l&rsquo;organisme contre l&rsquo;invasion des
+microbes,&rdquo; Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, i. p. 321, No. 7.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Kritische Bemerkungen über den Aufsatz des Herrn Christmas-Dirckinck-Holmfeld,
+I. V.,&rdquo; Fortschritte der Medizin, 17,
+p. 541.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1888.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über die phagocytäre Rolle der Tuberkelriesenzellen,&rdquo; Virchow&rsquo;s
+Archiv, vol. 113, p. 63.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Pasteuria Ramosa, un représentant des bactéries à division longitudinale,&rdquo;
+Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, p. 165, t. ii. No. 4.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über das Verhalten der Milzbrandbakterien im Organismus,&rdquo;
+Virchow&rsquo;s Archiv, vol. 114, p. 465.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Réponse à la critique de M. Weigert au sujet des cellules
+géantes de la tuberculose,&rdquo; Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, ii.
+p. 604.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1889.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Recherches sur la digestion intracellulaire,&rdquo; Annales de l&rsquo;Institut
+Pasteur, iii. p. 25, No. 1.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Contribution à l&rsquo;étude du pléomorphisme des bactéries,&rdquo; Annales
+de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, iii. p. 61, No. 2.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Note sur le pléomorphisme, etc.,&rdquo; Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur,
+iii. p. 265, No. 5.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title"><i>Studies on Immunity</i>:</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">1. &ldquo;Immunité des lapins contre le bacille du rouget des porcs,&rdquo;
+Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, iii. p. 289, No. 6.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1890.</td><td class="work-title">2. &ldquo;Le Charbon des pigeons,&rdquo; Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, iv.
+p. 65, No. 2.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">3. &ldquo;Le Charbon des rats blancs,&rdquo; Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur,
+iv. p. 193, No. 4.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1891.</td><td class="work-title">4. &ldquo;L&rsquo;Immunité des cobayes vaccinés contre le Vibrio Metchnikowii,&rdquo;
+Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, v. p. 465, No. 8.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Sur la propriété bactéricide du sang de rat&rdquo; (in collaboration with
+Dr. Roux), No. 8.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Recherches sur l&rsquo;accoutumance aux produits microbiens&rdquo; (in
+collaboration with Dr. Roudenko), Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur,
+v. p. 567, No. 9.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Beiträge zur vergleichenden Pathologie der Entzündung,&rdquo; Virchow
+Festschrift, vol. 11.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1892.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;La Phagocytose musculaire&rdquo; (in collaboration with Dr. Soudakevitch),
+Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, vi. p. 1.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">Leçons sur la pathologie comparée de l&rsquo;inflammation. Paris, 1892.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;On Aqueous Humour, Micro-organisms and Immunity,&rdquo; Journal
+of Pathology, i.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span></td><td class="work-title"><i>Studies on Immunity</i>:</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">5. &ldquo;Immunité des lapins vaccinés contre le microbe du Hogcholéra,&rdquo;
+Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, vi. p. 189, No. 5.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Atrophie des muscles pendant la transformation des batraciens,&rdquo;
+Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, vi. No. 1.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Note au sujet du mémoire de M. Soudakevitch (Parasitisme intracellulaire
+des néoplasmes cancéreux),&rdquo; No. 3.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Über Muskelphagocytose,&rdquo; Centralblatt für Bakteriologie, 1892.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;La Lutte pour l&rsquo;existence entre les diverses parties de l&rsquo;organisme,&rdquo;
+Revue scientifique, 10 sept. 1892, No. 11.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1893.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Recherches sur le choléra et les vibrions, 1<sup>er</sup> mémoire&rdquo; (Sur la
+propriété préventive du sang humain vis-à-vis du vibrion de
+Koch), Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, vii. p. 403, No. 5.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">2. &ldquo;Mémoire,&rdquo; idem (Sur la propriété pathogène des vibrions),
+tome vii. p. 562, No. 7.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">Comparative Pathology of Inflammation. Lectures at the Pasteur
+Institute. Paul: London, 1893. 8vo. (The name of the
+translator is not stated.)</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1894.</td><td class="work-title">3. &ldquo;Mémoire,&rdquo; idem (Sur la vaccination artificielle du vibrion
+cholérique), Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, viii. p. 257, No. 5.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">4. &ldquo;Mémoire,&rdquo; idem (Sur l&rsquo;immunité et la réceptivité vis-à-vis du
+choléra intestinal), tome viii. p. 529, No. 8.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;L&rsquo;état actuel de la question de l&rsquo;immunité&rdquo; (Rapport du Congrès
+international de Budapest), Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, viii.
+p. 706, No. 10.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1895.</td><td class="work-title"><i>Studies on Immunity</i>:</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">6. &ldquo;Sur la destruction extracellulaire des bactéries dans l&rsquo;organisme,&rdquo;
+Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, ix. p. 433, No. 6.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1896.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Toxine et antitoxine cholériques&rdquo; (in collaboration with Drs. Roux
+and Salimbeni), Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, x. p. 25, No. 5.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Quelques remarques à propos de l&rsquo;article de Gabritchevsky sur la
+fièvre récurrente,&rdquo; Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, x. No. 11.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title"><i>Recherches sur l&rsquo;influence de l&rsquo;organisme sur les toxines</i>:</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1897.</td><td class="work-title">1st Memoir. &ldquo;Recherches sur l&rsquo;influence de l&rsquo;organisme sur les
+toxines,&rdquo; Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xi. p. 801.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Réponse à M. Gabritchevsky,&rdquo; Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur,
+xi. No. 3.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Immunität,&rdquo; Weyl&rsquo;s Handbuch der Hygiene. Jena, 1897.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Recherches sur l&rsquo;influence de l&rsquo;organisme sur les toxines&rdquo; (Communication
+faite au congrès de Moscou en août 1897), Annales
+de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xi. No. 10.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1898.</td><td class="work-title">2nd Memoir. &ldquo;Influence du système nerveux sur la toxine
+tétanique,&rdquo; Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xii. No. 2, p. 81.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">3rd Memoir. &ldquo;Toxine tétanique et leucocytes,&rdquo; Annales de
+l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xii. No. 4, p. 263.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1899.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Résorption des cellules,&rdquo; Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xiii.
+No. 10, p. 737.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1900.</td><td class="work-title"><i>Researches on the Influence of the Organism on Toxins</i>:</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">4ème mémoire. &ldquo;Sur la spermotoxine et l&rsquo;antispermotoxine,&rdquo;
+Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xiv. p. 5.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Sur les cytotoxines,&rdquo; Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xiv. No. 6.
+p. 369.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Recherches sur l&rsquo;action de l&rsquo;hémotoxine sur l&rsquo;homme,&rdquo; Annales
+de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xiv. No. 6, p. 402.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>1901.</td><td class="work-title"><i>Biological Studies on Old Age</i>:</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">1st Memoir. &ldquo;Sur le blanchiment des cheveux et des poils,&rdquo;
+Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xv. No. 12, p. 865.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">L&rsquo;Immunité dans les maladies infectieuses. Paris, 1901.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1902.</td><td class="work-title"><i>Biological Studies on Old Age.</i> &ldquo;Recherches sur la vieillesse des
+perroquets&rdquo; (in collaboration with Drs. Mesnil and Weinberg),
+Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xvi. No. 12.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">The Nature of Man. Studies in optimistic philosophy. The English
+translation by P. Chalmers Mitchell. Heinemann: London;
+Putnams: New York, 1903. 8vo.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1903.</td><td class="work-title"><i>Studies on Human Nature</i>: Paris, 1903.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">Études expérimentales sur la syphilis (in collaboration with Dr.
+Roux):</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">1st Memoir. Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xvii. No. 12, p. 809.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1904.</td><td class="work-title">2nd Memoir. &ldquo;Études expérimentales sur la syphilis&rdquo; (in collaboration
+with Dr. Roux), Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xviii.
+No. 1, p. 1.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">3rd Memoir. Id. No. 11.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1905.</td><td class="work-title">4th Memoir. Id. Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xix. No. 11.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">Immunity in Infective Diseases. Translated from the French by
+F. G. Binnie. University Press: Cambridge; The Macmillan
+Co.: New York, 1905. 8vo.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1906.</td><td class="work-title">5th Memoir. Id., Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xx. No. 10.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">The New Hygiene: three lectures on the prevention of infectious
+diseases. Translated and a preface written by E. Ray Lankester.
+Heinemann: London, 1906. 8vo.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">[Another edition.] Chicago Medical Book Co.: Chicago, 1906. 8vo.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1907.</td><td class="work-title">[Another edition.] W. T. Keener &amp; Co.: Chicago, 1907. 8vo.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Sur la prophylaxie de la syphilis&rdquo; (Paper read at the XIIth
+International Congress in Berlin), Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur,
+xxi. No. 10.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">The Prolongation of Life: optimistic studies. The English translation
+edited by P. Chalmers Mitchell. Heinemann: London,
+1907. 8vo.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title"><i>Essais optimistes.</i></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1908.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Études sur la flore intestinale,&rdquo; &ldquo;Putréfaction intestinale,&rdquo;
+Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xxii. No. 12.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1909.</td><td class="work-title">Idem. &ldquo;Roussettes et microbes&rdquo; (in collaboration with MM.
+Weinberg, Pozersky, Distaso, Berthelot), Annales de l&rsquo;Institut
+Pasteur, xxiii. No. 12.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">Notes on Sour Milk and other Methods of administering Selected
+Lactic Germs in Intestinal Bacterio-therapy. J. Bale, Sons &amp;
+Co.: London, 1909. 8vo.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1910.</td><td class="work-title">Idem. &ldquo;Poisons intestinaux et scléroses,&rdquo; Annales de l&rsquo;Institut
+Pasteur, xxiv. No. 10.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">The Prolongation of Life. New and revised edition, Heinemann:
+London; Putnams: New York, 1910. 8vo.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1911.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Sur la fièvre typhoïde expérimentale&rdquo; (Metchnikoff et Besredka),
+Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur, xxv. No. 3.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur:</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">Tome xxv. No. 6. Quelques remarques sur la vaccination à propos
+du mémoire de M. Choukevitch sur le choléra.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">Tome xxv. No. 6. Réponse de MM. Metchnikoff et Besredka à
+M. le Dr. Vincent (remarques sur la vaccination antityphique).</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span></td><td class="work-title">Tome xxv. No. 11. El. Metchnikoff, E. Burnet et L. Tarassevitch,
+&ldquo;Recherches sur l&rsquo;épidémiologie de la tuberculose dans les steppes
+Kalmouks.&rdquo;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">Tome xxv. No. 12. El. Metchnikoff et A. Besredka, &ldquo;Des vaccinations
+antityphiques (2nd Memoir).&rdquo;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1912.</td><td class="work-title">Tome xxvi. No. 11. El. Metchnikoff et Eug. Wollman, &ldquo;Sur
+quelques essais de désintoxication intestinale,&rdquo; &ldquo;Bactériothérapie
+intestinale.&rdquo;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">The Warfare against Tuberculosis&mdash;being the Priestley Lecture
+of the National Health Society for the year 1912. Published
+in Bedrock, January 1913. Constable: London.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1913.</td><td class="work-title"><i>Études sur la flore intestinale.</i></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">Tome xxvii. No. 8. &ldquo;Des vaccinations antityphiques&rdquo; (El. Metchnikoff
+et A. Besredka).</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">Tome xxvii. No. 11. &ldquo;Toxicité des sulfoconjugués de la série
+aromatique.&rdquo;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1914.</td><td class="work-title">Tome xxviii. No. 2. &ldquo;Études sur la flore intestinale&rdquo; (4ème mémoire).
+&ldquo;Les diarrhées des nourrissons.&rdquo;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1915.</td><td class="work-title">Tome xxix. No. 8. &ldquo;Causerie de El. Metchnikoff à l&rsquo;occasion de
+son jubilé.&rdquo;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">Tome xxix. No. 10. &ldquo;La Mort du papillon du mûrier.&rdquo;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td></td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Founders of Modern Medicine: Pasteur, Lister, Koch&rdquo; in Russian
+(a French translation to appear shortly).</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1915-16.</td><td class="work-title">&ldquo;Introduction à &rsquo;Études sur la fonction sexuelle&rsquo;&rdquo; (posthume,
+dans Le Mercure de France, 1917).</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class="work-year">1916.</td><td class="work-title">The Nature of Man. Popular edition. Heinemann: London,
+1916. 8vo.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><i>Note.</i>&mdash;Sources consulted: British Museum Catalogue; English Catalogue;
+American Catalogue.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<div class="footnote">
+<p class="title">FOOTNOTES</p>
+<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> He received an honorary degree at Cambridge in 1891, and also
+attended the International Medical Congress in London in that year. In
+1901 he gave a lecture at Manchester on the intestinal flora. In 1906 he
+gave a course of three lectures in London on &ldquo;The New Hygiene.&rdquo; I
+translated them for him, and they were published as a little volume by
+Heinemann.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p>
+  <a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> By Prof. Hertwig of Munich.</p></div>
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Ungainly open carriage on high wheels and without springs.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Metchnikoff himself insisted upon the recital of this episode, for which
+he had felt some remorse. He considered that, in a biography, disagreeable
+traits were not to be omitted.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Chronicle of John Neculua.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> This Boyar was no doubt a nephew of the Great Spatar.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> He made researches on a very singular annulate worm, the <i>Fabricia</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> All this episode was described by Metchnikoff in 1866 in a separate
+publication with great restraint and in a very moderate tone.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> In later years Metchnikoff often dwelt on the fact that Fritz Müller
+was not fully appreciated and that it was he who had most efficaciously
+contributed to the confirmation of Darwinian theories.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> A degree preceding that of Doc.Sc.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The latter affirmed that the nervous system of Ascidia originated from
+the upper layer, whilst Elie believed that it was the lower layer which gave
+birth to it. It was Kovalevsky who was right, as Elie himself declared
+later.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> He ultimately developed these considerations in a paper entitled
+<i>Education from an Anthropological Point of View</i>, of which mention will
+be made hereafter.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_13" id="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Rural administration.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_14" id="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> &ldquo;Elie&rdquo; is the French form of Elijah, in Russian Ilia, and was ultimately
+adopted by Metchnikoff.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_15" id="Footnote_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Migration of the white blood corpuscles (leucocytes) through the walls
+of blood-vessels.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_16" id="Footnote_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> <i>Arbeiten des zool. Inst. zu Wien</i>, Bd. v. Heft ii. p. 141. &ldquo;Untersuchung
+über die intracelluläre Verdauung bei wirbellosen Tieren,&rdquo; E.
+Metchnikoff.</p></div>
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_17" id="Footnote_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> It was only in 1892 that he completed and developed his observations.
+He found that the cells of the sarcoplasma of the muscular tissue devoured
+its contractile part, the myoplasma.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_18" id="Footnote_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> This paper was entitled &ldquo;Forces curatives de l&rsquo;organisme.&rdquo;</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_19" id="Footnote_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Virchow&rsquo;s <i>Archiv</i>, vol. 96, p. 177.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_20" id="Footnote_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Aqueous humor, the exudate of aseptic &oelig;demata.</p></div>
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_21" id="Footnote_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Naegeli, Büchner, Gravitz.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_22" id="Footnote_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Chauveau.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_23" id="Footnote_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Büchner.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_24" id="Footnote_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Hayem, Birsch, Hirschfeld, Kleps, Recklinghausen, Waldeyer, and
+Virchow.</p></div>
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_25" id="Footnote_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> It is also called <i>alexine</i> or <i>complement</i> by other writers.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_26" id="Footnote_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Designated by other writers by various synonyms: preventive, or
+sensibilising substance, immunising body, amboceptor.</p></div>
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_27" id="Footnote_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> A cutaneous scarification by tuberculin which provokes local inflammatory
+redness on the scarified point in tuberculous subjects only.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_28" id="Footnote_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Education from an Anthropological Point of View</i>, <i>The Matrimonial
+Age</i>, <i>The Conception of Human Nature</i>, <i>The Struggle for Existence in a
+General Sense</i>. See <a href="#BIBLIOGRAPHICAL_APPENDIX">Bibliography</a>.</p></div>
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_29" id="Footnote_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> 28th <i>June</i> 1914.&mdash;I have again analysed my urine and I again find
+indican in fairly large quantities in spite of a diet which is as rational as
+possible. I am trying to elucidate this strange contradiction.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_30" id="Footnote_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> In the Russian Review, <i>Messenger of Europe</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_31" id="Footnote_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur</i>, Jubilé d&rsquo; E. Metchnikoff, 1915.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_32" id="Footnote_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur</i>, 1915.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_33" id="Footnote_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> For instance, Dr. Widal, very early in his illness, had advised a saltless
+diet, which caused the infiltration in the tissues to remain comparatively
+slight.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_34" id="Footnote_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> He expounded the theory that ideas on the sexual function had been
+falsified through fear of venereal diseases at a time when people did not know
+either how to avoid or cure those diseases. He showed that the condemnation
+of a natural function by divers religions was based on that fear. He
+analysed the deplorable consequences of that, and set forth the necessity of
+returning to more wholesome ideas, more in conformity with nature and
+allowing the study and avoidance of many evils. He thought that, in this
+connection, a new direction should be given to the education of children
+and to marriage. He then examined the part played by the sexual function
+in the lives of men of genius and, with that object, read many biographies
+and literary works. During his illness he read books concerning Victor
+Hugo and Napoleon, J. J. Rousseau&rsquo;s <i>Confessions</i> and even parts of the
+<i>Nouvelle Héloïse</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_35" id="Footnote_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Pantopon is a narcotic drug prepared from opium.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_36" id="Footnote_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> It was 5.20 by the conventional war time, 4.20 in reality.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_37" id="Footnote_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Thus the <i>parenchymella</i>, <i>phagocytella</i>, and <i>gastrula</i> stages correspond
+in the embryo with the adult form of certain very primitive Metazoa
+and even to a colony of unicellular animals.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_38" id="Footnote_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Replacement of the wild and noxious flora of the intestines by
+antagonistic cultivated microbes; strengthening and vaccinating of noble
+cells.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="index">
+
+<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX">INDEX</a></h2>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Ac&oelig;lomata, development of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+<li>Albaran, Dr., <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li>
+<li>Alexander I., Tsar of Russia, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+<li>Alexander II., <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>assassination of, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Alexis Michailovitch, Tsar, sends Spatar on mission to China, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>death of, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Alhambra, the, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+<li>Amour (Amur) river, Spatar&rsquo;s exploration of, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+<li><i>Anisoplia austriaca</i>, experiments on, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li>
+<li><i>Annales de l&rsquo;Institut Pasteur</i>, 1915, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>-50 <i>n.</i></li>
+<li>Anthrax vaccine experiment, unfortunate result of, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>-4</li>
+<li>Anthropoid apes, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s desire to experiment with, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>syphilis experiments with, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>;</li>
+  <li>infantile cholera experiments with, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</li>
+  <li>typhoid fever experiments with, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Antitoxins, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s experiments with, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
+<li><i>Arbeiten des zool. Inst. zu Wien</i>, publication of Metchnikoff&rsquo;s &ldquo;Untersuchung über die intracelluläre Verdauung bei wirbellosen Tieren,&rdquo; <a href="#Page_119">119</a> <i>n.</i></li>
+<li>Arterio-sclerosis, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+<li>Ascidia, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s difference with Kovalevsky <i>re</i>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+<li>Asiatic cholera, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li>
+<li>Astrakhan steppes, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li>
+<li>Austria, declaration of war on Serbia, 1914, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Baer, Prof., and Baer Prize, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+<li>Bakounine, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>
+<li>Bardach, Dr., <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+<li>Bassarab, Constantine, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+<li>Baumgarten, Prof., hostile criticism of phagocyte theory, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>criticism refuted, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Behring, theory of immunity, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>discovery of antitoxins, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Békétoff, Prof., <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+<li><i>Bell</i>, the, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+<li>Berlin Congress, 1890, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>-9</li>
+<li>Berthelot, M., pupil and collaborator of Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li>
+<li>Besredka, Dr., researches, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>-2, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>-8</li>
+<li>Birsch, <a href="#Page_169">169</a> <i>n.</i></li>
+<li>Bobrinsky, Count, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li>
+<li>Bogomoloff, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+<li><i>Bombyx mori</i> (moth of the silk-worm), Metchnikoff&rsquo;s experiments with, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>-9, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>
+<li>Bordet, M. I., important researches and experiments, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+<li>Borrel, M., <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
+<li>Brockhaus and Effrone, <i>Encyclopædia</i> quoted, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>-6</li>
+<li>Bronn, <i>Classes and Orders of the Animal Kingdom</i>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li>
+<li>Büchner, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>paper on humoral theory, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Buckle, <i>History of Civilisation</i>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+<li>Buda-Pest Congress (International, 1894), <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>
+<li><i>Bulletin of the Moscow Society of Naturalists</i>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li>
+<li>Bunsen, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+<li>Burnet, M., <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Caillaux affair, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>
+<li>Cantemir, Prince, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+<li>Casso, Minister of Public Instruction, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+<li>Cephalopoda, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s study of, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+<li>Chamberland, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+<li>Chauveau, <a href="#Page_169">169</a> and <i>n.</i></li>
+<li>Cholera outbreak in France, 1892, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s experiments with cholera vibrio, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>-7, <a href="#Page_158">158</a> <i>seq.</i></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Choukevitch, Dr., <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+<li>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>
+Cienkovsky, friendship for and interest in Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>resigns from Odessa University, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>;</li>
+  <li>bacillus, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Claus, Prof., <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+<li>C&oelig;lentera and intracellular digestion, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+<li>C&oelig;lomata, development of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+<li>Cohendy, M., research work of, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li>
+<li>Cohn, association with and interest in Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+<li>&ldquo;Conception of Nature and of Medical Science, A,&rdquo; Metchnikoff&rsquo;s Stuttgart Lecture, 1909, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+<li>Crimea, and Black Sea fauna, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+<li>Ctenophora, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+<li>&ldquo;Curative Forces of the Organism, The,&rdquo; Metchnikoff Lecture on, in Berlin, 1908, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+<li>Curded milk, manufacture, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s connection with, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>-7</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Daphniæ, experiments with, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li>
+<li>Darré, Dr., <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a></li>
+<li>Darwin, <i>The Origin of Species</i>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>theories, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Diabetes, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+<li>Dubois-Reymond, journal of, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+<li>Duclaux, M., <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+<li>Duniasha (Avdotia Maximovna), <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Eberth&rsquo;s bacillus, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>-8</li>
+<li>Echinodermata, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s researches, etc., <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>metamorphoses of, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</li>
+  <li>and intracellular digestion, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</li>
+  <li>observations on larvæ transformation, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li><i>Education from an Anthropological Point of View</i>, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s paper on, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li>
+<li>Ehrlich, Prof., <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+<li>Embryology, comparative, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s studies in, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>-51, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>
+<li>Emmerich, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>attack on phagocyte theory, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;</li>
+  <li>attacks refuted, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Engelmann, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+<li>Ephemeridæ, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s study of, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li>
+<li>Escherich, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+<li><i>Essais optimistes</i>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-2, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li>
+<li><i>Études sur la nature humaine</i>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>quoted, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Evolution, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s researches in, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>-51</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li><i>Fabricia</i>, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s researches on, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+<li>Fédorovitch, Mlle. Ludmilla, afterwards Madame Elie Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>engagement to Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>-9;</li>
+  <li>marriage to Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>;</li>
+  <li>illness of, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>-70;</li>
+  <li>a clever draughtswoman, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>;</li>
+  <li>temporary recovery of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;</li>
+  <li>relapse, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li>
+  <li>death, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Fédorovitch, Mlle., <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>account of interview with Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>&ldquo;Flora of the Human Body,&rdquo; Wilde Lecture, 1901, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li>
+<li><i>Flore du corps humain</i>, La, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+<li>&ldquo;Forces curatives de l&rsquo;organisme,&rdquo; quoted, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>-21</li>
+<li><i>Forty Years&rsquo; Search for a Rational Conception of Life</i>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+<li><i>Founders of Modern Medicine, The</i>, extract from preface to, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>-8</li>
+<li>Fraenkel, Carl, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Gamaléia, Dr., <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+<li>Garibaldi Movement, the, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+<li>Garnier, M., <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li>
+<li><i>Gastræa</i>, Haeckel&rsquo;s theory of the, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li>
+<li>&ldquo;Gastrotricha,&rdquo; Metchnikoff&rsquo;s establishment of, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+<li>Geneva, young revolutionary centre, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>-8</li>
+<li><i>Geodesmus bilineatus</i>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>-7</li>
+<li>Geophilus (<i>see</i> <a href="#IX_Myriapoda">Myriapoda</a>)</li>
+<li>George, Henry, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li>
+<li>Germany, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s appreciation of scientists of, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li>
+<li>Germany, declaration of war on Russia, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>on France, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Giessen, Naturalists&rsquo; Congress at, 1864, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>-5</li>
+<li><i>Glycobacter peptonicus</i>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>
+<li>Goethe, <i>Faust</i>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li>
+<li>Goldschmidt, Dr., <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+<li><i>Göttingen News</i>, Leuckart&rsquo;s memoir on Nematodes in, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+<li>Granada, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+<li>Gravitz, <a href="#Page_169">169</a> <i>n.</i></li>
+<li>Grove, <i>The Unity of Physical Forces</i>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+<li>Guancios, Caves of the, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Haeckel, theory of the <i>gastræa</i>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a></li>
+<li>Hayem, <a href="#Page_169">169</a> <i>n.</i></li>
+<li>Heitz, Dr., <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li>
+<li>Heligoland, flora and fauna of, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+<li>Helmholtz, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+<li>Henle, Prof., <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li>
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>
+Herzen, <i>Passé et pensées</i>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+<li>Hirschfeld, <a href="#Page_169">169</a> <i>n.</i></li>
+<li>Hodounof, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li>
+<li>Hueppe, Prof., <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li>
+<li>Hugo, Victor, <a href="#Page_260">260</a> <i>n.</i></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Iamanouchi, M., <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+<li>Immunity, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>opposing theories of Behring and Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>;</li>
+  <li>ancient and modern theories of, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>-70;</li>
+  <li>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s exposition of, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>-180</li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li><i>Immunity in Infectious Diseases</i>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li>
+<li>Infantile cholera, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>-21</li>
+<li><i>Inflammation</i>, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s lectures on, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>-3</li>
+<li>Intestinal flora, problem of, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>-8, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>further researches, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>;</li>
+  <li>experiments with rats, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Intracellular digestion, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s studies of, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Jaurès, assassination of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>
+<li>Jelly-fish, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s monograph on embryology of, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li>
+<li>Jenner and method of antivariolic vaccination, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li>
+<li><i>Journal de Moscou</i>, Elie Metchnikoff&rsquo;s first publication in, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li>
+<li>Jupille, M., <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Kalmuk steppes, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s journey to, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>-3;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>description of, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>-16;</li>
+  <li>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s anthropological work among natives of, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>-5;</li>
+  <li>liability of natives to tuberculosis, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>-11;</li>
+  <li>Pasteur Institute expedition to, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>;</li>
+  <li>description of, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>-17</li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Keferstein, Prof., <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li>
+<li>Kent, Saville, discoveries of <i>Protospongia</i>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li>
+<li>Kharkoff, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>Lycée, progress in, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</li>
+  <li>University, ancient methods in, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>-2, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Kherson, peasants&rsquo; grievances and vexatious conduct in, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li>
+<li>Kirghiz steppes, endemic plague in, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>Russian plague mission to, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>;</li>
+  <li>description of, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Kleinenberg, Prof., encouragement of Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+<li>Kleps, <a href="#Page_169">169</a> <i>n.</i></li>
+<li>Koch, Prof., <a href="#Page_265">265</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>attitude to Metchnikoff&rsquo;s theory, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Kölliker, Prof., <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+<li>Kovalevsky, Alexander, friendship with Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>work of, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>;</li>
+  <li>divides Baer Prize with Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Kriloff, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+<li>Kühne, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Latapie, M., <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li>
+<li><i>Law of Life, The</i>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+<li><i>Leçons sur la pathologie comparée de l&rsquo;inflammation</i>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>-3</li>
+<li>Leube, Dr., <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li>
+<li>Leuckart, Prof., <a href="#Page_43">43</a>-5, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+<li>Lilienfiorse, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li>
+<li>Lister, Dr., <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+<li>Loeffler, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+<li>London Congress, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>-50</li>
+<li>Lubarsch, attacks on Metchnikoff&rsquo;s theory, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+<li>Lucernaria, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li><i>Macaques</i> or Barbary apes, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s typhoid experiments with, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>-8</li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Macrophages, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>-4, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li>
+<li>Madeira, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+<li>Maeterlinck, Maurice, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>-9</li>
+<li>Maisonneuve, M., <a href="#Page_191">191</a></li>
+<li>Malaga, gardens of, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+<li>Manoukhine, Dr., <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li>
+<li>Martin, Dr., <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></li>
+<li>Medusæ, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+<li>Mertens, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+<li><i>Messenger of Europe</i>, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s contributions to, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>-9, <a href="#Page_239">239</a> <i>n.</i></li>
+<li>Messina, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s work at, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+<li>Messina, the Metchnikoff home at, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>
+<li>Messina, earthquake at, 1908, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+<li>Metazoa, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>
+<li>Metchnikoff, Dmitri Ivanovitch, devotion to his brother&rsquo;s family, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+    <li>appearance and character, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>-6;</li>
+    <li>other references, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Metchnikoff, Elie (or Ilia), parents&rsquo; home at Panassovka, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>-3;
+  <ul class="IX">
+    <li>birth of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;</li>
+    <li>appearance and disposition in childhood, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>-11;</li>
+    <li>early indications of unusual intelligence, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;</li>
+    <li>an adventurous journey to Slaviansk, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>-15;</li>
+    <li>life at Kharkoff, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>-18;</li>
+    <li>develops natural history tastes with Hodounof, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>-22;</li>
+    <li>ancestry, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>-7;</li>
+    <li>entry into and progress at Kharkoff Lycée, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>-34;</li>
+    <li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>
+    friendships and their influence, with Bogomoloff, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>,
+    <ul class="IX">
+      <li>with Tschelkoff, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>-3, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>,</li>
+      <li>with Kovalevsky, <a href="#Page_48">48</a> <i>seq.</i>,</li>
+      <li>with Cienkovsky, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>-60,</li>
+      <li>with Kleinenberg, Virchow, and others, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>-19,</li>
+      <li>with Pasteur, <a href="#Page_132">132</a> <i>seq.</i>,</li>
+      <li>various, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>-9, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;</li>
+    </ul>
+    </li>
+    <li>adopts atheism and shows continued interest in natural history, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>-30;</li>
+    <li>love of music, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>-5, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;</li>
+    <li>plans a scientific career, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</li>
+    <li>early publications, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</li>
+    <li>devotion to his mother, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>-4;</li>
+    <li>early love affairs, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>-6;</li>
+    <li>abortive journey to Würzburg, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>-9;</li>
+    <li>at Kharkoff University, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>-42;</li>
+    <li>an early controversy with Kühne, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</li>
+    <li>influenced by Darwin, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>;</li>
+    <li>early researches and privations in Heligoland, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>-5;</li>
+    <li>letters to his mother quoted, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>-6, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>-9;</li>
+    <li>at Giessen Congress, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li>
+    <li>work and relations with Leuckart, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>-8;</li>
+    <li>eyesight troubles, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>-3, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</li>
+    <li>visit to Geneva, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>-8;</li>
+    <li>researches, Mediterranean, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>-53, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>-7, <a href="#Page_61">61</a> <i>seq.</i>,
+    <ul class="IX">
+      <li>in the Crimea, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>-60,</li>
+      <li>at Spezzia, etc., <a href="#Page_70">70</a>-73,</li>
+      <li>anthropological among Kalmuks, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>-5,</li>
+      <li>in intracellular digestion and Ephemeridæ, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>-11, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>,</li>
+      <li>in infectious diseases, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>,</li>
+      <li>in tuberculosis and phagocytosis, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li>
+    </ul>
+  </li>
+  <li>at Pasteur Institute, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>-6,
+    <ul class="IX">
+      <li>in cholera, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>-157,</li>
+      <li>in immunity, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>-80,</li>
+      <li>in senile atrophies and intestinal flora, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>-9, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>-8, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>-8, <a href="#Page_220">220</a> <i>seq.</i>,</li>
+      <li>in syphilis, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-91,</li>
+      <li>in infantile cholera and typhoid, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>-8, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>,</li>
+      <li>in tuberculosis and plague among Kalmuks, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>-19;</li>
+    </ul>
+  </li>
+  <li>silk-worm moth, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>-9, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li>
+  <li>contribution to foundation of comparative embryology, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>;</li>
+  <li>studies in Germany and opinion of German scientists, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>-5, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;</li>
+  <li>illnesses, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>-56, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a> <i>seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>;</li>
+  <li>return to Russia and Odessa University appointment, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>-60;</li>
+  <li>appointed Zoology Professor at Petersburg, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>;</li>
+  <li>interest in educational questions, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>;</li>
+  <li>life at Petersburg, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>-4, <a href="#Page_71">71</a> <i>seq.</i>;</li>
+  <li>engagement and first marriage, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>-70;</li>
+  <li>reappointed to Odessa University and difficulties of appointment, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a> <i>seq.</i>;</li>
+  <li>his philosophical theory and its evolution, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>-7, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>-9, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-5, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>-4, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>-9, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>-3;</li>
+  <li>visit to and life at Madeira, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>-7;</li>
+  <li>death of first wife, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;</li>
+  <li>attempts suicide, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>-81;</li>
+  <li>Mlle. Fédorovitch&rsquo;s description of, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</li>
+  <li>journey to Astrakhan steppes, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>-3;</li>
+  <li>studies of childhood, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>;</li>
+  <li>meeting with family of second wife and growing intimacy, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>-8, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</li>
+  <li>Setchénoff&rsquo;s description of, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;</li>
+  <li>harmony of second marriage, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>-95;</li>
+  <li>character and disposition <a href="#Page_96">96</a>-8, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>-5;</li>
+  <li>views of women&rsquo;s scientific capacity, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li>
+  <li>inoculates himself with relapsing fever, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</li>
+  <li>and the phagocyte theory, first statement of, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>,
+    <ul class="IX">
+      <li>describes first inception of, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>-17,</li>
+      <li>progress in, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>-22, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>-53, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>-66, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>-9,</li>
+      <li>controversies and attacks on, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>-9;</li>
+    </ul>
+  </li>
+  <li>difficulties over Russian estate management, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>-14;</li>
+  <li>life at Messina, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>-19;</li>
+  <li>again returns to Russia, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li>
+  <li>journey through Spain to Tangiers, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>-4;</li>
+  <li>life at Tangiers and Villefranche, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>-6;</li>
+  <li>describes work at Bacteriological Institute, Odessa, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>-8;</li>
+  <li>describes first meeting with Pasteur, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</li>
+  <li>Pasteur&rsquo;s offer, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</li>
+  <li>visit to Berlin and reception by German scientists, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li>
+  <li>work and influence at Pasteur Institute, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>-146;</li>
+  <li>M. Roux&rsquo;s appreciations of, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>-9, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>;</li>
+  <li>other appreciations, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>;</li>
+  <li>life at Sèvres and Paris, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>-5;</li>
+  <li>visit to England, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>;</li>
+  <li>triumph at London Congress, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>;</li>
+  <li>interest in Pfeiffer&rsquo;s phenomenon, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>-60;</li>
+  <li>theory and studies of natural death, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>-5, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>-35, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>-8, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>;</li>
+  <li>receives Nobel Prize, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>;</li>
+  <li>journey to Sweden and Russia, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>-200;</li>
+  <li>visit to Tolstoï, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-205;</li>
+  <li>expedition to Kalmuk steppes, <a href="#Page_210">210</a> <i>seq.</i>;</li>
+  <li>unpleasant incident of lacto-bacilli fabrication, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>-7;</li>
+  <li>kindness to friends, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>-8;</li>
+  <li>descriptions of his own symptoms, etc., <a href="#Page_229">229</a>-36, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>-51, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>-5;</li>
+  <li>holidays at St. Léger-en-Yvelines, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>-9, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;</li>
+  <li>effect of war on, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>-46, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>;</li>
+  <li>preface to <i>Founders of Modern Medicine</i> quoted, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>-8;</li>
+  <li>plans a work on sexual questions, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>;</li>
+  <li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>
+  jubilee celebrations, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>-50;</li>
+  <li>last illness, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>-73;</li>
+  <li>last days at Pasteur Institute, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>-73;</li>
+  <li>death, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;</li>
+  <li>synopsis of work and achievements, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>-81</li>
+  </ul></li>
+  <li>Metchnikoff, Madame, meeting with Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>,
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>parents and family, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>-8, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>,</li>
+  <li>marriage, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>,</li>
+  <li>relations between husband and wife, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>-95,</li>
+  <li>illness of, in 1880, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>,</li>
+  <li>loss of both parents, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>,</li>
+  <li>illnesses of, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Metchnikoff, Emilia Lvovna (<i>née</i> Nevahovna), appearance and disposition, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>a capable housewife, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;</li>
+  <li>a devoted mother, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>;</li>
+  <li>delicacy of, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</li>
+  <li>ancestors, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>;</li>
+  <li>influence on Elie Metchnikoff&rsquo;s choice of a career, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;</li>
+  <li>endeavours to prevent Elie&rsquo;s first marriage, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;</li>
+  <li>letters to, from Elie quoted, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>-5, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>-69;</li>
+  <li>death of, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Metchnikoff, Elena Samoïlovna, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li>
+<li>Metchnikoff, Ilia Ivanovitch, home at Panassovka, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>,
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>appearance and character, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>,</li>
+  <li>marriage, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>,</li>
+  <li>easy-going temperament, and extravagance, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>-6,</li>
+  <li>attitude to his family and servants, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>-7</li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Metchnikoff, Ivan, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li>
+<li>Metchnikoff, Katia, appearance and character, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>,
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>marriage, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>,</li>
+  <li>other references, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Metchnikoff, Leo, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>,
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>illness of, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>,</li>
+  <li>gifted but superficial nature of, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>-7;</li>
+  <li>activities in Geneva and connection with Garibaldi Movement, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>-7, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Metchnikoff, Nicholas, birth of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>appearance, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</li>
+  <li>his great-aunt&rsquo;s favourite, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</li>
+  <li>boyhood pursuits, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>-18;</li>
+  <li>enters Kharkoff Lycée, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;</li>
+  <li>life in Kharkoff, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;</li>
+  <li>death of, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li><i>Microphages</i>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>-4, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>
+<li>Morosoffs, the, of Moscow, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>
+<li>Moscow, Anthropological Society of, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s report to, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li>
+<li>Moscow, International Congress, 1897, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>-5;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>Skin Disease Research Society, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Müller, Fritz, <i>For Darwin</i>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+<li><i>Müller&rsquo;s Archives</i>, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s memoir on the Vorticella in, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+<li><a id="IX_Myriapoda" name="IX_Myriapoda">Myriapoda</a>, embryology of, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Naegeli, <a href="#Page_169">169</a> <i>n.</i></li>
+<li>Naples, cholera epidemic in, 1865, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s first stay at, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>-53,</li>
+  <li>second stay, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Napoleon, <a href="#Page_260">260</a> <i>n.</i></li>
+<li>Natural death, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s studies of, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>-81</li>
+<li>Natural science, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s campaign for the teaching of, <a href="#Page_100">100</a></li>
+<li>Nematodes, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s discoveries, etc., <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+<li>Nevahovitch, Leo, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+<li>Nicholas I., <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>
+<li>Nobel Prize, the, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li>
+<li>Nocard, M., <a href="#Page_265">265</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>appreciation of Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Norden, Dr., <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Odessa, University of, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>-9,
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s work at, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>-61, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>-9,</li>
+  <li>party intrigues at, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>,</li>
+  <li>rights to autonomy threatened, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>-3,</li>
+  <li>Congress, 1883, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>,</li>
+  <li>bacteriological Institute founded at, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Oldenburg, Prince of, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Panassovka, the home of the Metchnikoffs, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>,
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>fire at, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>-21</li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li><i>Parenchymella</i>, explanation of, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>-110</li>
+<li>Paris, International Congress, 1900, <a href="#Page_170">170</a></li>
+<li>Paris, air raids on, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+<li>Pasteur, antirabic inoculations, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>,
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s first interview with, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>,</li>
+  <li>friendship with Metchnikoff and interest in phagocyte theory, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>,</li>
+  <li>experiments in vaccination and immunity, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>-9,</li>
+  <li>death of, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>,</li>
+  <li>discovery of lactic fermentation microbe, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>,</li>
+  <li>age at death, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Pasteur Institute, the, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>,
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s work and influence at, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>-142, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>,</li>
+  <li>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s appreciation of, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>,</li>
+  <li>effect of outbreak of European War on, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>-5;</li>
+  <li>celebration of Metchnikoff&rsquo;s jubilee, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+<li>Petersburg, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>,
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>Congress of Russian Naturalists at, 1867, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>-61,</li>
+  <li>difficult conditions of Metchnikoff&rsquo;s work at, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>-4, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>,</li>
+  <li>foundation of Bacteriological Institute at, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Petersburg Geographical Society, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+<li>Petrushka, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
+Pettenkoffer, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li>
+<li>Pfeiffer, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>,
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>experiments in extracellular destruction of microbes, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>-60, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>-6, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</li>
+  <li>attacks on Metchnikoff&rsquo;s theory, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li><i>Phagocytella</i>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li>
+<li>Phagocytes, origin of Metchnikoff&rsquo;s theory of, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>,
+  <ul class="IX">
+    <li>
+    <ul class="IX">
+      <li>development of theory, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>-22, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>,</li>
+      <li>inception of theory, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>-19,</li>
+      <li>Baumgarten&rsquo;s hostile criticism of theory, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</li>
+    </ul>
+    </li>
+    <li>application of theory to erysipelas, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>,
+    <ul class="IX">
+      <li>opposition to theory, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>,</li>
+      <li>controversy, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>,</li>
+      <li>renewed experiments for proving theory, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>;</li>
+    </ul>
+    </li>
+    <li>vindication of, at Buda-Pest Congress, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>;</li>
+    <li>experiments with toxins and poisons, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>-62;</li>
+    <li>experiments with antitoxins, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>-164,
+      <ul class="IX">
+        <li>and doctrine of immunity, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>-80,</li>
+        <li>and senility, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li>
+      </ul>
+    </li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Phagocytosis, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s first paper on, read at Odessa Congress of Physicians and Naturalists, 1883, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+<li><i>Phyllirhoë</i>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li>
+<li>Picot, E., <i>Chronicle of John Neculua</i> quoted, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li>
+<li>Pirquet&rsquo;s test, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+<li><i>Pleomorphism of Microbes</i>, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s memoir, 1888, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+<li>Poland, Revolution in, 1830, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+<li>Polypi, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+<li><i>Popular Star</i>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+<li>Preyer, theory of fatigue and sleep, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li>
+<li><i>Protospongia</i>, discovery of, by Saville Kent, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li>
+<li>Pushkin, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Radlkoffer, <i>The Crystals of Proteic Substances</i>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li>
+<li>Rasputin, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+<li>Recklinghausen, <a href="#Page_169">169</a> <i>n.</i></li>
+<li>Relapsing fever, experiments to prove phagocytic reaction, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+<li>Renon, Dr., <a href="#Page_255">255</a></li>
+<li>Rotifera, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>-8</li>
+<li>Rousseau, J. J., <i>Confessions and the Nouvelle Héloïse</i>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a> <i>n.</i></li>
+<li>Roux, Dr., <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>,
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>appreciation of Metchnikoff quoted, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>-9, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>;</li>
+  <li>collaboration with Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>,</li>
+  <li>wins Osiris Prize, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;</li>
+  <li>reply to campaign against Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>;</li>
+  <li>friendship with and visits to Metchnikoff in his last illness, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Rubinstein, M., <a href="#Page_260">260</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>St. Léger-en-Yvelines, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li>
+<li>Salimbeni, Dr., <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>-3</li>
+<li>Sanarelli, Dr., discovery of choleriform bacilli, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+<li>Sarepta, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>-18</li>
+<li>Schaudinn, discovery of syphilitic treponema, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li>
+<li>Scorpion, the, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s researches concerning the development of, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+<li>Senility and death, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s views on and researches, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>-8, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>-5</li>
+<li>Serums, their action, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li>
+<li>Setchénoff, Prof., <a href="#Page_52">52</a>-3, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>autobiography quoted, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Sèvres, Metchnikoff Villa at, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li>
+<li>Siphonophora, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+<li>Slaviansk, adventurous journey of the Metchnikoff family to, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>
+<li>Spain, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s eventful journey through, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+<li>Spatar, Joury Stepanovitch, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+<li>Spatar, Nicholas Milescu, exploits and adventures of, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>-4,
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>mission to China, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>,</li>
+  <li>literary activities and services to Peter the Great, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>,</li>
+  <li>death of, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Spezzia, the Metchnikoffs sojourn at, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>-71</li>
+<li>Sponges and Echinodermata, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s study of, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+<li>Stepanita, Prince, his dealings with Nicholas Milescu Spatar, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+<li>Syphilis, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s researches on, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>-91, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Tangiers, journey to, through Spain, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>-4,
+  <ul class="IX">
+    <li>description of, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>-6</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Tarassevitch, Dr., <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+<li>Tchistovitch, Dr., <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li>
+<li><i>Time for Marriage, The</i>, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s paper on, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+<li>Tolstoï, Léon, a day at Iasnaïa Paliana, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>-205</li>
+<li>Tolstoï, Countess, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li>
+<li>Tornaria, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s discovery concerning, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+<li>Toxins and the phagocyte theory, experiments, <a href="#Page_160">160</a> seq.</li>
+<li><i>Trattoria della Harmonia</i>, the, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li>
+<li>Trieste, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s work at, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>
+Tschelkoff, Prof., <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+<li>Tshori, Convent of, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li>
+<li>Tuberculosis, researches on phagocytosis, in, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>Metchnikoff&rsquo;s theory of natural vaccination, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>-11, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Typhoid fever, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>-8</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>Vaquez, Dr., <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li>
+<li>Veillon, Dr., <a href="#Page_256">256</a></li>
+<li>Vienna, Hygienists&rsquo; Conference at, 1887, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li>
+<li>Villa Orotava, giant dragon-tree at, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+<li>Virchow, cellular theory, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a> <i>n.</i>;
+  <ul class="IX">
+  <li>encouragement of Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>-19;</li>
+  <li><i>Archives</i>, publication of Metchnikoff&rsquo;s researches in, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+  </ul></li>
+<li>Volga, description of, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>-13</li>
+<li>von Noorden, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li>
+<li>von Siebold, Prof., <a href="#Page_54">54</a></li>
+<li>Vorticella, the, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s memoir on, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="IX">
+  <li>Waldeyer, <a href="#Page_169">169</a> <i>n.</i></li>
+  <li>Weinberg, M., <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li>
+  <li>Widal, Dr., <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></li>
+  <li>Wollman, pupil and collaborator of Metchnikoff, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>-7, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li>
+  <li>Würzburg, University of, Metchnikoff&rsquo;s abortive journey to, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+</ul>
+<ul class="IX">
+<li>
+Zalensky, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>
+</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center spaced-above">THE END</p>
+
+<p class="center spaced-above"><i>Printed in Great Britain by</i> <span class="smcap">R. &amp; R. Clark, Limited</span>, <i>Edinburgh</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="center spaced-above newpage">
+READERS OF THIS BOOK INTERESTED<br />
+IN MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC<br />
+BIOGRAPHY ARE REFERRED<br />
+OVERLEAF
+</p>
+
+<h2><a name="MEN_OF_MEDICINE_AND_SCIENCE" id="MEN_OF_MEDICINE_AND_SCIENCE">MEN OF MEDICINE AND SCIENCE</a></h2>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE LIFE OF PASTEUR. By <span class="smcap">Réné Vallery-Radot</span>.
+Translation by Mrs. <span class="smcap">R. L. Devonshire</span>. New Edition
+with a Preface by Sir <span class="smcap">William Osler</span>, Bart., M.D.,
+F.R.S.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. Portrait, 10s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;A classic of scientific biography.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Saturday Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The translation of M. Vallery-Radot&rsquo;s admirable biography of the
+great Frenchman is a book which every English-speaking admirer of
+Pasteur will desire to possess.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>The Athenæum.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Pasteur&rsquo;s career is set out in the fullest detail, making an absorbing
+narrative, and the scientific, social, and political environment is sketched
+with vivid accuracy. It is the picture of a great man, a great career, and
+a great epoch in the history of France and of science.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>The Times Literary
+Supplement.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">SIR VICTOR HORSLEY. By <span class="smcap">Stephen Paget</span>. Foreword
+by <span class="smcap">Lady Horsley</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;All the aspects of Horsley&rsquo;s strenuous life are depicted with the
+writer&rsquo;s accustomed sympathy and skill. Mr. Paget has given us a study
+of absorbing interest.... We are never allowed to lose sight of the restless
+energy and indomitable courage that characterised all that Horsley
+undertook.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>British Medical Journal.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No biographer who agreed with Horsley could have given us anything
+so valuable, so convincing, so vitally defined.... Mr. Paget has never
+had an equal as a medical biographer, and here he has excelled himself.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>The
+Observer.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH BLACK, M.D.
+By Sir <span class="smcap">William Ramsay, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S.</span>, etc.
+Introduction by <span class="smcap">F. G. Donnan, F.R.S.</span></p>
+
+<p class="small-right">Demy 8vo. Frontispiece Portrait and Illustrations.
+6s. 6d. net.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">ROBERT BOYLE: A Biography. By <span class="smcap">Flora Masson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Frontispiece. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;May be recommended as an excellent study of the great Irishman to
+whose services as natural philosopher and chemist even modern scientists
+owe a debt of gratitude.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Pall Mall Gazette.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<div>
+<p class="center">PUBLISHED BY CONSTABLE &amp; COMPANY LTD.</p>
+
+<p class="center">10-12 ORANGE STREET LONDON W.C.2.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A1" id="Page_A1">[1]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="bbox narrow spaced-above">
+<p class="title">
+Biography &amp;<br />
+Reminiscence<br />
+Military<br />
+Political<br />
+Social<br />
+Literary<br />
+Scientific<br />
+&amp; General<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="center spaced-above">
+Published by<br />
+Constable &amp; Co. Ltd.<br />
+10-12 Orange St.<br />
+London W.C.2<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A2" id="Page_A2">[2]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="I" id="I">I.</a><br />
+Military Biographies, Auto&shy;bio&shy;graphies
+and Reminiscences.</h2>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">FIRST WORLD WAR, 1914-1918. By Lieut.-Col. <span class="smcap">Charles
+À Court Repington, C.M.G.</span></p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 42s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;Few if any two-guinea books have had such a sale as the
+<i>First World War</i>.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Evening Standard.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Colonel Repington&rsquo;s fame as a military critic is world-wide.
+He now gives us his personal experiences of the war in the form
+of a Diary which will compare with the most famous diaries in
+literature.... Few diarists show keener observation or greater
+power of description than Colonel Repington here displays,
+and none before has had such a period of history for his theme.&rdquo;&mdash;Major-General
+Sir <span class="smcap">Frederick Maurice</span> in <i>The Daily News</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;... There are countless piquant little pen pictures through
+these two books.... Colonel Repington met all the great
+soldiers of the Allies.... The book is full of extraordinarily
+good stories and remarks.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Sunday Times.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">EXPERIENCES OF A DUG-OUT. By Major-General Sir
+<span class="smcap">C. E. Callwell, K.C.B.</span></p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+18s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>The General held the appointment of Director of Military
+Operations during the early years of the war, and was indeed in
+the saddle at the beginning of the operations in 1914. In this
+volume he shows us behind the scenes and enables us to see clearly
+much that was obscure. His book reveals to us in an intimate
+way the personality of Lord Kitchener and many others, and
+introduces us to the War Cabinet.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A vivacious picture of life behind the scenes of the great
+drama ... told keenly and poignantly, with a biting humour
+... and with a frankness of disclosure.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>The Times.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sir Charles Callwell is one of the soundest military critics in
+the country.... He is a writer ... his sense of proportion is
+never at fault.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Spectator.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A3" id="Page_A3">[3]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="work">THE LIFE OF LIEUT.-GEN. SIR STANLEY MAUDE,
+K.C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. Authorised Memorial Biography
+of the Conqueror of Baghdad. By Major-General Sir <span class="smcap">C. E.
+Callwell, K.C.B.</span></p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrated. 21s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;General Callwell is in the very front rank of military writers
+... one of the very few who combine learning in the military
+art with ability to make it interesting to others.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Times Literary
+Supplement.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A good book.... Should be in the hands of every newly
+joined subaltern, for no nobler picture of a British officer and a
+gentleman could be laid before them.&rdquo;&mdash;Hon. <span class="smcap">John Fortescue</span>
+in <i>The Observer</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">SUVOROF. By <span class="smcap">W. Lyon Blease</span>. With an Introduction by
+Major-General Sir <span class="smcap">Charles Callwell, K.C.B.</span></p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Frontispiece and 21 Maps. Demy 8vo. 25s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. Blease has done his work uncommonly well. The book
+is well arranged and well written.... Sir E. Callwell in his
+preface pronounces Suvorof to have been, next to Frederick the
+Great, unquestionably the greatest soldier of the last half of the
+eighteenth century.... We hold that Sir E. Callwell is undoubtedly
+right. He was a very great soldier and a great man.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Times
+Literary Supplement.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">FREDERICK THE GREAT. By <span class="smcap">H. de Catt</span>. Translated
+by <span class="smcap">F. S. Flint</span>. Introduction by <span class="smcap">Lord Rosebery</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 24s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;Entertaining and instructive.... Perhaps the main attraction
+is the masterly introduction by Lord Rosebery which occupies
+some forty pages.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>British Weekly.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A very human book. We have never read anything giving
+so simple and homely a picture of Frederick as that drawn by his
+admiring Swiss reader.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Spectator.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE LIFE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. By <span class="smcap">Norwood
+Young</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Front. Maps and Plans. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;The book shows both energy and industry.... Mr. Young
+has a large acquaintance not only with the original authority but
+also with the literature of the subject.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Times Literary Supplement.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="work">MOLTKE. By Lt.-Col. <span class="smcap">F. E. Whitton</span>. (Makers of XIX.
+Century Series. See p. <a href="#Makers_of_the_XIX_Century">4</a>.)</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A4" id="Page_A4">[4]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR WILLIAM BUTLER.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Frontispiece and Maps. 6s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;This book must always occupy a prominent place in our
+military literature, and its vivid portraiture and its humour, as
+well as the light it throws on the 19th century history, must carry
+it beyond the circles of military interest.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Aberdeen Free Press.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">LIFE OF SIR FREDERICK HAINES. By <span class="smcap">Robert S. Rait,
+M.A.</span></p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE LIFE AND CAMPAIGNS OF HUGH, <span class="smcap">1ST</span> VISCOUNT
+GOUGH, FIELD MARSHAL. By <span class="smcap">Robert
+S. Rait, M.A.</span></p>
+
+<p class="small-right">Illustrations and Maps. Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 31s. 6d. net.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;By no means a mere compilation, but a substantial and independent
+work bearing the clear interests of individuality, power
+of research, and historic training.... The style is suited to the
+work&mdash;clear, vigorous, and graphic.... By means of his own
+letters, a brave, hot-headed, affectionate, pure and conscientious
+soldier is revealed to us in all his naturalness.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Athenæum.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p class="title"><a name="Makers_of_the_XIX_Century" id="Makers_of_the_XIX_Century">Makers of the XIX. Century.</a></p>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<p class="small">Biographies of Men of all Countries who have had a definite
+influence on thought or action in the Nineteenth Century.
+Edited by <span class="smcap">Basil Williams</span>. Demy 8vo. With Frontispiece,
+Bibliographies, and Full Index.</p>
+
+<div class="work-list">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">DELANE OF THE &ldquo;TIMES.&rdquo; By Sir <span class="smcap">E. T. Cook</span>.</td>
+  <td class="prize">6s. net.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By <span class="smcap">Lord Charnwood</span>.</td>
+  <td class="prize">10s. 6d. net.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">ABDUL HAMID. By <span class="smcap">Sir Edwin Pears</span>.</td>
+  <td class="prize">6s. net.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">HERBERT SPENCER. By <span class="smcap">Hugh S. Elliot</span>.</td>
+  <td class="prize">6s. net.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">DIAZ. By <span class="smcap">David Hannay</span>.</td>
+  <td class="prize">6s. net.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">LI HUNG CHANG. By <span class="smcap">J. O. P. Bland</span>.</td>
+  <td class="prize">6s. net.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">BISMARCK. By <span class="smcap">C. Grant Robertson, C.V.O.</span></td>
+  <td class="prize">10s. 6d. net.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">CECIL RHODES. By <span class="smcap">Basil Williams</span>.</td>
+  <td class="prize">15s. net.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">VICTOR HUGO. By <span class="smcap">Mary Duclaux</span>.</td>
+  <td class="prize">14s. net.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="chapter-title">MOLTKE. By Lieut.-Col. <span class="smcap">F. E. Whitton</span>.</td>
+</tr>
+</table></div>
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A5" id="Page_A5">[5]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="II" id="II">II.</a><br />
+Political and Social Bio&shy;graphies
+and Reminiscences.
+</h2>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">AN ENGLISH WIFE IN BERLIN: A Private Memoir of
+Events, Politics and Daily Life in Germany throughout the
+War and the Social Revolution of 1918. By <span class="smcap">Evelyn,
+Princess Blücher</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Portrait. Demy 8vo. 19s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;If there are any other diarists who managed to preserve as
+much fairness and coolness as Princess Blücher displays in this book
+they need not be ashamed to publish their records. If she had a
+just mind she had a stalwart one.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Spectator.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;This is a book apart. Nothing yet published gives so clear
+and honest a picture of German mentality. The soul of Germany
+is laid bare and the exposure achieved without the slightest
+pretension. The character of the Berlin aristocracy is written
+in every page of this honest and absorbing document.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Daily
+Telegraph.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Perhaps the most absorbingly interesting war book that has
+been written.... Altogether the book is a most remarkable one.
+The kind that causes one to forget one&rsquo;s meals and other pleasures
+until the last page is read. Princess Blücher has earned the
+undying gratitude of her countrymen for her indefatigable work
+on behalf of prisoners of war.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Globe.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE LIFE OF JOHN BRIGHT. By <span class="smcap">G. M. Trevelyan</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+20 Illustrations. Med. 8vo. 15s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;A book of great and vivid interest.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Westminster Gazette.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The book, fully commensurate with the fame of its subject,
+will take its place with the standard Lives of Statesmen.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Daily
+Telegraph.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. George Trevelyan has had the honour of writing what
+must henceforth be the accepted Life.... Finely written. We
+only wish we had space to quote in full.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Spectator.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A6" id="Page_A6">[6]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="work">EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AND AFTER. By Sir
+<span class="smcap">George Kekewich, K.C.B.</span></p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. 21s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;His reflections upon the Civil Service are full of interest....
+There is much entertaining matter in the book, which touches in
+turn on almost every topic of present-day administration.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Morning
+Post.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Sir George Kekewich and Anthony Trollope are, so far as we
+know, the only permanent officials who have written a book about
+their own departments.... Sir George was genuinely interested
+in his duties and did well the work which he found to his hand.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Saturday
+Review.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE END OF A CHAPTER. By <span class="smcap">Shane Leslie, M.A.</span></p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Fcap. 8vo. 2s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">A BEACON FOR THE BLIND: Being a Life of Henry
+Fawcett, the Blind Postmaster-General. By <span class="smcap">Winifred
+Holt</span>. Foreword by Rt. Hon. Viscount <span class="smcap">Bryce</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+16 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;The whole wonderful story of this life Miss Holt tells with a
+proper warmth of enthusiasm.... Carefully and intimately, so
+that the reader is able to love the man as well as admire the hero.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Observer.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A valuable memorial of a noble character and a truly extraordinary
+man.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Times.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">CHARLES STEWART PARNELL. A Memoir by his
+Brother, <span class="smcap">John Howard Parnell</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Frontispiece. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">GENERAL BOTHA: The Career and the Man. By <span class="smcap">Harold
+Spender</span>. Portrait and Maps. New and Enlarged Edition,
+bringing the story down to General Botha&rsquo;s death.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;A tale worth the telling, and set forth with a lucidity, a
+sympathy, and a comprehension remarkable in one whose acquaintance
+with South Africa can only be slight.... A book which is
+not only a valuable historical document but absorbingly interesting
+in every page.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Westminster Gazette.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="work">CECIL RHODES. By <span class="smcap">Basil Williams</span>. (Makers of XIX.
+Century Series. See p. <a href="#Makers_of_the_XIX_Century">4</a>.)</p>
+
+<div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A7" id="Page_A7">[7]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="work">LORD GEORGE BENTINCK: A Political Biography. By
+<span class="smcap">Benjamin Disraeli</span>. Introduction by <span class="smcap">Charles Whibley</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. 6s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;A fascinating edition of a fascinating book.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Morning Post.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. Whibley&rsquo;s introduction contains an appreciation of Lord
+Beaconsfield concisely just to his great gifts, to the general consistency
+of his life, and to his qualities as a statesman.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Outlook.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">OLIVER CROMWELL. By <span class="smcap">Theodore Roosevelt</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="work">BISMARCK. By <span class="smcap">C. Grant Robertson, C.V.O.</span> (Makers of
+XIX. Century Series. See p. <a href="#Makers_of_the_XIX_Century">4</a>.)</p>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CAVOUR. By <span class="smcap">William
+Roscoe Thayer</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Front. Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 30s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;A real benefit to the cause of recent history.... Mr. Thayer
+has done his work notably well. It is accurate, thorough, well-balanced,
+essentially lucid. Well-written, solid yet inspiring,
+admirably produced.... Such a work is a credit to the book
+industry from every point of view.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Bookman.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="work">THE LIFE OF VENIZELOS. By <span class="smcap">S. B. Chester</span>.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>In this volume the author has traced the life of one of the most
+remarkable men of to-day. <span class="smcap">Book I.</span>&mdash;Crete before and during the
+rise of Venizelos&mdash;deals with the early life of this great patriot;
+his early struggles as leader of the Cretan revolution; his final
+triumphal election to the Greek National Assembly. <span class="smcap">Book II.</span>&mdash;Venizelos
+as Maker of Modern Greece&mdash;is a history of the gradual
+aggrandisement of Greece. From 1910 to 1920 the life of Venizelos
+is synonymous with that of his country.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">ISMAIL KEMAL BEY. Memoirs. With an Introduction
+by <span class="smcap">W. Morton Fullerton</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. 18s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;An invaluable source for the historian of the downfall of the
+Turkish Empire, and adds materially to our knowledge of the
+intrigues of the great continental powers in Egypt and the Near
+East.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Manchester Guardian.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of profound interest and reveals some inner secrets of Near
+Eastern policy.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Sunday Times.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="work">ABDUL HAMID. By Sir <span class="smcap">Edwin Pears</span>. (Makers of XIX.
+Century Series. See p. <a href="#Makers_of_the_XIX_Century">4</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="work">LI HUNG CHANG. By <span class="smcap">J. O. P. Bland</span>. (Makers of XIX.
+Century Series. See p. <a href="#Makers_of_the_XIX_Century">4</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="work">DIAZ. By <span class="smcap">David Hannay</span>. (Makers of XIX. Century Series.
+See p. <a href="#Makers_of_the_XIX_Century">4</a>.)</p>
+
+<div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A8" id="Page_A8">[8]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="work">NADIR SHAH. By Sir <span class="smcap">H. Mortimer Durand</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE WINTER QUEEN: The sad story of Elizabeth of
+Bohemia. By <span class="smcap">Marie Hay</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+12s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">EMMA, LADY HAMILTON. From New and Original
+Documents, together with an Appendix of Notes and
+Letters. By <span class="smcap">Walter Sichel</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illust. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ANDREW CARNEGIE.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrated. 25s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;He was in spirit a true sportsman, and his autobiography,
+fresh, crisp, and entirely unaffected, will do something to put him
+in his right niche.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Observer.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The two stages of his extraordinary career as he describes
+them in great detail, with honest self-satisfaction and a good deal
+of quiet humour, make a story&mdash;almost a romance&mdash;which is not
+only entertaining but instructive.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Westminster Gazette.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS, 1861-1865. Edited by
+<span class="smcap">W. C. Ford</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+With many Illustrations. 2 vols.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Letters of <span class="smcap">Charles Francis Adams</span>, American Minister to
+England during the Civil War, and his two sons&mdash;<span class="smcap">Henry
+Adams</span>, who acted as secretary, and <span class="smcap">Charles Francis Adams</span>,
+Jr., then serving in the Northern Armies.</p>
+
+<p>These two volumes of family letters form an unique series.
+They contain detailed description of social conditions, discussion
+of public questions, and wise and informed comments
+on the events in Great Britain and America during the war
+between North and South. Social, military, and diplomatic, the
+importance of so long a series of letters between members of a
+distinguished family cannot be over-estimated.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HAY. By <span class="smcap">William
+Roscoe Thayer</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+2 vols. 21s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. Thayer&rsquo;s very interesting biography.&rdquo;&mdash;<span class="smcap">Lord Cromer</span> in
+<i>The Spectator</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. Thayer is to be congratulated on this biography....
+He has made a most skilful and attractive book, full of good
+reading, dealing with great events and little, and adding to our
+knowledge of men and things at moments of real importance to
+history.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Westminster Gazette.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;One of the most comprehensive and masterly biographies I
+have ever read.&rdquo;&mdash;<span class="smcap">Claudius Clear</span> in <i>The British Weekly</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A9" id="Page_A9">[9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="work">THEODORE ROOSEVELT. An Intimate Biography. By
+<span class="smcap">William Roscoe Thayer</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illust. Demy 8vo. 25s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;A vivacious narrative, decidedly more attractive for the
+English reader than Roosevelt&rsquo;s record of his career.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Manchester
+Guardian.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="work">ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By <span class="smcap">Lord Charnwood</span>. (Makers of
+XIX. Century Series. See p. <a href="#Makers_of_the_XIX_Century">4</a>.)</p>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN. By <span class="smcap">Alonzo Rothschild</span>.
+Illustrated with Portraits.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. 17s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">ALEXANDER HAMILTON. An Essay on American Union.
+By <span class="smcap">F. S. Oliver</span>. With Portraits.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. 6s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;A thorough and penetrating review of the circumstances
+which united the States of America under a common and supreme
+government. On literary grounds it is a book of singular merit,
+while as a contribution to the political and constitutional history
+it deserves the closest study.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Liverpool Post.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE DIARY OF GIDEON WELLES, with a Memoir.
+Edited by <span class="smcap">John T. Morse</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrated. 3 vols. 42s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE
+SHALER. With a Memoir by his Wife.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 16s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p class="title"><a name="Modern_Biographies" id="Modern_Biographies">Modern Biographies.</a></p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p class="small">With Bibliographies and Portraits. Fcap. 8vo. 1s. 6d. net each.</p>
+
+<div class="work-list">
+<p>
+LAFCADIO HEARN. By <span class="smcap">Edward Thomas</span>.
+</p>
+<p>
+W. E. HENLEY. By <span class="smcap">L. Cope Cornford</span>.
+</p>
+<p>
+TOLSTOY. By <span class="smcap">Edward Garnett</span>.
+</p>
+<p>
+PAUL BOURGET. By <span class="smcap">Ernest Dimnet</span>.
+</p>
+<p>
+VERLAINE. By <span class="smcap">Wilfred Thorley</span>.
+</p>
+<p>
+DR. BARNARDO. By <span class="smcap">A. R. Neuman</span>.
+</p>
+<p>
+CARDUCCI. By <span class="smcap">Orlo Williams</span>.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A10" id="Page_A10">[10]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="III" id="III">III.</a><br />
+Literary, Artistic, Philosophical
+and General.</h2>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE LIFE OF SIR E. T. COOK. By <span class="smcap">J. Saxon Mills</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Frontispiece. Demy 8vo.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>This is the authorised life of the famous journalist and publicist,
+friend and biographer of Ruskin, who became during the War one
+of the chiefs of the Press Bureau. Sir Edward Cook was in his
+time editor of the <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>, the <i>Westminster Gazette</i>, and
+the <i>Daily News</i>, and Mr. Saxon Mills&rsquo; book throws much valuable
+light on the political and social England of the last thirty years.
+Contents:&mdash;Parentage and School; Oxford Days; Early Journalism;
+Early Days on the <i>Pall Mall</i>; Politics in the &rsquo;Eighties;
+Editor of the <i>Pall Mall</i>; From <i>Pall Mall</i> to <i>Westminster</i>; The
+<i>Westminster Gazette</i>; The <i>Daily News</i>; The South African
+Scene; Sale of the <i>Daily News</i>; As Editor and Journalist;
+Literary Work; The Last Task; Death and Character; The
+Age of Puff; Some Stories.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH: A Critical Biography. By
+<span class="smcap">James I. Osborne</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. 8s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. Osborne has approached his difficult task with ardour
+and taste.&rdquo;&mdash;<span class="smcap">Edmund Gosse</span> in the <i>Sunday Times</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A very careful and interesting piece of work.&rdquo;&mdash;<span class="smcap">W. L.
+Courtney</span> in the <i>Daily Telegraph</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;A most admirable exposition of character of singular and
+beautiful integrity.&rdquo;&mdash;<span class="smcap">New Statesman.</span></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;This acute and interesting book.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Times Literary Supplement.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">MEMORIES OF GEORGE MEREDITH, O.M. By <span class="smcap">Lady
+Butcher</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Three Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 5s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;All the swift criticisms and unpremeditated comments that
+this indefatigable diarist has recovered from her treasures make it
+clear that Meredith&rsquo;s wit was as spontaneous as it was characteristic.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Saturday
+Westminster.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Lady Butcher deserves very hearty thanks for this little volume
+of her charming memories.&rdquo;&mdash;<span class="smcap">Clement Shorter</span> in <i>The Sphere</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A11" id="Page_A11">[11]</a></span></p>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">FREDERICK LOCKER LAMPSON. By the Rt. Hon.
+<span class="smcap">Augustine Birrell</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrated. Fcap. 4to. 25s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="center" style="margin-right:1em"><span style="font-size:1.5em;">&#8258;</span> 100 copies on hand-made paper, bound in white and gold
+and signed by the author, were also issued.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Life is more than politics, and if we deal with a book this
+week it is because we have found in it an ironic and reconciling
+charm to make us more content with existence as it is. We are
+restored to the forgotten grace of letters, and Mr. Birrell has done
+this with that way of his own which is like no other man&rsquo;s. This
+little quarto with the rough edges, perfect in form and texture to
+a book lover&rsquo;s eye, written with a deep-laid negligence, makes us
+surer that Mr. Birrell will be remembered when more ponderous
+reputations have foundered.... A collector can see at a glance
+that the book lovers of posterity will always gather this volume
+like amber.... This character sketch, followed by a little masterpiece
+of editing applied to family letters and a book list, makes us
+regret the fate that lured Mr. Birrell from writing and wasted him
+on political clubs.... He is a cross between Dr. Johnson and
+Charles Lamb.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Observer.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Nothing that Mr. Birrell has previously written has been conceived
+in so happy a vein as this monograph.... A charming
+little quarto.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Daily Chronicle.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The book to delight the heart of every one who really cares
+for literature. Written with a manly and tender affection and
+with the reverence which the subject demands. The publishers
+have done their part admirably.&rdquo;&mdash;<span class="smcap">Claudius Clear</span> in <i>The British
+Weekly</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">GEORGE MEREDITH: His Life, Genius, and Teaching.
+By <span class="smcap">S. C. Photiades</span>. Rendered into English by <span class="smcap">Arthur
+Price</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Extra Crown 8vo. 6s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="work">W. E. HENLEY. By <span class="smcap">L. Cope Cornford</span>. (Modern Biographies
+Series. See p. <a href="#Modern_Biographies">9</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="work">HERBERT SPENCER. By <span class="smcap">Hugh S. Elliot</span>. (Makers of
+XIX. Century Series. See p. <a href="#Makers_of_the_XIX_Century">4</a>.)</p>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE MIDDLE YEARS: Reminiscences. By <span class="smcap">Katherine
+Tynan</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE YEARS OF THE SHADOW. By <span class="smcap">Katherine Tynan</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. 15s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A12" id="Page_A12">[12]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="work">THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS. With an
+Introduction <span class="smcap">by Henry Cabot Lodge</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+21s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;This fascinating autobiography.... A brilliant picture of
+a social epoch now completely vanished, and a record of an intellectual
+pilgrimage which will stand along with the few perfect
+examples.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Manchester Guardian.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="work">LETTERS TO A NIECE, and Prayer to the Virgin of
+Chartres. By <span class="smcap">Henry Adams</span>, Author of <i>The Education of
+Henry Adams</i>, etc.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;These letters written from Washington and during his travels
+in the Pacific, in Egypt, Paris, etc., leave in their playful and
+tender intimacy a pleasant impression which forms a welcome
+memorial of the inner life of a distinguished man of letters.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Times
+Literary Supplement.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">REMINISCENCES OF ARTHUR COLERIDGE. By <span class="smcap">J. A.
+Fuller-Maitland</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Arthur Duke Coleridge, born in 1830, was the grand-nephew
+of the great poet, S. T. Coleridge. Educated at Eton and King&rsquo;s,
+Cambridge, he acted for fifty-four years as an official on the
+Midland Circuit. He died in October 1913. Very few people
+have had so fine a gift for friendship as Arthur Coleridge. Few
+also have had the privilege of knowing so many of those who
+interpreted the artistic feeling of their time. He himself did much
+to stimulate the vogue of the best in music. His musical recollections
+are a delightful account of his important work towards the
+musical revival in England.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">VIA GIBBS. A Memoir by Mrs. <span class="smcap">Alston</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Photogravure Portrait and 8 half-tone Illust. Demy 8vo.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>A memorial volume to Victoria Florence de Burgh Gibbs,
+C.B.E., eldest daughter of the Rt. Hon. W. H. Long, M.P., and
+the wife of Lieut.-Col. G. A. Gibbs, M.P. &ldquo;The path of a good
+woman is indeed strewn with flowers, but they rise behind her
+steps, not before them.&rdquo;&mdash;<span class="smcap">Ruskin.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="work">DELANE OF THE &ldquo;TIMES.&rdquo; By Sir <span class="smcap">E. T. Cook</span>. (Makers
+of XIX. Century Series. See p. <a href="#Makers_of_the_XIX_Century">4</a>.)</p>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">LORD STOWELL: His Life and the Development of English
+Prize Law. By <span class="smcap">E. S. Roscoe</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Front. Med. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. Roscoe has collected diligently and reverently and has
+been able to present a picture such as we have not had before of a
+great judge and a constructive jurist.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Times Literary Supplement.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A13" id="Page_A13">[13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="work">THE LIFE AND A SELECTION FROM THE LETTERS
+OF WILLIAM STUBBS (Bishop of Oxford). 1825-1901.
+Edited by <span class="smcap">W. H. Hutton, B.D.</span></p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. 6s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;Mr. Hutton gives an excellent account of the Bishop&rsquo;s career....
+Of Stubbs as a historian the book can only recount the
+achievements, but of Stubbs as a man it gives an excellent
+portrait.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Athenæum.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="work">PAUL VERLAINE. By <span class="smcap">Harold Nicolson</span>.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>It is not easy to write a critical biography of Verlaine without
+either patronage or pomposity. Mr. Nicolson succeeds because
+he treats his subject whimsically but with respect. He does not
+seek to excuse or to minimise the failings of Verlaine as a man,
+nor does he make extravagant claims of poetical genius, but he
+tells with genial sympathy a rather pitiful life story, and by skilful
+quotation enables the reader to form his own judgment of Verlaine&rsquo;s
+work. Contents:&mdash;Youth; Marriage; Arthur Rimbaud;
+&ldquo;Sagesse&rdquo;; Middle Age; The Last Phase; Verlaine&rsquo;s Literary
+Position.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="work">VERLAINE. By <span class="smcap">Wilfred Thorley</span>. (Modern Biographies
+Series. see p. <a href="#Modern_Biographies">9</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="work">PAUL BOURGET. By <span class="smcap">Ernest Dimnet</span>. (Modern Biographies
+Series. see p. <a href="#Modern_Biographies">9</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="work">VICTOR HUGO. By <span class="smcap">Mary Duclaux</span>. (Makers of XIX.
+Century Series. See p. <a href="#Makers_of_the_XIX_Century">4</a>.)</p>
+
+<p class="work">CARDUCCI. By <span class="smcap">Orlo Williams</span>. (Modern Biographies
+Series. see p. <a href="#Modern_Biographies">9</a>.)</p>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">DANTE ALIGHIERI: A Biographical Study. By <span class="smcap">Charles
+A. Dinsmore</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Large Crown 8vo. 15s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;Dante&rsquo;s latest biographer has made out a very just summary
+of modern opinion and research.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>New Statesman.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE LIFE OF TOLSTOY. By <span class="smcap">Aylmer Maude</span>.<br />
+Vol. I. First Fifty Years to 1870.<br />
+Vol. II. Later Years.<br />
+</p>
+<p class="small-right">
+Each vol. illustrated. Price per vol. 12s. 6d. net.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="work">TOLSTOY. By <span class="smcap">Edward Garnett</span>. (Modern Biographies
+Series. see p. <a href="#Modern_Biographies">9</a>.)</p>
+
+<div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A14" id="Page_A14">[14]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="work">JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. His Life, Art, and Work.
+Translated from the German of <span class="smcap">Johann Niklaus Forkel</span>.
+With Notes and Appendices by <span class="smcap">Charles Sanford Terry,
+Litt.D.</span></p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;Very much more than a re-translation of an old work which
+was previously translated very imperfectly into English a hundred
+years ago.... Though it bears the name of Forkel on the cover,
+it contains material for a history of Bach criticism from the beginning
+of the 19th century until the present day, and incidentally
+suggests directions which future research may follow.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Times
+Literary Supplement.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">TSCHUDI, THE HARPSICHORD MAKER. By <span class="smcap">William
+Dale, F.S.A.</span></p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. Illustrations. 7s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">MICHEL-ANGELO: A Record of his Life as told in his own
+Letters and Papers. By <span class="smcap">R. W. Carden, R.W., A.R.I.B.A.</span></p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">LIFE AND LETTERS OF LAFCADIO HEARN. By <span class="smcap">Elizabeth
+Bisland</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illust. Demy 8vo. 2 vols. £3: 3s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="work">LAFCADIO HEARN. By <span class="smcap">Edward Thomas</span>. (Modern Biographies
+Series. see p. <a href="#Modern_Biographies">9</a>.)</p>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE JAPANESE LETTERS OF LAFCADIO HEARN.
+By <span class="smcap">Elizabeth Bisland</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illust. Demy 8vo. 31s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS.
+Author of &ldquo;Uncle Remus.&rdquo; By <span class="smcap">Julia Collier Harris</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. Illustrated. 18s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN FISKE. By <span class="smcap">John
+Spencer Clark</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 50s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">LETTERS OF ROBERT WATSON GILDER. Edited by
+<span class="smcap">Rosamond Gilder</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 14s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE MEMORIAL BIOGRAPHY OF W. G. GRACE.
+By <span class="smcap">Lord Hawke</span>, <span class="smcap">Lord Harris</span>, and Sir <span class="smcap">Home Gordon</span>.
+Published under the auspices of M.C.C.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. Illustrated. 21s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;Of inestimable value.... Sir Home Gordon must have had
+an extremely difficult and laborious task, and is to be congratulated
+on the way in which he has accomplished it.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Field.</i></p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A15" id="Page_A15">[15]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV">IV.</a><br />
+Scientific and Medical.
+</h2>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF. By <span class="smcap">Olga Metchnikoff</span>.
+Translated by Mrs. <span class="smcap">R. L. Devonshire</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Frontispiece. Demy 8vo.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Reviewing the French edition of this book in January 1921,
+<i>The Times Literary Supplement</i> said: &ldquo;Madame Metchnikoff&rsquo;s
+excellent analysis of her husband&rsquo;s scientific theories does not
+hinder her from showing us the living, the lovable, the extraordinary
+human being who conceived so many ideas, who
+developed so many theories, inventions, innovations.... Mme.
+Metchnikoff has made us admire the man of science and warmly
+the man.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE LIFE OF PASTEUR. By <span class="smcap">Réné Vallery-Radot</span>.
+Translation by Mrs. <span class="smcap">R. L. Devonshire</span>. New Edition
+with a preface by Sir <span class="smcap">William Osler</span>, Bart., M.D., F.R.S.
+2nd edition.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Demy 8vo. Portrait. 10s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;A classic of scientific biography.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Saturday Review.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The translation of M. Vallery-Radot&rsquo;s admirable biography
+of the great Frenchman is a book which every English-speaking
+admirer of Pasteur will desire to possess.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>The Athenæum.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;Pasteur&rsquo;s career is set out in the fullest detail, making an
+absorbing narrative, and the scientific, social, and political environment
+is sketched with vivid accuracy. It is the picture of a great
+man, a great career, and a great epoch in the history of France
+and of science.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>The Times Literary Supplement.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">SIR VICTOR HORSLEY. By <span class="smcap">Stephen Paget</span>. Foreword
+by <span class="smcap">Lady Horsley</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;All the aspects of Horsley&rsquo;s strenuous life are depicted with
+the writer&rsquo;s accustomed sympathy and skill. Mr. Paget has given
+us a study of absorbing interest.... We are never allowed to
+lose sight of the restless energy and indomitable courage that
+characterised all that Horsley undertook.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>British Medical
+Journal.</i></p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;No biographer who agreed with Horsley could have given us
+anything so valuable, so convincing, so vitally defined.... Mr.
+Paget has never had an equal as a medical biographer, and here
+he has excelled himself.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>The Observer.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_A16" id="Page_A16">[16]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="work">LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH BLACK, M.D. By
+Sir <span class="smcap">William Ramsay, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S.</span>, etc. Introduction
+by <span class="smcap">F. G. Donnan, F.R.S.</span></p>
+
+<p class="small-right">Demy 8vo. Frontispiece Portrait and Illustrations. 6s. 6d.
+net.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">ROBERT BOYLE: A Biography. By <span class="smcap">Flora Masson</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Frontispiece. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;May be recommended as an excellent study of the great
+Irishman to whose services as natural philosopher and chemist even
+modern scientists owe a debt of gratitude.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Pall Mall Gazette.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="work">THE LIFE OF SIR CHARLES TILSTON BRIGHT.
+By <span class="smcap">Charles Bright, F.R.S.E.</span> Revised and Abridged.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>&ldquo;The life story of Sir Charles Bright presents the career of a
+famous Englishman with all the charm of simplicity and enthusiasm....
+As the chief engineer of the Atlantic cable Sir Charles
+Bright will always have a memorable place in the scientific progress
+of this century.... These volumes possess a special interest
+for men of science, but they tell with clearness and simplicity the
+career of a man of whom Englishmen must always feel proud.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Morning
+Post</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="small-right">
+[<i>Spring 1921.</i>]<br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="bbox">
+<p><span class="smcap">Messrs</span>. CONSTABLE will be glad to send free on
+application classified Lists of their publications. The
+following subject headings are ready:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+POLITICS, POLITICAL SCIENCE, AND<br />
+SOCIOLOGY.<br />
+HISTORY.<br />
+WAR AND MILITARY HISTORY.<br />
+RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY.<br />
+EDUCATION AND PSYCHOLOGY.<br />
+ECONOMICS AND COMMERCE.<br />
+ART AND ILLUSTRATED BOOKS.<br />
+FICTION.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Please write to</i></p>
+<p class="center">10-12 ORANGE STREET LONDON W.C.2.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="transnote">
+  <p class="trans-heading">Transcriber&rsquo;s Note</p>
+  <p class="covernote">
+    The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
+  </p>
+  <p>Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been retained except in
+obvious cases of typographical error.</p>
+
+  <p>Names and terms which deviated between chapter headings and text have
+been made consistent.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="pg" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF, 1845-1916***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 44194-h.txt or 44194-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/4/1/9/44194">http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/1/9/44194</a></p>
+<p>
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.</p>
+
+<p>
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+</p>
+
+<h2>*** START: FULL LICENSE ***<br />
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br />
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</h2>
+
+<p>To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">www.gutenberg.org/license</a>.</p>
+
+<h3>Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works</h3>
+
+<p>1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.</p>
+
+<p>1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.</p>
+
+<p>1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.</p>
+
+<p>1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.</p>
+
+<p>1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:</p>
+
+<p>1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:</p>
+
+<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a
+href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p>
+
+<p>1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.</p>
+
+<p>1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.</p>
+
+<p>1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.</p>
+
+<p>1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.</p>
+
+<p>1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.</p>
+
+<p>1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.</p>
+
+<p>1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li>You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."</li>
+
+<li>You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.</li>
+
+<li>You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.</li>
+
+<li>You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.</p>
+
+<p>1.F.</p>
+
+<p>1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.</p>
+
+<p>1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.</p>
+
+<p>1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.</p>
+
+<p>1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.</p>
+
+<p>1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.</p>
+
+<p>1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.</p>
+
+<h3>Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm</h3>
+
+<p>Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.</p>
+
+<p>Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and
+the Foundation information page at <a
+href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p>
+
+<h3>Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation</h3>
+
+<p>The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.</p>
+
+<p>The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at <a
+href="http://www.gutenberg.org/contact">www.gutenberg.org/contact</a></p>
+
+<p>For additional contact information:<br />
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby<br />
+     Chief Executive and Director<br />
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org</p>
+
+<h3>Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation</h3>
+
+<p>Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.</p>
+
+<p>The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit <a
+href="http://www.gutenberg.org/donate">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a></p>
+
+<p>While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.</p>
+
+<p>International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.</p>
+
+<p>Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  <a
+href="http://www.gutenberg.org/donate">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a></p>
+
+<h3>Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.</h3>
+
+<p>Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.</p>
+
+<p>Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.</p>
+
+<p>Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p>
+
+<p>This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.</p>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/old/44194-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/44194-h/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..978b653
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44194-h/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/old/44194-h/images/frontis.jpg b/old/44194-h/images/frontis.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b149cbf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44194-h/images/frontis.jpg
diff --git a/old/44194.txt b/old/44194.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fc14538
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44194.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11426 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Life of Elie Metchnikoff, 1845-1916, by Olga
+Metchnikoff
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Life of Elie Metchnikoff, 1845-1916
+
+
+Author: Olga Metchnikoff
+
+
+
+Release Date: November 16, 2013  [eBook #44194]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF,
+1845-1916***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, Norbert Müller, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(https://archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 44194-h.htm or 44194-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44194/44194-h/44194-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44194/44194-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/american Libraries. See
+      https://archive.org/details/lifeofeliemetchn00mechiala
+
+
+
+
+
+Authorised Translation from the French
+
+
+[Illustration: DR. METCHNIKOFF IN HIS LABORATORY.]
+
+
+LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF
+1845-1916
+
+by
+
+OLGA METCHNIKOFF
+
+With a Preface by Sir Ray Lankester K.C.B. F.R.S.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London
+Constable and Company Ltd.
+1921
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+It has been a great satisfaction to me to carry out the wish of my
+dear friend Elie Metchnikoff, and arrange for the production of an
+English translation of his biography. The account of his life and work
+written by Olga Metchnikoff is a remarkable and beautiful record of
+the development and activities of a great discoverer. It is remarkable
+because it is seldom that one who undertakes such a task has had so
+constant a share in, and so complete a knowledge and understanding of,
+the life portrayed as in the present case: seldom that the intimate
+thought and mental "adventure" of a discoverer presents so clear and
+consistent a history. It is beautiful because it is put before us with
+perfect candour and simplicity guided by rare intelligence and inspired
+by deep affection. Madame Metchnikoff has drawn the picture of the
+development of a single-minded character absolutely and tenaciously
+devoted to a high purpose--the improvement of human life. It is a
+story of "struggles and adventures," but they are wholly in the field
+of the investigation of Nature. We read here little or nothing of the
+quest for personal advancement, for fortune or official position.
+These things had no attraction for Metchnikoff. He left Russia and
+took an unpaid post in Paris in order to have a place to work in. He
+had many devoted friends in whose company he sought refreshment and
+relaxation, but all his immense energy and industry were concentrated
+on the development and establishment of his great biological theory
+of "Phagocytosis" and its outcome, the philosophy of life called by
+him "Orthobiosis." This volume tells truly of a simple life--a life in
+which the social incidents which fill so large a space in most lives
+were either non-existent or unnoticed because, by the side of the great
+purpose which dominated Metchnikoff's every thought and action--namely,
+the advancement of Science--he was not touched by them. He was
+affectionate, kind-hearted, and truly considerate of others, but was,
+in a way which is traceable to his racial origin, a practical idealist
+concentrating his whole strength and reason on the realisation of what
+he held to be the highest good.
+
+I had as an eager reader of memoirs on biological subjects become
+acquainted with Metchnikoff's earliest publications in 1865, when
+he was twenty years of age and I two years younger. I wrote short
+accounts of them, as they appeared, for a chronicle of progress in the
+_Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science_, then edited by my father.
+Those on a European Land Planarian, on the development of Myzostomum
+(the parasite of the Feather-Star), on Apsilus, a strange new kind of
+wheel-animalcule, and his protest against Rudolf Leuckart's treatment
+of him in the matter of his important discoveries concerning the
+Frog's lung-worm--_Ascaris nigrovenosa_--remain in my memory, and
+later, in 1872, I was especially struck by his important demonstration
+of the true mode of development of the gastrula of the calcareous
+sponges in correction of Professor Ernst Haeckel. Many other papers
+of his became known to me, until in 1881 he published his first
+observations on _Intracellular Digestion in Lower Animals_, which was
+the starting-point of his life's work on "Phagocytosis," to which all
+his subsequent researches--during thirty-five years--were exclusively
+dedicated.
+
+In 1888 I was introduced by my friend Lauder Brunton to the great
+Pasteur, and called on him at his laboratory in the rue d'Ulm. There I
+met Metchnikoff, only lately arrived from Russia, and welcomed as one
+of his staff by Pasteur. The next year, 1889, Pasteur was installed
+in the new "Institut Pasteur" in the rue Dutot, and I met Metchnikoff
+there in his new quarters. Pasteur's assistants were carrying on daily
+his system of inoculation against rabies, and many British subjects
+were amongst those treated. I persuaded the Lord Mayor of that year,
+Sir James Whitehead, to visit the Pasteur Institute with a view to
+taking steps to make some recognition of the services rendered by
+Pasteur to our fellow-countrymen in treating over two hundred of them
+threatened with hydrophobia. Sir James called a meeting on July 1,
+1889, at the Mansion House, and placed the management of it in my
+hands. As a result we obtained subscriptions to a fund which enabled
+us to assist many poor British subjects to visit Paris for the purpose
+of undergoing M. Pasteur's treatment, to make a donation of 30,000
+francs to the Pasteur Institute, and to initiate with a sum of L300 the
+formation of a fund for the purpose of establishing an Institute in
+London similar in purpose and character to the Institut Pasteur. That
+initial fund has step by step received generous additions and given us
+the "Lister Institute" on Chelsea Embankment possessed of buildings,
+site, and capital valued at more than L300,000.
+
+After 1889 it was rare for a year to pass without my visiting Paris
+both in spring and summer, and seeing a great deal of Metchnikoff
+and his friends Roux, Duclaux, Laveran, and the great master of the
+Pastorians, who died in 1895. Metchnikoff took me to his home and
+cemented his friendship with me by bringing to me that of his gifted
+and devoted wife.
+
+Madame Metchnikoff had when a schoolgirl studied zoology under her
+future husband at Odessa, and now was able to give serious help in
+some of his researches. She published some experimental investigation
+on the sterilisation of the alimentary canal of tadpoles and some
+other researches, and having a thorough knowledge of English, which
+Elie did not possess, she helped him in reading and translating from
+that language. But her chief talents were in the arts of painting and
+sculpture, and when they purchased their country house at Sevres, she
+built a studio in the garden in which to pursue her vocation.
+
+Metchnikoff on several occasions came to England to take part in
+"congresses" or to give special addresses, and often stayed a day or
+two with me in London.[1] I was with him at the Darwin Celebration at
+Cambridge in 1909, and the last occasion when he came was to give the
+Priestley Lecture of the National Health Society in November 1912.
+At my request he selected "The Warfare against Tuberculosis" as his
+subject, and gave a most valuable account of the history and actual
+condition of that enterprise, relating the important results of his
+expedition to the Kalmuk Tartars for the purpose of studying the
+immunity from and the liability to infection by tuberculosis among
+that nomad population. The lecture was delivered in French, and I made
+a translation of it which appeared with numerous illustrations in the
+journal called _Bedrock_, published by Constable & Co. I mention that
+publication here as it is the only one excepting the three lectures on
+"The New Hygiene" (Heinemann, London, 1906) originally published in
+an English form by Metchnikoff, and deserves more attention from the
+English medical public than it has received.
+
+  [1] He received an honorary degree at Cambridge in 1891, and
+      also attended the International Medical Congress in London
+      in that year. In 1901 he gave a lecture at Manchester on the
+      intestinal flora. In 1906 he gave a course of three lectures
+      in London on "The New Hygiene." I translated them for him,
+      and they were published as a little volume by Heinemann.
+
+I found Metchnikoff a delightful companion. He always had something
+new or of special interest to show to me at the laboratory--some
+microscopical preparation, the digestive process in Protozoa,
+the microbian parasite of a water-flea, a new method of dark
+ground illumination with high powers (Commandant's method for film
+production), the newly discovered Treponema of syphilis, or the
+experimental inoculation of a disease under study. Sometimes I
+would lunch at his house, when, although he neither smoked nor took
+alcoholic drinks himself, he made a point of giving me first-rate
+claret and a good cigar. It was about the year 1900 that he arranged
+for the preparation of a pure "sour milk" made by the use of a special
+lactic ferment (selected and cultivated by himself), and this he took
+regularly. I found it a most agreeable food, and for several years made
+it an article of my own diet. He was very careful about the possible
+contamination of uncooked food by bacteria and the eggs of parasitic
+worms, and in consequence had "rolls" sent to him from the bakers each
+in its separate paper bag, whilst he would never eat uncooked salads or
+fruit which could not be rendered safe by "peeling." This was not an
+excess of caution, but resulted from his characteristic determination
+to carry out in practice the directions given by definite scientific
+knowledge, and to make the attempt to lead so far as possible a life
+free from disease. Often when I arrived in Paris he would invite me to
+lunch at one of the leading cafes, and though he ate very simple food
+himself took keen pleasure in ordering the best for me and thoroughly
+enjoyed the change of scene and the amenities of a first-rate
+restaurant. During one of his visits to London, I remember that he was
+invited, and I with him, on two or three occasions, by leading London
+physicians to dinner-parties. He was greatly shocked at the amount of
+strong wine which his hosts and fellow-guests consumed, and assured me
+that in Paris it would be injurious to the reputation of a physician
+were he not to set an example of either abstinence or great moderation.
+
+Metchnikoff was not only exceedingly gentle and courteous in his
+treatment of servants and employes, but he and his wife contrived on
+a very small income to help in a most substantial way poor neighbours
+and those who had met with misfortune whether they were of French or
+Russian nationality. They had many friends in the world of science and
+art, real workers and thinkers, including those who had not and those
+who had "arrived." With them I met and spent a long and interesting
+day with Rodin the sculptor and the son of Leon Tolstoi, who was
+working in a Paris studio. Among the pleasures which I have derived
+from the _Life_ are the accounts of places such as Naples and Messina,
+where I stayed in order to study the embryology of marine animals as
+Metchnikoff did; and also the appearance in these pages from time to
+time of old friends such as Nikolas Kleinenberg, whom Metchnikoff
+met at Messina in 1883. I had formed an intimate acquaintance with
+Kleinenberg at Jena in 1871, when he was working at his classical
+monograph on Hydra, and continued it at Naples in 1875. From Messina,
+where he became Professor in 1875, Kleinenberg sent me for publication
+in the _Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science_ his valuable
+memoir on the embryology of a species of Earthworm, and also rare and
+interesting specimens of Cephalopoda.
+
+Another great and noteworthy figure about whom all zoologists are
+glad to learn as much as possible is Kovalevsky. Metchnikoff made his
+acquaintance at Naples in 1864, and they formed a close friendship
+for one another. Later, in 1867, they shared the Baer Prize of the
+Petersburg Academy for their discoveries in embryology (p. 58). In
+1868 Metchnikoff had a dispute with Kovalevsky as to the origin of the
+nervous system of Ascidia (p. 62), concerning which he subsequently
+admitted that he was wrong and Kovalevsky right. There is no doubt that
+Kovalevsky, by his numerous important investigations of invertebrate
+embryology, and especially of that of Ascidia and Amphioxus, laid
+the foundation of _cellular_ Embryology, and the modern study of the
+embryology of Invertebrates. Metchnikoff's contributions were also of
+great value and importance (pp. 51, 52, 53, and pp. 72 and 73), though
+he has not so great a triumph in animal morphology to his credit as
+Kovalevsky's discovery of the close identities of the development of
+organs in Ascidia and Amphioxus. I had long cherished profound esteem
+for Kovalevsky when in 1896 I met him and his daughter at Wimereux
+with Professor Giard. He came in the autumn of that year to London,
+but left unexpectedly owing to some nervous fear of annoyance by the
+police. The great position of Kovalevsky was deliberately ignored in
+a German history of Zoology,[2] published just before the Great War.
+Metchnikoff describes Kovalevsky as a young man, small and timid, with
+shy but cordial manners and the clear sweet eyes of a child: he had
+(like Metchnikoff) for Science an absolute cult--"no sacrifice was too
+great, no difficulty too repellent for his ardour."
+
+  [2] By Prof. Hertwig of Munich.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is, I think, desirable to assure the reader of this book that the
+actual state of knowledge in regard to various subjects discussed
+in the _Life_ at the time when they were made the subjects of study
+by Metchnikoff is fairly and correctly sketched, and the growth and
+development of his views and original discoveries are correctly given.
+But it must be remembered that this _Life_ is not a critical discussion
+of the steps by which our knowledge of cell-layers, of intracellular
+digestion, and other factors contributory to Metchnikoff's doctrine of
+Phagocytosis and its outcomes were reached. Others played an important
+if a subsidiary part in building up that knowledge. What we have here
+is an account of the growth of Metchnikoff's own observations and
+theoretical inferences, which were so independent, and founded on
+such decisive original observations, as to make him a solitary figure
+contending, and successfully contending, during the best years of
+his lifetime for the recognition of a great generalisation for long
+opposed by most of the medical and physiological authorities of the
+time, and finally established by his lifelong researches and those of
+his faithful pupils and coadjutors. The recognition of the validity
+of _the doctrine of phagocytosis_ in relation to wounds, disease,
+immunity, and normal healthy life is the triumphant result of the
+scientific insight and boundless energy of Elie Metchnikoff.
+
+                                                E. RAY LANKESTER.
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                PAGE
+
+  PREFACE                                                          v
+
+  INTRODUCTION                                                   xxi
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+
+  1845. Panassovka--Metchnikoff's parents--Country life in
+      Little Russia                                                1
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II
+
+  Metchnikoff's brothers and sister--Childish characteristics      8
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+
+  1850. Journey to Slaviansk--The coach attacked by peasants      12
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV
+
+  1851. Departure for Kharkoff--Town life                         16
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+
+  1853-1856. Leo Metchnikoff's illness--Private tutors--
+      Botanical studies--A memorable birthday                     19
+
+                              CHAPTER VI
+
+  Ancestors of the Metchnikoff family--The great "Spatar"--Leo
+      Nevahovitch                                                 23
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+
+  1856-1861. The Kharkoff Lycee--Bogomoloff and Socialism--
+      Atheism--Natural History studies--Private lodgings--
+      Private lessons in histology from Professor Tschelkoff
+      --A borrowed microscope--First article--Italian opera--
+      The gold medal                                              28
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII
+
+  An early love--A schoolfellow's sister--A pretty sister-in-law  35
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX
+
+  1862. Journey to Germany--Leipzig, Wuerzburg--A hasty return     37
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+
+  1863. Kharkoff University--Physiology--The Vorticella--
+      Controversy with Kuehne--_The Origin of Species_--
+      Gastrotricha--University degree                             40
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI
+
+  1864-1866. Heligoland--Giessen Congress--Leuckart--Visit
+      to Leo Metchnikoff at Geneva--Socialist gatherings--
+      Metchnikoff's discovery appropriated by Leuckart--Naples
+      --Kovalevsky--Comparative embryology--Embryonic layers--
+      Bakounine and Setchenoff--Cholera at Naples--Goettingen--
+      Anatomical studies--Munich; von Siebold--Music--Return
+      to Naples--Intracellular digestion                          43
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+
+  1867-1868. Petersburg--Baer Prize--Return home--Friendship
+      with Cienkovsky--Odessa--Naturalists' Congress at
+      Petersburg--Departure from Odessa--Zoological Lecturer's
+      Chair at Petersburg--Messina--Enforced rest--Reggio--
+      Naples--Controversy with Kovalevsky--Visit to the
+      B. family--Mlle. Fedorovitch--Educational questions--
+      Difficulties of life in Petersburg                          58
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII
+
+  1868-1873. Slight illness--Engagement to Mlle. Fedorovitch--
+      Marriage--Illness of the bride--Pecuniary difficulties
+      --Spezzia--Montreux--Work in Petersburg University--The
+      Riviera--Coelomata and Acoelomata--St. Vaast--Panassovka
+      --Madeira--Mertens--Teneriffe--Return to Odessa--Bad news,
+      hurried journey to Madeira--Death of his wife (1872)--
+      Return through Spain--Attempted suicide--Ephemeridae         65
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+
+  1874. Anthropological expedition to the Kalmuk steppes--
+      Affection of the eyes--Second expedition to the steppes--
+      The eggs of the _Geophilus_                                 82
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV
+
+  1875. Studies on childhood--The family in the upper flat--
+      Lessons in zoology--Second marriage--Private life--Visit
+      and death of Lvovna Nevahovna--Conjugal affection           86
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+
+  1875-1880. Metchnikoff at the age of 30--Lecturing in Odessa
+      University, from 1873 to 1882--Internal difficulties--
+      Assassination of the Tsar, Alexander II.--Further troubles
+      in the University--Resignation--Bad health: cardiac
+      symptoms--Relapsing fever--Choroiditis--Studies on
+      Ephemeridae--Further studies on intracellular digestion--
+      The _Parenchymella_--Holidays in the country--Experiments
+      on agricultural pests                                       96
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII
+
+  1881-1882. Death of his father- and mother-in-law--Management
+      of country estates--Agitation and difficulties--Departure
+      for Messina with young brothers- and sisters-in-law        112
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII
+
+  1883. Messina--Inception of the phagocyte theory--Encouragement
+      from Virchow and Kleinenberg--First paper on phagocytosis
+      at a Congress at Odessa in 1883--The question of _immunity_
+      --Article in Virchow's _Archiv_, 1884                      115
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX
+
+  1884-1885. Ill-health of his wife and sister-in-law--Journey
+      to Tangiers through Spain--Villefranche--Baumgarten
+      criticises the phagocyte theory                            123
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XX
+
+  1886. A Bacteriological Institute in Odessa--Unsatisfactory
+     conditions--Experiments on erysipelas and on relapsing
+     fever                                                       127
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXI
+
+  1887. Hygiene Congress in Vienna--Wiesbaden--Munich--Paris
+      and Pasteur--Berlin and Koch--Failure of anthrax
+      vaccination of sheep--Decision to leave Russia             131
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII
+
+  1888. The Pasteur Institute--Dreams realised--Metchnikoff
+  at 50--Growing optimism--Attenuated sensitiveness--The
+  Sevres villa (1898)--Daily routine                             135
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII
+
+  1892. Opposition to the phagocyte theory--Scientific
+  controversies--Experiments in support of the phagocyte
+  theory--Behring and antitoxins--The London Congress--
+  _Inflammation_                                                 147
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV
+
+  Cholera--Experiments on himself and others--Illness of M.
+  Jupille--Death of an epileptic subject--Insufficient results   154
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXV
+
+  1894. Pfeiffer's experiments--The Buda-Pest Congress--
+      Extracellular destruction of microbes--Reaction of the
+      organism against toxins--Dr. Besredka's researches--
+      Macrophages--The Moscow Congress--Bordet's experiments     158
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI
+
+  1900. Immunity--Natural immunity--Artificial immunity          168
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVII
+
+  1893-1905. Private sorrows--Death of Pasteur--Ill-health
+      --Senile atrophies--Premature death--Orthobiosis--
+      Syphilis (1905)--Acquisition of anthropoid apes (1903)     181
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+  Researches on the intestinal flora--Sour milk                  196
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIX
+
+  1908. The Nobel Prize--Journey to Sweden and Russia--A day
+      with Leon Tolstoi                                          199
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXX
+
+  Intestinal flora--Infantile cholera--Typhoid fever--Articles
+      on popular Science                                         206
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXI
+
+  1911. Expedition to the Kalmuk steppes to study tuberculosis
+      --Plague                                                   210
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXII
+
+  Further researches on the intestinal flora--_Forty Years'
+  Search for a Rational Conception of Life_                      220
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+  Unpleasant incidents--The fabrication of lacto-bacilli--St.
+      Leger-en-Yvelines--Return to Paris--First cardiac attack
+      --Evolution of the death instinct--Notes on his symptoms   225
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+  1914. Return to St. Leger-en-Yvelines--Norka--Studies on the
+      death of the silk-worm moth--War declared--Mobilisation    237
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXV
+
+  1915. Return to Paris--The deserted Institute--Memoir on the
+      Founders of Modern Medicine--Metchnikoff's Jubilee--Last
+      holidays at Norka                                          244
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+  1916. Bronchial cold--Aggravated cardiac symptoms--Farewell
+      to Sevres--Return to the Institute--Protracted sufferings
+      --Intellectual preoccupations--Observations on his own
+      condition--The end--Cremation.                             254
+
+
+  EPILOGUE                                                       276
+
+  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX                                       285
+
+  INDEX                                                          291
+
+
+
+
+                             INTRODUCTION
+
+
+On a calm summer evening we were seated together on our terrace.
+
+On the preceding day, one who hardly knew my husband had come to ask
+him for information concerning his life, with the object of writing
+his biography. We were saying to each other how inevitably superficial
+and incomplete such a biography was bound to be; how difficult such a
+task is for a biographer, even when fully informed; how necessary it
+is to be thoroughly acquainted with a man and with every phase of his
+existence in order to give a truthful picture of his character and of
+his life. The intimate side is bound to remain more or less closed to a
+stranger; in order to decipher it, it is indispensable for the writer
+of a biography to have lived in complete communion of spirit with its
+subject. Our long past, spent together, fulfilled all these conditions.
+
+My husband's whole life was well known to me. My mother-in-law had
+often told me vivid stories of his childhood; he himself willingly
+talked to me about his past. As to the second part of his existence, we
+had lived it together.
+
+In order clearly to understand his character, at once both complex and
+one-sided, it was necessary to possess the key to his psychology. In
+his life, as in his work, everything was so closely knitted that it was
+impossible to understand the whole without knowledge of every link of
+his evolution.
+
+In the soothing calm of that summer evening, I submitted my reflections
+to him; he warmly encouraged me, and I then and there resolved to write
+his biography. He advised me to relate his whole life without any
+reticence, considering that thus alone does a biography justify its
+existence. That advice was to guide me, within limits, for to dissect
+an individual life without touching other lives as well is not always
+possible.
+
+Numerous were the difficulties before me; yet, I considered the task as
+a mission, hoping, in spite of all, that this biography would present a
+true picture of the life and evolution of Elie Metchnikoff.
+
+We talked over this project for a long time. The moon now appeared
+above the trees, the soft light tracing silver designs through the ivy
+leaves. The lawn, the walnut tree in front of the house, and everything
+around us was bathed in peaceful radiance. Under its mysterious charm,
+we ceased to speak, we listened to the inward voices of nature and of
+our own hearts.
+
+In youth, vague reveries fill our minds; after a long life, distant
+memories.... He whose life I describe is no more.... Without his help
+my task could not have been accomplished.
+
+Often, when he was not too tired, he would sit comfortably in his
+armchair and recount to me with his usual spirit and animation some
+period or episode of his past. I read to him a sketch of the first part
+of this biography and a few chapters only of the second, which was
+hardly begun. Thus we spent many evenings, never to be forgotten.
+
+He wanted this biography written, for he held that the evolution of
+a mind, of a character, of a human life is always an interesting
+psychological document. During his long and painful illness, he urged
+me to relate the "last chapter" of his life; he hoped that his attitude
+in the face of death might diminish the fear of it in others. Also
+he considered that men are rare who are conscious until the end;
+even rarer, those who reach the development of the "death-instinct."
+Therefore, according to him, an example would be interesting.
+
+I have tried to accomplish his desire within the measure of my strength.
+
+The only object of this simple and truthful story is to show Elie
+Metchnikoff as he was, a help, a support, and a lesson to others.
+
+I dedicate this book to his dear memory.
+
+                                                OLGA METCHNIKOFF.
+
+  SEVRES, _15th Dec. 1918_.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+
+  Panassovka--Metchnikoff's parents--Country life in Little Russia.
+
+
+In Little Russia, in the steppe region of the province of Kharkoff,
+is situated the land of Panassovka, which belonged to the Metchnikoff
+family. It is now sold, it has passed into strange hands, but it was
+once the patrimony of Ilia Ivanovitch, father of Elie Metchnikoff.
+
+The country around Panassovka is neither beautiful nor rich: steppes,
+hillocks covered with low grasses and wild wormwood; a poor village,
+meagre vegetation, no river; the whole impression is a melancholy one.
+But what boundless space! What soft, silver grey colouring! And, in the
+mornings and evenings, what fresh, cool air, and what a delicious aroma
+of wormwood leaves!
+
+The house of Panassovka, a little way from the village, is situated
+on a hill which slopes gently towards a pond. It is like that of any
+other middle-class landowner in Little Russia. It has only one storey
+and two flights of steps on the principal facade, opening into a
+deserted courtyard with no view but the high road. On the other side
+a semicircular terrace, with columns and steps, leads to the garden,
+composed of a few meagre flower-beds and fruit trees, reaching to the
+pond. On the bank, a distillery and a very well-kept kitchen garden.
+
+The house is arranged inside in a commonplace manner, with no claim to
+beauty or comfort. The furniture, devoid of style or elegance, neither
+comfortable nor fashionable, is distributed quite inartistically. On
+the other hand, great care is evident in everything that pertains
+to the table: the cellars and larders are full of provisions, and
+obviously constitute the principal preoccupation of the masters of
+the house. And indeed the hospitable table of Panassovka is renowned
+throughout the neighbourhood.
+
+According to a very fine portrait, painted in 1835, Ilia Ivanovitch was
+at that time a handsome young man with regular features, tender blue
+eyes, and curly fair hair. He was very intelligent, but his mind had
+that sceptical turn which prevents men from taking life seriously and
+which paralyses activity. Moreover, he had an Epicurean temperament and
+was in the army.
+
+He had married, when very young, Emilia Lvovna Nevahovna, sister of one
+of his brother officers in the Imperial Guard, a very attractive and
+unusually intelligent girl. Her beauty was of the Jewish type, with
+splendid dark eyes, and she had a bright and lively disposition as well
+as a kind and tender heart. Her friends called her "Milotchka," which,
+in Russian, means "charming"; in her old age she loved to relate that
+the great Russian poet, Pushkin, once said to her at a ball, "How well
+your name suits you, Mademoiselle!"
+
+After his marriage, Ilia Ivanovitch remained in Petersburg, leading
+a merry life with his brothers-in-law, and giving no thought to the
+future; it took him but a few years at that rate to spend the whole of
+his wife's inheritance. And three children were growing up whose future
+had to be thought of. It was then that Ilia Ivanovitch's distant
+estate was remembered, away in a remote part of Little Russia. What
+energy, what perseverance had to be displayed by his wife before she
+could persuade him to take refuge there! and how hard it must have
+seemed to the gay officer to leave the capital for the lonely and
+monotonous life of the country! However, departure was decided upon.
+The two boys, Ivan and Leo, were placed in a school at Petersburg, to
+be prepared for the Lycee and the Law School. Ilia Ivanovitch obtained
+a post as Remount Officer for two Guards regiments, and started with
+his wife, his daughter, an aunt, and a younger brother, to settle down
+in the country.
+
+The family settled at first in the old Ivanovka house, where a son,
+Nicholas, was born. Though they wished to have no more children,
+one more child was born two years later, on the 16th May 1845--Elie
+Metchnikoff.
+
+The Ivanovka house was old and inconvenient; Ilia Ivanovitch decided
+to build a new one at the other end of his estate, in a place called
+Panassovka, which thus became the family home.
+
+Emilia Lvovna threw herself into her domestic occupations with her
+usual energy and ardour. She was anxious to improve the situation,
+which had become precarious, and wished at the same time to create
+for her husband an environment suited to his Epicurean tastes. Ilia
+Ivanovitch loved cards and the table, both tastes easy to satisfy in
+the country, and which became the pivot of life at Panassovka. The
+great daily problem was the question of meals, and long conversations
+had to take place with the cook and with the housekeeper concerning
+catering.
+
+Thanks to serfdom, servants were very numerous and everything could
+be manufactured at home. The "dievitshia" (maid-servants' room) was
+crowded with maids, seamstresses, needle-women, washer-women, etc.,
+under the direction of a fat, middle-aged woman named Duniasha. She
+wore a silk kerchief on her head, and was invariably clothed in a
+white dressing jacket and a brown skirt with white spots. A regular
+autocrat, she ruled her little world with a rod of iron; as soon as her
+heavy, felt-slippered steps were heard, the maids whispered to each
+other, "Avdotia Maximovna!" conversations ceased, and every one became
+absorbed in her work.
+
+Among the male retainers, the first place was held by Petrushka, the
+valet. Careless and often drunk, he was nevertheless a good fellow; he
+was usually to be found asleep behind the screen in the hall. The upper
+servants, the cook, coachman, and others left their work to be done by
+their underlings, the scullery boy, postilion, page-boy, etc. In fact,
+everything followed the routine usual in every Russian household in the
+time of serfdom.
+
+Emilia Lvovna directed the children's education; her personal teaching
+consisted chiefly in tender indulgence, but it was she who chose the
+nurses and teachers. As long as the boys were small, their great-aunt
+Elena Samoilovna looked after them; afterwards they were handed over to
+tutors and professors. Ilia Ivanovitch's activities consisted in buying
+horses at fairs and in studs and in convoying them to Petersburg.
+These journeys took a long time, by stages and relays of horses. Ilia
+Ivanovitch took advantage of them to gamble heavily and to enjoy
+pleasures which the country did not offer.
+
+Agriculture was very restricted at Panassovka, for the property
+consisted mostly of pasture land for horses and sheep. The younger
+brother, Dmitri Ivanovitch, had undertaken the management of the
+estate. He was entirely devoted to the family of his elder brother,
+whom he had followed into the country. Though only a few years younger,
+he used the respectful second person plural in speaking to Ilia
+Ivanovitch, whilst the latter said "thou" to him. Dmitri Ivanovitch
+was tall, thin, and taciturn, a silent pipe-smoker. The lively Emilia
+Lvovna often said to him, "But why do you never talk, Mitienka?" To
+which he invariably answered, "It is not every one who is as talkative
+as you are, Emilia Lvovna." Yet they were on the best of terms. Dmitri
+Ivanovitch would have gone through fire for his sister-in-law, as she
+well knew. She had the utmost confidence in him, and depended upon his
+support in every difficult circumstance.
+
+At Panassovka the men spent the greater part of the day, and often even
+of the night, in playing cards; games were organised between neighbours
+and relations, and that occupation was considered most important. Meals
+were prolonged indefinitely; everything was served in abundance and
+eaten with a connoisseur's appreciation, each dish being discussed.
+After the meal was over, the cook would make his daily appearance,
+and the next day's _menu_ was drawn up by the whole party. After a
+siesta, gambling was resumed. Thus the days went by in the cult of good
+cheer and of cards, interspersed with conversations about horses and
+sometimes about politics.
+
+By this time Ilia Ivanovitch was beginning to become bald and obese.
+It is difficult to define what was his inner life; not even to his
+wife did he ever speak of it. As to his children, he petted them when
+they were small, but as they grew up, their intercourse with him was
+limited to kissing his hand morning and evening. He was not indifferent
+to their welfare, but left it entirely to his wife's active solicitude.
+The children were on very different terms with their mother; not
+only did she spoil them, but also always eagerly shared all their
+childish interests. Owing to that, and to her bright and affectionate
+disposition, they looked upon her as their intimate friend and
+confidante.
+
+Masters and servants were on good terms, relations between them were
+even remarkably human, according to the ideas of the time, and in spite
+of certain customs inherent to serfdom. For instance, the younger maids
+were punished by having their faces slapped and their hair pulled.
+Even the kindly and peaceable Dmitri Ivanovitch would soundly box his
+valet's ears when he found him drunk. At that time such things were not
+thought cruel or humiliating, but looked upon as a paternal correction.
+The peasants had confidence in their "barin" (master) and consulted him
+or appealed to his generosity when in trouble.
+
+Ilia Ivanovitch never opposed the free choice of his serfs in
+matrimony, a rare tolerance at that time. According to custom every
+betrothed couple came to salute him, the young man in his Sunday
+clothes and a fine, bright-coloured scarf, the girl wearing an
+embroidered bodice and a head-dress of many-coloured ribbons. They
+knelt before him and bowed three times to the ground, then offered him
+sacramental loaves, hard and shaped like pine cones, on beautifully
+worked diapers. Ilia Ivanovitch and Emilia Lvovna blessed the bride and
+bridegroom with "ikons," embraced them, and gave them a sum of money
+for the wedding.
+
+The Metchnikoffs were liked by their peasants and looked upon as good
+masters.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II
+
+  Metchnikoff's brothers and sister--Childish characteristics.
+
+
+The two elder children, Ivan and Leo, were educated at Petersburg,
+whilst Katia, the only daughter, was brought up at home. Like all
+other girls of noble family, she was educated with the object of being
+suitably married. She was a slender, pretty brunette, like her mother,
+but less beautiful. Though sensitive and intelligent, she interested
+herself in nothing but the reading of French novels. There was a great
+difference in age between Katia and her little brothers, whilst there
+were only two years between them. Kolia (Nicholas) was the old aunt's
+favourite, a fine, handsome boy with velvety black eyes; his slow and
+grave movements had earned for him the nickname of "Peaceful Papa."
+
+The youngest of the family, Ilia (Elie), on the contrary, was full of
+life and spirits. Fair and slender, with silky hair and a diaphanous,
+pink and white complexion, he had small, grey-blue eyes, full of
+kindliness and sparkle. Very highly strung and impressionable, his
+temper was easily roused, and he was so restless that he went by the
+name of "quicksilver." He always wished to see everything, to know
+everything, and found his way everywhere. When, after a long silence,
+there was a sudden outburst of many voices around the card-tables, he
+would rush to the drawing-room, saying, "Are they going to fight?"
+He ran about the house all day, following his mother as she attended
+to her various duties; he examined the provisions, tasted everything,
+and even went to the "dievitshia" to see what the maids were doing.
+He tried to sew or to embroider, exasperated everybody, and ended by
+being turned out. He would then look for something else to do, go to
+see whether the table was laid, inquire about the _menu_, and ask the
+queerest questions. He could only be kept quiet when his curiosity was
+awakened by the observation of some natural object such as an insect or
+a butterfly that he was trying to catch, or by watching the "grown-ups"
+at their card games. But, of all things, music fascinated him most,
+and he would remain for hours sitting by the piano listening without
+a movement. He was very much spoilt by his mother, who had a weakness
+for her Benjamin, and who also wished to make up for the very obvious
+preference shown for Kolia by the great-aunt.
+
+Moreover, Ilia was a frail little boy and often suffered from his eyes;
+the doctor advised that he should not be allowed to cry or to rub his
+eyes, and, in order to avoid this, he was permitted to have his own
+way in everything. He was much too intelligent not to understand the
+advantage that the situation offered and was quick to profit by it. In
+the face of the least semblance of refusal or reproach, he would begin
+to rub his eyes and announce in a whining tone that he was going to
+cry. He was therefore very much spoilt and very capricious; his mother
+said he was "neurotic"; his sister, who often had differences with him,
+called him a "little beast." In reality, Ilia was very good-hearted,
+tender, and loving; he was affectionate, especially with his mother,
+and could always be managed by an appeal to his feelings. But if he was
+sensitive to kindness, he was equally so to the least injustice. He
+could not forgive his great-aunt the predilection which she exhibited
+on every occasion for Kolia; for instance, at table, she would choose
+tit-bits for him, and Ilia observed with bitterness that she always
+reserved the chicken's breast for her favourite. Every time a chicken
+was served, poor Ilia followed the dish round the table with anxious
+eyes, and she invariably placed the coveted morsel in his brother's
+plate.
+
+When the day was over, Ilia was put into his little bed and told to
+"say his prayers and go to sleep." But he did not obey at once: after
+a thousand merry tricks, his eyelids would begin to close in spite
+of him; then he would make up his mind to kneel and say his prayers,
+folding his little hands: "Lord, keep and preserve father, mother,
+great----" But suddenly remembering the latter's injustice towards
+him, he would correct himself hastily, "No, not great-aunt, she is too
+unkind!" and continue, "My sister, my brothers, everybody, and myself,
+little Ilia." Still he did not go to sleep immediately; a nervous
+child, he was frightened of being alone; now and then he would lift his
+heavy lids to see if the maid was still there. Sometimes the latter,
+thinking he had gone to sleep, would leave the room on tiptoe. Ilia,
+seeing her no more, would start, raise his head and, stretching his
+thin neck, send an anxious look around the room, faintly lighted by a
+night-light. The vacillating flame threw trembling and dancing shadows.
+Seized with intense terror, he would hide his face in his pillow and
+scream with all his might. Avdotia Maximovna would then rush to soothe
+him and soundly rate the servant girl, "Are you not ashamed to leave
+a noble child all alone?" Ilia would then go on sobbing for a little
+while, but, reassured after all, would presently sink into deep,
+childish sleep.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+
+  Journey to Slaviansk--The coach attacked by peasants.
+
+
+In 1850 the children were taken to the baths of Slaviansk. On a warm
+summer day the heavy "berlin" coach, drawn by six horses with a
+postilion, rolled along the high road, across the steppes, followed at
+a distance by a "tarantass."[3]
+
+  [3] Ungainly open carriage on high wheels and without springs.
+
+In the spacious, antique coach, with its dusty hood, sat Emilia Lvovna,
+with her three children; the valet, Petrushka, dozed on the box, next
+to the coachman. The tarantass was occupied by Dmitri Ivanovitch and a
+cousin.
+
+The heat was oppressive. At the start every one was excited; Emilia
+Lvovna was trying to remember if anything had been forgotten and was
+discussing with Katia the details of their installation at Slaviansk.
+The boys hung out of the windows, gazing at the horses, at the
+tarantass, and making all sorts of comments. Ilia was so restless and
+talkative that he was constantly being told, "Do be quiet! Keep still!"
+
+By degrees, however, children and "grown-ups" began to feel drowsy,
+owing to the monotony of the road, the heat, and the swinging of the
+carriage. The tarantass had disappeared, for Dmitri Ivanovitch wished
+to visit an aunt whose house was not far from the road. The outline
+of a forest was now seen on the horizon; it came nearer and nearer,
+and soon the coach stopped before the forest inn. Everybody woke up,
+the children were delighted to be able to run about and stretch their
+limbs. They begged their mother to let them go into the forest whilst
+the horses were resting, and obtained permission to go, but not too
+far, and with Petrushka.
+
+They ate an appetising lunch at the inn and the children ran off at
+a gallop. Everything delighted them, the underwood, grass patches,
+ravines, and mysterious paths. But they had hardly entered the forest
+when they heard a sinister, confused rumour in the distance; they
+stopped to listen, and recognised the voices of a tumultuous crowd. The
+children's joyous excitement fell; frightened and docile, they hastened
+to return to the inn, from which Emilia Lvovna, looking anxiously out
+of a window, was making urgent signs to them to return. The coach was
+still standing without horses, and, a little farther off, the latter
+were surrounded by a crowd of peasants, of whom many were completely
+drunk. They shouted vociferously, and closely pressed the coachman and
+the postilion, threatening to confiscate the horses and detain the
+travellers if they were not given a ransom of a thousand roubles.
+
+Terrified, the children clung to their distracted mother; Ilia felt
+her trembling, and his own little heart fluttered like a bird that
+has been caught. The drunken peasants appeared to him like monstrous
+ogres or brigands about to capture, perhaps kill, his family and
+himself; he could hardly keep back his tears. Already the peasants
+had bound the coachman and the postilion and were taking away the
+horses. Clinging close to each other, the mother and children listened
+anxiously; they thought again and again that they could hear the bells
+of the tarantass. At last it appeared in the distance, and the children
+joyously whispered, "There they are!" They hastened to inform Dmitri
+Ivanovitch of what had happened. He at once went with his cousin
+towards the crowd, and negotiations were opened, but for a long time
+without result.
+
+At last the cousin had a happy idea; he declared he would go back to
+his aunt's house in the neighbourhood and borrow the thousand roubles
+from her. The peasants consented to let him go alone, keeping the other
+travellers as hostages. After a time, which to the children seemed
+endless, the sound of the tarantass bells was again heard, accompanied
+this time by numerous heavy footsteps, and the vehicle reappeared,
+escorted by a company of soldiers commanded by two officers. Instead
+of going to his aunt's, the cousin had gone to a neighbouring military
+camp and was bringing assistance.
+
+There was a sudden change of scene. Emilia Lvovna and Katia furtively
+made the sign of the cross. Ilia had let go of his mother's hand and
+was no longer clinging to her, but, stretching his head forward and
+opening his eyes wide, eagerly waited to see what was going to happen.
+"Now," he thought, "we shall not be captured; it is their turn; I am
+glad!" And, perhaps for the first time in his life, his little heart
+was moved by feelings of hatred.
+
+In the meanwhile a repulsive scene was going on: a hand-to-hand
+struggle, invectives and screams. The peasants were securely bound.
+Men and women hastened from a neighbouring village; one of the women
+slapped an officer's face. Furious, he ordered the soldiers to fill her
+mouth with earth; she was thrown on the ground; the new arrivals in
+their turn attacked the soldiers, and a regular battle raged.
+
+Ilia was alarmed, shaken, and profoundly disgusted with that exhibition
+of brutality. The coachman and postilion, their bonds unloosed,
+hastened to put the horses in, and whilst reprisals were still going
+on, the family hurried away. They reached Slaviansk without further
+trouble, excitedly talking over their adventure. This episode was the
+first deep and definite impression which remained on little Ilia's
+mind; it struck him so much that he kept the memory of it during his
+whole life.
+
+From that moment he held crowds, violence, and all manifestations of
+brute force in the utmost horror, whatever their cause might be.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV
+
+  Departure for Kharkoff--Town life.
+
+
+The following year was to be spent at Kharkoff. Katia was now seventeen
+and her marriage had to be contemplated.
+
+The boys' life was still quite a childish one, made up chiefly of games
+and mischief. Kolia had been taught to read by the great-aunt; Ilia
+had learnt by himself, asking people now and then for the name of some
+letter. He was able to read fluently quite early.
+
+The departure for Kharkoff was a great event, prepared long beforehand.
+The children, delighted at the prospect of a change, impatiently waited
+for the moment to start. At last every one was seated in the coaches
+and, saying to the coachman, "Off! God keep us," they started to drive
+along the high road through the steppes.
+
+Life at Kharkoff was very much the same as at Panassovka, with
+social elements added. Moreover, the children's liberty was somewhat
+restricted. Already on the journey they were given to understand that,
+in a town, they could not go out alone, nor shout in the streets, nor
+point at people and things with their finger, and that they should
+have to make less noise, even in the house. For the first time they
+unconsciously realised that their family was not the centre of the
+universe, that there were many others who also had to be taken into
+account. Ilia did not welcome this discovery.
+
+The flat occupied by the Metchnikoffs was on the first floor, above
+that of the owner of the house. One day when the children were
+running about, making a fearful noise, some one came up to say that
+the landlady was ill and begged that the noise should cease. Ilia,
+interrupted in the midst of a game, became furiously angry; in his rage
+he seized a whistle, and stooping to a crack in the floor, whistled
+with all his might. It was only with much difficulty that he was
+induced to stop and to calm himself.[4]
+
+  [4] Metchnikoff himself insisted upon the recital of this
+      episode, for which he had felt some remorse. He considered
+      that, in a biography, disagreeable traits were not to be
+      omitted.
+
+The children's horizon soon widened; Dmitri Ivanovitch took them to
+the theatre and a new and fantastic world opened out to them. The very
+next day they attempted a performance of the play they had seen; soon,
+on Kolia's suggestion, they began to compose plays for themselves.
+Kolia wrote a drama entitled "Burning Tea," in which the hero having
+offered his friend tea that was too hot, the latter burnt his tongue;
+a duel ensued, etc., etc. Ilia hastened to follow his brother's
+example. He composed something in the same style, but even more absurd.
+Having realised that it was so, he gave up literature. That period
+was for him a series of disappointments which perhaps helped to lead
+him to the path he was ultimately to follow. His brother, following
+the "grown-ups'" example, played cards with other boys or with the
+maids. Ilia attempted to do the same, but his nervousness left him no
+self-control; he lost continually and games generally ended in quarrels
+and tears; he became disgusted with cards for the rest of his life.
+Kolia was fond of muscular exercises, such as gymnastics, wrestling,
+etc. Ilia, younger and therefore weaker, was constantly humiliated, and
+his pride kept him away from physical amusements. Thus, by means of
+elimination, he became gradually isolated from surrounding influences.
+But, at that time, no new element had intervened in his daily life and
+he spent his existence in the gentle warmth of his mother's tenderness,
+absorbed in his childish games and studies.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+
+  Leo Metchnikoff's illness--Private tutors--Botanical studies--A
+  memorable birthday.
+
+
+In 1851, in the middle of the winter, the Metchnikoffs heard that Leo,
+their second son, was suffering from hip-disease, and the doctors
+advised that he should be taken away from Petersburg. Poor Emilia
+Lvovna was in great despair and shed many tears; her brother-in-law,
+Dmitri Ivanovitch, calmly announced that he was going to fetch Leo. He
+took his great fur coat, his fur cap and fur-lined boots, and started
+that very day for Petersburg by coach. He took but the necessary time
+to go and to bring Leo back, only stopping at relays to change horses.
+
+The boy was then thirteen years old, handsome, gifted, and intelligent;
+he walked with crutches, but his general health seemed good, and it was
+decided that he should work at home to prepare for the Lycee, under the
+tuition of students as tutors. Thus a new element was introduced into
+the family life.
+
+In 1853 Leo had as a tutor a student named Hodounof, a very intelligent
+young man, who wished not merely to teach him but to impart to him
+the love of science. Leo was extremely gifted and worked with great
+facility, but he lacked concentration and was therefore somewhat
+superficial. This cooled his tutor's enthusiasm, whilst on the other
+hand he became more and more interested in little Ilia. It was in
+the course of country walks that they were drawn together. Hodounof
+used to take Leo for walks in order to study the local flora, and Ilia
+came out with them, at first for the sake of the exercise. But soon he
+became interested in the flowers and showed so much taste for botany
+that he attracted Hodounof's notice; soon the tutor's interest became
+concentrated on the little boy and he gave him serious attention.
+
+It was with a real enthusiasm that Ilia gathered and studied plants;
+he soon became thoroughly acquainted with the local flora. He thought
+himself very learned already and wrote memoirs on botany. Passionately
+fond of teaching, he used to offer all his pocket-money to his brothers
+and other children to induce them to hear lectures which he gave them.
+His vocation was fixed from that moment. He was then eight years old.
+
+When the family returned to Kharkoff he spent all he had in buying
+books on natural history, which he read with passionate interest. These
+contained many things that he could not understand, but his curiosity
+was all the greater. When he was eleven years old his passion for
+natural history almost cost him his life. While fishing for hydra in
+a small pond he was so eager that he fell into the water and was only
+pulled out with great difficulty.
+
+That particular day, his own and his father's name day, was nearly
+fatal to him, not only through water but through fire. It was a family
+custom to hold a great gathering of friends and relations at Panassovka
+on St. Elias's day. Preparations for the feast began days beforehand;
+the whole household was in a turmoil.
+
+On that particular St. Elias's day, so many guests came to Panassovka
+that there was not enough room in the house to accommodate them all,
+and the children were transferred to a pavilion outside the house.
+
+Whilst in the drawing-room people were talking and playing cards, the
+servants were holding rejoicings of their own. Towards night-time
+the majority of the coachmen and footmen brought by the guests were
+completely drunk; a cigarette imprudently thrown on some hay started
+a fire. Soon the stables were ablaze and many horses perished in the
+flames, in spite of every effort to save them. Presently the wind
+changed in the direction of the pavilion and the thatched roof caught
+fire. There was a rush to save the children, who were with much
+difficulty taken out through a window.
+
+In spite of intense terror, Ilia's first thought was for his baby
+nephew, the son of his sister, who had then been married a year; he ran
+in affright all over the house searching for the child, and only became
+calm again after he had ascertained that it had been carried out into
+the garden.
+
+Katia being married there was now no reason to spend the winter in the
+town. The father and mother therefore remained at Panassovka and Dmitri
+Ivanovitch took the boys to Kharkoff, where they entered the Lycee.
+They had been well prepared by their tutors, and moreover spoke French
+and a little German, having had special teachers for these languages.
+Their French tutor, M. Garnier, was gay, boastful, and pretentious;
+his idea of teaching them French literature was to memorise Beranger's
+_chansons_. He was passionately fond of shooting and gave to that
+sport as much time as he could, greatly to the detriment of his pupils'
+studies, for they were not allowed to accompany him for fear of an
+accident. Their mother, perhaps on account of her weak heart, was so
+nervous that they were discouraged from any sporting tastes. The German
+tutor also neglected the children: his favourite occupation consisted
+in drinking beer. On one occasion he gave so much to little Ilia that
+the boy conceived a lifelong distaste for beer. Ilia took advantage
+of his tutors' indifference to devote himself to his favourite study
+of natural history. His vocation was so obvious that it could not be
+mistaken. It seems a strange thing that a passion for science should
+have developed in so inappropriate an environment. Evidently the first
+impulse was given by Hodounof, but, if his influence stimulated this
+passion, it cannot have created it. This vocation probably had a deeper
+source, and in order to discover it we should perhaps look back into
+the antecedents of the Metchnikoff family.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI
+
+  Ancestors of the Metchnikoff family--The Great Spatar--Leo
+  Nevahovitch.
+
+
+The Metchnikoff family made no show of family pride; one old aunt,
+however, was extremely proud of one of their ancestors, the Great
+"Spatar" (sword-bearer). The following is the account given of this
+ancestor by E. Picot, after a Moldavian chronicle.[5]
+
+  [5] _Chronicle of John Neculua._
+
+  Few men led such an adventurous life or made themselves glorious
+  through such varied gifts as did Nicholas Spatar Milescu.
+
+  His name is connected with the history of Moldavian, Greek, Russian,
+  and Chinese literature. His origin, his talents, his crime, the
+  mutilation he suffered, his audacious journey across the whole of
+  Asia to reach Pekin, the valuable information which he gathered
+  during his embassy at the Court of the "Son of Heaven," everything
+  conspires to excite curiosity concerning him.
+
+Spatar was born in Moldavia in 1625. While yet very young he went
+to Constantinople, where he studied theology, philosophy, history
+ancient and modern, Greek, Latin, Slavonic and Turkish. He afterwards
+went to Italy to study natural science and mathematics. On his return
+to Moldavia he soon became known for his erudition, acquired great
+influence, and became much appreciated at Court. Owing to clever
+political intrigues he preserved the simultaneous favour of several
+enemy princes, one of whom, Stepanita, covered him with benefits and
+honours. Nevertheless, Spatar wrote to Constantine Bassarab, in Poland,
+advising him to come and to overthrow Stepanita's throne. He sent
+his letter inside a hollow cane; Constantine, however, did not wish
+to launch himself into such an adventure, and indignantly sent the
+hollow cane and the letter to Stepanita himself. At first the prince,
+naturally angry, thought of having Spatar executed; he spared his life
+for the sake of his talents, but condemned him to have the tip of his
+nose cut off. Spatar went to Germany, where, says the naive chronicler,
+a doctor made his nose grow again. He came back to Moldavia for a short
+time and then went to Russia. Thanks to his knowledge of languages, he
+was made an interpreter at the Court of the Tsar Alexis Michailovitch,
+and was the first tutor of his son Peter the Great, whom he taught to
+read and to write.
+
+In 1674 the Tsar Alexis Michailovitch entrusted Spatar with a mission
+in China, where he was to open negotiations with a view to commercial
+and political relations between Russia and China. In the course of his
+journey Spatar carefully collected all possible information concerning
+the countries he traversed. He thus gathered much interesting
+geographical knowledge and highly important data concerning the
+commercial value of Asiatic rivers, and specially the Amour river.
+
+At Pekin, Spatar rapidly learnt the Chinese language, occupied for
+three years the post of ambassador in China, and returned to Russia
+bringing back most valuable information and many rich presents given
+him by the Emperor of China.
+
+All this had excited the jealousy of the Muscovite courtiers; they
+took advantage of the coincidence between the death of the Tsar and
+Spatar's return to deprive him of his treasures and to have him exiled
+to Siberia. But, when Peter the Great ascended the throne, Spatar
+succeeded in making a letter reach him relating his misfortunes,
+and the Tsar recalled him, gave him back his property, and showered
+honours upon him. Spatar again became interpreter of the Embassy; Peter
+consulted him in all Far-Eastern questions, and gave him confidential
+documents to translate into foreign languages.
+
+Spatar's literary activity was vast and varied. He translated the Bible
+from the Greek into Roumanian; he wrote a chronicle on the origin of
+Roumania, articles on theology, a Greco-Latin-Russian dictionary, and a
+work entitled _Arithmetic_, in which he discussed, by means of numbers
+and figures, questions of Theology, Philosophy, and Ethics. He dealt in
+his writings with Art, Archaeology, and History; described his Siberian
+travels, China and the Amour river, and made numerous translations of
+diplomatic documents. His erudition was such that his contemporaries
+appealed to his knowledge as they would have consulted an encyclopaedia.
+
+He had married a Muscovite and had several sons and grandsons. Three
+of his nephews came from Moldavia to join him and entered the Russian
+army. He died in 1714 at the age of 80. Such is the history of the
+"Great Spatar."
+
+The following notice is to be found in Brockhaus and Effrone's
+_Encyclopaedia_: "The Metchnikoffs are a noble family, descended from a
+Moldavian Boyar, the Spatar (sword-bearer) Joury Stepanovitch,[6] who
+came to Russia with Prince Cantemir. Peter the Great gave this Boyar
+large land estates. His son took the name of Metchnikoff (Russian
+translation of Sword-bearer)."
+
+  [6] This Boyar was no doubt a nephew of the Great Spatar.
+
+The following generations included military men chiefly, one sailor,
+one mining engineer, one senator, but no scientific men.
+
+On the mother's side, Elie Metchnikoff had no ancestor as remarkable or
+as romantic as the great Spatar. Yet his grandfather, Leo Nevahovitch,
+was a very intelligent and highly cultivated man. He had been
+Farmer-General for tobacco in Poland. A Jew by race, he took to heart
+the persecutions directed against his co-religionists and defended
+them in literary newspaper articles. Nevertheless he accepted indirect
+advice from Alexander I. and let himself be baptized. He adopted the
+Lutheran religion and his children were brought up in it.
+
+At the beginning of the Polish Revolution in 1830, Nevahovitch was
+warned that his house was about to be sacked; the warning reached him
+as he was peacefully enjoying a theatrical performance. He hurried to
+prepare for departure and left Warsaw with his family for Petersburg,
+where he lived on his income. Having given up business, he took up
+literary work and translated German philosophical works, made friends
+in the literary world, and knew Pushkin and Kriloff. His children,
+Emilia Lvovna amongst others, inherited his intellectual gifts. One
+of his sons was a remarkable caricaturist and edited a caricature
+newspaper which was very well known at the time. The Nevahovitch family
+produced no men of science. Metchnikoff himself considered that he had
+inherited his mother's disposition and turn of mind. In any case, his
+ancestors on both sides included talented individuals, from whom he may
+have inherited his gifts and his innate taste for science.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+
+  The Kharkoff Lycee--Bogomoloff and Socialism--Atheism--Natural
+  History studies--Private lodgings--Private lessons in histology
+  from Professor Tschelkoff--A borrowed microscope--First article
+  --Italian Opera--The gold medal.
+
+
+In 1856 Dmitri Ivanovitch took the boys to Kharkoff in order to make
+them enter the Lycee. They passed their entrance examination quite
+satisfactorily; Kolia was admitted into the fifth class and Ilia into
+the one below it. They were day boarders and lived in the house of one
+of their former tutors.
+
+This was at a time when the new and liberal reign of Alexander II. was
+giving birth to many hopes; the Lycees preserved but insignificant
+traces of the hard regime of Nicholas I. Previous narrow and doctrinal
+teaching was giving way to a current of realistic and rational ideas,
+physical and natural science had become the vogue, and professors were
+trying to come into touch with their pupils and to influence their
+intellectual development. The boys on their side were founding mutual
+instruction clubs, attending popular Sunday lectures, interesting
+themselves in social questions--in fact the revolutionary movement was
+beginning to strike root. Life in general was intense, aspirations
+exalted, and hopes radiant.
+
+During his first school year Elie worked assiduously in all branches of
+the curriculum, and his name soon appeared on the honours list. The
+Russian language teacher became his friend, and greatly contributed to
+his development by choosing for him books of general knowledge. Under
+this direction Elie read, among other things, Buckle's _History of
+Civilisation_, which had at that time a very great influence on the
+young Russian mind. According to the author's principal thesis, the
+progress of humanity depended chiefly upon that of positive science;
+this idea sunk deeply into the boy's mind and confirmed his scientific
+aspirations.
+
+When he reached the fifth class he formed a friendship with one of
+his school-fellows, Bogomoloff, who had great influence over Elie's
+ulterior development; he was the son of a colour manufacturer, and his
+elder brothers were studying chemistry at the Kharkoff University with
+a view to applying it to their industry. They had travelled abroad
+and had brought back novel ideas and books forbidden by the Russian
+censorship; they influenced their young brother, who in his turn
+initiated Elie. It was thus that the latter became acquainted with
+materialistic ideas and social theories; he read the _Popular Star_,
+the _Bell of Herzin_, and other publications prohibited in Russia.
+Little by little he lost the faith which he had held when under his
+mother's influence. Atheism, however, was to him more interesting than
+disappointing; it incited in him a state of general criticism. Ardently
+passionate in this as in all things, he preached atheism to others
+and received the nickname of "God is not." The course of teaching
+at the Lycee did not escape his criticism; when he had reached the
+fourth class he omitted those exercises which seemed to him devoid of
+interest. On the other hand, he plunged with passion into the study of
+natural science, botany, and geology.
+
+He had ceased to be a model student, but his scientific aspirations
+became stronger from day to day.
+
+In order to cultivate foreign languages, the two brothers had been
+placed in a boarding-house where morals were strict and patriarchal,
+the food bad, and the director's sermons long and tedious. None of
+these things suited Elie. This regime, with the addition of dancing
+lessons, inspired him with the deepest aversion; he resolved to obtain
+from his parents permission to take furnished rooms for himself and his
+brother.
+
+In spite of the current of political exaltation which was then
+universal in Russia, Elie was too deeply immersed in his studies to
+be carried away in that direction. He did at one time attend popular
+lectures and the political gatherings of the students, but he felt
+that science was his real vocation. He was so early and so completely
+absorbed by it that he was not interested in the great movement for the
+emancipation of the serfs. It is true that, at Panassovka, the question
+was not acute as elsewhere, the serfs being quite happy; however,
+the fact remains that it was his passion for science which kept him,
+in spite of his exalted ideas and ardent soul, apart from the noble
+movement for liberation.
+
+In the third class he made friends with a group of students who were
+devoted to science and to intellectual culture. Elie, owing to his
+ardour and vivacity, played the part of a ferment in that little
+circle, each member of which was to make a special study of certain
+scientific branches in order that they might together edit a new
+encyclopaedia of human knowledge. He studied German so as to read in the
+original the classical materialistic writers, Vogt, Feuerbach, Buchner,
+Moleschott, etc. The Lycee lectures were relegated to the background.
+Nevertheless, owing to his great facility of assimilation, he was
+successful in every branch. Plans for his ulterior activities were soon
+definitely fixed.
+
+At that time of intense intellectual effervescence in Russia, libraries
+were invaded by a number of translations of works on natural science.
+Elie absorbed them with avidity, and read amongst others a Russian
+translation of Bronn's book on the _Classes and Orders of the Animal
+Kingdom_. He saw for the first time in the plates of that work pictures
+of micro-organisms, amoebae, Infusoria, Rhizopoda, etc. That world of
+lower beings impressed him so strongly that he resolved from that
+moment to devote himself to the study of them, that is, to the study of
+the primitive manifestations of life in its simplest forms.
+
+He was then fifteen years old. The two brothers now obtained from
+their parents permission to live in furnished rooms, an independent
+arrangement which allowed each of them to satisfy his individual
+tastes. Apart from the Lycee, Kolia spent his time in playing cards and
+billiards and in other amusements, whilst Elie worked with ardour, his
+only recreations being music and debates on abstract subjects. When he
+entered the second class he had become completely specialised. In order
+to tackle serious scientific studies, he tried to come into touch with
+one of the University professors. The University of Kharkoff was still
+making use of ancient methods; teaching was given by means of manuals,
+with practical application; but Elie, who did not know that, dreamt of
+finding in laboratories assistance and means of, at least, undertaking
+personal scientific work. He attended a lecture on comparative anatomy,
+and, in order not to appear too young, he wore his ordinary clothes
+instead of the Lycee uniform. After the lecture was over, he shyly
+approached the professor and begged to be allowed to study protoplasm
+under his direction. The professor received him coldly, and told him in
+a pedantic tone that he was in too much of a hurry, and that he should
+first of all finish his course at the Lycee and then get admitted into
+the University.
+
+It was a disappointment for the eager boy; however, he did not lose
+heart but continued to attend divers University lectures, clinging
+to the hope that another professor might be more sympathetic. He was
+pleased with the lectures of a young physiologist, Tschelkoff by name,
+and decided to make another attempt. This time he was successful. The
+professor received him kindly and consented to give him private lessons
+in histology. Then, fired with a passionate desire to produce something
+personal in medical science, and attracted by Virchow's cellular
+theory, he dreamt that he might create a general theory of his own in
+medicine. In order to increase his scientific knowledge, he undertook
+with his friend Zalensky the translation of Grove's work, _The Unity
+of Physical Forces_. The professor of chemistry and natural history
+willingly encouraged the two boys in this work, to which they gave up
+the whole of the school year. Elie wasted no opportunity of learning;
+during those lectures which did not interest him he used to read
+scientific books. One day that he was doing so during catechism he did
+not notice that the priest, wishing to know what he was reading, had
+come up to him. The latter, however, was greatly impressed by the title
+of Radlkoffer's learned work on _The Crystals of Proteic Substances_;
+he returned the book without a word and never interfered with him again.
+
+Through the assistance of some medical students, Elie obtained the loan
+of a microscope; he studied Infusoria and imagined that he had made
+divers discoveries; he hastened to write an article, and sent it to the
+only scientific Russian paper then in existence, the _Bulletin of the
+Moscow Society of Naturalists_. To his great joy his MS. was accepted,
+but before long the young scientist perceived that his deductions
+were erroneous, for he had mistaken phenomena of degenerescence for
+phenomena of development. He was able to stop the publication of this
+article, the first he ever wrote, and it never appeared.
+
+Thanks to Tschelkoff, who lent him a microscope for the duration of the
+holidays, he was able to study the local fauna of inferior animals. At
+the beginning of his last year at the Lycee, he read a text-book of
+geology by a Kharkoff professor and, with juvenile assurance, wrote a
+critical analysis of it. Inserted in the _Journal de Moscou_, this was
+Elie's first publication; he was then sixteen years old. Encouraged
+by this success, he sent several other criticisms, but they were not
+accepted.
+
+The last examinations were coming near: Elie wished to obtain the gold
+medal, not only out of pride, but in order to prove to his parents that
+he deserved their assistance in order to go abroad to continue his
+studies. He therefore provisionally suspended his favourite pursuits
+and resumed the study of the long-neglected school programme. The last
+examinations took place in the spring of 1862. It happened to be the
+Italian Opera season and Elie could not resist the temptations offered
+him by music. In order to make up the time, he often had to work the
+whole night long at the cost of severe fatigue.
+
+In spite of this complication, he passed his examinations brilliantly
+and obtained the gold medal. He now wished for nothing but to devote
+himself to scientific study.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII
+
+  An early love--A schoolfellow's sister--A pretty sister-in-law.
+
+
+In spite of his precocious vocation, Elie was in no wise indifferent
+to his surroundings. His mind was sensitive and impressionable and his
+affections deep and tender, especially where his mother was concerned.
+He never undertook anything without consulting her, a sweet habit which
+he preserved even in his maturity.
+
+It was already at the age of six that he received his first love
+impression: a lady came on a visit to Panassovka with her little girl
+of eight, a lovely curly-headed child, sweet and graceful, a living
+floweret. Ilia could not admire her enough, and was most lavish in his
+attentions, offering her flowers and fruit, inventing games to amuse
+her and trying by every means to make himself agreeable to her. The
+presence of this charming little girl caused him great joy and tender
+emotion; he wished that she might never go away.... But the visit soon
+ended, and this first idyll was short-lived; new impressions were not
+long in replacing it. Nevertheless the picture of the pretty child was
+so deeply impressed in his mind that he never forgot her.
+
+The second time he fell in love was when he was already at the Lycee;
+one of his schoolfellows had a very pretty sister whom Elie used to
+meet on half-holidays. He admired her from afar, and tried to contrive
+opportunities of meeting her; she was the object of his dreams for the
+whole of one term.
+
+But he was presently to be seized by a more serious feeling. When he
+was in the third class at the Lycee he came as usual to Panassovka
+for the summer holidays and found there a new inmate, his elder
+brother's young wife. Soon, to his own astonishment, he found that the
+image of his last winter's passion was being effaced by that of his
+sister-in-law. She, a pretty, fashionable girl, was bored with country
+life; she criticised the simple habits at Panassovka which formed a
+sharp contrast with her tastes; she soon became very unpopular and,
+feeling lonely and bored, tried to attract her young brother-in-law.
+Elie, at first a willing comrade, soon found himself harbouring a more
+tender feeling for his sister-in-law; she complained to him of the
+family's hostility, declared herself misunderstood, and easily excited
+the pity and sympathy of the sensitive boy. He became her ardent
+defender and went so far as to fight her battles, even with his mother,
+whom he reproached with fancied injustice. For nearly four years he
+remained under his sister-in-law's sentimental influence. He afterwards
+freed himself completely from it, but the fact remains that she was the
+first woman who inspired real sentiment in his youthful manhood.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX
+
+  Journey to Germany--Leipzig--Wuerzburg--A hasty return.
+
+
+During his later years at the Lycee, Elie had attended several courses
+at the Kharkoff University and had realised the inadequacy of the
+teaching and the impossibility of any personal research work in the
+laboratories. His greatest desire, therefore, was to go abroad to
+study. At that time, the German universities, being nearer, chiefly
+attracted Russian students. Their laboratories were widely opened to
+foreigners, and lectures were being given by a pleiad of celebrated
+professors.
+
+In order to attain his object, Elie took care to secure his mother's
+support. It was not very difficult, for she believed in her son's
+scientific future and was anxious to help him; she succeeded in
+convincing his father and, by means of serious sacrifices, the
+necessary sum was procured. Elie, who was especially interested in
+the study of protoplasm, chose the University of Wuerzburg, where the
+celebrated zoologist Koelliker was lecturing. Thinking that in Germany
+the term began in September, as in Russia, he hastened to depart. The
+journey at that time was long and complicated; yet, in spite of much
+fatigue, Elie only stopped one day in Berlin and hurried to Leipzig,
+the centre of the book trade, in order to procure the necessary books.
+He reached Leipzig in the evening and was greatly embarrassed, not
+knowing where to find a lodging. A young German in the station offered
+him a room in his own family's house and took him there. The next
+morning, very early, Elie ran out to buy his books and, in his haste,
+forgot to note the number of the house and the name of the street; it
+was with the utmost difficulty that he found the place again. Much
+disturbed by this misadventure, he hastened to start for Wuerzburg and,
+on arriving there, met with a great disappointment; all the professors
+were absent, this being the middle of the holidays, and the lectures
+were not to begin for six weeks. The poor boy, thus alone for the first
+time among strangers, felt completely lost. He was given the address of
+some Russian students and he hastily sought them out, full of joy and
+hope, only to be received coldly and distrustfully by his compatriots.
+After this discouraging reception, he sadly proceeded to look for a
+room, and having found one in the house of a disagreeable old couple,
+he brought his bag there. But, as he began to unpack it, he was seized
+with a feeling of such utter despair that he hastily put his luggage
+together again and announced to his elderly hosts that he was going.
+Surprised and indignant, they abused him so brutally that his distress
+only increased; he rushed to the station, took the first train, and
+returned to Panassovka without a stop. This hurried return disconcerted
+his family, but, seeing the state he was in, nobody reproached him. His
+mother had felt much anxiety on his account, and was in fact not sorry
+to keep him a little longer under her wing. Thus, in dismal failure,
+ended that first journey abroad, so ardently desired. The result might
+have been very different if Elie had reached Wuerzburg at the right
+moment, or if the Russian students had been more friendly. Too young
+and too impressionable to bear absolute solitude, he could only have
+been saved by his favourite studies or by a friendly environment.
+His plans and fair dreams had been overthrown by a series of simple
+mishaps.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+
+  Kharkoff University--Physiology--The Vorticella--Controversy with
+  Kuehne--_The Origin of Species_--The Gastrotricha--University degree.
+
+
+There was now no choice and he had to resign himself to the Kharkoff
+University. There is not much to relate about this period, which was
+but a fugitive episode in the course of Elie Metchnikoff, for the "Alma
+Mater" did not have upon him either the influence or the prestige which
+it generally exerts upon youth.
+
+Whilst the stream of new ideas had already reached the Lycee, the
+University of Kharkoff had remained extremely conservative; this was
+owing to the fact that the Lycee professors were young men, whilst
+those of the University were elderly and old-fashioned. Officials
+rather than scientists, they were content with ancient methods, and
+lectured without practical work, from obsolete and ill-chosen manuals.
+A few of them drank, others neglected their work. In the Medical and
+Natural Science Faculties, only two _agreges_ were newly appointed,
+Tschelkoff, the physiologist we have already mentioned, and a chemist
+named Beketoff. These two were indeed scientists and master-minds, and
+it was only under their direction that any one did any serious work;
+the other lectures were pure formalities. Elie wished to go in for
+medical studies but his mother dissuaded him. "You are too sensitive,"
+she said, "you could not bear the constant sight of human suffering."
+At the same time, Tschelkoff suggested the Natural Science Faculty as
+being more appropriate to purely scientific activity. Elie accepted his
+opinion and began to study physiology under his direction. His great
+desire was to embark at once on personal research, and his teacher
+advised him to study the mobile stalk of a ciliated Infusorian, the
+Vorticella. The question was to determine whether this stalk presented
+any analogy with muscular tissue and whether it offered the same
+reactions. Elie set to work with ardour and found that the stalk of
+the Vorticella had no muscular character. His memoir on the subject
+appeared in 1863 in _Mueller's Archives_. It provoked a severe, even
+brutal, answer from the celebrated physiologist Kuehne which deeply
+grieved the young scientist and, stimulating his energy still further,
+incited him to repeat his experiments. He obtained the same results as
+the first time, and answered Kuehne in a somewhat bitter manner, the
+latter's tone having stirred his combativity.
+
+Meanwhile, Elie was yearning for independent and more general study.
+During his unsuccessful journey, he had acquired in Leipzig many
+recently published scientific books, and, among them, Darwin's _Origin
+of Species_. The theory of evolution deeply struck the boy's mind and
+his thoughts immediately turned in that direction. He said to himself
+that isolated forms which had found no place in definite animal or
+vegetable orders might perhaps serve as a bond between those orders
+and elucidate their genetic relationships. This leading idea made him
+choose for his researches some very singular fresh-water creatures,
+partly like Rotifera and partly like certain worms of the Nematode
+group. He succeeded in establishing a new intermediate order which he
+named "Gastrotricha," and which was straightway accepted.
+
+The whole of his first year at the University was given up to those
+special studies. As he was fully aware that the teaching of the
+University did not answer to his aspirations, he resolved to remain
+there as short a time as possible, and to get through the course of
+studies in two years instead of the four which were usual. In order
+to succeed in doing so, he provisionally gave up his scientific
+researches, attended the lectures as a free auditor, and spent the
+whole of the second year in cramming for the "candidate" examination,
+which answers to a Licentiate in Western universities. It happened
+again this time that the examinations coincided with the Opera season,
+but, though he indulged in his passion for music, he succeeded, by dint
+of a supreme effort, in passing them very brilliantly.
+
+Having gone through the University at such an accelerated pace,
+he did not come into contact with other students, who, themselves
+chiefly preoccupied with politics, took little interest in a youth so
+exclusively absorbed in science. He therefore formed none of those
+attractive juvenile friendships which he had enjoyed at the Lycee.
+His hasty University studies necessarily left lacunae in his general
+knowledge, a fact which he afterwards keenly deplored.
+
+With the exception of Tschelkoff, his teachers had had no decisive
+influence on his career, and his two years at the University formed but
+a colourless episode in his life.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI
+
+  Heligoland--Giessen Congress--Leuckart--Visit to Leo Metchnikoff
+  at Geneva--Socialist gatherings--Metchnikoff's discovery
+  appropriated by Leuckart--Naples--Kovalevsky--Comparative
+  embryology--Embryonic layers--Bakounine and Setchenoff--
+  Cholera at Naples--Goettingen--Anatomical studies--Munich;
+  von Siebold--Music--Return to Naples--Intracellular digestion.
+
+
+Elie still had his Licentiate thesis to prepare. In order to do so, he
+decided to spend two months in the island of Heligoland, of which the
+flora and fauna were very attractive to naturalists. In spite of his
+previous failure, his parents made no objection to his departure; they
+gave him the little money they could spare and Elie started, in 1864.
+
+As soon as he arrived in Heligoland he became absorbed in his work.
+He proceeded with his idea of bringing light upon the genealogy
+of organisms through the study of isolated forms outside definite
+groups.[7]
+
+  [7] He made researches on a very singular annulate worm, the
+      _Fabricia_.
+
+His ardour in his work attracted the attention of several German
+scientists, one of whom introduced him to the celebrated botanist
+Cohn, who soon became interested in him. During the walks which they
+took together, they held scientific conversations full of interest for
+the youth. Cohn advised him to work under the celebrated zoologist
+Leuckart. Elie received this counsel with enthusiasm, but there was
+a great difficulty, which was the lack of money to prolong his stay
+abroad. He did not wish to ask for more from his parents and decided on
+the following plan, which he expounded in the following letter to his
+mother, the constant confidante of all his aspirations:
+
+                                     HELIGOLAND, _Aug. 12, 1864_.
+
+  DEAR MAMMA, ... I am thinking of staying here another month, after
+  which I shall go (at least that is my desire) for ten days to
+  Giessen, where there will be a General Congress of naturalists and
+  physicians from the whole of Europe. This Congress tempts me so much
+  that I want to do my utmost to attend it.
+
+  Besides all the scientific benefit that I shall reap from
+  conversations with scientists, I can also study Professor Leuckart's
+  rich collections. This would complete the studies which I am
+  successfully pursuing at the seaside.
+
+  In order to realise my ardent wish to profit by such treasures, I
+  must remain three weeks longer at Heligoland, travel to Giessen and
+  live there for ten days; all that out of the money which was to keep
+  me here until the 26 Aug. only.... Therefore, instead of living in
+  the hotel, I have taken a room at a fisherman's, for half the price;
+  instead of a dinner and coffee I eat what I can get and I only spend
+  90 centimes a day for my food. (Food is dear, as all the provisions
+  come from Hamburg and from England.) Instead of changing my linen two
+  or three times a week, I only do so once or twice, which allows me to
+  spend less on laundry.
+
+  The money thus economised, together with the sum which I had put
+  aside for my first installation at Petersburg, constitutes a
+  sufficient capital to provide the following joys and advantages: 1st,
+  I shall stay three weeks longer at the seaside, which will allow me
+  to get on with my researches and to increase my collections; 2nd, I
+  shall attend the Congress; 3rd, I shall be able to study Leuckart's
+  collections and take advantage of his books and counsel.
+
+  I beseech you not to look upon this description of my present life as
+  a complaint or a murmur; on the contrary I am delighted to procure
+  so many advantages at so small a cost; I am happy, too, to be able
+  to assure you in all conscience that I am not wasting the money that
+  you have found for me with so much care and affection. I only wish I
+  could find myself oftener in the same conditions.
+
+  Please also believe that my health is in no way suffering from my
+  work. I give you my word that until now I have not had a single
+  headache.
+
+  Moreover, I do not think work is at all detrimental to health; I see
+  here several German scientists who could fell an ox with their fist!
+  Altogether I beseech you not to be anxious on my account; you have
+  quite enough painful preoccupations without that, and I am in such
+  excellent circumstances that there really is nothing to worry about.
+  I kiss your hands many times.
+
+                             Yours affectionately,
+
+                                          ELIE METCHNIKOFF.
+
+  _P.S._--Write to me oftener. Every word from you is so precious to me!
+
+He did not tell his mother that he never had enough to eat. Neither did
+he wish Cohn and his other acquaintances at Heligoland to notice it,
+and he carefully concealed his style of living.
+
+He went to Giessen for the opening of the Naturalists' Congress and
+read with success two papers dealing with his researches at Heligoland.
+Engelmann (who was to become well known as a physiologist) and he
+were the youngest members of the Congress, and their extreme youth
+attracted general attention. Elie at last made Leuckart's acquaintance;
+he was charmed by him and definitely decided to begin at once to work
+under his direction, and, as his stay abroad had thus to be prolonged,
+he asked and obtained a _bursa_ from the Russian Ministry of Public
+Education.
+
+The results of his researches at Heligoland had led him to suppose
+that the Nematodes (of the worm type) formed an independent group; he
+now proposed to settle that question. Leuckart allowed him to work in
+his laboratory during his absence for the holidays; Elie immediately
+set to work and discovered a very curious and quite novel case of
+alternation of generations; hermaphrodite and parasitic Nematodes
+giving birth to a free bisexual generation.
+
+Delighted with his discovery, he hastened to communicate it to
+Leuckart, who was incredulous at first but had to give way to evidence
+when Elie showed him all the intermediary stages. Still the German
+scientist was obviously annoyed that this discovery should have been
+made in his absence and independently from him. He proposed to the
+young man that they should continue researches in collaboration and
+publish a joint memoir. Elie accepted joyfully. In his ardour he worked
+too much, and fatigued his eyesight so that he was forced to limit his
+microscopical researches to a few hours a day, and Leuckart advised him
+to take a rest.
+
+It happened that Elie's brother Leo had just settled in Geneva and
+invited him to stay with him; Elie started to join him. The brothers
+had not met for a long time. Leo had been travelling and had resided
+in many different places. He was an extraordinarily gifted man,
+impulsive, brilliant, and artistic, but restless and incapable of
+adhering to a steady course of action; he scattered his activities and
+did not therefore produce all that his rich nature was capable of.
+He had a remarkable gift for languages; he knew not only a number of
+European languages but also several Oriental languages, having been
+in the East, where he had occupied a post of agent in navigation and
+commerce. He afterwards lived in Italy, took an active part in the
+Garibaldi movement and was wounded. A clever painter, he also had real
+literary talent; handsome, witty, agreeable, he was a most attractive
+personality. Elie had great affection for him.
+
+He found him surrounded with young men and studying a map. They were
+discussing the acquisition of a piece of ground in Italy in order to
+found a socialistic community, and Leo, who knew the country, was
+to choose the locality. Elie was at once made acquainted with the
+political questions of the day; the young scientist was unfavourably
+impressed, for the whole reduced itself to party questions and dogmatic
+discussions founded on hollow grounds. Accustomed as he already was to
+positive scientific methods, vague and arbitrary theories could not
+satisfy him.
+
+On the other hand, he was deeply impressed by the personality of the
+celebrated socialistic Russian writer, Herzen, who resided in Geneva at
+that time. The young revolutionaries considered him as too literary and
+too much of a theoretician; they themselves yearned for a direct-action
+policy. Leo Metchnikoff, however, admired him fervently. Meetings
+often took place in Herzen's rooms; he used to read to his guests with
+wonderful effect his yet unpublished manuscript _Passe et pensees_.
+A great and powerful figure, the superiority of his intelligence was
+almost crushing, while his sparkling wit and the nobility of his whole
+being endowed him with an incomparable and irresistible personal charm.
+Metchnikoff often said that no man had left a deeper impression on his
+life. As a politician, however, he had not the same prestige in his
+sight.
+
+This sojourn in a revolutionary centre interested him much, but had
+the result of confirming his conviction that science was immeasurably
+superior to politics, and he congratulated himself on the path he
+had chosen. After he had rested, he started to return to Giessen and
+stopped at Heidelberg, a centre for Russian students who gathered
+around Helmholtz, Virchow, and Bunsen. He hurried to the library
+in order to see scientific periodicals; one of the first that came
+under his eyes was a number of the _Goettingen News_, containing a
+memoir by Leuckart on the Nematodes which they had studied together;
+Leuckart described, in his own name, their common researches and also
+those personal to the young man, whom he only mentioned incidentally.
+Elie was shocked and indignant. On his return to Giessen he tried to
+obtain an explanation from Leuckart but in vain; the latter eluded his
+questions and gave him no answer.[8]
+
+  [8] All this episode was described by Metchnikoff in 1866 in
+      a separate publication with great restraint and in a very
+      moderate tone.
+
+In his despair, the youth confided in Claus, a professor of zoology
+whose acquaintance he had made at the Congress, who told him that
+Leuckart was in the habit of such dealings, and urged Elie, as an
+independent stranger, to reveal the fact. He pressed this with so much
+insistence that Elie ended in following his advice; he sent an article
+stating the case to Dubois-Reymond's journal. He then departed from
+Giessen without taking leave of Leuckart.
+
+Having had a _bursa_ of 1600 roubles a year granted him for two years
+by the Russian Ministry of Public Instruction, he was able to undertake
+a journey to the shores of the Mediterranean in order to pursue his
+researches.
+
+He had heard of a very talented young zoologist, Alexander Kovalevsky,
+who also knew him by hearsay and had written him a letter full of
+enthusiasm concerning the rich Mediterranean fauna and the facilities
+for work in Italy. He therefore went to Naples on leaving Giessen.
+Though the journey in itself had but a secondary attraction for him, he
+had expected to receive a strong impression; but his imagination had
+painted such grandiose pictures of the country that he had to cross,
+that the reality disappointed him, and Italy, like Switzerland on a
+former occasion, fell very far short of his expectations. He stopped
+at Florence, which made but a poor impression on him. Museums fatigued
+him, for he saw a great deal too many works of art all at once without
+any previous preparation. Architecture and the plastic arts in general
+did not take any hold of him. During his rapid journey he only saw the
+country quite superficially and had no time to become impregnated with
+its beauty. He therefore hastened towards Naples, where his work and
+Kovalevsky attracted him far more.
+
+He found in Kovalevsky a young man with shy but cordial manners and
+the clear sweet eyes of a pure child, obviously an idealist. He had
+for science an absolute cult, the sacred fire of the worshipper; no
+sacrifice was too great, no difficulty too repellent for his ardour.
+On a closer acquaintance, the small, timid young man proved to be a
+hard fighter where science was concerned. The two young men formed
+an excellent impression of each other, and a friendship was started
+between them which was to last a lifetime. Though very different
+from each other, they met on common ground, a passion for science.
+They worked with the greatest energy, going together on zoological
+excursions, exchanging their ideas, discussing their aspirations; a
+similarity of tastes lent great attraction to their friendship.
+
+At Giessen, Elie had read Fritz Mueller's _For Darwin_, a book which
+had a decisive influence on the future direction of his researches.
+Fritz Mueller, in his embryological works on certain crustaceans, had
+been the first to confirm in a concrete manner Darwin's evolutionist
+theories; he had thus demonstrated that it was chiefly in embryology
+that precious indications were to be found concerning the genealogy of
+organisms.[9] Under the influence of this work, Elie, who until now had
+limited himself to introductory researches, resolved to concentrate
+all his efforts on the comparative embryology of animals. He started
+to work in that direction, and his researches confirmed him more and
+more in the opinion that the key of animal evolution and genealogy was
+to be sought for in the most primitive stages, in those simple phases
+of development where no secondary element has yet been introduced from
+external conditions. In those primordial stages, essential characters,
+common to all, reveal the analogy and connections between animals from
+different groups.
+
+  [9] In later years Metchnikoff often dwelt on the fact that Fritz
+      Mueller was not fully appreciated and that it was he who
+      had most efficaciously contributed to the confirmation of
+      Darwinian theories.
+
+Every animal begins by being _unicellular_, for the egg-cell, the
+reproducing cell, common to all, corresponds to a unicellular being.
+It is only after fecundation, when it has become an ovum, that this
+first cell evolves by dividing itself into consecutive segments,
+each of which is a new cell. This phenomenon is analogous with the
+multiplication of unicellular beings through division; only, those
+segments of the ovum do not separate but constitute a whole under the
+aspect of a hollow sphere, called a _blastula_, which is the first
+manifestation of a multicellular being. This blastula is formed of
+superposed layers, each of which gives birth to specialised organs in
+the embryo. The outside layer, or _ectoderm_, produces teguments and
+the nervous system; the internal layer, or _endoderm_, gives birth to
+endothelial cells, the digestive and internal organs; between those two
+layers comes a third, intermediary layer, the _mesoderm_, from which
+the skeleton is developed and also the muscle and blood tissues.
+
+The evolution of these layers in Vertebrates was well known, but very
+little so in Invertebrates, though it is only through the development
+of inferior forms that the origin and general evolution of living
+beings can be elucidated. That is why, during many years, the principal
+theme of Metchnikoff's researches was the comparative study of the
+embryonic layers of inferior animals and the ulterior fate of their
+constituting elements. By following this train of thought, he was able
+to demonstrate that the development of lower animals takes place on the
+same plan and follows the same laws as that of higher animals; thus,
+that there is a real communion between all living beings, which is the
+concrete confirmation of the theory of evolution.
+
+By their work, Kovalevsky and Metchnikoff contributed to the foundation
+of Comparative Embryology. The comparative study of cells produced
+from the divers embryonic layers, and observations on the ulterior
+development of the functions of those cells, gradually led Metchnikoff
+to his theory of phagocytes and to pathological biology. An
+uninterrupted thread can be followed right through his life-work, from
+the beginning until the end.
+
+In spite of his absorbing work he took great interest in his
+surroundings, and during this first stay in Italy he became acquainted
+with two interesting personalities, Bakounine the anarchist and
+the celebrated physiologist Setchenoff. Both resided at Sorrento.
+Kovalevsky and Metchnikoff, who greatly desired to know them, decided
+to call on them, after much hesitation.
+
+Bakounine, a giant with a leonine head and a thick mane of grey hair,
+struck them as being a fiery enthusiast but an intolerant sectarian,
+easily roused; for instance, any small and unimportant local meeting
+was enough for him to predict an imminent revolution in Russia. His
+theories were epitomised in these words, "We must not leave stone
+upon stone"; but when asked what should be built up on those ruins
+he could only say, "We shall see later." Elie looked upon him as a
+force powerful by its fire and vitality, but thought his mind neither
+judicial nor profound.
+
+Very different was the impression produced on him by Setchenoff.
+He carried great weight through the depth of his intelligence, his
+persuasive eloquence and general thoroughness. He was of a Mongol
+type and his features were plain, but his splendid eyes, deep and
+intelligent, shrewd and yet kindly, illumined his face with an
+unforgettable inward beauty. When Elie went to see him, it was with the
+uneasy feeling that his own knowledge of chemistry and physics was very
+restricted, having been very superficially acquired during his rapid
+passage through the University. In spite of this cause for bashfulness,
+a mental compact and exchange of ideas was immediately established
+between the two, and a sympathy was born between them which developed
+into a lifelong friendship. Elie expatiated upon his plans for the
+study of the embryology of inferior animals from the evolution point
+of view, and received from the older scientist much encouragement, for
+which he never ceased to be grateful.
+
+He worked a great deal during this first stay at Naples, in spite
+of periods of great fatigue. As a relaxation, he plunged into
+philosophical reading. After Kovalevsky's departure, he joined
+Bakounine's circle, the members of which took their meals in a
+restaurant which rejoiced in the sonorous name of _Trattoria della
+Harmonia_. In the autumn of the year 1865, a cholera epidemic broke
+out in Naples. Every one was nervous and depressed, and this general
+depression was increased still more by some of the customs of the
+country--continuous lugubrious church bells, funeral processions
+in which penitents took part, carrying smoking torches and wearing
+hoods over their heads with holes for their eyes, etc. Elie, on whom
+the epidemic had made a great impression, was even more disturbed by
+the death of one of the members of their little circle, a popular
+Englishwoman, liked by everybody. She had no fear of cholera and was
+bright and merry. But one day she did not come to the _Trattoria della
+Harmonia_; she had been struck by the scourge and was dead the next day.
+
+Elie was so struck by her death that his nerves, already very tense,
+gave way and he left Naples, being, moreover, worn out with overwork.
+
+He started for Goettingen, for he wanted to begin the study of
+Vertebrates under the direction of Professor Keferstein. Keferstein
+straightway gave him a valuable lizard specimen to anatomise. Elie was
+not good at technique, on account of his nervous temperament; he used
+occasionally to lose his patience and his temper, to that point that he
+flung his material across the room. It happened so on this occasion;
+having completely wasted the valuable lizard, he conceived a still
+greater horror of technique and soon left Professor Keferstein for
+Henle, the celebrated anatomist. He worked with him for a short time
+at the histology of frogs' kidneys, a subject chosen by the Professor.
+Soon the young man realised that he was no longer capable of submitting
+to school discipline and resumed his independent researches. When he
+had to do with those problems which absorbed him he was always able
+to conquer his aversion for technique and to do what was required. He
+studied the embryology of the green-fly from the genealogical point
+of view, and went to Munich for the summer term in order to work with
+the celebrated zoologist von Siebold, a typical and venerable old
+German scientist. The latter was too old already to be troubled with
+pupils, and Elie studied his insect embryology independently; however,
+he visited the old man assiduously, and they had long scientific
+conversations. Their relations were always extremely cordial, and they
+even kept up a regular correspondence for many years.
+
+During his stay in Germany, music was the young man's only recreation.
+He did not play any instrument; his parents, discouraged by the failure
+of their elder children, had not had him taught, and besides, his
+precocious vocation would have left him no time. Yet he certainly had
+a natural talent for music, which he passionately loved. He could
+only whistle, but with that feeble means succeeded in reproducing
+complicated compositions. Having assiduously attended excellent
+concerts, he had made himself thoroughly acquainted with classical
+music, and Beethoven and Mozart always remained his favourite
+composers. His stay in Germany taught him to appreciate the great
+capacity for work of the scientists of that country; he admired the
+organisation of their laboratories, allowing every force, great or
+small, to be utilised and making useful collective work possible in
+those complicated researches which demand the collaboration of divers
+specialists. On the other hand, he felt a great aversion for the
+manners and customs of German students. Their corporations, duels, and
+long sittings in beer-houses were distasteful to him; he could not
+understand how these coarse "Burschen" could become transformed into
+cultivated intellectuals and respectable scientists. People to whom
+he expressed this wonder merely said, "Youth must have its fling...."
+Moreover, scientists themselves were not particularly courteous to
+each other. More than anywhere else personal questions held a foremost
+place, and kindliness was rare between colleagues.
+
+After staying some time in Munich, Elie returned to Naples, war having
+broken out between Northern and Southern Germany. This time, in order
+to spend less on the journey, he took a steamer at Genoa, but with
+fatal results, for a storm was raging; he suffered a great deal, and,
+when he reached Naples, violent fits of giddiness made him incapable
+of doing any work at all for some time. Cholera reappeared, and the
+landlady of the rooms he shared with Kovalevsky died of it. Much
+depressed, the two started for Ischia, but Elie soon realised with
+terror that he was not yet well enough to work; in order to recover
+quickly, he went to Cava, a pretty little place, renowned for its
+salubrious climate.
+
+There he met Bakounine again, and they saw a good deal of each other in
+a friendly way. Bakounine nicknamed him "Mamma" because of his almost
+maternal attentions, a nickname which, for the same reason, was given
+him later, quite independently, by other intimates. Yet, though their
+relations were cordial and even affectionate, there was not really much
+in common between the two. Elie thought Bakounine's ideas superficial,
+and disliked his sectarian mentality; they ultimately drifted apart.
+
+His health having gradually recovered owing to the rest, he returned
+to Naples in the autumn, after the epidemic had abated, and at last
+resumed his work.
+
+Whilst studying the history of the development of Cephalopoda he found
+that they had embryonic layers similar to those of Vertebrates; this
+was the first time that the fact was established. It was extremely
+important, for it constituted a concrete and indisputable proof of
+the existence of a genetic connection between inferior and superior
+animals. Metchnikoff chose this subject for his thesis, and, having
+completed his researches, he returned to Russia in 1867.
+
+By this time he had made great use of his three years' stay abroad.
+Though he had not showed himself a docile pupil, yet he had become
+initiated into the organisation of scientific work in Germany; he had
+carried out independent researches and had been able to choose with
+full knowledge the future path of investigations which he was to pursue
+for many years in the field of Comparative Embryology.
+
+Already the observations he had made had in themselves a real
+importance. For instance, his studies in divers specimens of the worm
+type, a type which offers very heterogeneous forms, had permitted him
+to establish links of continuity between certain groups among them.
+Whilst studying those animals at Giessen in 1865, he had discovered
+the capital fact which proved to be the starting-point of all his
+future work--the _intercellular digestion_ of an inferior worm, a land
+planarian, the _Geodesmus bilineatus_. He had compared this digestion
+with that of the superior Infusoria and had seen in it one more proof
+of the genetic connection between the type of the Protozoa and that of
+worms.
+
+He did not then realise the full bearing of this observation, which
+really constituted the basis of his future phagocyte theory; this was
+only to appear eighteen years later.
+
+He had also made researches on numerous specimens of insects and on the
+scorpion, establishing the fact that they all had embryonic layers;
+he concluded that he was "entitled to extend the theory of embryonic
+layers to Arthropoda."
+
+Finally, he had discovered embryonic layers similar to those of the
+Vertebrates in inferior Invertebrates, the Cephalopoda (Sepiola). This
+established a link of continuity between the higher and lower animals.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+
+  Petersburg--Baer prize--Return home--Friendship with Cienkovsky
+  --Odessa--Naturalists' Congress at Petersburg--Departure from
+  Odessa--Zoological Lecturer's Chair at Petersburg--Messina--Enforced
+  rest--Reggio--Naples--Controversy with Kovalevsky--Visit to the
+  B. family--Mlle. Fedorovitch--Educational questions--Difficulties
+  of life in Petersburg.
+
+
+During his stay abroad, Metchnikoff had successfully carried out
+several researches, and this allowed him to apply for a post of
+_docent_ at the new University of Odessa, which he had chosen on
+account of its proximity with the sea and its marine fauna. Whilst
+awaiting the result he went to Petersburg in order to pass his thesis
+and to prepare himself to become a professor. He received a pleasant
+welcome, for his lively and sociable disposition had made him many
+friends. The brothers Kovalevsky, with whom he was already on friendly
+terms, offered him hospitality; he also made the acquaintance of
+Professor Beketoff, and soon became a member of his family circle.
+
+He was well received everywhere, for his scientific precocity excited
+general interest. He was even elected _magister_[10] by the Faculty,
+without having to pass an examination, on account of the work he
+had done. He and Kovalevsky halved Baer's first prize, and they
+were invited and treated with the utmost kindness by Baer himself.
+Metchnikoff had certainly entered upon a successful phase; his friends
+nicknamed him "the star." As soon as he was made a _magister_, he
+received his appointment at the Odessa University, and, the holidays
+drawing near, he was at last able to return to his home. Needless to
+say how joyfully and lovingly he was received by his family. He spent
+two months with them, utilising his leisure in preparing himself to
+teach.
+
+  [10] A degree preceding that of Doc.Sc.
+
+In his hurry to arrive in Odessa in good time in order to take his
+bearings before starting his lectures, he went there much too soon and
+found nobody at the University; he then decided to go to the Crimea for
+some preliminary studies on the fauna of the Black Sea. Before long,
+he made the acquaintance of the celebrated botanist Cienkovsky, who
+invited him to stay in his villa. Though the scientist was already 46
+years old and Elie only 22, they soon became fast friends. Cienkovsky
+was a man of great European culture; passionately fond of science as
+he was, his critical mind submitted everything to a close analysis.
+He took great interest in young Metchnikoff and showed him a marked
+predilection, but that did not prevent him from criticising him
+severely. He reproached him with a lack of self-control, and undertook
+the paternal task of civilising the impulsive, fiery, sometimes even
+violent young man. He preached to him tolerance towards the opinions of
+others, a strict self-discipline, and the absolute necessity of bowing
+to certain social conventions against which Elie blindly rebelled.
+Cienkovsky acquired great prestige in his young friend's eyes; years
+later, even, Metchnikoff took pleasure in quoting his axioms and in
+trying to conform with them.
+
+He worked with ardour during his stay in the Crimea; though the
+heat was great, 50 deg. C. (122 deg. F.) in the sun, he undertook
+zoological excursions and surprised every one by his endurance and
+energy.
+
+At the end of the holidays, he returned to Odessa and began his
+professorate with much zeal and success. His lucid, living lectures
+stimulated his pupils, third-year students, who were all older than
+himself. Friendly relations soon reigned between them and their young
+lecturer; he organised practical studies, and his laboratory became a
+very active centre of work.
+
+Thus everything was going well, and perhaps he might have remained at
+Odessa for a long time if it had not been for the following incident,
+due to his passionate and intolerant disposition. A Congress of Russian
+naturalists was to take place in Petersburg at the end of the year
+1867. Elie eagerly wished to attend it as a delegate and took steps
+for that purpose; this brought him into conflict with his chief, who
+desired the mission for himself. Knowing that the old Professor had no
+real scientific interests, Elie thought himself justified in insisting,
+and counted upon Cienkovsky's support, but the latter was of opinion
+that the younger man should give way. Elie, becoming more and more
+excited, lost all sense of proportion and committed the grave error
+of telling his pupils about what he considered a serious injustice.
+The latter, out of sympathy for their young lecturer, hooted the old
+Professor, which naturally embittered the quarrel. However, all the
+agitation ended in both zoologists being sent to the Congress in the
+quality of delegates.
+
+When he reached Petersburg, Elie hurried to the house of his friends
+B----, who received him with open arms; it was a great joy to him
+to find himself in friendly surroundings after the recent strife.
+Impulsive and impressionable as he was, the disagreeable incidents
+he had traversed made him yearn to leave Odessa, a desire which was
+to be promptly realised. His communications had great success at the
+Congress; the President even invited him to read a paper at the general
+meeting; but, though strongly attracted by this proposal, which would
+have allowed the young scientist to expose his ideas on the comparative
+development of the embryonic layers, he refused it, considering that
+that complicated question was not yet sufficiently matured.
+
+Nevertheless, the Congress had brought him into prominence and was
+the cause of his obtaining a Professorship of Zoology at Petersburg.
+Moreover, he had the additional good fortune of being given a
+scientific mission and went abroad to work until the autumn term.
+
+He went to Naples in the spring of 1868, thinking to find Kovalevsky
+there, instead of which he found a letter from his friend awaiting him.
+The latter had had to go to Messina for urgent embryological work and
+begged Elie to look after his wife and new-born child. Metchnikoff did
+so most willingly until he was able to send them off to Messina. He
+himself followed soon after, for Kovalevsky wrote him that zoological
+specimens and conditions of work were far better at Messina than
+Naples. This time, Metchnikoff undertook the study of Sponges and
+Echinodermata. The two friends worked unceasingly, but Elie's sight was
+too weak for such excessive fatigue; he was again obliged to interrupt
+his studies for a while, and during that period of enforced rest he
+felt for the first time the need of a sentimental affection in his life.
+
+He dreamed of a helpmeet who would conform with his tastes. At
+Petersburg he had become very fond of Professor B.'s young daughters,
+the eldest of whom was about thirteen years old, and he wondered if he
+could not train one of those little girls to become the realisation of
+his ideal. He was too active by nature, however, to linger very long
+over reveries or over a prolonged rest; he therefore undertook a short
+journey through Reggio and Calabria, on his way towards Naples.
+
+His eyesight being now restored, he began work again as soon as he
+arrived. This period, however, was not a pleasant one: to begin
+with, he obtained in the study of Ascidia a result which differed
+considerably from that obtained by Kovalevsky,[11] and this scientific
+controversy grieved and preoccupied them both. Besides, Elie's nerves
+suffered from his constant anxiety about his eyes, the tropical heat
+and the noisy life of Naples. Incessant serenades used to keep him
+awake at night, and, on one occasion, his exasperation reached such a
+point that he poured a bucket of water over the head of some persistent
+musicians. Tired with all these things, he left Naples for Trieste,
+where he carried out successful researches into the transformations of
+Echinodermata, from the point of view of Comparative Embryology and
+genetic connections between inferior animals.
+
+  [11] The latter affirmed that the nervous system of Ascidia
+       originated from the upper layer, whilst Elie believed that
+       it was the lower layer which gave birth to it. It was
+       Kovalevsky who was right, as Elie himself declared later.
+
+Having obtained results which interested him, he returned to Russia and
+joined the B. family in the country, near Moscow. Their young friend
+Mlle. Fedorovitch, whom he had already met in Petersburg, was staying
+with them, and she and Elie became very good friends. His affection for
+the B. children led him to ponder over general educational questions.
+He was struck for the first time by the lack of harmony in human
+nature, which was due, he thought, to the considerable difference
+between the organism of the child and that of the adult, a difference
+which does not exist in animals to the same degree.[12] As soon as
+he returned to Petersburg he tried to study this subject, and made
+comparisons between the brain of a man and that of a dog at various
+ages, but without result.
+
+  [12] He ultimately developed these considerations in a paper
+       entitled _Education from an Anthropological Point of View_,
+       of which mention will be made hereafter.
+
+He was not long in realising that the conditions of work in his new
+post were extremely unsatisfactory. He had no proper laboratory and
+had to work between two specimen cases in a non-heated zoological
+museum; there was no room for practical work. All his enthusiasm, all
+his aspirations towards scientific activity and rational teaching
+struck against indifference, lack of organisation, and lack of means.
+He protested with his usual vehemence, but could obtain nothing; being
+equally unable to adapt himself to his uncongenial surroundings,
+he found himself getting more and more discontented and unnerved.
+Moreover, his everyday life was most uncomfortable, for he wished to
+do without servants, on principle and in order to economise, and to do
+his household work himself; but he soon tired of taking the necessary
+care of his rooms, which became a regular chaos. He left off preparing
+his own meals and went out for them to an inferior restaurant in the
+neighbourhood. Yet, in spite of all his efforts and privations, he
+never seemed to make both ends meet. He resigned himself to giving
+lessons at the School of Mines in order to increase his resources; the
+school was a long way off, he had to walk the distance in the coldest
+weather in order to lecture to students who did not interest him. The
+work wearied him without giving him any moral compensation. Altogether,
+the life in Petersburg, on which he had founded great hopes, brought
+him nothing but disappointments and made him become more and more
+pessimistic and misanthropical.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII
+
+  Slight illness--Engagement to Mlle. Fedorovitch--Marriage--Illness
+  of the bride--Pecuniary difficulties--Spezzia--Montreux--Work in
+  Petersburg University--The Riviera--Coelomata and Acoelomata--St.
+  Vaast--Panassovka--Madeira--Mertens--Teneriffe--Return to Odessa--Bad
+  news, hurried journey to Madeira--Death of his wife--Return through
+  Spain--Attempted suicide--Ephemeridae.
+
+
+It was only in the house of his friends the B.'s that Elie felt at his
+ease. He was devotedly fond of their children, whom he used to take for
+walks on Sundays and to the theatre now and then; he was always ready
+to read to them and to indulge them in every possible way.
+
+He continued to entertain the dream of marrying one of them some day,
+and was particularly interested in the eldest, a girl of thirteen,
+intelligent, gifted, and lively; however, as he knew her better,
+he realised the incompatibility of their respective tempers, an
+incompatibility which brought about frequent disputes. These were
+generally smoothed down by a mutual friend, Mlle. Fedorovitch, who
+invariably showed Elie a marked and cordial sympathy. He became ill at
+this juncture and she nursed him with a devotion which brought them
+together even more, as will be seen from the following letter to his
+mother:
+
+  DEAR MOTHER--I have just had an inflammation of the throat which
+  lasted two weeks; it is quite gone now and I would not even have
+  mentioned it to you if it had not been connected with what follows.
+
+  When I fell ill, the B.'s, knowing me to be alone and uncared for,
+  brought me to their house. During my stay with them, I acquired the
+  conviction that my darling little girls did not love me, especially
+  the eldest, who interested me even more than her three sisters....
+  The dreams I told you of have vanished!
+
+  It was a grief to me, for, apart from my scientific interests, I
+  cherished them more than anything. I have no acquaintances and do
+  not require any, but I long to have some one with me to whom I could
+  become attached and who could share my pleasures and leisure.
+
+  My grief would have been greater still if I had not seen that
+  Ludmilla Fedorovitch, whom I mentioned to you this summer, showed me
+  much sympathy in all my troubles.
+
+  We were already very good friends, and have now drawn nearer
+  together; who knows? perhaps the 800 roubles which are going to be
+  added to my salary will be very useful.
+
+  I will keep you informed of everything, dear Mother, for I am sure of
+  your sympathy; I love you better than the whole world and I have full
+  confidence in you.
+
+  Au revoir, dear Mother, I kiss your hands.--Your
+
+                                                ELIE METCHNIKOFF.
+
+Mlle. Fedorovitch became ill in her turn; the sympathy which Elie
+showed her on this occasion brought them still nearer to each other,
+and he soon decided to marry her. He informed his mother of this; much
+alarmed, she tried to dissuade him, for she feared that by marrying a
+girl in delicate health, her son would be assuming too heavy a task in
+his difficult circumstances.
+
+He answered as follows:
+
+  I received your letter to-day, dear Mother. It grieves me very much.
+  My project inspires you with doubt, you counsel prudence and, though
+  you say you believe me to be reasonable, yet you fear that I am
+  acting on an impulse. If I really am reasonable, why fear a blind
+  impulse? On the other hand, if I am blindly carried away, it is not
+  likely that I shall listen to reason.
+
+  I did tell you that I had great affection for the B. girls, and it
+  was true. But did I ever tell you that they had the same for me? You
+  are mistaken in thinking that I did not like Ludmilla Fedorovitch at
+  first. I was not in love with her but we were very good friends, and
+  whilst I did not consider her as my feminine ideal, I was sure of her
+  absolutely honest, loyal, and kindly disposition. The very fact that
+  I knew Ludmilla for a long time before I thought of marrying her,
+  should prove to you that there is some chance of my being neither
+  blind nor partial.
+
+  Her love for me is beyond doubt, as you will see when you know her.
+
+  I also am very fond of her, and that is a solid basis for future
+  happiness.
+
+  Yet I will not answer for it that we shall spend our life like a
+  pair of turtledoves. A rosy, boundless beatitude forms no part of my
+  conception of the distant future.
+
+  Yet I do not see the necessity of waiting till I become a thorough
+  misanthrope, and I am already inclined that way.
+
+  Please do not believe that, if I do not dream of a rosy happiness it
+  is that I feel none at all; that is not the case; I am in a happy
+  medium.
+
+  I like Ludmilla and I feel comfortable with her; but at the same
+  time I preserve the faculty of feeling every trouble and worry in
+  life. I do not at all think that it is enough to love in order to be
+  happy. Therefore I have begun to take steps to obtain a Professor's
+  chair, and I am very desirous of being successful in that financial
+  operation.
+
+Soon after that, he wrote the following letter to his mother:
+
+  DEAR MOTHER--In my last letter I had already spoken to you of
+  Ludmilla Fedorovitch. I can now give you information about her which
+  will surely interest you.
+
+  She is not bad-looking, but that is all. She has fine hair; her
+  complexion is not pretty. We are about the same age, she is a little
+  over 23. She was born at Orenburg; then she lived for a long time
+  with her family at Kiahta (Siberia), after which she was abroad for
+  nearly two years and finally settled in Moscow. Ludmilla, or Lussia,
+  was, as you remember, a very zealous intermediary between me and the
+  B. girls to whom I was so attached.
+
+  She loved me already then, though she said to herself that I had too
+  much affection for the B. children ever to return her feelings.
+
+  And she was perfectly right, as long as my affection for those
+  children lasted.
+
+  But, when it ceased, I naturally took more notice of Lussia's
+  sympathy for me, and I am not surprised that I have acquired much
+  affection for her.
+
+  She has faults which must seem graver to me than to you, but what is
+  to be done?
+
+  Fortunately she herself sees them. The greatest of her faults is a
+  too great placidity, a lack of vivacity and initiative; she adapts
+  herself too easily to her surroundings. But, being placid, she is
+  also firm; she can bear a great deal whilst preserving complete
+  self-control. She is extremely kind and good-natured; I have not yet
+  found a vulgar trait in her character.
+
+  I have told you of her faults, you must therefore not think me
+  partial if I find qualities in her.
+
+  The fact is--and I cannot forget it--that always, when I had any kind
+  of trouble, she soothed me by her attitude towards me.
+
+  Even though I have dark previsions for the future (as you know, I am
+  not given to seeing life through rose-coloured glasses), I cannot
+  help thinking that by living with Lussia I should become calmer, at
+  least for a fairly long time.
+
+  I should cease to suffer from the misanthropy which has invaded me
+  lately.
+
+  I intend to have no children--it is an embryologist who is speaking.
+  On the contrary, I want to preserve the utmost liberty. Nevertheless,
+  one must conform with certain legal conventions, which will probably
+  take place in January.
+
+  Lussia has no fortune, but we shall be entirely guaranteed by the
+  increase in my salary.
+
+  It is very regrettable that the event should be retarded by the
+  customary formalities; in any case it will certainly end by taking
+  place.
+
+  I beg you to write to me, dear mother that I love, anything that
+  comes into your head _a propos_ of my affair.
+
+  Rejoice that I am now very happy and wish that it may last.
+
+  I ask the same of Papa, whom I beg you to salute from me. I embrace
+  you, dear Mamma, and I remain your very affectionate son,
+
+                                                  E. METCHNIKOFF.
+
+As Elie learnt to know his fiancee better, he became more and more
+attached to her. Their happiness seemed likely to be complete, but a
+cruel Fate had decided otherwise. The girl's health was not improving:
+her supposed bronchitis was assuming a chronic character. Yet the
+marriage was not postponed, and the bride had to be carried to the
+church in a chair for the ceremony, being too breathless and too weak
+to walk so far.
+
+Elie did his utmost to procure comforts for his wife, and hoped that
+she could still be saved by care and a rational treatment. It was the
+beginning of an hourly struggle against disease and poverty; his means
+being insufficient, he tried to eke them out by writing translations.
+His eyesight weakened again from overwork, and it was with atropin
+in his eyes that he sat up night after night, translating. There was
+but one well-lighted room in his flat, and he turned it into a small
+laboratory for the use of his pupils; his own researches he had to give
+up, his time being entirely taken up by teaching and translations.
+
+He hid his precarious position from his parents in order not to add
+to their heavy expenses nor to confirm their previsions concerning
+his marriage. His wife's illness, the impossibility of carrying on
+scientific work, the lack of friendly sympathy to which he thought
+himself entitled, all this weighed on him, making him bitter,
+suspicious, and distrustful; he thought himself persecuted. The
+situation became intolerable and, in spite of his pride, he forced
+himself to apply for a subsidy to take his wife abroad and to go on
+with his researches. Having obtained it in 1869, he immediately left
+Petersburg, which he now hated.
+
+Youth is elastic: the young couple started full of joy, gay as
+children, and ready to forget all their trials. Alas, it was not for
+long: having halted at Vilna in order that the patient should have a
+rest, she had an attack of haemorrhage of the lungs, to the great alarm
+of her husband, who nevertheless did his best to reassure her. They
+continued the journey as soon as her condition allowed it, only to be
+interrupted by another relapse. At last they reached Spezzia, chosen on
+account of the climate and the marine fauna.
+
+Little by little, Ludmilla Metchnikoff's health improved and her
+husband was able to resume work. He studied aquatic animals in view
+of the genealogy of inferior groups, and, amongst others, studied the
+Tornaria, which was believed to be the larva of the star-fish. However,
+to his astonishment, he ascertained that, in spite of great similarity,
+it was not the larva of an Echinoderm, but that of one of the
+Balanoglossi, of the worm type. This fact established a link between
+the Echinodermata and worms, a very important result from the point of
+view of the continuity of animal types.
+
+Metchnikoff felt his courage returning and also his natural high
+spirits. His wife, who was a clever draughtswoman, helped him with the
+drawings for his memoir, and both felt happy and contented; this stay
+at Spezzia was a real oasis in their life.
+
+When the heat became excessive they went to Reichenhall, a summer
+resort prescribed by the doctor. There, Metchnikoff completed his
+previous researches on the development of the scorpion, and finally
+established the fact that this animal possesses the three embryonic
+layers which correspond to those of the Vertebrates.
+
+As his young wife's health was still too precarious to allow her
+to spend the winter in Russia, Metchnikoff, obliged to return to
+Petersburg, installed her at Montreux and asked his sister-in-law,
+Mlle. Fedorovitch, to stay with her. The enforced separation
+deeply grieved the young couple, whose only consolation was daily
+correspondence.
+
+Metchnikoff resumed a life of hard work; he was now an _agrege_ at
+the Petersburg University and had to leave the School of Mines; this
+diminished his resources, but at the same time he obtained an extra
+salary of 800 roubles as Extraordinary Professor. His position in the
+University was nevertheless very difficult, for his situation was
+coveted by different parties with which he had nothing to do. They
+wanted it for one of their adherents. His devoted friend Setchenoff,
+Professor of Physiology, then thought of proposing him to the Faculty
+of Medicine as a Lecturer in Zoology, and whilst Metchnikoff awaited
+the result of his efforts, he obtained leave to go to the seaside to do
+research work.
+
+He joined his wife and took her to San Remo and to Villafranca. Her
+health had improved and she was even able to take part in his work.
+He was engaged in studying Medusae and Siphonophora, animals which
+interested him, not only from the point of view of the origin of
+embryonic layers, but also from that of general morphology, for he
+was still pursuing the problem of genetic links between animals. He
+had already been able to prove the presence of embryonic layers in
+many inferior animals; moreover, he had found, while studying the
+metamorphoses of Echinodermata, the proof that the _structural plan_,
+hitherto considered immutable, could become transformed in course
+of development. Thus the bilateral plan of the larva of Echinoderma
+becomes a radial plan in the adult. The structural plan therefore
+is not an absolutely differentiating character, since specimens of
+the same type can show a different plan according to their stage of
+development. One of the genetic questions still unsolved was that of
+the body cavity. Always present in higher animals, it is totally absent
+in certain lower groups, such as Sponges, Polypi, and Medusae. It was
+being questioned whether their dissimilar morphological characters
+did not correspond with a duality of origin separating animals which
+possessed a body cavity (Coelomata) from those which did not
+(Acoelomata).
+
+Kovalevsky, it is true, had observed that the body cavity of many
+animals (Amphioxus, Sagitta, Brachiopoda) took its origin in the
+_lateral sacs_ of the digestive cavity, sacs which detach themselves
+from it in order to form the body cavity. But, in order to establish a
+genetic connection between those animals that have a body cavity and
+those which are devoid of it, it was necessary to show the homology of
+corresponding organs in both groups.
+
+Through his researches on the development of Coelomata
+(Echinodermata) on the one hand and Acoelomata (Ctenophora and
+Medusae) on the other, Metchnikoff succeeded in proving that the lateral
+sacs of the digestive cavity which give birth to the body cavity of the
+Coelomata (Echinodermata) correspond to the canals and vaso-digestive
+sacs of the Acoelomata (Ctenophora and Medusae). The difference
+consists in that the latter do not detach themselves in order to form a
+body cavity, which is therefore lacking.
+
+The result of his researches satisfied Metchnikoff; moreover, he began
+to feel again hopeful of his wife's recovery. The only dark spot was
+that Setchenoff's efforts had failed. Metchnikoff was not appointed
+by the Faculty of Medicine, for it was found advisable to replace the
+Chair of Zoology by one on Venereal Diseases. On the other hand, he
+was nominated for the Odessa University, supported by Cienkovsky and
+unanimously elected.
+
+As he only had to go to his new post in the autumn, he went for the
+summer to St. Vaast in Normandy to study Lucernaria; unfortunately the
+stay was not a success; the weather was cold and the sea very rough,
+which made the Lucernaria impossible to find. Life conditions were very
+difficult, all the male population being at sea and the women being in
+the fields. In order not to waste this journey he studied Ascidians,
+and found that he had previously been mistaken at Naples when he
+thought that the nervous system of those animals originated from the
+lower embryonic layer. Kovalevsky had been right in affirming the
+contrary, and Elie hastened to write to tell him so.
+
+St. Vaast, open to every wind, was not favourable to the patient, and
+Metchnikoff had to take her away. They went to Russia to stay with her
+parents and then to Panassovka. The doctors having advised a course of
+treatment by "koumiss," or fermented mare's milk prepared in a special
+way by the Tartars, Elie engaged a Tartar servant specially for that
+purpose, but in vain. In spite of every treatment, his wife's health
+was steadily growing worse. The cold at St. Vaast had been followed
+by such a dry heat in Russia that, in order to procure a little
+coolness for the patient, they had to spread wet sheets around her. She
+constantly had high temperatures and frequent attacks of haemorrhage.
+It was obvious that she must leave Russia, and Metchnikoff, obliged to
+rejoin his post at Odessa, asked Mlle. Fedorovitch to go with her to
+Montreux.
+
+The separation was all the harder that all hope of recovery was
+beginning to wane. The patient, however, had been told of the magical
+effect of Madeira in cases of tuberculosis, and she clung to the idea
+as to a plank of safety. Elie resolved to take her there. He set to
+work with renewed ardour in order to obtain the sum necessary for
+the journey; in spite of all his self-denial, his normal resources
+would not have sufficed, and he had recourse to translations and
+literary articles. He had a theme ready, which he developed in a paper
+called _Education from the Anthropological Point of View_--in fact a
+preliminary sketch of his ideas on the disharmonies in human nature.
+In it, he analysed the disharmonies due to the great difference of
+development between the child and the adult: whilst the young of
+animals are very rapidly able to imitate the adults and to live like
+them, the man-child is incapable of it. His brain, especially in
+civilised races, demands a long period of development in order to equal
+that of the adult, whilst certain instincts in the organism mature,
+on the contrary, long before their function is possible. Moreover, a
+child's sensibility is extremely developed whilst his will is by no
+means so. These causes provoke suffering and a series of regrettable
+consequences.
+
+Apart from frenzied efforts and unceasing labour, Metchnikoff was going
+through a painful moral crisis, due to the impossibility of making
+his conduct accord with his convictions. Party intrigues continued
+to be rife at the Odessa University: Poles were being persecuted
+by Nationalists; one professor was refused admission on account of
+his Polish nationality, and Cienkovsky resigned by way of protest.
+Metchnikoff shared his views and longed to follow his example, but was
+prevented by his lack of means and felt it deeply. It also went against
+his conscience to ask for leave as frequently as his wife's condition
+made it necessary.
+
+She wished to see her parents once again before going to Madeira, and
+he took her to Russia for the last time: she never saw her family again.
+
+At last they were able to start. The long journey was very fatiguing,
+the sea voyage was rough, but, when she landed in Madeira, the patient
+thought herself saved. The very next morning Metchnikoff started
+feverishly on a voyage of discovery. Nature on the island was extremely
+beautiful; alone the sight of numerous sick people reminded him of
+suffering and death. The words "a flower-decked grave" haunted his
+mind, and a growing despondency warned him that he had nothing to
+expect from this luxuriant spot. From the aspect of the rocky coast,
+beaten by the waves, he realised that the beach fauna must be very
+poor; his only refuge, research work, was likely to be denied him.
+
+He was advised to hire a small house, which would be cheaper than
+a boarding-house, and he did find a pretty furnished villa with a
+garden; it was beyond his means, but a young Russian named Mertens,
+who had been a fellow-traveller, proposed to share it with them. The
+arrangement proved highly satisfactory, and Mertens, at first merely an
+agreeable neighbour, became a close friend.
+
+Before leaving for Madeira, Metchnikoff had obtained a scientific
+mission and a subsidy from the Society of Natural Science Lovers of
+Moscow, and felt it a moral obligation to obtain some results. The
+scantiness of the marine fauna was a bitter disappointment; he had
+to fall back upon what little he found, and embarked on the study,
+hitherto unknown, of the embryology of Myriapoda. But this research
+work brought him a new source of torment instead of satisfaction: he
+could not master the technique, which proved to be very difficult, and
+this irritated him; his failures disappointed him, made him vexed with
+himself; his nerves, already strung to the highest point by suffering
+and anxiety, made the disappointment unbearable. On the other hand,
+the external aspect of life formed a striking contrast with the state
+of his mind. A wealth of natural beauty, all flowers and perfumes, in
+an incomparable site, congenial surroundings and home comforts formed
+the frame for these two young lives, of which one was waning whilst the
+other was spent in a useless struggle to save it.
+
+Metchnikoff's natural pessimism was growing under the influence of
+these painful circumstances. His conception of life was a sombre
+one; he said to himself that the "disharmonies" of human nature must
+infallibly end in a general decadence of humanity. He set forth
+his reflections in an article entitled _The Time for Marriage_, in
+which he discussed the following concrete fact: With the progress of
+civilisation and culture, the time for marriage recedes gradually,
+whereas puberty remains as early as before; the result is that the
+time between puberty and marriage is becoming longer and longer,
+and constitutes a growing period in which there is no harmony. The
+statistics of suicides prove that there is a close connection between
+them and the period of disharmonies.
+
+Whilst he worked, his wife tried to make use of her leisure: she
+interested herself in poor children, sketched flowers, read novels ...
+life flowed peacefully in spite of the underlying drama.
+
+Yet the thought that he was not fulfilling his obligations was
+intolerable to Metchnikoff. He thought of resigning and founding a
+small book-shop at Madeira in order to be independent and not obliged
+to leave his wife, but lack of funds made this plan impossible. In his
+search for new resources, he went to Teneriffe to look for a subject
+for an article. He met with several disappointments on this trip; yet
+he saw the Villa Orotava, with its celebrated giant dragon-tree, which
+had already then been brought down by a storm. He also visited the
+Caves of the Guancios, the primitive inhabitants of the Canary Islands.
+Having gathered the necessary observations, he hastened to return to
+Madeira, where months passed without bringing any change.
+
+The book-shop idea was abandoned as being impracticable and Metchnikoff
+had to return to Odessa, asking his sister-in-law to come to Madeira
+in his place. When she had arrived, he confided the two girls to
+Mertens and to the care of the devoted Dr. Goldschmidt, and went away
+conscious of the uselessness of his efforts and more deeply pessimistic
+than ever.
+
+When he reached Odessa, in October 1872, he found there his friend
+Setchenoff, whom he had previously proposed for a Physiology Lecturer's
+chair, and whose affection was a great comfort to him at this sad time.
+The correspondence between him and his wife during that period is full
+of an infinite tenderness, as if they felt the supreme separation
+coming near, and yearned to express their mutual love.
+
+At the end of January 1873, between two classes, Metchnikoff received
+a letter from his sister-in-law telling him to come in haste if he
+wished to find his wife still living. He delivered his lecture like
+an automaton, then went to obtain his leave and hurried off. He
+accomplished the whole journey without a break. On arriving at Madeira
+he found his wife so changed that he scarcely knew her, and it was
+only through sheer force of will that he kept his alarm from her. She
+suffered so much that she had to be given morphia constantly and could
+no longer leave her bed.
+
+Metchnikoff himself was in very poor health; his eyes were so sensitive
+from overwork that he had to remain in the dark, only going into the
+garden at dusk to observe spiders and snails. Time was progressing
+slowly and miserably, and bringing nothing but anxiety as to the means
+to support this sad existence. Metchnikoff had hoped to receive the
+Baer prize for a zoological work, but did not obtain it: it was refused
+on the pretext that his memoir had been presented in manuscript
+instead of being printed. In reality, the German party had wished to
+give it to a fellow-German.
+
+A friend of his, who sent him the bad news, offered to lend him 300
+roubles, and Metchnikoff accepted; he could now think of nothing but
+holding out till the end.
+
+One morning the patient's condition suddenly became much worse. The
+doctor was sent for in a hurry and declared that it was now a question
+of a few hours.... When Metchnikoff went back to his wife he found her
+with eyes wide open and so full of mortal anguish and utter despair
+that he could bear it no longer and went out hastily, not to show her
+his dismay.
+
+This was his last impression; he never saw her again.
+
+Only half conscious, he walked up and down the drawing-room, opening
+and closing books without seeing them, his mind full of disconnected
+pictures; he wondered to himself how his family would hear the news.
+Time passed without his realising it. Then his sister-in-law came to
+tell him that all was over. This was on the 20th April 1873.
+
+Metchnikoff's feelings were complex: a mixture of crushing despair and
+of relief at the thought that the terrible agony was at last ended....
+During the whole of the sad first night he sat with his sister-in-law
+in a distant room, talking of those things which are only mentioned
+in moments such as these. When Dr. Goldschmidt came in the morning
+to offer Metchnikoff his sympathy and help he found him apparently
+almost calm. Metchnikoff asked him to make a post-mortem examination
+of the deceased and to look after her sister. A Scottish minister
+came to bring religious comfort and to exhort him to look there for
+consolation. Metchnikoff thanked him, but firmly assured him that it
+was not possible to him.
+
+The funeral took place two days later; he did not attend it and did not
+see the corpse. Immediately after the funeral he left Madeira with his
+sister-in-law. Being no longer anxious to economise, he took with him
+a sick young Russian who wished to see his mother again and could not
+afford the journey.
+
+After the catastrophe, Metchnikoff felt incapable of thinking of the
+future, his life seemed cut off at one blow; he destroyed his papers
+and reserved a phial of morphia, without any settled intention. They
+journeyed back through Spain; it was during the Carlist insurrection,
+and several episodes on the way distracted their attention. Elie and
+his sister-in-law reached Geneva, where they found Leo Metchnikoff
+and several relations, among whom he seems to have recovered himself.
+He even related some of their travelling experiences, meetings with
+Carlists, frontier incidents, etc., with some spirit. But his apparent
+calm concealed black despair.
+
+He said to himself: "Why live? My private life is ended; my eyes are
+going; when I am blind I can no longer work, then why live?" Seeing no
+issue to his situation, he absorbed the morphia. He did not know that
+too strong a dose, by provoking vomiting, eliminates the poison. Such
+was the case with him. He fell into a sort of torpor, of extraordinary
+comfort and absolute rest; in spite of this comatose state he remained
+conscious and felt no fear of death. When he became himself again, it
+was with a feeling of dismay. He said to himself that only a grave
+illness could save him, either by ending in death or by awaking the
+vital instinct in him. In order to attain his object, he took a very
+hot bath and then exposed himself to cold. As he was coming back by the
+Rhone bridge, he suddenly saw a cloud of winged insects flying around
+the flame of a lantern. They were Phryganidae, but in the distance he
+took them for Ephemeridae, and the sight of them suggested the following
+reflection: "How can the theory of natural selection be applied to
+these insects? They do not feed and only live a few hours; they are
+therefore not subject to the struggle for existence, they do not have
+time to adapt themselves to surrounding conditions."
+
+His thoughts turned towards Science; he was saved; the link with life
+was re-established.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+
+  Anthropological expedition to the Kalmuk steppes--Affection of the
+  eyes--Second expedition to the steppes--The eggs of the _Geophilus_.
+
+
+After the misfortune which had befallen him Metchnikoff placed his
+only hope in work, and the condition of his eyes was therefore for
+him a source of great preoccupation. He applied to the Petersburg
+Geographical Society for an anthropological mission in order to
+undertake researches less trying to his eyesight than microscopical
+work.
+
+As he went deeper into anthropology, he was struck by the fact that
+this science lacked a leading thread and was guided by no general idea
+but reduced to mere measurements, very precise and detailed, it is
+true. Metchnikoff wondered whether it would not be advisable to apply
+to anthropology the methods used in embryology and to establish an
+analogy between the diverse human races and the different ages of the
+individual. In order to solve this problem he had thought at first of
+visiting the Samoyedes as being the most primitive of the aboriginal
+peoples of Russia. But the project was not realisable and he determined
+to visit, at his own expense, the Kalmuks of the Astrakhan steppes,
+also a primitive Mongol race.
+
+Before his departure he went to see his family and that of his late
+wife. Long afterwards his sister-in-law, Mlle. Fedorovitch, wrote me
+the following account of that interview:
+
+  He was still suffering from an inflammation of the eyes. This man,
+  whom I cannot picture to myself without a microscope or a book, was,
+  at that sad period of his life, reduced to complete inactivity.
+  We had always been struck with his power of becoming absorbed in
+  scientific reading, even during meals; it inconvenienced no one, for
+  he heard at the same time the conversation that was going on and even
+  took part in it from time to time. Now, the day after his arrival,
+  I came to call him to tea and found him seated in his darkened room
+  with scissors in his hands and the floor around him littered with
+  small pieces of paper ... such was the occupation to which he was
+  reduced.
+
+  He told me that, if I liked, he would come to live in Moscow and
+  devote his life and his work to our family. I refused and told him
+  why; my refusal grieved him, but I was right. Besides a feeling of
+  generosity, his offer was actuated by a desire for an immediate
+  object in life. Soon after that, he started for the Kalmuk steppes in
+  order to undertake anthropological researches. I was often haunted by
+  the thought of his sad figure in the midst of the steppes.
+
+The journey was difficult and fatiguing. Metchnikoff did not know the
+Kalmuk language and had to depend on interpreters. From the very first
+he was painfully impressed by the brutality of the Russian officials
+towards the natives. At every halt the Kalmuks declared that they had
+no horses; the Cossack who convoyed Metchnikoff would then begin to
+swear and to play with his "nagaika" or leather-thonged whip, and the
+required horses appeared as by magic. After a while Metchnikoff became
+used to such scenes and looked upon them as a custom of the country.
+He found it more difficult to put up with the indescribable dirt, the
+smell of mutton fat which impregnated the food, and the continual
+barking of dogs during the night, details which destroyed the charm and
+poetry of primitive life. In spite of these unfavourable conditions,
+Metchnikoff worked indefatigably. The physical measurements of the
+Kalmuks led him to conclude that the development of the Mongol race
+was arrested in comparison with that of the Caucasian race; he found
+that all the relative proportions of the diverse parts of the Kalmuk
+skeleton corresponded with that of youth in the Caucasian race: a large
+head, a long torso, short legs, absolutely the relative dimensions of
+our children. This conclusion was further confirmed by the structure of
+the eyelid in the Kalmuks, of which the fold (epicanthus) in the adult
+corresponds with that of the fold of the eyelid in our children.
+
+These interesting results somewhat raised Metchnikoff's _moral_,
+the more so that his eyesight began to improve; he returned to
+Odessa but found that he was still unable to use a microscope. He
+therefore decided to go back to the steppes in order to proceed with
+his researches, and, this time, began his journey by the Stavropol
+province. The steppes there are very fine, with tall, luxuriant grasses
+and a profusion of flowers filling the pure atmosphere with perfume;
+the infinite space and absolute calm offer a peculiar and powerful
+charm. But the population is depressed and apathetic, as is the case
+with that of the Astrakhan steppes. The reason must be that the Kalmuks
+consume milk which has undergone alcoholic fermentation, and that
+provokes a slight but chronic intoxication. Yet a few among them are
+extremely intelligent and of fairly high culture. Thus, in the course
+of his ethnographical researches Metchnikoff came across a priest
+(baksha) who imparted to him such instructive facts on the principles
+of the Buddhist religion and on the organisation of its clergy that he
+even planned to go with him to Thibet, where no stranger can penetrate
+without the help of an adept. This plan, however, was never executed.
+
+After he had collected numerous anthropological data, Metchnikoff went
+again to the Astrakhan steppes in order to verify and to complete his
+observations of the preceding year. Whilst traversing some oases where
+the Russians were making experiments in artificial forestry, he had the
+pleasant surprise of finding some Myriapoda (_Geophilus_) bearing a
+number of eggs. The history of the development of those creatures was
+still unknown--a notable lacuna in embryology. Delighted at the idea
+of filling it, Metchnikoff did not hesitate to undertake a long and
+difficult extra journey and repaired to Astrakhan, taking with him his
+precious material, in order to fetch the necessary apparatus for his
+researches. But during the long journey several eggs perished and he
+had to return to the oasis with a borrowed microscope to study other
+eggs on the spot. In spite of very difficult conditions and of the
+persistent weakness of his eyesight, he succeeded in filling the lacuna
+in the embryology of the _Geophilus_.
+
+He had at the same time collected very interesting anthropological
+data. His hypothesis as to the necessity of applying to anthropology
+the comparative methods of embryology was fully justified, for, thanks
+to that process, he was able to establish a definite correlation
+between the Mongol race and the adolescence of the Caucasian race. He
+presented a report on the subject to the Anthropological Society of
+Moscow, but, his attention being afterwards turned in other directions,
+he never came back to this subject.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV
+
+                                    "As to thee, Hector, thou art to
+                                  me as a father and a revered mother
+                                  and a brother, and thou art my
+                                  husband."--_The Iliad._
+
+  Studies on childhood--The family in the upper flat--Lessons in
+  zoology--Second marriage--Private life--Visit and death of Lvovna
+  Nevahovna--Conjugal affection.
+
+
+Metchnikoff's anthropological researches led him to the study of
+childhood, which in its turn suggested reflections on questions of
+Pedagogy. His eyesight was still weak and his hunger for activity very
+great; in order to satisfy it, he gave lessons in a Lycee and public
+lectures in the Odessa University. Though time was passing, Metchnikoff
+could not get used to his solitude; he spent his active kindness on his
+friends and all around him, whilst living like an ascetic and giving
+away all that he could spare. But nothing could quench his thirst for a
+family life and affectionate intimacy.
+
+My family at that time lived in the same house as he did, on the floor
+above him; we were eight children, our ages ranging from one to sixteen
+years. We were noisy neighbours and we incommoded Metchnikoff, who was
+awakened every morning by the noise in our kitchen, where meat was
+being minced for the children. One fine day he could stand it no longer
+and went upstairs to ask if this nuisance could not be stopped; my
+father promised that he would see that it ceased. We were all seated
+round the tea-table when he came in, and, seeing a stranger, my sister
+and I hurriedly collected our lesson books, and hastened to leave the
+room. We did not even have time to distinguish Metchnikoff's features,
+but were struck by his paleness. Shortly after that incident we met him
+at the house of a mutual friend. He had already seen us from his window
+as we went off to the Lycee, and it used to amuse him to see us bravely
+stepping over a large pool of water which was permanent in the street.
+
+One of his pupils was a professor in our Lycee, and Elie had the
+opportunity of informing himself concerning our studies. Having heard
+that I was interested in natural science, it occurred to him to offer
+to give me lessons in zoology. I was delighted. He asked and obtained
+permission from my parents, and we eagerly set to work. Elie, being
+strongly attracted by me, returned to his former idea of training a
+girl according to his own ideas and afterwards making her his wife. He
+might have realised his programme of completing my education first and
+marrying me afterwards if he had not been prevented by the complete
+lack of accord between his ideas and those of my father. It was the
+eternal conflict of two generations, "fathers and children." My father
+was an excellent man, of great nobility of character, but he was a
+type of the old Russian patrician school and belonged to a different
+epoch, with different opinions and customs. This caused inevitable and
+frequent disagreements, and Elie decided to ask for my hand without
+further delay.
+
+My mother was much younger than my father, and her sympathies
+were all with the young generation. She was an idealist, gentle,
+intelligent and artistic, and, in her youth, had painted and played the
+violoncello, but a very early marriage and numerous children had forced
+her to give up the practice of art, to her lifelong regret. Great
+sympathy arose between her and Elie; she supported him in everything
+and became for him a tenderly attached friend. He explained to her his
+theories on marriage, and then confided to her his feelings towards
+me. My extreme youth troubled her very much, but Elie endeavoured to
+reassure her, saying that he fully understood the rashness of his
+projects, but that he was ready to suffer all the consequences; in
+fact, he declared, if he did not succeed in making me happy, he would
+have the strength to help me to create another existence for myself. I
+had not suspected my Professor's feelings towards me, and was deeply
+moved when I was told of them; it seemed to me impossible to understand
+that this superior, this learned man could wish to marry a little girl
+like myself! I thought with terror that he must be mistaken about me;
+I felt as if I were going up for an examination without any previous
+study. However, I had a great affection and admiration for Elie; I was
+attracted by his whole personality, which produced a strong impression
+upon others as well as upon myself. This is how Setchenoff describes
+him, in his own autobiography:
+
+  Elie Metchnikoff was the soul of our circle. Of all the young men I
+  have known in my life, young Metchnikoff was the most attractive with
+  his lively intelligence, inexhaustible wit and abundant knowledge
+  of all things. He was, in Science, as serious and as productive (he
+  had already done much in zoology and acquired a great name in that
+  branch) as he was full of life and varied interest in a circle of
+  friends.
+
+Moreover, my young imagination was impressed by his sad history and by
+his interesting appearance, at that time not unlike a figure of Christ;
+his pale face was illumined by the light in his kindly eyes, which at
+times looked absolutely inspired. My whole heart went out to him, but I
+was not yet ripe for matrimony and was somewhat thrown off my balance
+by the unexpectedness of the event. Fearing that I was not up to his
+level, I used to try beforehand to find worthy subjects of conversation
+in order that he should not feel bored in my society, but everything
+I thought of seemed to me so clumsy and stupid that I rejected one
+subject after another until he came and found me at a loss. He could
+not understand how deeply I was troubled, and cannot have been
+satisfied with my attitude, which really was that of a zealous pupil.
+
+Our marriage took place in February 1875; it was a very cold winter and
+the ground was covered with a thick coating of glistening snow. A few
+hours before the ceremony my brothers came with a little hand sledge
+to fetch me for a last ride. "Come quick," they said, "this evening
+you will be a grown-up lady, and you can't play with us any more!" I
+agreed, and we rushed out to the snowy carpet which covered the great
+yard of our house. In the midst of our mad race my mother appeared
+at the window; she had been looking for me everywhere and was much
+disturbed. "My dear child! what are you thinking of? It is late, you
+have hardly time to dress and to do your hair!" "One more turn, mother!
+It is the last time, think of it!" Other childish emotions awaited me;
+my wedding-dress was the first long dress I had ever worn, and I feared
+to stumble as I walked. Then, too, I was frightened at the idea of
+entering the church under the eyes of all the guests. My little brother
+tried to reassure me by offering to hold my hand, and my mother made me
+drink some chocolate to give me courage.
+
+Elie was awaiting us at the entrance; my shyness increased when I heard
+people whispering around us, "Why, she is a mere child!" The ceremony
+took place in the evening, after which Elie wrapped me carefully in
+a long warm cloak and we set off, the sledge gliding like the wind,
+towards our new home. In spite of the day's emotions, I rose very
+early the next morning in order to work at my zoology exercises and to
+give my husband a pleasant surprise. He was now free to superintend my
+education, a very difficult and delicate task when having to do with a
+mind as unprepared for life as mine was.
+
+The scientific methods which Metchnikoff applied to everything might
+have constituted a grave error at this delicate psychological moment;
+yet, in many ways, he showed himself a strangely clear-sighted
+educator. He made it a principle to give me entire liberty whilst
+directing me through the logic of his arguments. It is with deep
+gratitude that I realise how he, so superior to me, took care not to
+stifle my fragile individuality but to respect it and to encourage
+it to develop. Like all Russian young people of the time, I was very
+enthusiastic concerning political and social questions that I was not
+mature enough to understand, and my father forbade us to frequent
+political circles with which he had no sympathy, fearing that we might
+be influenced by them. Elie, on the contrary, left me full liberty,
+though he himself disapproved of my tendencies. He considered that
+political and social questions belonged to the realm of practical
+experience, in which young people were lacking, as also in practical
+preparation. He never prevented me from making myself acquainted with
+the social movement, but submitted it to close analysis and criticism;
+it is owing to this very efficacious method that I did not become one
+of the numerous political victims of that time.
+
+Elie took a lively and warm interest in everything which concerned
+me. Not having had time to pass my final examinations from the Lycee
+before my marriage, I was now obliged to go up before a special board
+for the whole curriculum. He helped me to prepare this, even the
+catechism, with the utmost keenness and gaiety, enlivening the driest
+subjects by means of interesting and instructive reading. I was glad to
+continue my biological studies under his direction after I had passed
+my examinations. Not only did he give a general interest, a leading
+thread, to every particular subject, but he also knew how to develop
+independent work. For instance, he made me compare representative
+examples of divers groups by practical study in order to let me deduce
+for myself their characteristics and their generic connections.
+
+And it was not my education only which interested him; he associated me
+with every detail of his life and initiated me into his thoughts and
+his work; we read together a great deal, he had an excellent delivery
+and liked reading aloud.
+
+He thoroughly enjoyed giving me pleasure; we often went to concerts
+and theatres, and beautiful music or dramatic scenes moved him even to
+tears. Musical themes haunted him, and he would whistle them softly
+to himself even at his work. Without caring for luxury, he was glad
+to contribute to the simple embellishment of our home because he knew
+I appreciated it. When we travelled, always with scientific research
+as an object, he never failed to point out every interesting feature
+that we happened to pass. He had a peculiar talent for making a journey
+instructive as well as attractive; his eagerness, infectious gaiety,
+inquisitive mind, and remarkable organising faculty made of him an
+incomparable guide and companion.
+
+We worked together for many years; it was both delightful and
+profitable to work with him, for he opened out his ideas unreservedly
+and made one share his enthusiasm and his interest in investigations;
+he could create an atmosphere of intimate union in the search for truth
+which allowed the humblest worker to feel himself a collaborator in an
+exalted task.
+
+Though I always took a strong interest in scientific questions, Art
+was the real passion of my life. But, imbued as I was with the narrow,
+utilitarian views which surrounded my youth, I had looked upon Art as
+a luxury which should not be indulged in at a time when the poorer
+classes could not read and write. When at last I became emancipated
+from this fallacy, my husband did his best to encourage my artistic
+development though he himself did not appreciate plastic art. Form and
+colour in themselves or in harmony did not appeal to him; he took much
+more interest in a subject than in the way it was treated; he liked
+psychological or realistic work, landscapes, "genre" pictures, but
+classical, Renaissance, or Impressionist works bored him. In spite of
+the divergence of our tastes in that connection, he never ceased to
+encourage me or to take an active interest in my work; often and often
+he accompanied me to picture galleries, making sincere and somewhat
+pathetic efforts to appreciate the beauty of great masterpieces.
+
+Next to music he enjoyed Nature most, perhaps because it offered him
+an inexhaustible source of scientific observation. His wearied nerves
+caused him to seek for soothing impressions, and calm, quiet ponds were
+what he preferred, with their reeds and aquatic plants, among which he
+loved to discover tiny beings, hidden under the leaves and below the
+surface of the water.
+
+Teaching and public work took up nearly the whole of his time;
+his leisure was devoted to home life and to an intimate circle of
+friends with whom he was bound by a common scientific fervour and by
+a University life. He kept up those friendships even after life had
+scattered them. His active kindness made him a centre of attraction
+to his relations and we were always very much surrounded. After his
+father died, in 1878, his mother and two of her grandchildren came to
+live with us. She was at that time sixty-four years of age and had the
+appearance of an old lady; she did not follow the fashion but wore her
+white hair simply parted and framing her face; alone her fine dark
+eyes had preserved their youthful sparkle and bore witness to her
+former beauty. She had a bright and cheerful disposition and a charming
+kindliness to every one; her desire for activity was unfortunately
+thwarted by the state of her health.
+
+Elie showed his mother a tender solicitude which manifested itself in
+the smallest details; for instance, he who detested cards would play
+Patience with her; or he would drive her round the markets, which
+interested her like the good housekeeper she was. When he came in from
+the laboratory he never failed to go to her to ask her for details
+of her health; he talked to her playfully and affectionately, making
+her laugh, telling her the incidents of the day. She continued to be
+interested in everything, especially that which concerned her dear
+Elie, the "consolation of her life," as she called him.
+
+In spite of his affection for his mother, he bore her almost sudden
+death very stoically, knowing as he did that the grave heart disease
+from which she suffered was bound to cause her increasing pain.
+
+My family became his, and the relations between him and my father
+became such that the latter, feeling ill and nearing his end, made
+him our guardian. Until the last my mother preserved for my husband
+a tender friendship which he fully returned. For years he bore the
+burden and responsibilities of the family. With my young brothers and
+sisters he kept up a tone of merry affection; always indulgent with
+them, he was anxious to neglect nothing that could be useful. Though
+ever led by the desire to procure happiness around him, it sometimes
+happened that he made a mistake in his appreciation and failed to
+reach his goal. The human soul is a riddle, life is complicated, and
+we ought not always to judge by results but by motives.... As far as I
+am personally concerned, his affection, kindness, and solicitude have
+always been unbounded. If during early years a few misunderstandings
+arose between us, they were due to my youthful obstinacy or to his
+nervous sensitiveness. We had our trials, but our friendship and deep
+affection emerged from them stronger and purer than ever. At a certain
+time, Elie, believing that happiness called me elsewhere, offered me
+my liberty, urging that I had a moral right to it. The nobility of his
+attitude was the best safeguard.... As years went on, our lives became
+more and more united; we lived in deep communion of souls, for we had
+reached that stage of mutual comprehension when darkness flees and all
+is light.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+
+  Metchnikoff at the age of thirty--Lecturing in Odessa University,
+  from 1873 to 1882--Internal difficulties--Assassination of the Tsar,
+  Alexander II.--Further troubles in the University--Resignation--Bad
+  health: cardiac symptoms--Relapsing fever--Choroiditis--Studies
+  on Ephemeridae--Further studies on intracellular digestion--The
+  _Parenchymella_--Holidays in the country--Experiments on agricultural
+  pests.
+
+
+Elie Metchnikoff was now thirty years old, and his personality was
+fully characterised though it had not yet reached the culminating point
+of its development.
+
+His dominating point was his passionate vocation; his worship of
+Science and of Reason made of him an inspired apostle. He had the
+faults and qualities of a rich and powerful nature. Vibrating through
+all the fibres of his being, he shed life and light around him. His
+temper was violent and passionate; he could bear no attack on the ideas
+which were dear to him, and became combative as soon as he thought them
+threatened. His was a wrestler's temperament; obstacles exasperated
+his energy and he went straight for them, pursuing his object with an
+invincible tenacity; he never gave up a problem, however difficult, and
+never hesitated to face any sacrifice or any privation if he thought
+them necessary.
+
+A strange contradiction with this iron will was offered by occasional
+disconcerting impulses, like that which caused the failure of his
+first journey abroad, or by sudden attacks of fury for insignificant
+reasons such as an unexpected noise in the street, a cat mewing or a
+dog barking, or angry impatience when he could not solve a frivolous
+puzzle, etc. This impulsive disposition gradually calmed down as he
+grew older, and ultimately very nearly disappeared.
+
+In his personal relations also he was apt to lose his temper, but
+a reaction very soon followed the outburst, and his efforts to be
+forgiven when he felt guilty were very touching. On the other hand,
+he did not easily forget an offence, though no desire for revenge
+ever soiled his soul, and his gratitude for kindness was absolutely
+indestructible.
+
+He harboured pessimistic theories to that extent that he looked upon
+the procreation of other lives as a crime on the part of a conscious
+being; his physical and moral sensitiveness was intense. And yet he had
+inherited from his mother a natural gaiety and delightful elasticity
+which always ended by gaining the upper hand. He was fond of joking;
+his wit was occasionally somewhat cutting, but that was entirely due
+to the appropriateness of his remarks; he never hurt people's feelings
+intentionally. He sometimes gave offence by a professional habit of
+using personal and concrete instances by way of arguments, but he
+applied the process to himself as well; it was the objective method,
+nothing more, and those who knew him well never doubted it.
+
+His benevolence was most active and never insipid, though marked by
+an almost feminine sensibility. He was an incomparable companion and
+friend, and had the gift of smoothing difficulties and inspiring
+courage, security, and confidence. He took the greatest interest in
+others and easily came down to their level, always finding points in
+common, "an opportunity for the study of human documents," he said.
+Thus he conversed simply and sympathetically with the humble as with
+the great, with the young as with the old. It was no mere intellectual
+interest that he bore them, but he put his whole heart into it, which
+made him extremely easy to approach. And yet he never departed from
+absolute freedom of speech, sometimes mixed with harshness. Truth and
+sincerity, for him, came above everything; he carried the courage of
+his opinions to the highest degree, even if it was likely to shock
+his hearers or to do him harm. He jealously guarded his independence
+and nothing could force him to act against his convictions. Full of
+enthusiasm, always interesting, he enlivened all around him. His ideas
+and his activity were in constant effervescence; no serious question
+left him indifferent; he read everything, knew about almost everything,
+and willingly informed others; his vibrating expansiveness made him a
+centre of attraction in his private life as in the laboratory or in any
+other sphere of activity.
+
+From 1873 to 1882 his energies were chiefly absorbed by teaching and by
+the inner life of the University of Odessa, into which he threw himself
+with his usual enthusiasm. His lectures were full of life, always
+bringing out general ideas to throw light upon the most arid facts; he
+made use of these as an architect utilises coarse materials in order
+to erect a harmonious edifice. His creative power endowed his lectures
+with an aesthetic character in spite of their extreme simplicity; not
+that he concerned himself much about form, but because of his wealth
+of ideas and the logical way in which he developed them, starting from
+the simple and reaching the complex in a harmonious synthesis. His own
+enthusiasm established a living bond between him and his audience.
+
+He was on excellent terms with the students, though he made no bid for
+popularity. Not only did he give no encouragement to the prevailing
+tendency of the young men towards politics, but he endeavoured on the
+contrary to bring them back to their studies; he tried to prove to
+them that social problems demand knowledge and a serious practical
+preparation. Otherwise, said he, social life would be as medicine was
+before it entered into the path of science, and when any middle-aged
+woman, any bone-setter, was allowed to practise therapeutics. At the
+same time, students found in him willing protection in the persecutions
+directed against them, and earnest help in their work when they showed
+the least interest in it; he would eagerly welcome the smallest spark
+of the "sacred fire."
+
+Owing to the absolute independence of his ideas and conduct he had
+great influence on young men, and this caused him to be looked upon in
+administrative spheres as a "Red"--almost an agitator. In reality he
+was struggling against the inertia and reactionary forces which were
+shackling the normal development of culture and science in Russia. He
+called himself a "progressive evolutionist," for he considered that
+alone a deep and conscious evolution could give stable results and lead
+to real progress. He thought that Revolution, and especially Terrorism,
+merely provoked a reaction which might be long-lived, and that, as
+long as the people were not sufficiently educated, a revolution might
+easily result in the transfer of despotism from one party to another.
+Socialistic doctrines did not satisfy him; according to him, they
+did not leave sufficient scope to personal initiative and to the
+development of individuality, two factors which he considered as
+essential to every progress.
+
+He looked upon scientific work as his mission, and avoided politics
+because he did not think himself competent to deal with them. But
+scientific activity being closely limited by the state of the
+University, which was badly oppressed at that time by reactionary
+powers, he was led to take part in the defence of the University's
+right to autonomy. He brought all his energies into the struggle,
+though trying to keep from party tactics and to act purely in the
+interests of science. For instance, he would vote either for a Radical
+or a Conservative without sharing the opinions of either, but merely
+guided by their scientific value.
+
+At the beginning of his scientific career at Odessa he led a very
+active campaign in favour of the teaching of Natural Science. He urged
+that, in order to teach properly, Natural History professors should
+themselves have made independent researches on living fauna and flora,
+and tried to introduce a series of measures to allow biologists special
+holidays and missions to desirable places, at the proper seasons, for
+research purposes. "There is no doubt," he said, "that scientific
+activity would be much increased if the proposed measures were adopted.
+Then, before long, our young scientists would not need to go to
+study in German universities, but could go abroad already prepared
+to undertake independent research." The Commission which examined
+his report demanded certain modifications, "because of the Imperial
+injunction to be very strict in granting travelling permits to
+professors." Metchnikoff somewhat altered the text, which, after being
+adopted by the University Council, was rejected by the Ministry and
+remained without effect. Thus was every independent suggestion stifled,
+even when it had but a purely scientific object.
+
+Soon the situation of the Odessa University became even more difficult.
+Between 1875 and 1880 reaction increased considerably, and the inner
+life of the University became very unfavourable to any scientific
+activity. Already before that it was teeming with intrigues, the
+Professors of Ukrainian origin being hostile to the "Muscovites." Yet
+it was still possible to remain apart from these local intrigues, until
+political reaction, filtering into the University, created in it the
+deepest divisions. The hostility of parties was now based on political
+opinions, either "Reactionary" or "Liberal." The students were being
+more and more carried away by this movement and no longer took any
+interest in their studies.
+
+All these conditions made normal teaching and scientific work
+impossible, and Metchnikoff, seeing that politics from above and
+from below now swallowed up everything, tried to take refuge in
+his laboratory but in vain; even there he could no longer find the
+necessary calm, and only during the holidays could he really work.
+
+Thus passed the years until March 1, 1881, when the crime which ended
+the days of Alexander II. was followed by a great reactionary movement.
+The authorities, seeing conspiracies and plots everywhere, persecuted
+without cause all the elements which were ticketed as "dangerous."
+Though the University still preserved its autonomy, this was entirely
+fictitious, for the Ministry thwarted every desire for independence;
+the nomination of professors elected by the University Council was only
+ratified by the Ministry if they were reactionaries, without any regard
+for their scientific value. Soon the Chairs were occupied by ignorant
+men of doubtful morality.
+
+The life and honour of the University became endangered, and
+Metchnikoff found himself obliged to take part in the struggle; he did
+so with vehemence and energy; the independence of the University was
+involved, and, as long as he could hope to save it, he struggled. At
+the meetings of the Council and of the Faculty he never failed to give
+vent to his critical opinions with a vehement frankness which earned
+him in the University the reputation of an "_enfant terrible_." In the
+meanwhile every resolution passed by the Council, if not reactionary
+in character, was systematically quashed by the Ministry, which thus
+paralysed every means of action, and Metchnikoff found himself faced
+with the alternative of submitting or handing in his resignation. He
+decided for the latter: his convictions were involved, and moreover his
+health could not withstand the continual agitation and strain on his
+nerves.
+
+As we could not afford to live in independence, he applied for a
+vacant post of entomologist in the _zemstvo_[13] of Poltava, and at the
+same time wrote out his resignation, holding it in readiness for an
+opportunity which was not long in coming.
+
+  [13] Rural administration.
+
+The Conservative party in the Faculty arose against a Liberal professor
+who had accepted a very clever thesis in which the Reactionaries
+perceived Socialist tendencies. The Dean of the Faculty proposed that
+all such theses should be refused, and the Faculty approved. This was
+the signal for a storm in the University, the Dean was hooted by the
+students, and many of them were threatened with being expelled. The
+Curator desired the more influential professors, of whom Metchnikoff
+was one, to intervene with the students in order to bring disorder to
+an end, and the professors consented, on condition that the offending
+Dean should resign. The Curator promised that he should be asked to do
+so, and order was immediately restored; but the Dean remained and many
+students were severely and unjustly punished. Metchnikoff thereupon
+produced his resignation, which was promptly accepted, and thus his
+University career came to an end.
+
+Besides his University lectures, he gave public lectures on Natural
+History which were attended by a number of female students, for women
+at that time were only admitted to the Faculty of Medicine, and these
+lectures were extremely useful to them. Metchnikoff, though he did
+not believe that women could accomplish creative work in science,
+was strongly in favour of higher education for women, considering
+it as necessary to their general intellectual development. Genius,
+he thought, was peculiar to the male sex, no woman having created
+anything "of genius" even in domains which had always been accessible
+to them, such as music, literature, and the applied arts. The very rare
+exceptions, to his mind, only proved the rule; yet he did not draw the
+conclusion that woman was in any sense inferior to man. He merely held
+that her gifts are different from those of men.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Metchnikoff's health had been seriously shaken by the emotions and
+annoyances of university life. Already in 1877, after political
+intrigues at the University, he had felt the first symptoms of cardiac
+trouble, which were the beginning of a long period of ill-health. He
+consulted Bamberger, a great Viennese physician, who, however, found
+nothing serious, and merely forbade him the use of wine and tobacco, to
+neither of which was he addicted.
+
+His health suffered further through the violent anxiety which he went
+through in 1880 whilst I lay dangerously ill with typhoid fever,
+contracted in Naples. Though worn out with devoted nursing, he tried
+to make up the time lost to research and over-worked himself, with
+the result that cardiac trouble was followed by fits of giddiness and
+unconquerable insomnia. He fell into such a state of neurasthenia that,
+in 1881, he resolved in a moment of depression to do away with his life.
+
+In order to spare his family the sorrow of an obvious suicide, he
+inoculated himself with relapsing fever, choosing this disease in order
+to ascertain at the same time whether it could be inoculated through
+the blood. The answer was in the affirmative: he became very seriously
+ill. His condition was aggravated by anxiety concerning the University;
+for he was sufficiently conscious to be aware of the events which
+were taking place in Russia. The murder of Alexander II. caused him
+to foresee a political reaction of the most terrible type; already, a
+reactionary Rector had been appointed. Metchnikoff developed intense
+jaundice and had a serious relapse with alarming cardiac weakness;
+during the crisis he had a very distinct prevision of approaching
+death. This semi-conscious state was accompanied by a feeling of great
+happiness; he imagined that he had solved all human ethical questions.
+Much later, this fact led him to suppose that death could actually be
+attended by agreeable sensations.
+
+His robust nature, however, triumphed over all these grave
+complications, and, during his convalescence, he was filled with a joy
+of living such as he had never experienced before; from that moment
+his moral and physical balance was completely restored. There was one
+unpleasant sequel to his illness, an acute affection of the sight
+(choroiditis), but it fortunately disappeared without leaving any
+traces, and, in fact, he never suffered again from his eyes, in spite
+of his constant use of the microscope.
+
+After his recovery he had a renascence of vital intensity; the
+life instinct developed in him in a high degree; his health became
+flourishing, his energy and power for work greater than ever, and the
+pessimism of his youth began to pale before the optimistic dawn of his
+maturity. However, the relapsing fever had very probably increased, if
+not started, the cardiac trouble which eventually caused his death.
+
+During the time when Metchnikoff was forbidden the use of the
+microscope on account of his eye weakness, he studied Ephemeridae from
+the point of view of natural selection. He wished to elucidate the
+manner in which this selection operates during the very short life of
+those insects: the rudimentary structure of their buccal organs does
+not allow them to feed themselves, and they have no time to adapt
+themselves to external conditions.
+
+During the 1875 holidays, at Gmunden and on the Danube, he observed
+the nuptial flight of the mayflies, a phenomenon which constitutes
+their short adult existence, preceded by a long period in the larval
+state. Thousands of these diaphanous, ephemeral insects swarm above
+the water in a compact cloud; now and then, dead Ephemeridae fall like
+snow-flakes, and that is the final and tragic completion of the nuptial
+flight. Metchnikoff wished to unveil the mechanism of this sudden
+death, evidently due to a physiological cause; but he obtained no
+definite results either that year or the following, when he continued
+his observations in the Caucasus. He realised that the life of these
+insects was too short to allow him to solve the problems which
+interested him, and, his eyes now being cured, he went back to his
+studies on the origin of multicellular beings or _metazoa_.
+
+He studied the development of inferior sponges and ascertained that
+they possess the three embryonic layers which correspond to those of
+other animal types, but that these layers have not the same degree of
+independence or differentiation. He found that in certain inferior
+sponges the mesoderm develops before the endoderm and gives birth
+to it. These two layers, born one from the other, manifest common
+primordial characters. Therefore he was in no wise surprised to
+discover that, in these inferior sponges, the amoeboid and mobile
+cells of the mesoderm fulfil digestive functions equally with,
+and even more than those of the endoderm; in fact, with primitive
+beings, functional characters are not more strictly delimitated than
+morphological characters. It is only a more advanced differentiation
+which separates them.
+
+He connected these new facts with that which he had observed in 1865
+in one of the lower worms, the earth planarian _Geodesmus bilineatus_.
+This worm is actually without a digestive cavity, for the latter is
+entirely filled by parenchymatous cells inside which digestion takes
+place.
+
+By their primitive structure, lower sponges and worms come near the
+higher Infusoria, to which they are even more closely related by this
+intercellular digestion which is common to them.
+
+This led Metchnikoff to ask himself whether this was not, generally
+speaking, _the primitive mode of digestion_. He carried out numerous
+researches on this point during the following years, and found the same
+intercellular digestion in other lower worms, such as the _Mesostoma_
+and aquatic planarians, and afterwards in some lower Coelentera and
+some Echinoderma. He was thus enabled to establish definitely that the
+primitive mode of digestion was really intercellular, for the lower
+multicellular animals either do not possess any digestive cavity or
+else their digestive cavity develops late, as for instance with lower
+jelly-fish or with hydropolypi. Even when the cavity is developed in
+these inferior animals, the digestive functions are fulfilled by the
+mesodermic cells.
+
+The question as to what are the ancestral forms of multicellular
+animals cannot be solved through direct observation, for there is a
+lacuna between them and unicellular beings, a lacuna which is due to
+the disappearance of intermediary forms. It can only be filled by
+hypotheses, based upon the embryology of those animals which, in their
+embryonic development, repeat the inferior forms from which they are
+derived, thus reflecting the general evolution of living beings. It
+was therefore to the embryology of lower multicellular beings that
+Metchnikoff turned, in order to endeavour to reconstitute their origin
+and to show the link between them and unicellular beings.
+
+We know that the _ovule_ or primitive genital cell of every animal
+may be compared to a unicellular organism. After fertilisation the
+egg undergoes consecutive divisions or segmentation; each segment
+constitutes a new cell, and their aggregation forms a hollow sphere
+called a _blastula_, which is similar to a colony of unicellular
+beings. The blastula differentiates itself into embryonic layers, the
+_ectoderm_, _endoderm_, and _mesoderm_ already mentioned.
+
+In the majority of animals the origin of the first two layers, ectoderm
+and endoderm, is due to the invagination of one of the poles of the
+blastula; the invaginated part of the walls forms the internal layer,
+the endoderm, and lines the cavity produced by invagination; this
+cavity thus becomes a _digestive_ cavity. This stage of development,
+called _gastrula_, is similar to a cup with a double wall, of which the
+outer is the ectoderm and the inner the endoderm.
+
+This stage, discovered by Kovalevsky, is to be found in the evolution
+of most animals and corresponds to the adult stage of some of them. It
+was consequently considered as the _primitive type_ of multicellular
+beings.
+
+Haeckel founded thereupon his theory of the _gastraea_, according
+to which the common ancestor of animals was a lower animal, now
+disappeared, and similar to that stage of development. He therefore
+gave to this hypothetical animal the name of _gastraea_.
+
+Metchnikoff, however, discovered among primitive multicellular animals,
+such as sponges, hydroids, and lower medusae, a stage of development
+still more simple than the gastrula; this stage is without a
+digestive cavity and only assumes the gastrula form in its ulterior
+evolution. He also made the remarkable discovery that, in the most
+primitive multicellular animals, the endoderm is formed, not by means
+of invagination, but by the _migration_ of a number of flagellated
+cells from one pole of the wall of the blastula into the central
+cavity. These cells draw in their flagellum, become amoeboid and
+mobile, multiply by division, fill the cavity of the blastula, and
+become capable of digesting. They originate the digestive cells of
+the complete organism and give birth to the mesoderm, which explains
+how the latter comes to contain a number of devouring cells even
+though these do not constitute digestive organs properly so called.
+Metchnikoff gave to that stage the name of _parenchymella_, for
+the migrating cells constitute the endoderm in the condition of a
+parenchyma.
+
+The invariable presence of this stage in the simplest multicellular
+animals, the primitive amoeboid state of the endodermic cells,
+cases of ulterior transformation of the parenchymella into the
+gastrula form in certain animals, the absence of a differentiated
+digestive cavity,--all that proved, according to Metchnikoff, that the
+parenchymella is more primitive than the gastrula, and is therefore
+entitled to be considered the prototype of multicellular beings.
+
+He saw a confirmation of this in the fact that primitive adult animals
+also have no digestive cavity but merely an intracellular digestion
+(sponges, turbellaria).
+
+He concluded that the common ancestor of multicellular beings was a
+being constituted by an agglomeration of cells without a digestive
+cavity, but endowed with intracellular digestion, like that of the
+"parenchymula" stage of development. He therefore gave to that
+hypothetical ancestor the name of _parenchymella_.
+
+Later, in 1886, he definitely formulated his theory of the genesis of
+multicellular beings, and having already stated the phagocyte theory,
+he substituted for the name _parenchymella_ that of _phagocytella_,
+which indicated at the same time the primitive mode of digestion of
+that hypothetical ancestor.
+
+Reduced to its simplest form, it presented, according to Metchnikoff,
+a certain analogy with a colony composed of unicellular beings of two
+kinds: the first, flagellated, forming the external layer, and the
+others, amoeboid, occupying the centre of the colony and capable of
+digesting.
+
+It may be interesting to mention here that, in this hypothetical
+description, Metchnikoff foresaw the existence of similar, but real,
+beings discovered a year later by Saville Kent, namely, the flagellated
+colonies of _Protospongia_.
+
+Thus the link between the unicellular and the multicellular beings
+could be constituted through the intermediary of flagellated colonies
+on the one hand and, on the other hand, of beings similar to a
+_phagocytella_. The _indivisible colony_ became the _multicellular
+individual_.
+
+While studying the genealogy of beings, Metchnikoff continued his
+researches on intracellular digestion. In 1879, at Naples and at
+Messina, he was able to establish the fact that the mesodermic cells
+of many larvae of Echinodermata and Coelenterata, endowed with a
+digestive tube, nevertheless contained strange bodies. Therefore, even
+complicated organisms with a differentiated digestive system could
+still contain at the same time some primitive cells with an autonomous
+digestion.
+
+All these researches on the unity of the origin of multicellular
+beings and their morphological elements, and also those concerning
+intracellular digestion, were gradually preparing Metchnikoff's mind
+for the conception of the phagocyte theory.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We spent the summer of 1880 with my family in the country. The cereals
+were invaded by a harmful beetle, the _Anisoplia austriaca_, which was
+devastating the country. Metchnikoff took the study of this scourge to
+heart and tried to find a remedy. He had, the preceding year, observed
+a dead fly enveloped with a sort of fungus which had evidently been
+the cause of its death. Hence he conceived the idea that it might be
+possible to combat harmful insects by provoking epidemics among them.
+He now returned to this idea; on dead bodies of _Anisoplia_ he found a
+small fungus, the _muscardine_, which was invading the insects by means
+of filaments, and he succeeded in infecting healthy beetles.
+
+At first he confined himself to laboratory experiments; then a great
+landowner, Count Bobrinsky, placed experimental fields at his disposal.
+As the acquired results were very encouraging, Metchnikoff, forced
+to leave the neighbourhood, left a young entomologist in charge of
+the application of his method. So far as he himself was concerned,
+this study proved the starting-point of his researches on infectious
+diseases.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII
+
+  Death of his father- and mother-in-law--Management of country
+  estates--Agitation and difficulties--Departure for Messina with
+  young brothers- and sisters-in-law.
+
+
+In the spring of 1881, Metchnikoff having recovered from relapsing
+fever, we went to stay with my parents at Kieff and found my father
+dying. He entrusted Elie with the care of the family, and they came to
+live with us at Odessa. But, the following year, we had the misfortune
+to lose my mother also. From that moment my husband took upon himself
+the responsibility of the whole family.
+
+Our resources came from landed property, and he, who had never
+concerned himself with rural questions, had to make himself acquainted
+with them. In this he was greatly helped by a neighbour, Count
+Bobrinsky, through whose influence he came to abandon the purely
+theoretical opinions he had hitherto held concerning agrarian
+questions. He had considered communal property as a desirable agrarian
+system: Count Bobrinsky showed him that it was not so, at any rate in
+Little Russia.
+
+Metchnikoff came to the country with the keenest desire to make himself
+useful. First of all he devoted the gratuity which he had received on
+leaving the University, to a school which my sister and myself desired
+to open in our family property. But we were met by administrative
+opposition which nearly wrecked our plan, under the pretext that it was
+intended for political propaganda. And though cordial relations were
+established from the first between Metchnikoff and the peasantry, many
+complications were unavoidable, due to the general agrarian situation,
+to the insufficiency of the peasants' allotments, and to their
+primitive methods of cultivation.
+
+My father, whose property was in the province of Kieff, had inherited
+another domain in that of Kherson; Metchnikoff therefore had to
+manage both estates and to adapt himself to their very different
+respective circumstances. The majority of the farmers in Little Russia
+at that time were Jews and were beginning to be persecuted both by
+the Government and by the peasants; Elie was constantly obliged to
+intervene. In the province of Kherson, it was a tradition with the
+peasants that the land should belong to them, and they imagined that
+this could be brought about by the simple elimination of the farmers.
+Therefore they inflicted constant vexations upon the latter, allowing
+cattle to pasture in their crops, pulling up their beetroots, etc.
+Metchnikoff attempted in vain to re-establish peace by means of
+compromise; he persuaded a farmer to sub-let part of the land to the
+peasants, but this had to be given up, for the latter did not carry out
+their engagements. Relations between the farmers and the peasants were
+getting worse and worse, and Metchnikoff, foreseeing a catastrophe,
+warned the local administration that the situation was getting very
+grave and would lead to irreparable consequences. He was merely told
+that preventive measures would be useless; hereupon the peasants
+brutally murdered a keeper who was turning the cattle away from the
+crops. Then at last the administration awoke, arrested the murderers,
+and twelve men were exiled to Siberia.
+
+All this caused Metchnikoff the deepest anxiety, the more so that he
+was absolutely incapable of altering the situation. As soon as it
+became possible, he sold to the peasants that portion of the land
+which belonged to us personally; until then, the property had been
+common to the whole family, of which the younger members were not yet
+of age. This, however, was not a general solution, and these moral
+preoccupations, as well as the heavy responsibility incumbent upon him,
+kept him from his scientific work. He was therefore very pleased to
+hand over the management of the property to one of my brothers who had
+just completed his studies in a Higher Agricultural School, and, in
+spite of difficult conditions, Elie had the satisfaction of giving up
+everything in good order.
+
+Thanks to my parents' inheritance, he was able to abandon his share of
+the Panassovka patrimony to the children of his brother and to live
+henceforth independently. He wished to pursue researches on the shores
+of the Mediterranean: therefore, in the autumn of the year 1882, we
+went to Messina with my two sisters and my three young brothers. The
+children were no trouble to Elie, who loved them; on the contrary, he
+enjoyed organising the journey and arranging all sorts of pleasures for
+them. The children, accustomed to his kindly indulgence, always came to
+"the Prophet" for everything they wanted.[14]
+
+  [14] "Elie" is the French form of Elijah, in Russian Ilia, and
+       was ultimately adopted by Metchnikoff.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII
+
+  Messina--Inception of the phagocyte theory--Encouragement from
+  Virchow and Kleinenberg--First paper on phagocytosis at the Odessa
+  Congress in 1883--The question of Immunity--Article in Virchow's
+  _Archiv_, 1884.
+
+
+At Messina, we settled in a suburb, the Ringo, on the quay of the
+Straits, in a small flat with a garden and a splendid view over the
+sea. We did not have much room, and the laboratory had to be installed
+in the drawing-room, but, on the other hand, Elie only had to cross the
+quay in order to find the fisherman who provided him with the material
+needed for his researches and with whom we frequently went sailing.
+
+Metchnikoff loved Messina, with its rich marine fauna and beautiful
+scenery. The splendid view of the sea and the calm outline of the
+Calabrian coast across the Straits delighted him. He enjoyed it all
+the more after the many excitements of life at the University, and
+eagerly gave himself up to his researches. Often, in later years, he
+delighted to recall memories of that period, the more so that this was
+connected with the principal phase of scientific activity which led to
+the formation of his phagocyte theory. After the earthquake in 1908,
+he wrote a few pages on Messina and ended his article by the following
+lines:
+
+  Thus it was in Messina that the great event of my scientific life
+  took place. A zoologist until then, I suddenly became a pathologist.
+  I entered into a new road in which my later activity was to be
+  exerted.
+
+  It is with warm feeling that I evoke that distant past and with
+  tenderness that I think of Messina, of which the terrible fate has
+  deeply moved my heart.
+
+  They say that Messina will be rebuilt in the same place but in a
+  different way. Houses will be constructed of light materials, they
+  will be low, and the streets broad....
+
+  The town will be a new Messina, not "my Messina," not that with which
+  so many dear memories are associated in my mind....
+
+Metchnikoff continued to study intracellular digestion and the origin
+of the intestine. He foresaw that the solution of those problems
+would lead to general results of great importance. The study of
+medusae and of their mesodermic digestion confirmed him more and more
+in the conviction that the mesoderm was a vestige of elements with a
+primitive _digestive_ function. In lower beings, such as sponges, this
+function takes place without being differentiated, whilst with other
+Coelentera and with some Echinoderma the _endoderm_ gives birth to
+a digestive cavity; yet, the mobile cells of the _mesoderm_ preserve
+their faculty of intracellular digestion. As he studied these phenomena
+more closely, he ascertained that mesodermic cells accumulated around
+grains of carmine introduced into the organism.
+
+All this prepared the ground for the phagocyte theory, of which he
+himself described the inception in the following words:
+
+  I was resting from the shock of the events which provoked my
+  resignation from the University and indulging enthusiastically in
+  researches in the splendid setting of the Straits of Messina.
+
+  One day when the whole family had gone to a circus to see some
+  extraordinary performing apes, I remained alone with my microscope,
+  observing the life in the mobile cells of a transparent star-fish
+  larva, when a new thought suddenly flashed across my brain. It struck
+  me that similar cells might serve in the defence of the organism
+  against intruders. Feeling that there was in this something of
+  surpassing interest, I felt so excited that I began striding up and
+  down the room and even went to the seashore in order to collect my
+  thoughts.
+
+  I said to myself that, if my supposition was true, a splinter
+  introduced into the body of a star-fish larva, devoid of
+  blood-vessels or of a nervous system, should soon be surrounded by
+  mobile cells as is to be observed in a man who runs a splinter into
+  his finger. This was no sooner said than done.
+
+  There was a small garden to our dwelling, in which we had a few days
+  previously organised a "Christmas tree" for the children on a little
+  tangerine tree; I fetched from it a few rose thorns and introduced
+  them at once under the skin of some beautiful star-fish larvae as
+  transparent as water.
+
+  I was too excited to sleep that night in the expectation of
+  the result of my experiment, and very early the next morning I
+  ascertained that it had fully succeeded.
+
+  That experiment formed the basis of the phagocyte theory, to the
+  development of which I devoted the next twenty-five years of my life.
+
+This very simple experiment struck Metchnikoff by its intimate
+similarity with the phenomenon which takes place in the formation of
+pus, the diapedesis[15] of inflammation in man and the higher animals.
+The white blood corpuscles, or _leucocytes_, which constitute pus, are
+mobile mesodermic cells. But, while with higher animals the phenomenon
+is complicated by the existence of blood-vessels and a nervous system,
+in a star-fish larva, devoid of those organs, the same phenomenon is
+reduced to the accumulation of mobile cells around the splinter. This
+proves that the essence of inflammation consists in the reaction of
+the mobile cells, whilst vascular and nervous intervention has but a
+secondary significance. Therefore, if the phenomenon is considered in
+its simplest expression, inflammation is merely _a reaction of the
+mesodermic cells against an external agent_.
+
+  [15] Migration of the white blood corpuscles (leucocytes) through
+       the walls of blood-vessels.
+
+Metchnikoff then reasoned as follows: In man, microbes are usually
+the cause which provokes inflammation; therefore it is against those
+intruders that the mobile mesodermic cells have to strive. These mobile
+cells must destroy the microbes by digesting them and thus bring about
+a cure.
+
+Inflammation is thus a _curative reaction_ of the organism, and morbid
+symptoms are no other than the signs of the struggle between the
+mesodermic cells and the microbes.
+
+In order to verify these conjectures, he started studying the
+englobing of microbes by mesodermic cells in larvae and in other marine
+invertebrates which he inoculated.
+
+At that time, a well-known German scientist, Kleinenberg, was Professor
+of Zoology at Messina. Metchnikoff imparted his ideas to him and showed
+him his experiments. Kleinenberg encouraged him very much; he looked
+upon his theory as "an Hippocratic thought" and advised him to publish
+it at once.
+
+Metchnikoff was also greatly encouraged by Virchow, who happened
+to pass through Messina and came to see his preparations and his
+experiments, which seemed to him conclusive. However, Virchow advised
+him to proceed with the greatest prudence in their interpretation, as,
+he said, the theory of inflammation admitted in contemporary medicine
+was exactly contrary to Metchnikoff's. It was believed that the
+leucocytes, far from destroying microbes, spread them by carrying them
+and by forming a medium favourable to their growth.
+
+Metchnikoff always preserved a deep gratitude towards Virchow and
+Kleinenberg for the moral support which they gave him at that time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When the hot weather came, we left Messina for Riva, a delicious summer
+resort on the shores of the Lake of Garda. There, Metchnikoff wrote
+his first memoir on the reaction of inflammation and on the digestion
+of microbes by the mesodermic cells of lower invertebrates. On the way
+back to Russia through Vienna, he went to see the Professor of Zoology,
+Claus; he found other colleagues with him and expounded his theory
+to them. They were much interested, and he asked them for a Greek
+translation of the words "devouring cells," and that is how they were
+given the name of _phagocytes_.
+
+Claus asked him for his memoir for the Review which he edited and in
+which it appeared soon afterwards, in 1883.[16] The new-born "phagocyte
+theory" was thus very well received by naturalists and by Virchow, the
+father of cellular pathology.
+
+  [16] _Arbeiten des zool. Inst. zu Wien_, Bd. v. Heft ii. p.
+       141. "Untersuchung ueber die intracellulaere Verdauung bei
+       wirbellosen Tieren," E. Metchnikoff.
+
+Having returned to Russia, we went to the country, where Elie had to
+attend to family business; nevertheless, he continued his researches
+in every leisure moment. He had observed in Echinoderma that, during
+the transformation of their larvae, the parts becoming atrophied were
+englobed by mesodermic mobile cells. In those observations he was
+delighted to have found an example of _physiological inflammation_,
+_i.e._ one which presented itself in normal and non-morbid conditions.
+He thought he might observe it also during the metamorphosis of the
+tadpole into a frog, whilst the tail was being atrophied. But he found
+that, instead of the leucocytes of the blood, certain cells from the
+muscular tissue were those which devoured the enfeebled elements of the
+tail; he thus learnt that phagocytes might be, not only the white blood
+corpuscles, but other cells of mesodermic origin.[17]
+
+  [17] It was only in 1892 that he completed and developed his
+       observations. He found that the cells of the sarcoplasma
+       of the muscular tissue devoured its contractile part, the
+       myoplasma.
+
+In autumn 1883 he read his first paper on phagocytosis to a congress of
+physicians and naturalists at Odessa.[18] He compared the phagocytes to
+an army hurling itself upon the enemy and looked upon the phagocytic
+reaction as a defensive force of the organism.
+
+  [18] This paper was entitled "Forces curatives de l'organisme."
+
+In that paper itself and from that moment onwards, the trend of his
+ideas towards optimism becomes visible. By discovering the phagocytic
+reaction of the organism, he made a first breach in his philosophy
+of human nature, hitherto so pessimistic; he discovered within it a
+salutary element which could be utilised by science to combat its
+discords. He began to have some faith in the power of knowledge, not
+only for this struggle, but also for the establishment of a rational
+conception of life in general. Thus he said in his paper to the Odessa
+Congress:
+
+  The theoretical study of Natural History problems (in the largest
+  sense of the word) alone can provide a critical method for the
+  comprehension of truth and lead to a definite conception of life, or
+  at least allow us to approach one.
+
+And yet, until then, the theory of phagocytosis as a curative force
+of the organism was but a hypothesis, for he had not yet observed
+_spontaneous phagocytosis in diseases_ and did not know pathogenic
+microbes. He therefore sought to study them in lower animals, whose
+simple structure made the observation easier. He found some small,
+transparent, fresh-water crustaceans, called _daphniae_, which were
+diseased and easy to place alive under a microscope. These crustaceans
+are often infected by a parasite fungus (_Monospora bicuspidata_), of
+which the spores, shaped like sharp needles, are introduced with food
+into the digestive tube, traverse the walls of it, and thus penetrate
+into the general cavity of the body. They are immediately attacked by
+mobile phagocytes, which either singly or in groups englobe them; if
+the phagocytes succeed in digesting the spores, the daphnia recovers;
+in the contrary case, the spores germinate and develop into small
+fungi which invade the organism and kill it. The recovery or death of
+the daphnia depends therefore on the issue of the struggle.[19] This
+observation gave final confirmation to the hypothesis of the curative
+forces of the organism.
+
+  [19] Virchow's _Archiv_, vol. 96, p. 177.
+
+Metchnikoff was not content with observing lower animals but wished to
+study the reaction of the organism of mammals in infectious diseases.
+At that time, the best-known microbe was the bacillus of anthrax.
+He therefore chose that for his researches and ascertained that
+phagocytosis varied with the virulence of the microbes; thus, while
+phagocytes did not attack virulent bacteria, they attacked and rapidly
+digested attenuated bacteria. Moreover, he observed a very active
+phagocytosis in refractory animals and the reverse in sensitive ones.
+
+He thus came face to face with the question of _immunity_.
+
+He approached it by a comparative examination of the reaction of
+the organism of vaccinated rabbits and of non-vaccinated ones, and
+ascertained that an active phagocytosis was only manifested in a
+previously vaccinated organism. Metchnikoff explained these facts by
+the theory that the phagocytes became accustomed, gradually, through
+vaccination, to strive against more and more virulent microbes.
+
+From that moment, immunity appeared to him as being no other than this
+progressive hardening. He published his researches in 1884 in Virchow's
+_Archiv_, and impatiently awaited medical reviews, hoping to find some
+answer, but the memoir passed unnoticed; the full significance of it
+had not been grasped.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIX
+
+  Ill-health of his wife and sister-in-law--Journey to Tangiers through
+  Spain--Villefranche--Baumgarten criticises the phagocyte theory.
+
+
+In 1884, Metchnikoff's work was interrupted by the ill-health of my
+eldest sister and of myself; physicians considered that we had weak
+lungs and advised that we should spend the winter in the South. Elie,
+full of anxiety, hastened to take us there.
+
+My younger brothers were now old enough to remain at school in our
+absence so as to go on with their studies; we therefore started with my
+two sisters. As cholera was raging in Italy, we went to Spain, hoping
+to find a place with a mild climate and conditions favourable to my
+husband's work. But we traversed the whole country without finding
+the right combination, and, as we had come too far to go back, we
+decided to spend the winter on the African coast, at Tangiers, close to
+Gibraltar where we were.
+
+Metchnikoff had not much taste for sight-seeing, but, with his
+inquisitive and observing mind, liked to understand what he saw, and
+never failed to acquaint himself with the history of the countries
+which we traversed and which, with his ever-ready solicitude, he
+wanted us to see. We therefore saw every interesting town on our route
+through Spain. In the evenings we read together works on the history
+and art of the country, and in the day-time we went for long rambles
+in order to examine all that there was to see. The history of the
+country, full of the sombre fanaticism which is reflected in its art,
+the austere aridity of the central plateau of the land, the reserved
+temper of the population--none of that found any echo in the vibrating,
+sunlight-loving soul of Metchnikoff.
+
+Gentle Italy, her exuberant life and highly-cultured past, charmed him
+much more. He was consequently better pleased with Southern Spain,
+which is more similar to Italy. He was greatly impressed by the
+grandiose site and luminous atmosphere of Granada and the Alhambra and
+by the superb gardens of Malaga, with their tropical plants and avenues
+of palm trees.
+
+At Gibraltar, he was greatly interested as a zoologist in the only
+monkeys (_Macaques_ or Barbary apes) which have remained wild in
+Europe; he never tired of watching their habits whilst those amusing
+creatures jumped from tree to tree above our heads.
+
+He had ample leisure to do so, for a frightful tempest kept us at
+Gibraltar, preventing the crossing of the Straits. As Metchnikoff was
+very anxious to set to work, we took the first steamship which ventured
+out, but the sea was still running so high that our ship was damaged
+and we had to go back. A panic took possession of the passengers,
+during which my sisters and I were struck by the calmness of Elie, who
+did not seem to realise the danger. After a delay of a few days, we
+were at last able to cross.
+
+Our first impression of Tangiers, an Arab port of a thoroughly Oriental
+type, was extremely vivid. The city lay before us with its tall
+minarets and flat roofs, shining white under the burning sun. The
+steamer dropped anchor some distance from the landing stage, and we
+were taken ashore on small boats, immediately to be surrounded by a
+motley crowd with faces varying from the pale olive of the pure Arab
+to the coal-black of the negro. All these people, in brilliant and
+picturesque garments, were shouting, gesticulating, fighting for the
+possession of passengers and their luggage, dragging them into the
+boats or carrying them on their backs, themselves standing up to their
+waists in water.
+
+That feverish agitation, noise, and glaring sunlight introduced us
+suddenly to new and violent sensations.
+
+Already at Gibraltar, Metchnikoff had made arrangements with a
+Spanish-speaking Arab from Tangiers who undertook our installation.
+He provided us with a very primitive dwelling, himself serving as our
+guide, cook, and general factotum.
+
+We hastened to look for zoological material: alas, the sea was almost
+a desert. After a long search we only found a few rare sea-urchins,
+and Metchnikoff had to content himself with this meagre fauna during
+the whole of the winter. He resigned himself to the study of the
+embryology of sea-urchins in order to fill a few lacunae in his previous
+researches. As he could not work much for lack of materials, he
+came with us for long excursions, during which he used to improvise
+interminable and very amusing tales with which to entertain my little
+sister.
+
+At the beginning of our stay we were greatly interested by the life and
+customs of the country. The picturesque and varied crowd, the dignified
+and biblical types of Arabs, the bronzed Berbers, negroes, fanatical
+sects of Aissawas, snake-charmers, the jousts, and mad races of
+cavalry across the sandy beach; opium smokers; mysterious silhouettes
+of veiled women; the call to prayer from the tall minarets--all
+that strange and exotic life fascinated us. But after a time the
+wild customs, continual shouting on the occasion of every ceremony,
+vendettas, cruel fanaticism, and also the absolute lack of intellectual
+resources, began to tell on our nerves. Inactivity weighed heavily upon
+Metchnikoff; nevertheless, he bore his ill-luck with his usual courage
+and gaiety, finding great consolation in the excellent influence that
+the climate of Tangiers had upon all our healths.
+
+At last, in the spring, we started for Villefranche, where he
+immediately set to work with success upon the embryology of jelly-fish;
+an important monograph on that subject was published by him in 1886.
+In it he gave definite form to his theory of the _phagocytella_ and
+the genetic relationships of animals and of their primitive organs, a
+theory already mentioned above (p. 110).
+
+From Villefranche we went to Trieste, where Metchnikoff studied
+star-fish and filled the lacunae in his researches on the origin of the
+mesoderm.
+
+In a medical review which he read at Trieste, he found the first
+account of his phagocyte theory; it was an unfavourable and hostile
+criticism by a German scientist of the name of Baumgarten, endeavouring
+to prove that Metchnikoff's deductions were inadmissible. This grieved
+and pained him very much, but he immediately recovered himself and
+strongly determined to study the medical side of the question in order
+to prove on that ground that his theory was well-founded.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XX
+
+  A Bacteriological Institute in Odessa--Unsatisfactory conditions--
+  Experiments on erysipelas and on relapsing fever.
+
+
+The results of Pasteur's antirabic inoculations were published in 1885.
+The Municipality of Odessa, desirous of founding a bacteriological
+station in that town, sent Dr. Gamaleia to Paris to study the new
+method. Metchnikoff was appointed Scientific Director of the new
+institution, and Drs. Gamaleia and Bardach, former pupils of his, were
+entrusted with the preparation of vaccines and preventive inoculations.
+The Institute, opened in 1886, was founded at the expense of the
+Municipality of Odessa and of the _Zemstvo_ of the Kherson Province.
+
+Metchnikoff himself describes as follows the short time he spent in
+that Institute:
+
+  ... Having given up my State work, I placed myself at the service of
+  the city and the _Zemstvo_.
+
+  Absorbed as I was by the scientific part of the work, I confided to
+  my young colleagues the practical part, i.e. the vaccinations and the
+  perfection of vaccines.
+
+  It was to be supposed that all would go very well.
+
+  Work in the new Institute began with ardour. But, very soon, a strong
+  opposition manifested itself against it.
+
+  The medical administration began to make incursions into the
+  Institute, with a view to finding some infractions of the regulations.
+
+  Medical society was hostile to every work which issued from the
+  laboratory. The institutions which had subscribed funds for the
+  Institute were demanding practical results, while all necessary work
+  towards that object was met by every sort of obstacle.
+
+  For instance, in order to destroy certain voles, very harmful to
+  the cereals of Southern Russia, we proposed to make experiments as
+  to infecting those rodents with the microbe of chicken cholera.
+  Laboratory experiments were begun with that object. But, one day,
+  I received an order from the Prefect peremptorily forbidding those
+  experiments. This measure had been taken at the instigation of local
+  physicians; having seen in a Petersburg newspaper an article by
+  some one who had not a notion of bacteriology, they had assured the
+  Prefect that chicken cholera could turn into Asiatic cholera.
+
+  I had to appeal to the General Governor, who ended by countermanding
+  the Prefect's order; nevertheless this incident was not without
+  regrettable consequences concerning the ulterior activities of the
+  Institute.
+
+  Apart from all that, a deep scission took place between the members,
+  though they were so few, of the Institute itself, and this had fatal
+  consequences.
+
+  The men who were in charge of the practical work ceased to work
+  in concert; I could not take their place, being overwhelmed with
+  scientific researches, besides which, holding no medical degree, I
+  was not qualified to perform vaccinations on human beings.
+
+  Under those conditions, I understood that in my quality as a
+  theoretician, I should do well to retire, leaving the laboratory to
+  practitioners who, bearing full responsibility, would fill the part
+  better.
+
+During his stay at the Odessa Bacteriological Institute, Metchnikoff
+had busied himself with infectious diseases in order to answer the
+first objections to his theory. He began by the microbes of erysipelas
+and showed that the phenomena of the disease, as well as those of
+recovery, were in full accord with the postulates of the phagocyte
+theory.
+
+And then he studied relapsing fever in order to answer Baumgarten's
+objections, affirming that there was no phagocytic reaction in that
+disease, though it almost invariably ended in recovery. Experiments
+on man not being possible, Metchnikoff procured some monkeys, which
+he inoculated with relapsing fever, and ascertained that Baumgarten's
+error was due to the fact that he had only looked for phagocytosis in
+the patient's blood, whilst it really took place in the spleen.
+
+These researches on erysipelas and relapsing fever were published in
+Virchow's _Archives_ in 1887. Besides this scientific work, he was also
+giving lectures on bacteriology to some physicians, and was in full
+productive activity when external opposition and the discord among his
+collaborators in the Institute itself forced upon him the conviction
+that he could remain there no longer.
+
+At that very moment the Prince of Oldenburg, having founded a
+Bacteriological Institute at Petersburg, invited Metchnikoff to take
+charge of it. He had to refuse, fearing the Northern climate for my
+health, and knowing from experience that it was impossible for a layman
+to manage an Institute with a medical staff. Yet he could not do
+without a laboratory. Seeing no possibility of having one in Russia, he
+decided to look abroad for a refuge and a laboratory.
+
+"Having learnt from experience at Odessa," he wrote, "how difficult was
+the struggle against an opposition coming from all sides and devoid
+of reasonable causes, I preferred to go abroad to look for a peaceful
+shelter for my scientific researches."
+
+We were no longer held back by family considerations; our links with
+Russia had gradually loosened. He had resigned from the University,
+discord reigned at the Odessa Bacteriological Institute, conditions
+of life in Russia were very unfavourable to scientific activity; in
+a word, "obstacles from above, from below, and from all sides,"--as
+Metchnikoff expressed it,--gradually led to his resolution to leave his
+native country.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXI
+
+  Hygiene Congress in Vienna--Wiesbaden--Munich--Paris and
+  Pasteur--Berlin and Koch--Failure of anthrax vaccination
+  of sheep--Decision to leave Russia.
+
+
+In 1887 we went to Vienna, where a Congress of Hygienists was held,
+in which, for the first time, bacteriologists took part. Metchnikoff
+thus had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with many of them and
+to make inquiries concerning bacteriological laboratories. Professor
+Hueppe, of Wiesbaden, very kindly invited him to come to work in his
+own. The idea pleased Metchnikoff, who thought that a peaceful little
+University town would be very favourable to his work. But he found
+that his situation would be very difficult at Wiesbaden on account of
+the lack of harmony between the different laboratories in the town; he
+therefore gave up the project which had seemed to him so tempting.
+
+By this time many objections had been raised against the phagocyte
+theory, and, Emmerich having attacked him very violently, Metchnikoff
+went to Munich to have an explanation with him. This gave him the
+opportunity of realising that Munich, like Wiesbaden, was not a place
+where he would care to settle.
+
+He had a great desire to know Pasteur and his collaborators, who had
+just been playing such an important scientific part, and, finding
+ourselves within easy reach of Paris, we repaired thither, without
+the slightest idea of settling there. This is how Metchnikoff himself
+described his first interview with Pasteur:
+
+  On arriving at the laboratory destined for the antirabic
+  vaccinations, I saw an old man, rather undersized, with a left
+  hemiplegia, very piercing grey eyes, a short beard and moustache and
+  slightly grey hair, covered by a black skull-cap. His pale and sickly
+  complexion and tired look betokened a man who was not likely to live
+  many more years. He received me very kindly, and immediately spoke
+  to me of the question which interested me most, the struggle of the
+  organism against microbes.
+
+  "I at once placed myself on your side," he told me, "for I have
+  for many years been struck by the struggle between the divers
+  micro-organisms which I have had occasion to observe. I believe you
+  are on the right road."
+
+Pasteur at that time was chiefly occupied with antirabic vaccinations
+and with the building of a new Institute in the rue Dutot. Seeing the
+vast dimensions of the edifice and learning that the scientific staff
+was not large, Metchnikoff asked Pasteur if he might hope to work in
+one of the laboratories in an honorary capacity. Pasteur not only
+acceded to this request but offered him a whole laboratory. He was
+most kind, invited us to his home and introduced Metchnikoff to his
+collaborators, who produced an excellent impression on my husband.
+
+Though all this made him incline more and more towards the Pasteur
+Institute, he still dreaded life in a large and noisy city, thinking
+that a peaceful little University town would be more favourable to his
+work. Therefore, before making a final decision, he desired to visit a
+few more bacteriological laboratories.
+
+On our way back we passed through Berlin, where Metchnikoff wished
+to see Professor Koch and to show him some interesting specimens of
+phagocytosis. The great _savant_ received him very coldly. For a long
+time, while examining specimens of the spleen in relapsing fever, he
+refused to recognise in them an example of phagocytosis. Though he
+was at last obliged to bow to evidence, he yet remained unfavourable
+to the phagocyte theory, and all his assistants followed his example.
+Metchnikoff was much surprised and grieved by this hostility towards
+his ideas, notwithstanding that they were based on well-established
+facts. We hastened to leave Berlin.
+
+Many years later, when phagocytosis was generally admitted, even in
+Germany, Professor Koch and many other German scientists welcomed
+Metchnikoff very kindly, which somewhat counterbalanced the
+unpleasantness of early memories. But, at that time, the contrast
+between our impression of Paris and of Germany was so great that all
+hesitation was at an end: the choice was made.
+
+On returning to Odessa, Metchnikoff began to prepare his resignation
+and his departure. Yet he still had time to make some researches on
+phagocytosis in tuberculosis, in reply to the objections which rained
+upon his theory.
+
+In the spring, he handed over the direction of the Institute to Dr.
+Gamaleia and took leave; we went to the country for a while before
+our final departure. During that time, Drs. Gamaleia and Bardach were
+making anthrax vaccinations on a large scale in a vast private property
+in the province of Kherson. When we were settled in our country
+home, Metchnikoff received a telegram announcing that the first
+anthrax vaccine had killed many thousand sheep. Though, as a matter
+of fact, his personal responsibility was not involved, the blow was a
+terrible one; he hastened back to Odessa to elucidate the cause of the
+catastrophe. But it remained obscure....
+
+This painful episode was the last drop which made the cup brim over; it
+strengthened Metchnikoff in his resolve to leave Russia.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXII
+
+  The Pasteur Institute--Dreams realised--Metchnikoff at fifty--
+  Growing optimism--Attenuated sensitiveness--The Sevres villa--
+  Daily routine.
+
+
+Having decided to settle in France, we hastened to make ourselves
+acquainted with contemporary French literature, thinking to find in it
+a reflection of the soul and manners of the nation. But the realistic
+literature of the time, in spite of the great artistic worth of many of
+the authors, gave us an erroneous idea of life in France, of which it
+represented but one of many aspects. It was therefore with apprehension
+that we asked ourselves if we should ever be able to adapt ourselves to
+the new conditions, and whether our isolation would not be great.
+
+We arrived in Paris on the 15th of October 1888, and we lodged at a
+small hotel in the Latin quarter, not far from the rue d'Ulm where the
+old Pasteur Institute stood, the new one not being completed. There
+was but little room in the laboratory, and Metchnikoff felt rather
+uneasy, fearing that he was in the way. But the new Institute soon was
+sufficiently advanced for him to settle there.
+
+He was given two rooms on the second floor; I served as his assistant;
+he was perfectly happy at being at last able to give himself up in
+peace to his work. Soon, young physicians came to work under his
+direction. Their number having increased, he was given a whole floor in
+which to instal them, two rooms on that floor being reserved for his
+own use. He occupied these rooms until the end of his life.
+
+His dreams were at last realised. This is from a narration of the
+causes which led to his departure from Russia, in his own words:
+
+  Thus it was in Paris that I succeeded at last in practising pure
+  Science apart from all politics or any public function. That dream
+  could not have been realised in Russia because of obstacles from
+  above, from below, and from all sides. One might think that the hour
+  of science in Russia has not yet struck. I do not believe that. I
+  think, on the contrary, that scientific work is indispensable to
+  Russia, and I wish from my heart that future conditions may become
+  more favourable than in the time of which I have spoken in the above
+  lines.
+
+Soon he was able to appreciate the great French qualities: humanitarian
+manners, tolerance, and gentleness, real freedom of thought, loyal and
+courteous intercourse, all of which made life easy and agreeable. And
+most precious of all were the true friendships which he contracted with
+his colleagues and his pupils. Indeed the Institut Pasteur and France
+became for him a second Motherland, and when in later years he was
+invited to other countries with more liberal conditions, he habitually
+replied that only for one place would he leave the Pasteur Institute,
+"the neighbouring cemetery of Montparnasse."
+
+However, after his death, the Pasteur Institute which he had so loved
+continued to give him hospitality and harboured his ashes....
+
+Pasteur himself ever was most kind and helpful to Metchnikoff. During
+the first years, when his health still allowed it, he used often to
+come to the laboratory, questioning Metchnikoff on his researches with
+much interest and always warmly encouraging him. He even attended
+assiduously his course of lectures on inflammation. After his state
+of health no longer allowed him to go out, Metchnikoff used to visit
+him every day, and tried to cheer him by talking to him of current
+researches.
+
+MM. Duclaux and Roux became his closest friends; they were at first
+brought together by scientific interests and by questions concerning
+the Institute; but, gradually, personal sympathy grew up between them,
+binding them by that solid bond which is made up of daily occurrences,
+inducing respect, confidence, and affection. Moreover, Metchnikoff felt
+the deepest gratitude towards Pasteur and his collaborators, who had
+given him the possibility of working in so favourable an atmosphere.
+
+From the very first, Pasteur sympathised with the phagocyte theory;
+the other members of the Institute thought it too biological, almost
+vitalistic. But when they had made themselves thoroughly cognisant with
+it, they also adopted it. Thus, having found in the Pasteur Institute
+not only favourable working conditions but also moral support,
+Metchnikoff became deeply attached to it, and the interests of "the
+House" became his.
+
+In 1915, on the occasion of Metchnikoff's seventieth anniversary, M.
+Roux, in a Jubilee speech, gave of him and of his work the following
+appreciation which describes, better than anything I could say, what
+his part was in the Pasteur Institute:
+
+  In Paris as in Petrograd, as in Odessa, you have become a leader of
+  thought, and you have kindled in this Institute a scientific focus
+  which has radiated afar.
+
+  Your laboratory is more alive than any in the house; workers come
+  to it in crowds. There, the bacteriological events of the day are
+  discussed, interesting preparations examined, ideas sought for that
+  may help an experimenter to solve difficulties in which he has become
+  involved. It is to you that one comes to ask for a control experiment
+  on a newly observed fact, for a criticism of a discovery that does
+  not always survive the test.
+
+  Moreover, as you read everything, every one comes to you for
+  information, for an account of a newly published memoir which there
+  is no time to read. It is much more convenient than to consult
+  the library and also much safer, for errors of translation and
+  interpretation are avoided.
+
+  Your erudition is so vast and so accurate that it is made use of by
+  the whole house. How many times have I not availed myself of it?
+  One never fears to take advantage of it, for no scientific question
+  ever finds you indifferent. Your ardour warms the indolent and gives
+  confidence to the sceptical.
+
+  You are an incomparable collaborator as I know, I who have had the
+  good fortune of being associated with your researches on several
+  occasions. Indeed, you did nearly all the work!
+
+  More even than your science, your kindliness attracts; who amongst us
+  has not experienced it? I have had a touching proof of it when, many
+  times, you have nursed me as if I were your own child. You are so
+  happy in doing good that you even feel gratitude towards those whom
+  you serve.
+
+  This is such an intimate gathering that I may be allowed to say quite
+  openly that it is so painful to you not to give that you prefer being
+  exploited rather than close your hand.
+
+  The Pasteur Institute owes you much; you have brought to it the
+  prestige of your renown, and by your work and that of your pupils
+  you have greatly contributed to its glory. You have given a noble
+  example of disinterestedness by refusing any salary in those years
+  when the budget was balanced with difficulty and by preferring to the
+  glorious and lucrative situations that were offered to you the modest
+  life of this house. Still a Russian by nationality, you have become
+  French by your choice, and you contracted a Franco-Russian alliance
+  with the Pasteur Institute long before the diplomats thought of it.
+
+At the beginning the members of the Pasteur Institute were few, and
+the association bore a quasi-family character, Pasteurians often being
+compared with a monastic order, united by the worship of science. The
+progressive growth of the Institute inevitably destroyed its character
+of intimacy, but it remained a precious scientific focus, and this is
+what Metchnikoff said of it in 1913, _a propos_ of the twenty-fifth
+anniversary of its foundation:
+
+  If we weigh the for and against of the Pasteur Institute, it is
+  indisputable that the first surpasses the second by a great deal. I
+  do not think another institution exists that is equally favourable
+  to work. Innumerable proofs have been adduced to attest this in the
+  twenty-five years that our House has existed.
+
+It was especially the development of pure scientific research in the
+Institute which interested Metchnikoff; he continually considered means
+of contributing towards it; he thought it necessary to attract active
+scientific forces regardless of their origin, to institute generous
+scientific "scholarships," and to stimulate by every means scientific
+activity and spirit.
+
+As the rapid development of bacteriology necessitated having recourse
+to chemistry, physics, and physiology, he considered it indispensable
+to organise collective work in which specialists in these divers
+branches should take part, thus collaborating to the solution of
+the same problem. Later he was able to realise this project, up to a
+certain point, in his own laboratory, when studying intestinal flora.
+
+He thought it would be useful to extend this method, as far as
+possible, to researches such as that on tuberculosis and on cancer,
+such researches being complicated and protracted and demanding
+co-ordinate efforts and an organisation that should prevent the
+repetition of individual first steps. A clinic attached to the
+Pasteur Institute and adapted to scientific researches seemed to him
+indispensable.
+
+He also considered that the experimental study of those human diseases
+which can only be inoculated in anthropoid apes should be carried out
+through the breeding of those animals in the colonies, for infantile
+diseases demand very young apes as subjects for experiments, and they
+cannot be brought to Europe in sufficient numbers without great loss. A
+mission of workers might carry out experiments on the spot.
+
+He thought the popularisation of science a very useful thing and wished
+the Pasteur Institute to participate in it by appropriate courses of
+public lectures. He attached great importance to the penetration into
+ordinary life of results acquired by science, for the struggle against
+disease consists chiefly in prophylactic and hygienic measures which
+can only be applied by a well-informed public. For that reason he was
+always willing to be interviewed on scientific questions by journalists
+and, indeed, by any one, however ignorant. In order to instruct the
+public he often wrote popular articles on questions of hygiene and
+medicine.
+
+Science in general never was a dead letter for him; his most abstract
+conceptions were always narrowly bound to life; he saw one through the
+other and considered that they should serve each other.
+
+Apart from scientific researches, he took part in the courses given at
+the Pasteur Institute. He prepared his lectures with infinite care,
+and, in spite of his long experience, he never could give them without
+some nervousness, especially during the last years of his life. He used
+even to write down the first sentences and to read them out in order
+to give himself time to recover; but very soon his self-control would
+return, and he would proceed with animation and lucidity; his lectures
+were living and suggestive.
+
+I have mentioned above Roux's masterly appreciation of his influence at
+the Pasteur Institute. The following was written to me, a year after
+Metchnikoff's death, by one of his closest disciples and collaborators,
+and describes in a vivid manner the deep feelings with which he
+inspired his pupils:
+
+  "You say that you love to think that he continues to live in
+  others. Could it have been otherwise? A character as powerful as
+  his is capable of influencing and illuminating the life, not of one
+  individual, but of a whole generation. I look upon it as the greatest
+  good fortune of my life that I was able to spend my best years in his
+  orbit and to impregnate my mind with his spirit, not his scientific
+  spirit, but that which he manifested in facing life and humanity.
+
+  "This bond has become so much part of myself that my first impulse
+  is always to act in the way he would have approved. I even feel the
+  need to share with others what I received from him. I do not know
+  whether it will be given to me to solve certain problems posed by
+  him, but I have the conviction that his spirit, in its purity, will
+  be preserved among us. He will ever live in those who worked by his
+  side, and in those who will come to work in his laboratory. It cannot
+  be otherwise."
+
+Metchnikoff on his part never remained indifferent to his pupils. His
+solicitude towards them was warm, sometimes paternal, always ready and
+active. Many of his pupils remained his friends and collaborators for
+years afterwards. His fiery and exclusive temperament, however, made
+him take up a very different attitude in exceptional cases, when he
+found himself in front of one who persisted in a path which Metchnikoff
+himself considered the wrong path, or before an action which he thought
+disloyal or work done without conscience. Then he became beside
+himself, and positively dangerous to those who had exposed themselves
+to the paroxysm of his indignation.
+
+Fortunately such cases were rare; as a general rule, the atmosphere of
+his laboratory was impregnated with scientific spirit and ardour; all
+forces in it converged towards the same goal, being bound together by a
+community of aspirations and activity of which he was the soul.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The first period of his life in France was taken up by the
+strengthening and development of the phagocyte theory and by an eager
+struggle in its defence. He displayed in it his full energy as a
+scientist and a fighter, and this was perhaps the most agitated, the
+most tense period of his life.
+
+When at last his theory was securely established and began to be
+accepted, he continued his researches with the same passionate ardour
+but in an atmosphere of peace. It was joy and bliss to him to be able
+to work apart from other preoccupations, and the years of his life
+between fifty and sixty were the happiest he ever had.
+
+The state of his soul and his ideas had considerably evolved in the
+course of years; the great moral and physical sensitiveness which had
+so often made him miserable in his youth had decreased and he had
+become much less impulsive. Unpleasant sensations no longer caused him
+so much suffering; he could bear the mewing of a cat or the barking of
+a dog; personal vexations no longer made him take such a horror of life
+as to wish to be rid of it: he now merely tried to conquer them.
+
+At first this change operated less upon his ideas than upon his
+sensations and sentiments. Accustomed as he was to analyse his
+emotions, he realised the development within himself of a new sense of
+appreciation; less sensitive now to extreme impressions, he had become
+more so to ordinary ones. For instance, though less enchanted by music,
+and less irritated by discordant noises, he enjoyed absolute calm more
+fully. Now indifferent to rich food, which he formerly used to enjoy,
+he appreciated simple fare, bread and pure water. He did not seek for
+picturesque sites but took infinite pleasure in watching the growth of
+grass or the bursting of a bud. The first halting steps or the smile of
+an infant charmed and delighted him.
+
+Demanding less from life, he now appreciated it as it was, and
+experienced the joy of mere living. The instinct, the sense of life
+had been born in him. He now saw Life and Nature under a different
+aspect from that which they had borne for him in his youth, for he had
+gradually acquired more balance; he had become adapted.
+
+In their turn, his ideas evolved towards a more optimistic conception
+of life. His reflections, freed from the yoke of his juvenile
+sensitiveness, tended towards the possibility of a correction of the
+disharmonies of human nature through knowledge and will. This evolution
+had taken years. "In order to understand the meaning of life," he said,
+"it is necessary to live a long time, without which one finds oneself
+in the position of a congenitally blind man before whom the beauties of
+colour are spread out."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+During the twenty-eight years that he lived in France, nearly all his
+time was devoted to the laboratory. Whilst the Institute was still in
+its beginning, work there was calm and collected; but, as its growing
+renown attracted many people, this quietude decreased considerably.
+Metchnikoff felt this, but could not bring himself to refuse to admit
+those who came; he compensated himself by peaceful Sundays and holidays.
+
+For a long time we inhabited the neighbourhood of the Institute and
+spent the summers at Sevres; in 1898 we bought a small villa there with
+a sum of money which we inherited from an aunt. In 1905 we settled
+there altogether, for Metchnikoff, confined in the laboratory all day,
+felt the need of fresh air; the daily walk that he was obliged to take
+to reach the house and the absolute calm, away from the noise of the
+city, suited him; he even fancied that the hill on which the house was
+built provided him with a wholesome exercise for his heart.
+
+The return to Sevres, which he greatly liked, was to him a daily source
+of pleasure. I can see him now, hastily coming out of the train, his
+pockets full of papers and brochures which he read in the train and
+parcels in his hands, for he loved to bring home little presents. A
+kindly smile illumined his face and he never failed to express the
+pleasure he felt at coming home. "How pure the air is! How green the
+grass! What peace! You see, if I did not go to Paris to work I should
+not be so alive to the charm of Sevres and the pleasure of rest." He
+used to come home at seven and do no more work; it was his daily rest.
+He then gave himself up to complete relaxation, joked, related the
+incidents of the day, spoke of his researches, planned experiments
+for the next day, read aloud part of the evening and then listened to
+music, not only because he liked it, but also because he wanted to
+"switch on to another line," _i.e._ rest his mind completely.
+
+He was an incomparable companion, always alive and communicative,
+generously giving out the treasures of his heart and his intelligence.
+He liked a simple life; all artifice, all convention displeased him. He
+disliked luxury in his person to that extent that he never consented
+to possess a gold watch nor any object with no particular use. His
+only luxury was to gratify others. He enjoyed peaceful family life and
+a circle of intimate friends. Yet, appreciating as he did all serious
+manifestations of life, he was glad to have the opportunity of meeting
+people who were interesting either in themselves or for the knowledge
+which they could impart.
+
+In Life as in Science he found precepts to help the evolution of his
+moral and philosophical ideas, which he placed in their turn at Life's
+service. If he could not solve a problem, he at least pointed out its
+importance.
+
+His attentive penetration of things in themselves, coupled with a
+creative imagination, was the force which enabled him to open out new
+prospects and new paths.
+
+On looking back upon his own life, he used to say that the period spent
+at the Pasteur Institute had been the happiest, the most favourable to
+his scientific work; he therefore remained deeply attached to it until
+the end of his life.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIII
+
+  Opposition to the phagocyte theory--Scientific controversies
+  --Experiments in support of the phagocyte theory--Behring and
+  antitoxins--The London Congress--Inflammation.
+
+
+As long as Metchnikoff was but a zoologist, the scientific atmosphere
+around him remained calm and serene. But everything changed suddenly
+when he entered the domain of pathology with his theory of phagocytes
+and phagocytosis.
+
+Here was the realm of secular traditions, deeply rooted, and of
+theories generally admitted but resting on no biological basis. Attacks
+and objections against his theories came following upon each other
+with a rush, only to be compared with the racing clouds of a stormy
+sky or the hurrying waves of a tempestuous sea. An epic struggle began
+for Metchnikoff which was to last for twenty-five years, until the
+moment when the phagocyte theory, his child now grown up, emerged
+victoriously. To each attack, to each objection, he answered by fresh
+experiments, fresh observations annihilating objections; his theory
+was assuming a wider and wider scope, becoming more solid, more
+convincing.... But only his intimates knew how much the struggle cost
+him in vital force, what sleepless nights, due to continuous cerebral
+tension and to the effort to conceive some new and irrefragable
+experiment, what alternations of hope and depression.... In an ardent,
+stormy life such as this, each year counted for many.
+
+As soon as he arrived at the Pasteur Institute he undertook active
+researches with the object of developing and defending the phagocyte
+theory.
+
+By experiments on the _rouget_ of pigs he refuted the objections of
+Emmerich, who affirmed that, in that disease, the destruction of the
+microbes was not due to phagocytes. By experiments on the anthrax
+of pigeons he answered the attacks of Baumgarten and his pupils. To
+Behring, who affirmed that immunity was due to the bactericidal power
+of the serum, he replied by a series of experiments on the anthrax of
+rats.
+
+By all these researches Metchnikoff proved that recovery and immunity
+depended on the absorption and digestion of _living, virulent_ microbes
+by phagocytes. Natural or artificial vaccination by attenuated microbes
+allows the phagocytes to become gradually accustomed to digest more
+virulent ones, and this confers immunity upon the organism. That
+phenomenon is comparable to that by which we can accustom ourselves
+gradually to doses of poison which would be very harmful if taken at
+the start (arsenic, opium, nicotine, etc.).
+
+Little by little, the accuracy of Metchnikoff's observations began to
+be realised, and, moreover, other scientists supported him by their
+personal investigations. The part played by phagocytosis was becoming
+more and more evident and the question was ripening in France and in
+England, but in Germany it still met with great opposition.
+
+At the Berlin Congress in 1890 the theory was received very favourably
+by Lister, whilst Koch attacked it, trying to prove that phagocytes
+played no part in immunity, which, according to him, depended upon the
+chemical properties of the blood.
+
+Soon after that, Behring discovered antitoxins, and this seemed to
+favour the chemical or humoral theory of immunity. According to the
+latter, microbes and their poisons were rendered harmless by the
+chemical properties of the blood serum, properties similar to those of
+disinfecting substances.
+
+In spite of his firm conviction of the solidity of the phagocyte
+theory, this discovery was a shock to Metchnikoff, for it was in
+apparent contradiction with the cellular theory of immunity. He
+hastened to undertake a series of researches; his overflowing eagerness
+infected his whole circle, every one taking the warmest interest in the
+progress of his experiments.
+
+This was just as preparations were being made to take part in the
+London Congress, where the question of immunity was to be debated and
+had indeed been placed at the head of the programme. Many papers were
+being prepared, and a veritable tourney of opinions was to take place
+at this Congress.
+
+Metchnikoff had already been to England once, in the spring of
+1891, on the occasion of his reception as an Honorary Doctor by the
+University of Cambridge. This gave him the opportunity of making closer
+acquaintance with the English, who inspired him with great sympathy;
+years only increased this feeling. He appreciated the originality of
+their earnest and generalising spirit, their loyalty and energy; he was
+grateful to them for the attentive and favourable attitude with which
+his scientific work and himself had been received.
+
+He was therefore delighted that this Congress, which was to be the
+scene of his final struggle against his contradictors, should take
+place in England and not in Germany, a country hostile to his ideas.
+
+In view of the importance of the coming debate, a series of fresh
+experiments was made. This time Metchnikoff undertook them not only in
+person, but also in collaboration with M. Roux and with some students.
+The whole laboratory was in a state of effervescence.
+
+The principal papers to be read at the Congress on the question of
+immunity were those of Messrs. Roux and Buechner, the first entirely in
+favour of the phagocyte theory and the second supporting the humoral
+theory.
+
+Metchnikoff read an epitome of his researches and of his answers to
+attacks on his theory. Towards the end of the Congress the latter had
+visibly acquired the suffrage of numerous scientists. Roux wrote to me
+from London concerning my husband's paper:
+
+  Metchnikoff is busy showing his preparations and, besides, he would
+  not tell you how great is his triumph. He spoke with such passion
+  that he carried everybody with him. I believe that, this evening, the
+  phagocyte theory is the richer by many friends.
+
+Thus the researches made in recent years and the results of the London
+Congress allowed us to consider the phagocyte theory of immunity as
+being solidly established.
+
+Yet, Behring's discovery of antitoxins still hung over it like a
+sword of Damocles; it was imperative that the respective parts played
+by antitoxins and by phagocytes should be elucidated. With that
+object in view, Metchnikoff undertook new researches and succeeded in
+ascertaining once for all the narrow link between immunity and the
+function of the phagocytes which probably elaborate the antitoxins as a
+product of their digestion of vaccinal toxins. He drew this conclusion
+from the fact that, in a rabbit vaccinated against hog-cholera, the
+exudate devoid of phagocytes[20] is neither bactericidal, nor antitoxic,
+nor attenuating, while it is so if it contains phagocytes. Therefore a
+relation of causality exists between cells and the acquired properties
+of humors. And the resistance of the animal is in visible correlation
+with the degree of phagocytosis which is manifested by it.
+
+  [20] Aqueous humor, the exudate of aseptic oedemata.
+
+These results having been established, it seemed as if the last rampart
+of the humoral theory had been taken by storm.
+
+In the meanwhile the persistent and bitter opposition of physicians to
+the phagocyte theory made a great impression on Metchnikoff, and, while
+stimulating his energy in defence of his ideas, it maintained him in a
+state of nervous excitement and even depressed him.
+
+He asked himself why this obstinate opposition to a doctrine based on
+well-established facts, easily tested and observed throughout the whole
+animal kingdom? To him, a naturalist, it seemed clear and simple and
+all the more admissible that it was confirmed by the generality of its
+application to all living beings.
+
+But, he thought, perhaps the real cause of the attitude of the
+contradictors lies in the very fact that medical science only
+concerns itself with the pathological phenomena of higher animals,
+leaving their evolution entirely out of account, as well as their
+starting-point in lower animals--whilst it is the very simplicity of
+the latter which allows us to penetrate to the origin of the phenomena.
+
+Perhaps a general plan of the whole, in the shape of a comparative
+study, embracing the whole animal scale, would throw light over the
+generality of phagocytic phenomena and would make their continuity
+understood through normal and pathological biology. He determined to
+make this effort. In order to place in a fresh light the biological
+evolution of phagocytosis phenomena _in disease_, he chose one of the
+principal manifestations of pathological phagocytosis, _inflammation_,
+and, in 1891, gave a series of lectures on this subject which he
+afterwards published in a volume. According to his usual method, he
+began by the most primitive beings, taking as a starting-point the
+lower organisms which do not yet possess differentiated functions, and
+whose normal digestion is, if necessary, used as a means of defence
+against noxious agents. Then, by a comparative study in every grade
+of the animal kingdom, he proved that the same mode of struggle and
+defence persists in the mesodermic cells, the phagocytes in all
+animals in general. In all of them, thanks to a special sensitiveness,
+_Chimiotaxis_, phagocytes move towards the intruder, to englobe it and
+digest it if they can. This reaction for defence by the organism takes
+place in beings endowed with a vascular system by the migration of the
+blood-phagocytes which traverse the walls of the blood-vessels in order
+to betake themselves to the invaded point.
+
+In higher animals, all the symptoms which accompany this phenomenon of
+defence and which constitute the classical picture of inflammation
+(a heightened temperature, pain, redness, tumefaction) are due to the
+complexity of the organism; but the _essence_, the _primum movens_
+of inflammation, with them also, is a _digestive_ action of the
+phagocytes upon the noxious agent, therefore a salutary reaction of
+the organism, essentially similar to the normal digestion of inferior
+beings. Metchnikoff adduced numerous examples giving evidence of the
+genetic link which exists between inflammation and normal intracellular
+digestion, and while establishing the evolution of the former on
+biological and experimental bases, he showed at the same time the close
+connection which binds normal biology and pathological biology.
+
+This series of lectures formed a volume which appeared in 1892 under
+the title of _Lecons sur la pathologie comparee de l'inflammation_, a
+book which contributed to the acceptation of the phagocyte theory and
+which showed the importance of Natural History applied to Medicine.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIV
+
+  Cholera--Experiments on himself and others--Illness of M. Jupille
+  --Death of an epileptic subject--Insufficient results.
+
+
+The acute period of the struggle in defence of the phagocyte theory
+now seemed to have come to an end and Metchnikoff turned his thoughts
+towards a new field of ideas.
+
+Having elucidated the essence of inflammation, he wished to study the
+origin of another pathological symptom, _i.e._ the rise in temperature
+which constitutes a feverish condition. To that end he undertook a
+succession of experiments on cold-blooded animals; he injected microbes
+into crocodiles and serpents, hoping thus to provoke a rise in their
+temperature. But those experiments did not give the results expected.
+
+In the meanwhile (1892) cholera had made its appearance in France; the
+specificity of the cholera vibrio was not finally established at that
+time. The observations made by Pettenkoffer on the immunity of certain
+regions, despite the presence of the cholera vibrio in the water, and
+the experiments made upon himself by that scientist, seemed to plead
+against the specificity of the cholera vibrio; but other facts spoke in
+its favour. Desirous of solving this question, Metchnikoff went to a
+cholera centre in Brittany in order to fetch the necessary materials.
+Having done so, he attempted to produce cholera in divers kinds of
+animals, but without success.
+
+As he failed to solve the problem of the specificity of the cholera
+vibrio on animals, he resolved to experiment upon himself and consumed
+a culture of cholera vibriones. He did not contract cholera, which made
+him doubt the specificity of the vibrio, and therefore he consented to
+repeat the experiment on one of his workers (M. Latapie) who offered
+to submit to it: the result was the same. He then did not hesitate to
+accept the offer of a second volunteer (M. Jupille). The preceding
+results having led him to suppose that the cholera vibrio became
+attenuated _in vitro_ and might perhaps serve as a vaccine against
+cholera, he gave a culture of long standing to the young volunteer.
+
+To his astonishment and despair, Jupille began to manifest the typical
+symptoms of cholera, and a doctor who was particularly conversant
+with the clinical chart of the disease declared the case a severe one
+because of the nervous symptoms which accompanied it.
+
+Metchnikoff was in mortal anxiety, and even said to himself that he
+could not survive a fatal issue. Fortunately the patient recovered,
+and this terrifying experiment proved indisputably the specificity of
+the cholera vibrio. Yet the irregularity of its action showed that in
+certain cases conditions existed which prevented the inception of the
+disease, and Metchnikoff supposed that this might be due to the action
+of the different intestinal micro-organisms.
+
+In order to simplify the question, he began by making experiments
+outside the organism. He sowed the cholera vibrio with divers other
+microbes and saw that some of them facilitated its culture whilst
+others prevented it. Similar experiments within the organism of animals
+gave no conclusive results; the simultaneous ingestion of the cholera
+vibrio and of favourable microbes did not induce cholera.
+
+The flora of the intestines, complex as it is, probably played a part
+on which it was difficult to throw any light. Yet Metchnikoff did not
+give up the idea of producing a vaccine against this disease with
+attenuated microbes, or, if not, to prevent its inception by preventive
+microbes. His thesis was strengthened when one of his pupils, Dr.
+Sanarelli, discovered a series of choleriform bacilli in the absence of
+any cholera epidemic, one of those microbes being found at Versailles,
+a town which had remained immune during every cholera epidemic.
+
+Metchnikoff thought that this microbe, or some choleriform bacillus,
+similar though not specific, probably served as a natural vaccine
+against cholera in those localities which were spared by the epidemic
+though the cholera vibrio was brought there. This was a question that
+could only be solved by experiment.
+
+At the time when he had himself absorbed a cholera culture, Metchnikoff
+admitted the risk of catching the disease; still, his eagerness to
+solve the problem had silenced in him all other considerations and
+feelings opposed to his irresistible desire to attempt the experiment.
+This "psychosis," as he himself called it later, recurred now, in spite
+of all the emotions he had gone through on the previous occasion, and
+he decided once again to experiment on man. It is true that he now
+only had to deal with choleriform microbes from Versailles which he
+believed to be quite harmless as they came from the water of a locality
+free from cholera. He therefore ingested some of the Versailles
+choleriform vibriones and gave some to several other people. Contrary
+to expectation, one of the latter, an incurable epileptic, showed some
+symptoms of cholera, but recovered. But as, a short time later, this
+patient died from a cause which remained obscure, Metchnikoff thought
+that possibly the experiment might have had something to do with it,
+and finally resolved to perform no other experiments on human beings.
+
+How could that unforeseen result be explained? Metchnikoff supposed
+that the intestine of the subject contained favourable microbes
+which had exalted the virulence of the bacillus, in itself weak
+and innocuous. If it were so, then certain intestinal microbes
+would influence the inception of diseases and the action of the
+micro-organisms would vary according to the society in which they found
+themselves. As such problems could only be solved through experiment,
+he again energetically sought for a means of conferring cholera upon
+animals. After many failures and difficulties, it occurred to him to
+try new-born animals whose intestinal flora, not yet developed, could
+not interfere with the swarming of the ingested bacilli. He chose young
+suckling rabbits for his experiments and, with the aid of _favourable_
+microbes, he succeeded at last in giving them characteristic cholera,
+through ingestion; thus it became possible to study intestinal cholera
+on these animals.
+
+However, numerous researches on the prevention of cholera by means
+of divers microbes gave no results sufficiently conclusive to permit
+their application to human beings. The problem was rendered extremely
+complicated and difficult by the many and varied influences of numerous
+intestinal microbes and the inconstancy of microbian species in the
+same individual.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXV
+
+  Pfeiffer's experiments, 1895--The Buda-Pest Congress--Extracellular
+  destruction of microbes--Reaction of the organism against toxins--
+  Dr. Besredka's researches--Macrophages--The Moscow Congress, 1897--
+  Bordet's experiments.
+
+
+Metchnikoff had scarcely recovered from all the emotions caused by his
+experiments on cholera, which he was still studying, when, in 1894, a
+work appeared by a well-known German scientist, Pfeiffer, bringing out
+new facts in favour of the extracellular destruction of microbes.
+
+Whilst studying the influence of the blood serum within the organism
+and not outside it as his predecessors had done, he had found that
+cholera vibriones, injected into the peritoneum of a guinea-pig
+vaccinated against cholera, were nearly all killed in a few minutes
+and that they then presented the form of motionless granules in
+the peritoneal liquid. This granular degenescence, said Pfeiffer,
+took place apart from the phagocytes and therefore without their
+intervention. Metchnikoff repeated the experiment at once and
+ascertained that it was perfectly accurate.
+
+The complexity of biological phenomena being very great, he fully
+admitted the possibility of other means of defence in the organism
+besides that of the phagocytic reaction. However, this new fact
+disagreed so much with his own observation, and seemed so isolated,
+that Metchnikoff supposed an error of interpretation must have been
+made and tried to throw light upon it. He spent sleepless nights
+seeking the conclusive experiment which might explain Pfeiffer's
+phenomenon.
+
+His excitement was all the greater that he was very soon going to the
+International Congress at Buda-Pest, where he intended to expose the
+results of his new researches, and he feared that he should not have
+time to make all the experiments which he required in support of his
+arguments. However, the general impression of the Congress was clearly
+favourable to the phagocyte theory. This is how M. Roux picturesquely
+described the scene at Metchnikoff's Jubilee in 1915:
+
+  "I can see you now at the Buda-Pest Congress in 1894, disputing
+  with your antagonists; with your fiery face, sparkling eyes, and
+  dishevelled hair, you looked like the Daemon of Science, but your
+  words, your irresistible arguments raised the applause of your
+  audience.
+
+  "The new facts, which had at first sight seemed to contradict the
+  phagocyte theory, now entered into harmony with it. It was found to
+  be sufficiently comprehensive to reconcile the holders of the humoral
+  theory with the partisans of the cellular theory."
+
+This is how Metchnikoff had reconciled the apparent disagreement of
+Pfeiffer's phenomenon with the phagocyte doctrine: he demonstrated,
+by a series of experiments, that the extracellular destruction of
+the cholera vibriones in the peritoneum of a guinea-pig vaccinated
+against cholera, did in no wise depend on the _chemical_ properties
+of the blood serum, but was simply due to the digestive juices which
+had escaped from the inside of the leucocytes, damaged by the
+intraperitoneal injection. Those digestive juices, or _cytases_, poured
+into the peritoneal liquid were what killed the injected cholera
+vibriones and transformed them into "Pfeiffer's granulations." On the
+other hand, if by means of various precautions the phagocytes were left
+unmolested, the extracellular destruction did not take place and the
+vibriones were digested within the phagocytes.
+
+Metchnikoff used other experiments to prove that the bactericidal
+property of blood juices did not exist without intervention from the
+phagocytes. For instance, in a guinea-pig vaccinated against cholera,
+the bacilli are not destroyed if they are injected into parts of the
+organism that are devoid of pre-existing phagocytes, such as in the
+subcutaneous tissue, in the anterior chamber of the eye or in an
+aseptically-obtained oedema. On the other hand, if, in the same
+medium, some exudate is injected containing damaged leucocytes from
+which the digestive juice is leaking, the vibriones introduced are
+destroyed. The same results are obtained _in vitro_.
+
+All these experiments proved that the extracellular destruction of
+the cholera vibrio was accomplished by the digestive juices which had
+passed from the phagocytes into the humors and not at all through a
+special property of those humors. Once again the phagocyte theory rose
+triumphant from the test.
+
+After having finally proved that it is by means of its phagocytes that
+the organism fights _microbes_, Metchnikoff wished to find out whether
+it was by the same process that it struggled with their poisons, or
+_toxins_. This problem, far more difficult to solve, took him many
+years' study. Whilst every phase of the phagocytes' struggle against
+microbes can be followed with the eyes, it is impossible to do so
+where poisons are concerned, since they are invisible; it is necessary
+to proceed by a different road.
+
+Faithful to his method of taking as a starting-point the simplest
+expression of the phenomenon to be studied, Metchnikoff began by
+lower beings. Unicellular organisms, such as myxomycetes, amoebae,
+and infusoria, sometimes manifest a natural immunity to certain
+poisons. It is also possible to endow them with artificial immunity
+by accustoming them gradually to substances which, ingested straight
+away, would infallibly have killed them. Such phenomena, seen in
+unicellular beings, could only be ascribed to the reaction of the cell
+itself. Therefore Metchnikoff supposed _a priori_ that the phagocytes,
+being similar primitive cells of multicellular beings, would also
+react against poisons. And, in fact, he ascertained that the number
+of phagocytes in a rabbit's blood diminished considerably under the
+influence of a fatal dose of arsenic, whilst it increased under the
+influence of small doses of the poison, to which it was possible to
+accustom the animal.
+
+Dr. Besredka, a disciple of Metchnikoff, made some very interesting
+researches, which entirely confirmed the share of the phagocytes in the
+reaction against sulphides of arsenic. He had chosen the trisulphide,
+a very slightly soluble salt of an orange colour, in order to find it
+again easily within the organism. After having injected non-fatal doses
+of it into the peritoneal cavity, he obtained an exudate in which all
+the orange granules of the salt were to be found included within those
+leucocytes which have a large, non-lobed nucleus--the _macrophages_.
+These cells gradually digested the salt they had englobed, which ended
+by disappearing entirely within them, and the rabbit remained safe and
+sound. On the other hand, it died if the same doses of the same salt
+had been protected from the leucocytes by an elderberry bag, or when
+the leucocytes had been attracted elsewhere by a previous injection of
+carmine for instance. Those experiments removed all doubts as to the
+share of the phagocytes in the destruction of mineral poisons.
+
+Certain experiments on _microbian_ poisons spoke in the same sense.
+Thus MM. Roux and Borrel had observed that the diphtheritic toxin,
+which is inoffensive to rats even in large doses, kills that animal
+if a small quantity of it is introduced into the brain, the probable
+explanation being that, in cases of subcutaneous injections, the
+poison, "phagocyted" on the way, was destroyed before it reached the
+nerve cells.
+
+Thus experiments seemed to plead in favour of the view that the part
+played by phagocytosis is not limited to the struggle against microbes,
+but also extends to the defence against poisons and toxins.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After having studied the mode of destruction of these, Metchnikoff
+wished to elucidate the origin of the counter-poisons, the specific
+antitoxins discovered by Behring in the humors of immunised organisms,
+a question of which the study was even more difficult.
+
+Metchnikoff began by asking himself whether the microbes themselves
+did not produce antitoxins in order to defend themselves against enemy
+micro-organisms. He made many experiments but only obtained negative
+results, and concluded that the antitoxins must be manufactured by the
+organism itself.
+
+The origin of this property must be more recent than that of the
+phagocytic reaction, for it does not exist in plants or in inferior
+animals. It was only from superior cold-blooded vertebrates, such as
+the crocodile--and that only in artificial conditions--and upwards,
+that Metchnikoff succeeded in finding a specific antitoxic power in the
+humors.
+
+He ascertained that the vaccination of animals by toxins conferred,
+after a time, antitoxic powers to the blood and humors _which contained
+leucocytes_. He concluded therefrom that the presence of antitoxins
+depended on that of the phagocytes. Experiments on divers higher
+animals having proved that, in them also, antitoxins were localised
+in _humors containing phagocytes_, Metchnikoff concluded that the
+antitoxins were manufactured by the cells themselves. As toxins are
+absorbed and digested chiefly by _macrophages_, it is probable that
+it is the latter also which manufacture specific antitoxins, or the
+final product of the digestion of corresponding toxins. Metchnikoff
+could only propound this idea as an hypothesis, for the complexity and
+difficulty of a material demonstration did not yet allow of a definite
+solution of the problem. However, certain observations on toxins and
+antitoxins pleaded in favour of this thesis.
+
+For instance, working in collaboration with MM. Roux and Salimbeni, he
+had found that it is by soluble poisons that the cholera vibrions harm
+the organism or kill it, but that small doses of the same _poisons_
+are vaccines and make the blood of the vaccinated animal _antitoxic_.
+On the other hand, a _microbian_ vaccination is preventive against
+_microbes_ only but not against toxins and the blood does not become
+antitoxic. This is explained by the fact that it is not the same cells
+which digest cholera microbes and cholera toxins: the _microphages_
+digest the vibriones whilst the _macrophages_ digest the poisons and,
+probably, manufacture as products of this digestion, the corresponding
+antibody, the cholera antitoxins.
+
+On the contrary, in cases of the inclusion of _microbes_ by
+_macrophages_, as, for instance, in plague, the blood acquires an
+_antitoxic_ power by injection of the microbes themselves and not by
+their toxins, as was demonstrated by M. Roux and his collaborators. The
+same fact was observed by Metchnikoff on the alligator, in whom also
+microbes are digested by _macrophages_. In those cases, when microbes
+and toxins are digested by the same cells, the latter manufacture
+antibodies against both.
+
+These facts rendered legitimate the supposition of the macrophagic
+origin of antitoxins.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In 1897 an International Congress took place in Moscow. Metchnikoff
+read a paper on the phagocytic reaction against toxins and another
+dealing with the whole of the knowledge acquired concerning human
+plague. He ended this by a plea in favour of Science, so often accused
+of having contributed nothing to the solution of the most important
+human problems, particularly ethical ones, and of having, on the
+contrary, sanctioned the law of Might by tabulating the laws of the
+struggle for existence. Metchnikoff objected that, far from doing
+so, Science, by revealing the laws of Nature, applied to humanity
+the benefits derived from them, whilst striving to counterbalance
+their cruel or harmful effects. The struggle against plague and other
+diseases was a concrete example of this, for here medical science
+opposed itself to the cruelty of "natural selection." He wound up
+his speech by the following words, "Just as, in order to satisfy his
+aesthetic tastes, Man revolts against the laws of Nature which creates
+races of sterile and fragile flowers, he does not hesitate to defend
+the weak against the laws of natural selection. Science has been
+faithful to her mission and to her generous traditions. Let her, then,
+progress unhindered."
+
+Metchnikoff's friend and companion, M. Nocard, wrote to me concerning
+Metchnikoff's paper:
+
+  Do not believe a word that Metchnikoff tells you. He had tremendous
+  success. The somewhat free form of his paper contributed to its
+  success, as it only made his conviction and enthusiasm more apparent.
+  Thus the Sibyl on her tripod.
+
+Metchnikoff had at this period a very talented disciple, M. I. Bordet,
+who opened a new path by a series of researches of the greatest
+importance. He found, among other things, that "the figured elements"
+can be destroyed outside the cells, in the humors. Thus, if red blood
+corpuscles from one animal are injected into an animal of a different
+kind, these globules are destroyed, not within the phagocytes,
+but outside them, in the ambient humors. Metchnikoff studied this
+phenomenon and proved that the explanation was the same that he had
+previously given of Pfeiffer's phenomenon in the case of cholera
+vibrions. In Bordet's experiments, the leucocytes which were already
+existing in the humors were also damaged by the experimental shock;
+but, if this was carefully avoided, the phagocytes, remaining intact,
+englobed and digested the injected red corpuscles and no phenomenon
+similar to Pfeiffer's took place.
+
+These observations led Metchnikoff to a thorough study of the
+destruction of cellular elements by the phagocytes. He had already
+observed that, whilst the struggle with microbes is chiefly undertaken
+by small leucocytes with a lobed nucleus--the _microphages_--it is
+the great leucocytes with a single large nucleus--the so-called
+_macrophages_--which undertake the destruction of cells, "figured"
+elements, as well as that of toxins. The _macrophages_ are to be
+found not only in the blood but also in different organs such as the
+liver, spleen, kidneys, etc.; they seize upon living cells by means
+of mobile protoplasmic prolongations with which they draw them in and
+end by ingesting them completely. Not only do they thus absorb foreign
+cellular elements such as red corpuscles, spermatozoa, etc., but also
+all the weakened cells of the organism itself.
+
+This weakening may be due to normal phenomena such as the metamorphosis
+of insects or tadpoles, when certain organs, as they weaken,
+become useless or inactive. But, oftener, this weakening is due to
+pathological causes, as in morbid atrophies or poisoning by microbian
+toxins. In any case, the enfeeblement of cells exposes them to be
+devoured by macrophages, which brings about the atrophy of the cells or
+even of the organs which contain them.
+
+These observations suggested to Metchnikoff the idea that senile
+atrophy might be due to the same mechanism, and his thoughts turned
+towards the problem of the causes of old age.
+
+But, before undertaking researches in a new direction, he wished to
+conclude those he had been pursuing for twenty years on the phenomenon
+of phagocytosis. He therefore started to complete his investigations on
+immunity in order to epitomise them and to give a definite form to his
+doctrine on that subject.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVI
+
+  1900. Immunity--Natural Immunity--Artificial Immunity.
+
+
+For centuries the question of immunity has occupied the human mind
+because the prevention of disease has ever been one of the greatest
+preoccupations of Man. Savages had already observed that man can become
+refractory to the venom of serpents, either through a slight bite or
+by the application of certain preparations of that venom on scarified
+skin. It was also a popular and very ancient notion that the contact
+of a slightly scratched hand with the pustules of cow-pox conferred
+immunity against human small-pox. It was on this observation that
+Jenner founded his method of antivariolic vaccination. The latter, in
+its turn, suggested to Pasteur the idea of attempting antimicrobian
+vaccinations. Having ascertained that old cultures of chicken cholera,
+previously very virulent, had become harmless, he wondered whether
+they had become a vaccine and proved by experiment that they had. That
+led him to the principle of the attenuation of viruses and to that of
+vaccination by attenuated microbes. Thus the problem of the mechanism
+of immunity was stated.
+
+The first theories propounded on the subject concerned the humors.
+Pasteur supposed that immunity was due to the absorption, by the
+vaccinating microbes, of certain nutritive substances in the humors,
+which, not being renewed for some time, were missed by the microbes
+afterwards introduced into the organism, which therefore could not
+develop completely. Chauveau, on the other hand, thought that, in cases
+of immunity, the humors contained substances which were unfavourable
+to microbes. Those theories explained particular facts, but were not
+applicable to the generality of cases.
+
+Other theories,[21] whilst attributing an active part to the organism
+itself, failed to account for the mechanism of immunity in general.
+This was due to the fact that knowledge at that time lacked the two
+essential elements, _i.e._ the modifications suffered by the organism
+which was becoming immunised, and the fate of the microbes in the
+refractory organism.
+
+  [21] Naegeli, Buechner, Gravitz.
+
+The disappearance of the microbes in the cured or refractory animal
+had indeed been observed;[22] the inflammatory reaction of the organism
+in the course of immunisation had been noted;[23] microbes had long
+ago been observed inside the white globules of pus;[24] but, either an
+erroneous interpretation was given to the facts observed, or, rather,
+the links of causality between those factors failed to be established
+because they were observed solely in the complicated organism of
+superior beings. Humoral theories, less easy to test, preserved an
+appearance of generality and were easily admitted.
+
+  [22] Chauveau.
+
+  [23] Buechner.
+
+  [24] Hayem, Birsch, Hirschfeld, Kleps, Recklinghausen, Waldeyer,
+       and Virchow.
+
+Such was the state of the question when Metchnikoff approached it
+from a naturalist's point of view. He knew the life of unicellular
+beings and that of the lower multicellular organisms in their
+complete simplicity; he knew their mode of defence by ingestion and
+intracellular digestion. Having become familiar with these phenomena,
+visible in the single cell, he was better able to see his way in
+the complicated _milieu_ of higher beings. He was therefore able
+to discover the connection between the divers factors which other
+scientists had observed singly. He was able to prove that it is the
+combination of these factors, _i.e._ inflammation, the ingestion of
+living and virulent microbes, and their disappearance by means of
+intracellular digestion which makes immunity possible. He demonstrated
+that "there is but one permanent element in natural or acquired
+immunity, and that is phagocytosis."
+
+The extension and importance of this factor, applicable to the whole
+animal kingdom, proved the truth and general scope of the phagocyte
+doctrine of immunity.
+
+In 1900, Metchnikoff presented to the International Congress in Paris
+a complete tabulation of his researches and fought his contradictors
+for the last time, after which, convinced that his deductions were
+solid, he began to write a work on _Immunity in Infectious Diseases_.
+In it he epitomised, as in a great harmonious chord, the results of
+his researches, reaching over a period of nearly twenty years; he
+affirmed and gave final expression to his doctrine of immunity, based
+on the comparative study of the mechanism of that phenomenon and of
+its evolution along the whole scale of living beings; he related his
+controversies, analysed the objections to his doctrine, expounded the
+theories of other scientists concerning immunity, and gave a general
+view of the present state of the question. This book is a living
+picture of a long and important part of Metchnikoff's scientific
+achievements.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The question of immunity is of such great importance, the mechanism
+of this phenomenon and the physiology of intracellular digestion are
+so complicated, that I have thought it useful to epitomise here the
+exposition given of it by Metchnikoff in his book. Readers who do not
+care to go further into the subject can pass over the next few pages
+without hindering their comprehension of the following chapters.
+
+Diseases affect all living beings, and the greater number of plants and
+animals would cease to exist without innate or acquired immunity.
+
+Unicellular beings are generally immune against infectious diseases,
+which are rarely observed in them. Their body being almost entirely
+made up of digestive protoplasm, the microbes which they absorb are
+directly introduced into a noxious medium and are destroyed therein
+like any other food. If the microbes are indigestible, they are
+immediately rejected; hence, in the majority of cases, they cannot
+become harmful.
+
+This resistance of unicellular beings to many microbes and microbian
+toxins is due not only to the intense digestive power of the cell but
+also to the extreme sensitiveness which rules over the choice of food.
+Owing to this protoplasmic sensitiveness (_chimiotaxis_) protozoa are
+attracted towards certain microbes or substances (positive chimiotaxis)
+and repelled by others (negative chimiotaxis). Thus, many ciliate
+infusoria choose bacteria only for their food; they are sharply
+repelled by dead infusoria, etc.
+
+Therefore, in the _natural_ immunity of unicellular beings, two
+fundamental elements may already be observed: sensitiveness and
+intracellular digestion. No researches have yet been made on the
+possibility of conferring on protozoa an artificial immunity against
+certain pathogenic microbes and their poisons. But unicellular beings,
+insensible to microbian poisons, are the reverse to many chemical
+substances which, in their normal life, they have no opportunity of
+ingesting.
+
+It has been proved by experiment that, against many of those chemical
+substances, an artificial immunity may be given to the protozoa by
+accustoming them gradually. Very diluted solutions are added at first
+to the medium in which they live and, by gradually concentrating
+those solutions, an artificial immunity is conferred; the negative
+chimiotaxis becomes positive, allowing the protozoa to absorb and
+digest the poison, now become a food.
+
+_Habit_ is therefore the fundamental condition of artificial
+immunity; it must be that also of immunity naturally acquired. Having
+accidentally digested enfeebled microbes or having suffered an attack
+of disease, the unicellular being becomes accustomed to a stronger
+virus and becomes immune against it. The fact that so many unicellular
+beings have become thus accustomed is therefore connected with their
+sensitiveness and their digestion. Accordingly, sensitiveness, habit,
+and digestion are the fundamental factors of the mechanism of immunity
+in protozoa; this immunity thus indisputably belongs to the category of
+purely _cellular_ phenomena.
+
+Having arrived at this conclusion, Metchnikoff thought that the same
+mechanism of immunity must be found in other primitive and analogous
+cells, such as the phagocytes of multicellular beings. This was
+proved by a whole series of observations and by the fact that the
+immunity of higher animals is connected with an intense phagocytosis.
+In fact, as he ascended the scale of beings and studied their natural
+and artificial immunity, he ascertained that, in all of them, the
+essence of immunity, masked by the complexity of the organism, reduced
+itself to the _phagocytes becoming accustomed_ to noxious agents. The
+mechanism of immunity in protozoa could therefore really be compared
+with that of immunity in multicellular beings.
+
+Becoming accustomed and becoming immune are phenomena of a general
+order, for they can be manifested not only by animals, but also by
+plants. They, too, have to defend themselves against numerous diseases.
+Lower vegetables, such as myxomycetes (beings which stand on the limit
+between the animal and vegetable kingdoms), have an amoeboid phase,
+in which they are but a simple heap of formless protoplasm. During that
+stage of their life, myxomycete behave towards noxious agents exactly
+in the same way as unicellular beings and, like them, acquire immunity
+by becoming gradually accustomed.
+
+In higher vegetables, the mechanism is different because of their
+structure. The cells of nearly all plants are immobilised by rigid
+membranes; therefore they cannot surround their prey, but protect
+themselves by the production of tough membranes (cicatrisation) and
+by the secretion of various juices. Certain of these juices (gums
+and resins) become solid when exposed to the air and constitute a
+sort of natural (dressing); others (essences) are antiseptic. The
+secretion of these cellular juices in plants is therefore a powerful
+means of defence. This defence is due to the extreme sensitiveness
+of the protoplasma of vegetable cells: they react against irritation
+by a defensive secretion. Vegetables, as well as unicellular beings,
+can accustom themselves or become artificially accustomed to noxious
+influences and acquire immunity.
+
+As to animals, Metchnikoff had already proved long ago that they
+defend themselves against morbid agents by phagocytosis, _i.e._ by
+intracellular digestion. It is always to be found in cases of immunity
+and is indispensable to it, on the same grounds as in unicellular
+beings. The organism of multicellular animals possesses various
+cells which play the part of phagocytes. There are some in the blood
+and humors, as also in the divers organs and in the tissues. These
+phagocytes are either mobile--leucocytes, or fixed--tissue-cells.
+However, all those cells may be classed into two principal groups: the
+microphages and the macrophages. Both categories of cells are capable
+of digesting microbes, but it is chiefly done by the microphages,
+whilst macrophages more especially digest figured elements (cells) of
+animal origin and poisons. It may be said that the microphages are
+vegetarians whilst the macrophages are chiefly carnivorous.
+
+What, then, is the mechanism of phagocytic digestion?
+
+Intracellular digestion by phagocytes is accomplished by means of
+digestive ferments, similar to those of our own digestive organs. "In
+both cases," says Metchnikoff, "a diastasic action is due to soluble
+ferments produced by living elements. In intracellular digestion, the
+diastases digest within the cells, whereas in extracellular digestion
+the phenomenon takes place outside the cells, in the cavity of the
+gastro-intestinal tube."
+
+Only gradually has intracellular digestion given place to the digestion
+by secreted juices. The link between these two modes is to be found
+in certain transparent Invertebrates, such as the floating mollusc
+_Phyllirhoe_. The nourishment is first digested in the cavity of the
+digestive tube by secreted juices, and its treatment is completed
+within the amoeboid cells of the caecum.
+
+In higher animals, the digestion of food is due to several digestive
+ferments (rennet, pepsin, trypsin, enterokinase, etc.) produced by
+divers organs (stomach, pancreas, intestines). The phagocytes also
+manufacture several digestive ferments; their principal digestive juice
+is a soluble ferment of the trypsin category, to which Metchnikoff gave
+the name of _cytase_.[25]
+
+  [25] It is also called _alexine_ or _complement_ by other writers.
+
+To the morphological difference of the phagocytes corresponds also
+a difference in the properties of their cytases, which are suited
+to the digestion of this or that food. The cytases are kept within
+the interior of the cells and only escape into the humors when the
+phagocytes are damaged (Pfeiffer's phenomenon). This kind of ferment
+does not withstand a temperature above 55 deg. to 58 deg. C. In natural
+immunity, it plays the principal part by digesting morbid agents inside
+the phagocytes like any other food. But, in artificial immunity,
+other soluble ferments come into play, developed in consequence of
+vaccination.
+
+The principal of those is the _fixator_.[26] It is less sensitive
+than cytasis to high temperatures and can bear a temperature of 65 deg.
+to 68 deg. C. It is incapable, by itself, of killing and digesting, but
+by _fixing_ on them, it _bites_ them, so to speak, and makes them
+sensitive to the action of the phagocytic cytases, which can thus
+digest them more easily.
+
+  [26] Designated by other writers by various synonyms: preventive,
+       or sensibilising substance, immunising body, amboceptor.
+
+The _fixator_ may be compared to _enterokinase_, a special ferment in
+the small intestine of higher animals which also does not by itself
+digest food but which activates in a high degree the digestive power of
+pancreatic ferments. However, it has the property of fixing itself on
+fibrin; it is obvious that enterokinase and the fixator have the same
+essential properties. This similarity again proves that the destruction
+of morbid agents by the phagocytes really corresponds with actual
+digestion.
+
+It is in consequence of the digestion of vaccinal products that the
+phagocytes manufacture the _fixator_. Created at the expense of a
+given vaccinal substance, the _fixator_ has a specific character which
+corresponds with that substance, whereas the cytase already existing
+within the phagocytes never has a specific character.
+
+_Artificial_ immunisation generally produces the formation of so
+great a quantity of fixators that the phagocytes are unable to retain
+them and excrete them in part in the ambient humors, _i.e._ the blood
+plasma, or serum. When, afterwards, virulent morbid agents (microbes
+or figured elements) are introduced into an organism which has been
+immunised against them, they are at once faced, in the humors, with
+_fixators_, which immediately exert a biting action on them and render
+them sensitive to the action of the intracellular cytasis of the
+phagocytes. The same mechanism explains the specificity of the serums
+of vaccinated animals.
+
+The quantity of specific fixators in the humors depends on the surplus
+production of that ferment by the phagocytes and is not always the
+same. That is why different serums are preventive in different degrees.
+They are inactive if the phagocytes have not produced enough fixators
+to pass any out into the humors. For a serum is only preventive when
+it brings into the new organism into which it is injected a sufficient
+quantity of fixators ready to sensibilise the morbid agents afterwards
+introduced into the organism.
+
+The over-production of antibodies--fixators or antitoxins--corresponds
+up to a certain point with the frequency and quantity of vaccinal
+injections; that is why serums are usually preventive in artificial
+immunity and very rarely so in natural immunity. Through successive
+inoculations, the cells become accustomed to digesting the microbes, or
+figured elements, and manufacture, in consequence of that digestion,
+growing quantities of fixators.
+
+In natural conditions, on the other hand, morbid agents do not usually
+penetrate into the organism in massive or repeated doses; therefore
+digestion under natural conditions results in a less abundant
+production of fixators which can be contained in the interior of the
+phagocytes without leaking into the humors in sufficient quantities to
+render the latter preventive.
+
+It might be thought that immunity against pathogenic microbes is
+accompanied by immunity against their toxins. In reality that is not
+always the case, and very often the organism, now made refractory to
+certain microbes, remains sensitive to their toxic products. Thus
+antimicrobian immunity and antitoxic immunity constitute in most cases
+two distinct properties. In order to confer antitoxic immunity recourse
+must be had to vaccination by soluble poisons and toxins.
+
+Immunity, acquired naturally, is so especially against microbes and
+not against toxins, for, in nature, it is almost always by microbes
+that the organism is threatened. As to _antitoxic_ immunity, it is
+very probably due to the intracellular digestion of toxins by the
+different macrophages. This hypothesis is supported by the experiments
+quoted in the preceding chapter. During antitoxic vaccination, the
+macrophages manufacture, probably at the expense of vaccinal toxins,
+a certain quantity of _antitoxins_, substances which offer a great
+similarity with the fixators. Like them, they are specific; they are
+also produced in great quantities and excreted into the humors, which
+they render antitoxic when sufficiently abundant; finally, they are
+not very sensitive to high temperatures. That is why, in spite of the
+impossibility of proving their origin directly, it is quite probable
+that it is analogous to that of the fixators and that antitoxins are
+manufactured by cellular elements, the macrophages in particular. For
+it is they which absorb and digest toxins as well as soluble poisons.
+
+This deduction is also supported by the antitoxic immunity which may be
+conferred on _unicellular_ beings in which the cell alone enters into
+play.
+
+Phagocytes no doubt manufacture many other soluble ferments
+corresponding with the elements which they absorb, for, in a vaccinated
+organism, divers new specific properties of the serum are to be found,
+such as that of agglutination, precipitation, etc. Humoral properties
+may be more or less durable, in proportion as the products manufactured
+by the phagocytes are more or less rapidly evacuated by the organism.
+
+All these humoral properties, traced back to their first source, depend
+upon the digestive activity of the phagocytes, since they are the
+products of that digestion. In cases where it has not yet been possible
+to make a direct demonstration of this, it becomes evident through
+analogy and experiments pointing in that direction.
+
+To sum up, according to Metchnikoff, "_Immunity in infectious diseases
+is linked with cellular physiology, namely, with the phenomenon of
+the resorption of morbid agents through intracellular digestion._
+In a final analysis, the latter (as also the digestion of food
+in the gastro-intestinal tube) reduces itself to phenomena of a
+physico-chemical order; however, it is a real _digestion_ accomplished
+by the living cell.... The study of Immunity, from a general point of
+view, belongs to the subject of Digestion."
+
+Immunity against diseases is but one of the manifestations of an
+immunity on a much larger scale, always based, in final analysis, on
+the sensitiveness of the living cellular protoplasm. The sensitiveness
+of the nervous cells extends this phenomenon to the psychical domain.
+They also are capable of becoming accustomed to external irritations of
+all kinds, hence constituting a psychical immunity for the organism.
+We all know that one can become accustomed to many painful or violent
+sensations; and, as Metchnikoff says: "... It is very probable that
+the whole gamut of Habit, starting from the unicellular beings, who
+accustom themselves to live in an unsuitable medium, to cultured men
+who acquire the habit of not believing in human justice, rests on one
+and the same fundamental property of living matter."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXVII
+
+  Private sorrows--Death of Pasteur, 1895--Ill-health--Senile
+  atrophies--Premature death--Orthobiosis--Syphilis--Acquisition
+  of anthropoid apes.
+
+
+Metchnikoff's health had suffered from the numerous emotions provoked
+by the struggle in defence of the phagocyte doctrine and also from a
+series of sad events. In 1893, sickness and death fell upon our family;
+I lost a sister and a brother at a short interval and had myself to
+undergo a serious operation. My husband nursed me night and day, as a
+mother might have done, and went through the deepest anxiety on account
+of post-operative complications. All this told on him all the more
+that he had just endured cruel moral suffering during the experiments
+on cholera mentioned above. In 1894, an agricultural crisis in Russia
+influenced our material situation and gave him many worries. In the
+autumn of 1895, M. Pasteur's health became worse and, soon afterwards,
+he died.
+
+This series of calamities depressed Metchnikoff, his old cardiac
+trouble returned, and he again became a prey to insomnia. We spent part
+of the holidays in the mountains, thinking it might do him good, but he
+did not care for a prolonged rest; he was preoccupied by the thought
+of his interrupted experiments and only thought of returning to the
+laboratory.
+
+In 1898, he had some disquieting symptoms of kidney trouble, a little
+albumen. He consulted the celebrated German physician, von Noorden, who
+found nothing serious, but this did not reassure him and he continued
+to worry about himself.
+
+Already some time previously, theoretical considerations on senile
+atrophies had directed his thoughts towards old age. His reflections
+now turned towards the psychological aspect of the problem; he analysed
+his personal sensations and realised that he, at the age of 53, felt an
+ardent desire to live. This imperious instinct for life, in spite of
+the inevitable evolution towards personal death and old age, brought
+his thoughts back to the disharmonies of human nature. But now,
+through all his gloomy reflections, he was borne up by the unshakable
+conviction that Science would succeed in correcting those disharmonies
+and he continued to work with untiring energy.
+
+He had prescribed for himself a hygienic diet, based on the idea that
+the cause of his own condition and senility in general was due to
+a chronic poisoning by intestinal microbes. This diet consisted in
+avoiding raw food in order not to introduce noxious microbes into the
+intestines, and in absorbing their useful enemies, the acid-forming
+microbes of sour milk. This diet was very favourable to his health.
+
+After he had finished his book on immunity he at last allowed himself
+to pass on to the new questions which preoccupied him, _i.e._ senility
+and death.
+
+He set forth a sketch of his ideas in 1901 in a paper which he read
+at Manchester (Wilde Lecture) on the "Flora of the Human Body." He
+reviewed this flora and pointed out the harmful effect of the microbes,
+especially those of the large intestine the toxins of which effect a
+chronic poisoning of the cells of our organism and thus provoke their
+gradual weakening. He then indicated the means of combating this evil,
+on the one hand by stimulating the vital activity of the cells exposed
+to enfeeblement, by means, for instance, of small doses of specific
+cytotoxins, and, on the other hand, by direct action on intestinal
+microbes. He concluded by saying that "the intestinal flora is the
+principal cause of the too short duration of our life, which flickers
+out before having reached its goal. Human conscience has succeeded in
+making this injustice obvious; Science must now set to work to correct
+it. It will succeed in doing so, and it is to be hoped that the opening
+century will witness the solution of this great problem."
+
+Metchnikoff considered that our chronic poisoning by intestinal
+microbes weakens our cellular elements; he supposed that the same cause
+might provoke senile phenomena, manifestly due to weakness of the
+tissues.
+
+One of the first manifestations of senility being the whitening of
+hair, he began to study the mechanism of that. He had previously
+observed the dominant part played by phagocytosis in all phenomena
+of atrophy, and it occurred to him that it may be phagocytes which
+destroy the colouring matter of hair, a substance which, in the form
+of tiny granules, is enclosed within the hair cells. In fact, he
+found that the whitening process is accompanied by a stimulation of
+the amoeboid cells which introduce their protoplasmic prolongations
+into the periphery of the hair. They absorb the coloured granules,
+or pigment, and digest it, partly on the spot, partly after carrying
+it into the root of the hair, often even in the connective tissue
+which supports the hairy scalp. As the pigment becomes destroyed,
+the hair loses its colour and whitens. The cells which devour the
+pigment--pigmentophages--belong to the category of macrophages which,
+in general, absorb all the enfeebled cells in the organism.
+
+Metchnikoff was able to note similar phenomena in divers other senile
+atrophies either by his own ulterior researches or by collaboration
+with his pupils (MM. Salimbeni and Weinberg).
+
+In the same way that the whitening of the hair depends on the
+destruction of pigment by pigmentophages, the wrinkles of the
+skin, weakness of the muscles, friability of the bones, and senile
+degenerescence of divers organs are caused by the destruction of
+weakened cells which do not defend themselves and thus become the prey
+of the stronger and more resisting macrophages. Senility is thus no
+other than a generalised atrophy. What is it that provokes it? The
+answer is: The swarming microbes in our large intestine. They form the
+permanent source of a slow poisoning of our organism. This fact alone
+suffices to explain one of the principal causes of the enfeebling
+of our tissues. It is not simultaneous in all the cells because of
+their different powers of resistance. The struggle and destruction
+of the weak by the strong is the cruel law of nature; therefore the
+macrophages, more resisting to poisons, take advantage of the weakening
+of other cells in order to devour them, and this is one of the causes
+of senility.
+
+These reflections and the biological researches which confirmed them
+allowed Metchnikoff gradually to build up a philosophical doctrine,
+which he expounded in 1903 in his work, _Etudes sur la nature humaine_.
+
+He considered "old age" as a pathological phenomenon. He saw in it one
+of the most important disharmonies of human nature, because of the fact
+that neither senility nor death is accompanied by a natural instinct.
+The accomplishment of every physiological function leads to satiety or
+to a desire for rest; after a busy day, man feels an instinctive need
+for rest and sleep. But, in his maturity, he has no desire to grow old,
+and in his old age none to die. It is rare that one should aspire to
+die, and nobody wishes to grow old. These facts are in contradiction
+with other natural phenomena; they are all the more discordant that
+they play an immense part in our psychical life.
+
+After a general review of opinions on human nature, Metchnikoff
+analysed it from the biological point of view; he revealed its discords
+and concluded that it is far from being perfect. In his eyes, the
+lack of harmony in the human being is an inheritance from our animal
+ancestors; they have handed down to us a whole series of remains
+of organs which are not only useless but even harmful in the new
+conditions of human existence.
+
+The large intestine, inherited from mammalian ancestors, holds the
+first place among those noxious organs. This reservoir of food
+refuse was very useful to our animal forebears in their struggle
+for existence; it allowed them not to interrupt their flight whilst
+pursued by their enemies. In man, whose life conditions are different,
+a large intestine of that size, without offering the same advantages,
+is a source of slow and continuous poisoning and a cause of premature
+senility and death.
+
+Man, after acquiring a still higher development, realised these
+evils and made concentrated efforts to fight them and to soothe his
+own terrors. It is for that object that the divers religious and
+philosophical systems were created, in which humanity sought for
+consolation. Finding none there, man turned to Science, which, at
+first, neither solved his doubts nor eliminated his sufferings. But
+Science provided him with rational methods of research, owing to which
+he gradually progressed and conquered a series of truths, allowing him
+gradually to struggle against some of his troubles and to solve some of
+his problems. Science has already done much to diminish the diseases
+which are among the chief scourges of humanity. It has thrown light
+upon the causes of many of them and has found preventive and curative
+remedies for several.
+
+Surgery, antiseptics, serotherapy, vaccinations already yield secure
+results. Hygiene and prophylaxis are in course of development, and
+a vast prospect is open to them in the future. But our heaviest
+burdens, senility and death, common to all, have yet scarcely been
+studied. Having expounded his views on senility and proved that it is a
+pathological phenomenon, Metchnikoff concluded that to struggle against
+it was quite as possible as to struggle against disease.
+
+The principal causes which bring about _premature_ senility are:
+alcoholism, chronic poisoning by intestinal microbes, and infectious
+diseases, headed by syphilis. Surely Science will discover efficacious
+means against all these.
+
+The strengthening of the beneficent cells in our organism; the
+transformation of the wild intestinal flora into a cultivated flora, by
+the introduction of useful microbes; the struggle against infectious
+diseases and alcoholism--all these are workable means of fighting
+pathological and premature senility.
+
+When old age becomes physiological and no longer painful it will become
+proportionate with the other epochs of our lives and cease to alarm us.
+But how is the fear of death to be explained, since it is a general and
+inevitable phenomenon? How is it that we have no _natural instinct_ for
+death? Metchnikoff supposes that this lack of harmony in our nature
+comes from the fact that death is as _premature_ as senility and
+arrives before the _natural instinct for it_ has had time to develop.
+This supposition is confirmed by the fact that old people who have
+reached an exceptionally advanced age are often satiated with life and
+feel the _need_ of death as we feel a need of sleep after a long day's
+work. That is why we have a right to suppose that, when the limit of
+life has been extended, owing to scientific progress, the instinct of
+death will have time to develop normally and will take the place of the
+fear which death provokes at the present day. Both death and old age
+will become physiological and the greatest discord in our nature will
+be conquered.
+
+Our manner of life will have to be modified and directed according to
+rational and scientific data if we are to run through the normal cycle
+of life--_orthobiosis_. The pursuit of that goal will even influence
+the basis of morals. Orthobiosis cannot be accessible to all until
+knowledge, rectitude, and solidarity increase among men, and until
+social conditions are kinder.
+
+Man will then no longer be content with his natural inheritance; he
+will have to intervene actively in order to correct his disharmonies.
+"Even as he has modified the nature of plants and animals Man will have
+to modify his own nature in order to make it more harmonious."
+
+In order to obtain a new race, one forms an ideal in relation to the
+organism to be modified. "In order to modify human nature, it is
+necessary to realise what is the ideal in view, after which every
+resource of which Science disposes must be taxed in order to obtain
+that result. If an ideal is possible, capable of uniting men in a
+sort of religion of the future, it can only be based on scientific
+principles. And if it is true, as is so often affirmed, that it is
+impossible to live without faith, that faith must be faith in the power
+of Science."
+
+In those words, Metchnikoff ends his book on Human Nature.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The public at large and many critics did not understand the deep and
+general meaning of Metchnikoff's thoughts. They reproached him with
+having an insufficiently exalted ideal, for they only saw in his
+doctrine the desire of postponing senility and living longer. They
+did not understand that to revolt against the lack of harmony in
+nature, through which all humanity has to suffer, not only physically
+but morally, was to aspire to perfection. They did not consider
+that, in order to attain that end, all human culture and the whole
+social state would have to be modified; that this could only be done
+through many virtues, intense energy, and great self-control. They
+had not understood the elevation and power of an ideal which aspired
+to perfect not only the direction of life but human nature itself.
+They had not understood the audacious beauty of such a struggle, the
+benefit conferred by the belief that the human will and the human mind
+are capable of transforming Evil into Good according to a conceived
+ideal!...
+
+In the meanwhile Metchnikoff, convinced that Knowledge is Power and
+that "Science alone can lead suffering Humanity into the right path,"
+quietly continued his task.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One of the most characteristic symptoms of old age is the hardening
+of the arteries--arterio-sclerosis. He therefore especially wished to
+elucidate the mechanism of that phenomenon.
+
+Whilst many, yet unknown, factors come into play in senility, one
+disease, syphilis, often provokes arterio-sclerosis, indisputably due
+to a morbid agent. Metchnikoff therefore began to study this disease,
+of which the origin is infectious--especially as he thought he could do
+so experimentally.
+
+Long before this, he had conceived the idea that the study of those
+human diseases which cannot be transmitted to ordinary laboratory
+animals might be carried out on anthropoid apes, of all animals the
+nearest to man. He had spoken of it to M. Pasteur, but, at that time,
+the Institute could not afford to acquire these costly animals. In
+1903, at the Madrid Congress, Metchnikoff received a 5000 fr. prize
+and utilised this money in the acquisition of two anthropoid apes. The
+same year M. Roux won the Osiris prize of 100,000 fr. which he devoted
+to the same object, and it was decided that the two together would
+undertake researches on syphilis. Other donations, 30,000 fr. from the
+Morosoffs of Moscow and 250 roubles from the Society of Dermatology
+and Syphilography of the same city, completed the capital required to
+execute the projected plan.
+
+The following is a short sketch of the researches that were undertaken
+and the results that were obtained.
+
+The inoculation of anthropoid apes with syphilis was successful. The
+chimpanzee was found to be most sensitive to the disease; it manifests
+primary and secondary symptoms identical with those of man. Lower
+monkeys, though less sensitive, also contract syphilis but generally
+only show primary characteristic manifestations. The possibility of
+rapidly provoking in apes, even of the inferior kinds, syphilitic
+lesions similar to those of man has a very great importance, for it
+provides a sure means of diagnosis in doubtful human cases. Owing to
+the liability of apes to contract syphilis, experimental vaccination
+and serotherapy could be attempted on them; but, though these
+experiments were sometimes encouraging, the results obtained were not
+constant enough to justify their application to man. Thus, it was found
+possible to attenuate the virus by successive passages in certain lower
+apes, and yet, though attenuated for the chimpanzee, it did not confer
+upon him immunity against the active virus.
+
+In 1905, Schaudinn discovered the syphilitic treponema in man. By
+using this discoverer's method, the same microbe was found in apes
+inoculated with human virus, which confirmed the specific character of
+the treponema.
+
+An observation was then made which was of great importance on account
+of its consequences: it was ascertained that the syphilitic microbe
+was absorbed by the less mobile mononuclear phagocytes and remained
+localised near the entrance point long enough to allow of a local
+treatment which might succeed in being curative as it had time to act
+before the microbes had passed into the general circulation of the
+organism. This supposition was proved to be correct by a series of
+experiments on monkeys, and, in 1906, a young doctor, M. Maisonneuve,
+inoculated himself with syphilis and applied the treatment with a
+perfectly satisfactory result.
+
+It might have been thought that this simple, safe, and innocuous method
+would at once come into practice, but it was not so. Between opposition
+on the one hand, and carelessness of the subjects themselves on the
+other, this useful discovery remained for a long time without being
+utilised. All the above results were obtained through experiments on
+anthropoid apes, and the study of syphilis, until then purely clinical,
+entered at last into the field of experimental science.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Researches upon syphilis were but an interlude; Metchnikoff, returning
+to his principal work, resumed the study of senility and of the
+intestinal flora. During many years he applied himself to researches
+concerning the part played by the latter within the organism.
+
+He was able to confirm the deductions expounded in his _Etudes sur
+la nature humaine_, and in 1907 he published a new work, _Essais
+optimistes_, in which he developed the same ideas, amplified by the
+results of his new researches, and answering the criticisms excited by
+his first book.
+
+In the _Essais optimistes_ he studied first of all the phenomena of old
+age in the different grades of the scale of living beings, of which he
+compared the life duration. He concluded that there was an indubitable
+connection between this and the intestinal flora.
+
+The shorter the intestine, the fewer microbes it contains and the
+longer the relative duration of life. As an example, he quoted the
+relatively great longevity of birds and bats. Those animals, adapted
+to aerial life, have to weigh as little as possible. To that end,
+they empty their intestine very frequently and this in consequence is
+not used as a reservoir for alimentary refuse; as it is but little
+developed, it contains a much smaller number of microbes. The longevity
+of flying animals is relatively much greater than that of mammals with
+a large intestine full of microbes, a constant source of slow poisoning.
+
+After treating the question of longevity, Metchnikoff dealt with that
+of death.
+
+Living beings die, in the great majority of cases, in consequence
+of diseases or accidents with an external cause; one involuntarily
+wonders whether there is such a thing as "natural death," _i.e._
+arising exclusively from causes due to the organism itself. A review
+of known facts allowed Metchnikoff to draw the following conclusions:
+unicellular inferior beings have no _natural_ death; they merely die by
+accident. Their individual life is very short and comes to an end by
+multiplication or division of a unit into two; there is no trace of a
+_corpse_ in this loss of previous individuality.
+
+Among superior plants, certain trees attain considerable dimensions
+(dragon-tree, baobab, oak, cypress), live for centuries, and die from
+external causes. Their organism presents no _internal_ necessity for
+a natural death. On the other hand, a multitude of other plants have
+but a short life and their natural death coincides usually with the
+ripening of the seed. It has even been observed that it is possible
+to retard the death of a plant by preventing it from fructifying. For
+instance, lawns made up of grass mown before it runs to seed remain
+green and living whilst grass allowed to flower and bear seed becomes
+yellow and dries up. It is a well-known fact that fruits and seeds are
+frequently poisonous. Therefore Metchnikoff supposed that the death of
+the plant may be due to an auto-intoxication by poisons manufactured
+by it in order to defend its seeds and ensure the next generation;
+in Nature, the individual does not count, but the species. Once the
+survival of this is ensured the individual may disappear.
+
+A similar phenomenon of auto-intoxication is manifested by lower
+vegetables, yeasts, and microbes. Pasteur, who discovered the microbe
+of lactic fermentation, found that this micro-organism, which itself
+produces lactic acid, perishes because of the over-production of this
+substance. Yeasts, again, cannot bear an excess of alcohol, their own
+product. Thus the vegetable kingdom offers us examples of the absence
+of natural death as well as examples of a natural death due to an
+auto-intoxication of the organism.
+
+In the animal kingdom examples of natural death are also to be found,
+but only very exceptionally. Those examples are provided by Rotifera
+(inferior worms) and by Ephemeridae. Their adult life is reduced to the
+sexual act, almost immediately followed by death without an external
+cause. Their life is so short that they do not even feed and lack
+developed buccal organs. That in itself constitutes an organic cause of
+inevitable, _i.e._ natural, death.
+
+Among human beings natural death is extremely rare. It sometimes
+occurs in very old people, under the shape of a peaceful last sleep.
+The likeness it bears to sleep is so striking that Metchnikoff thought
+himself authorised to form the following hypothesis concerning the
+analogy in their mechanism.
+
+According to a theory of Preyer's, fatigue and sleep are due to a
+periodical auto-intoxication set up by the products of the vital
+activity of our organism. These products are destroyed by oxidation
+during sleep, after which fatigue disappears and awakening comes.
+According to Metchnikoff it may be that the mechanism of natural death
+also consists in an auto-intoxication by the progressive accumulation
+of toxic products during the whole of life. The analogy between sleep
+and natural death allows the supposition that, as before going to sleep
+an instinctive desire for rest is felt, in the same way _natural_
+death must be preceded by an instinctive desire to die. Moreover,
+this is confirmed by concrete examples. Thus that of an old woman
+of ninety-three who expressed that desire in the following terms to
+her great-nephew: "If ever you reach my age, you will see that death
+becomes desired just like sleep." The same thought had been expressed
+by the biblical patriarchs who fell asleep satiated with life.
+
+When, owing to the progress of Science, men reach the development of
+the instinct of death, they will look upon Death with the same calm as
+do very old people, and it will cease to be one of the principal causes
+of pessimism. It is for that reason that we must learn to prolong life
+and to allow all men to realise their complete and natural vital cycle,
+thus ensuring their moral balance.
+
+Psychological observations allowed Metchnikoff to conclude that
+pessimism is much more frequent in youth than in maturity or in old
+age. He attributes this to the gradual development of the _vital
+instinct_ which is only completely manifested in middle age. Man then
+begins to appreciate life; made wiser by experience, he demands less
+and is therefore better balanced.
+
+Metchnikoff proffers examples in support of his theory. He analyses the
+psychic evolution of Goethe as reflected in his _Faust_ and describes
+that of "an intimate friend." These examples prove that natural
+psychological evolution already leads to a relative optimism. But, as
+long as senility is pathological and death premature, the apprehension
+that they inspire antagonises the normal evolution of optimism. A
+victory over those present evils will direct the normal course of life
+in the right way; one normal active period will succeed another; the
+accomplishment of individual and social functions corresponding with
+each period will become realisable; the death instinct will have time
+to develop, and Man, having been through his normal vital cycle, will
+sink, peacefully and without fear, into eternal sleep.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+  Researches on intestinal flora--Sour milk.
+
+
+The problem of our intestinal flora is so vast and so difficult that it
+demands years of research. Numerous facts had already been accumulated
+by Science on this subject, but it was still far from being elucidated.
+
+Certain scientists affirmed that microbes favour digestion by
+decomposing food residues in the intestine and are therefore not
+merely useful, but necessary to the organism. Others entertained a
+diametrically opposed opinion. The first thing, therefore, was to know
+which of the two opinions was founded on fact. Metchnikoff studied
+the case of the bat, in which the digestive tube is short and the
+large bowel not even differentiated. As he had supposed, _a priori_,
+in this animal, whose life duration is relatively long, the intestine
+contains few or no micro-organisms, which proves that digestion can
+be accomplished without their intermediary. Moreover, this was before
+long amply confirmed by the researches of MM. Cohendy, Wollman, and
+other scientists who succeeded in bringing up chickens and tadpoles in
+conditions of absolute sterility.
+
+Having acquired the conviction that microbes are not indispensable to
+digestion, Metchnikoff studied the part they play in the organism. It
+is universally admitted that the products of putrefaction are toxic,
+and he enquired whether the intestine sheltered putrefying microbes.
+This question had not yet been solved; certain bacteriologists
+thought that little or no putrefaction exists in a normal intestine.
+Metchnikoff ascertained through systematic researches that the
+intestinal flora includes several kinds of putrefying microbes which
+secrete highly toxic products.
+
+With his pupils and collaborators, MM. Berthelot and Wollman, he
+carried out a series of experiments which established the fact that
+this intoxication is due to poisons of the aromatic group, such
+as phenols and indols. With these substances, they succeeded in
+artificially provoking arterio-sclerosis in the organs of animals,
+and also other modifications similar to those which are observed
+in senility. Having proved that putrefying microbes provoke the
+intoxication of the tissues, Metchnikoff set to work to find a means of
+struggling against those microbes.
+
+It was known that they could only live in an alkaline medium which
+is precisely that of the intestinal juices. Metchnikoff thought that
+if means were found to render the intestinal contents acid, without
+harm being done to the organism, the putrefying microbes might thus be
+destroyed. It had been known for a long time that sour milk does not
+suffer putrefaction, that being prevented by the acid fermentation. The
+lactic microbes of this fermentation must therefore be antagonistic to
+the putrefying microbes. He drew a conclusion in favour of the utility
+of sour milk, containing acid-producing microbes; once introduced
+into the intestine, these should prevent the breeding of the noxious
+microbes which require an alkaline medium.
+
+His hypothesis seemed confirmed by the fact that populations who feed
+almost exclusively on curded milk live a very long time. In Bulgaria,
+for instance, whole villages, thus fed, are known for the longevity
+of their inhabitants. Starting from these considerations, he made
+experiments upon himself and systematically introduced into his diet
+sour milk carefully prepared with pure cultures of certain lactic
+bacilli. His health was benefited by it, and his friends followed
+his example. Certain doctors recommended sour milk, the use of which
+gradually spread as a hygienic food. Metchnikoff considered the result
+acquired as a first step towards the artificial transformation of the
+wild intestinal flora into a cultivated and useful flora.
+
+Unfortunately, the study of the intestinal flora is extremely
+complicated because of the innumerable species of micro-organisms and
+the extreme difficulty of disentangling the many influences which
+cross each other. He therefore considered collective researches as
+indispensable, the life and science of one man being insufficient
+to solve so vast a problem. Up to a certain point he succeeded in
+realising this scientific collaboration within his own laboratory.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIX
+
+  The Nobel Prize--Journey to Sweden and to Russia--A day with Leon
+  Tolstoi.
+
+
+In 1908 Metchnikoff received the Nobel Prize, together with Ehrlich,
+for his researches on immunity. According to the statutes of that
+prize, the laureate is invited to give a lecture in Stockholm.
+Metchnikoff chose for his theme the "present state of the question
+of immunity in infectious diseases," and, in the spring of 1909, we
+went to Sweden and thence to Russia. The whole journey was a series
+of fetes and receptions in his honour. He was touched and grateful at
+this welcome, but with his usual humour, declared that it was the Nobel
+Prize which, like a magic wand, had revealed to the public the value of
+his researches.
+
+We only stopped for a short time at Stockholm, where the kindest
+hospitality was shown to Metchnikoff. Sweden made an unforgettable
+impression upon us. Her deep, dark waters, wild rocks, and sombre
+pines make of it a land of legends. Elie was impressed not only by
+Nature in Scandinavia but also by Scandinavian Art, which reproduces
+it admirably. He was specially pleased with Lilienfiorse's pictures,
+representing animals against a background at the same time real and
+legendary.
+
+We went to Russia by way of the Baltic. The nights at that time were
+"white," and rocky islands covered with pines emerged from the sea
+like ghosts, in the mysterious silvery midnight light; the impression
+was fairy-like.
+
+A warm welcome awaited Metchnikoff in Russia. At Petersburg, as in
+Moscow, he was received with cordial and enthusiastic sympathy not
+only by scientific and medical societies, but by all the intellectual
+youth of those cities. This warm reception contributed to efface the
+bitterness sometimes aroused in him by distant recollections of the
+reasons which caused him to leave his native country.
+
+During our stay in Russia we made the acquaintance of our great writer,
+Leon Tolstoi. We spent a day with him in his estate, Iasnaia Paliana,
+and the day left a lifelong impression upon us.
+
+It was at dawn that we reached the little railway station where a
+carriage had come to meet us. It had been raining in the night and now,
+in the first morning light, everything shone with dew. We were excited
+by the sight of the Russian country, cool meadows, forest, fields, all
+that simple landscape that we had not seen for so long, and we were
+also greatly moved at the idea of meeting Tolstoi.
+
+The village appeared in the distance and, a little way apart, the wide
+open entrance gate of the old park of Iasnaia Paliana. We entered a
+long shady avenue leading to the home of Tolstoi. The spring was at its
+best, flowers and perfumes everywhere. The house and the old park had
+the poetic charm of the ancient "nests of nobility" in Russia.
+
+Tolstoi's daughter greeted us on the steps; her kindly simplicity at
+once put us at our ease. We had hardly entered the vestibule when we
+saw Leon Tolstoi himself coming down the stairs with a brisk step.
+We knew him at once, though he seemed to us different from all his
+portraits. We were first of all struck by his eyes, deep, piercing, and
+yet as clear as those of a child. He had nothing of that hardness and
+severity that one is accustomed to see in his portraits; his features,
+too, seemed to us much finer and more idealised. He looked straight
+into our eyes as if he wished to read the depths of our souls. But we
+were at once reassured by the kind and benevolent expression of his
+whole face. He looked strong and healthy and did not seem old, but
+full of inner life. After the first words of welcome, he said to us,
+"You resemble each other; that happens after living happily together
+for a long time." He questioned us concerning our journey and on the
+impression made upon us by Russia after our long absence; then he said
+he had to finish his morning task.
+
+His daughter and son took us for a walk through the park and the
+village, and the friendly words they exchanged with the peasants
+indicated excellent relations between the villagers and the people of
+the chateau. As soon as we came in, Leon Tolstoi reappeared, declaring
+that he gave himself holiday for the day. He questioned Metchnikoff on
+his researches, on the present state of hygiene, and on the application
+of scientific discoveries. He listened attentively and with visible
+interest. At the end of the conversation he declared that it was quite
+erroneously that he was thought to be hostile to Science, and that
+he only denounced pseudo-science, which has nothing to do with human
+welfare. "In reality," he said, "you and I are aiming towards the same
+goal by different lines."
+
+All his words were impregnated with a deep love for, and an ardent
+desire to serve, humanity. Literature and Art were mentioned; Tolstoi
+said that he was now so far from it all that he had even forgotten some
+of his own works and appreciated them much less than his writings on
+spiritual questions. He thought that sometimes beauty of form acted at
+the expense of the moral bearing of the subject. To the objection that
+Art embellishes Life, he answered that it has some value in that it
+serves as a link between men and makes them purer, but that its moral
+importance surpasses its aesthetic value by a great deal.
+
+He related that he had conceived a new work on the social movement in
+Russia and, _a propos_ of that, the conversation fell upon political
+reprisals. The subject of deportations, prisons, and executions was
+visibly painful to him; his eyes, now sad and suffering, revealed his
+vibrating soul.
+
+On the agrarian question, he was in favour of the nationalisation of
+land, and showed great enthusiasm for Henry George. He thought the
+suppression of the commune in Russia a great mistake. Metchnikoff
+explained to him that his personal observations in Little Russia
+spoke, on the contrary, in favour of individual property, which gave
+better agricultural results. Tolstoi manifested perfect tolerance,
+and conversation flowed on peacefully concerning various subjects. In
+everything he said the beauty and elevation of his soul was perceptible.
+
+After lunch he desired to have a serious conversation with Metchnikoff
+and took him out driving, he himself holding the reins. On the way he
+returned to the question of Science. He thought that humanity was so
+overwhelmed with misery and had so many urgent questions to solve that
+work ought to be turned in that direction, and that we had no right to
+busy ourselves with abstract questions unrelated to life. "What good
+can it do man to have a notion of the weight and dimensions of the
+planet Mars?" he said.
+
+Metchnikoff answered that theory is much nearer to life than it seems,
+and that many benefits have been acquired for humanity by scientific
+observations of an abstract order. Thus, the discovery of the great
+unchanging laws of Nature give to Man the consciousness of being
+submitted to logical laws instead of an arbitrary force, and that is a
+benefit. When microbes were discovered, their part in human life was
+not suspected, and yet this discovery was afterwards of the greatest
+service to human welfare since it enabled man to fight against disease.
+
+On the way back, Tolstoi gave his place to his son and himself returned
+on horseback, an exercise in which he indulged almost daily, in spite
+of the approach of his eighty years. He still rode splendidly, sitting
+quite upright, and seemed even younger than before.
+
+After that he went to take a little rest, whilst Countess Tolstoi gave
+us immense pleasure by reading to us two yet unpublished works by her
+husband, the charming story _After the Ball_ and the tragic _Sergius
+the Monk_.
+
+In the late afternoon a friend of our host, an accomplished musician,
+sat at the piano and played some Chopin. In the spring twilight the
+charm of that music filled us with emotion. Leon Tolstoi, seated in an
+armchair, listened; the lyrical beauty of the sound sank deeper and
+deeper into his soul, his eyes became veiled with tears, he leant his
+forehead on his hand and remained motionless. Metchnikoff also was
+deeply moved, and the effect of music on two such men, the pleasure
+that it gave them, was the strongest plea in favour of pure Art.
+
+"I do not know what takes place in my mind when I listen to Chopin,"
+said Tolstoi a few moments later, after the closing sounds had
+vanished, "Chopin and Mozart move me to the depths. What lyrism! what
+purity!" Metchnikoff liked Mozart and Beethoven, but Tolstoi thought
+Beethoven too complicated. As to Wagner and modern music, they both
+agreed about it, thinking it unintelligible and lacking harmony and
+simplicity.
+
+Around the tea-table conversation turned on senility, and Metchnikoff
+developed his theory of the discords of human nature. He illustrated
+his affirmations by the example of Goethe's _Faust_, who, according to
+him, formed the best picture of the evolution of human phases. To his
+mind the second part of _Faust_ is but an allegory of the disharmonies
+of old age. It is a striking picture of the dramatic contest between
+the yet ardent and juvenile feelings of old Goethe and his physical
+senility. Tolstoi seemed interested by this interpretation and said he
+would read the second part of _Faust_ over again, but that he himself
+would never offer an example of a similar lack of harmony. _A propos_
+of Metchnikoff's theory, according to which the fear of death exists
+because Death itself is premature, Tolstoi affirmed that he had no fear
+of death, but added, laughingly, that he would nevertheless try to
+reach the age of 100 in order to please Elie.
+
+Our train only left late in the night, and, until we started, the
+conversation never ceased to be animated. In every one of his words
+Tolstoi's exalted soul was perceptible, a soul in which there was room
+but for preoccupations of a spiritual order. He would have given the
+impression of floating above the earth if his ardent and compassionate
+heart had not constantly brought him back to the miseries and faults of
+human beings. The atmosphere around him was pure and vivifying as on
+high peaks, and the place seemed sanctified by his presence.
+
+That interview had been a meeting of two superior minds, two exalted
+souls, but how different! The one, scientific and rational, always
+leaning on solid facts in order to soar and to spread his wings in the
+highest spheres of thought; the other an artist and a mystic, rising
+through intuition to the same spiritual heights; both pursuing the same
+goal of human perfection and happiness, but going along such different
+roads....
+
+As we took leave of him, Leon Tolstoi said, "Not farewell, but _au
+revoir_!" And as we sat in the carriage and started to go, he appeared
+in a lighted window, as in an aureola, waving his hand, "Au revoir,
+au revoir!" he repeated for the last time.... The night was calm and
+beautiful under the immensity of the starry vault, and its greatness
+was confounded in our souls with the greatness of Leon Tolstoi.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XXX
+
+  Intestinal flora--Infantile cholera--Typhoid fever--Articles on
+  popular Science.
+
+
+When he returned home, Metchnikoff immediately resumed his work. He
+continued, with his collaborators, researches on the normal intestinal
+flora and on the microbian poisons which provoke arterio-sclerosis.
+
+They were able to ascertain that certain microbes of the intestinal
+flora, such as the _bacillus coli_ and _Welch's bacillus_, produce
+poisons (phenol and indol) which are reabsorbed by the _normal_
+intestinal walls and which provoke arterio-sclerosis and other lesions
+of the organs. A part of those poisons is eliminated by the urine,
+and the quantity found therein allows one to estimate the quantity
+contained in the organism. An exclusively vegetarian or carnivorous
+diet increases its production, while a mixed diet reduces it. During
+the rest of his life Metchnikoff made systematic and periodical
+analysis of his own urine in correlation with his diet.
+
+From certain facts and certain experiments he concluded that the
+reciprocal influence of microbes might be utilised to attenuate or to
+eliminate the noxious action of some of them. Thus, by cultivating
+the lactic bacillus in the presence of those microbes which produce
+poisons belonging to the aromatic group, the decrease in quantity
+and even the disappearance of phenol and indol is observed. All those
+facts confirmed anterior results which Metchnikoff had obtained, and
+indicated the route to be followed in his struggle against those toxins
+which gradually poison the organism and induce premature senility.
+
+Having thus elucidated certain questions concerning the part played by
+microbes in a normal organism, he studied the pathogenic intestinal
+flora. He began by infantile cholera because this question is
+simplified by the fact that new-born children are fed exclusively
+on milk. It was then believed by practitioners that this intestinal
+disease of infants came from their mode of feeding, from summer heat,
+and other external influences. Metchnikoff, however, succeeded in
+demonstrating that the contents of the intestines of infants suffering
+from "cholera" always included a special kind of microbe, the _B.
+proteus_; he was also able to give the disease to young anthropoid
+apes by making them ingest food soiled by the intestinal contents of
+sick infants, thus establishing the infectious character of infantile
+cholera.
+
+He then attacked another intestinal disease, typhoid fever, of which
+the microbe (_Eberth's bacillus_) had been known for some time, but
+had not been studied experimentally, ordinary laboratory animals
+being refractory. Metchnikoff had again recourse to anthropoids, and
+succeeded in infecting a chimpanzee by making him eat food soiled by
+the intestinal contents of a typhoid patient.
+
+With the collaboration of Dr. Besredka, he undertook a series of
+experiments on anthropoid apes and on macaques. The former alone took
+typical typhoid fever, similar to that of man. It could be given them
+by pure cultures of Eberth's bacillus, which definitely confirmed the
+specificity of that microbe.
+
+Antityphoid vaccination by means of killed bacilli not being at that
+time either safe or durable, Metchnikoff advised measures of simple
+preventive hygiene: the use of cooked food, great personal cleanliness,
+cleanliness of streets and dwellings, and the destruction of insects,
+especially flies, which often infect food. In order to popularise these
+notions, he wrote a series of articles in newspapers. Later, several
+scientists found efficacious means of vaccination against typhoid fever.
+
+In 1912 Metchnikoff, in collaboration with Dr. Besredka (the author of
+the antityphoid vaccination method by means of sensitised bacilli),
+demonstrated on anthropoid apes that antityphoid vaccination by living
+sensitised microbes is certain, and that it presents no danger of
+diffusing the disease, for these microbes, harmless to the vaccinated
+individual, cannot prove a source of danger for his entourage, since
+they are phagocyted at the very place where they are inoculated.
+
+Metchnikoff always considered that it was very useful to keep the
+public at large informed of the results acquired by Science, because
+"it is only by becoming a part of daily life that measures of hygiene
+and prophylaxis will have efficacious results." He therefore lost no
+opportunity of spreading scientific principles and facts. In 1908 he
+had given in Berlin a lecture on "The Curative Forces of the Organism."
+In a Russian review, the _Messenger of Europe_, he developed the
+same subject and included an epitome of his lecture in Stockholm
+on immunity. In that article he expounded the phagocyte theory of
+immunity. Among concrete examples of its application, he quoted the
+indications concerning the evolution of an infectious disease provided
+by the quantity of leucocytes in the blood, and the process employed
+by certain surgeons to diminish the danger of infection during an
+operation: just as, in case of an enemy menace, the Government mobilise
+an army, certain surgeons employ divers means to attract an army of
+phagocytes and to stimulate their activity in case any microbes should
+penetrate into the wound.
+
+In 1909 he gave another lecture at Stuttgart, "A Conception of
+Nature and of Medical Science," in which he summed up his two works
+_Etudes sur la nature humaine_ and _Essais optimistes_. The title
+of this lecture was intended to emphasise his view of human nature,
+according to which "Man, as he appeared on the earth, is an animal and
+pathological being belonging to the realm of medicine." But he ended
+his paper by the same optimistic thought which illumines the whole
+philosophy of his later years. "With the help of Science, Man can
+correct the imperfections of his nature."
+
+He unveiled these imperfections and the ills which proceed from them,
+not only from a love of truth or scientific honesty, but always with
+the object of finding means to combat them. He never allowed sight to
+be lost of the fact that Science lights up the tortuous and painful
+path which leads to an issue that suffering humanity will find by
+gradually widening the limits of knowledge with the help of Work and of
+Will.
+
+Thus all his writings offer us encouragement and support.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXI
+
+  A bacteriological expedition to the Kalmuk steppes, 1911.
+
+
+During his preceding journeys in the Kalmuk steppes, Metchnikoff had
+often heard it said that tuberculosis was almost unknown there, but
+that the Kalmuks took it very easily when brought into contact with
+foreigners. As all means of combating this disease had hitherto given
+very unsatisfactory results, Metchnikoff thought that researches should
+be started along a new path. He had long thought that observations on
+the extreme liability of Kalmuks to tuberculosis might perhaps provide
+some new data. But the study of the question necessitated a very
+distant journey which he now at last had the opportunity of realising.
+
+According to Metchnikoff's hypothesis, a _natural_ vaccination
+takes place among us against tuberculosis which would explain the
+resistance of the majority of human beings in spite of the enormous
+diffusion of the disease. He concluded that some attenuated breeds of
+microbes become introduced into our organism during our childhood,
+thus vaccinating us against the virulent tuberculous bacillus. This
+supposition seemed to him plausible, for he had long ago found that
+some micro-organisms (Cienkovsky's bacillus, the cholera bacillus,
+etc.) become modified in different environment and conditions, both
+in form and in virulence. He had described this phenomenon in 1888
+in a memoir entitled _Pleomorphism of Microbes_. His hypothesis would
+explain the liability of the Kalmuks, since, if no tuberculous bacilli
+existed in the steppes, the inhabitants could not acquire a natural
+vaccination. When placed in an environment which was not free from
+tuberculosis, they became infected very easily, being in no wise
+prepared for the struggle against the virus.
+
+The expedition to the Kalmuk country was therefore planned in order to
+ascertain whether tuberculosis was really absent from the steppes. This
+could easily be done by Pirquet's test,[27] which at the same time would
+show whether the number of Kalmuks infected increased from the centre
+to the outer limit of the steppes and corresponded with the greater
+degree of contact with the surrounding population. If the enquiry
+confirmed the hypothesis, there would remain to be seen which microbes
+might best be used as vaccines.
+
+  [27] A cutaneous scarification by tuberculin which provokes local
+       inflammatory redness on the scarified point in tuberculous
+       subjects only.
+
+The expedition was also intended to elucidate a few questions on the
+etiology of endemic plague in the Kirghiz steppes. When this intention
+became known, the Russian authorities desired to add to it a local
+mission on the study of plague epidemics in the steppes. Metchnikoff,
+who was chiefly concerned with the question of tuberculosis, was only
+able to draw up a plan of work for the Russian mission and to start it
+going in one of the plague centres.
+
+The Pasteur Institute expeditionary party comprised, besides
+Metchnikoff, MM. Burnet, Salimbeni, and Iamanouchi. They were joined at
+Moscow by Drs. Tarassevitch and Choukevitch, and at Astrakhan by the
+physicians of the Russian plague mission. The Institut Pasteur party
+left Paris on May 14, 1911, full of spirits; Metchnikoff, eager to make
+the journey pleasant for his companions, was doing the honours of his
+country to the best of his ability; he fully succeeded, owing to the
+warm welcome and liberal hospitality which they received in Russia,
+where every one tried to contribute not only to the success of the
+expedition but to the comfort and pleasure of its members. The latter,
+indeed, preserved a most pleasant recollection of this journey, and, in
+later years, always spoke of it with pleasure.
+
+Navigation on the Volga from Nijni Novgorod to Astrakhan was full of
+peculiar charm. That five days' journey was one of the rare periods
+of complete rest in Metchnikoff's life. He indulged in the _dolce far
+niente_ as he watched the peaceful landscape on the passing banks. The
+Volga, then in flood, covered immense spaces. Here and there, whole
+forests emerged from the river which reflected them as in an enchanted
+dream. From time to time, little isolated villages appeared with the
+gilt cupola of a church or a monastery, then meadows, forests, steep
+cliffs, or gentle slopes down to the river. What poetry, what grandeur
+in simplicity! As in a kaleidoscope, types of varied populations and
+pictures of local customs followed upon each other.
+
+Along the banks now and then were seen processions of pilgrims. Their
+humble, gray, stooping figures breathed deep faith and resignation.
+Sometimes popular songs arose from the Volga, sad, expressive,
+soul-penetrating chants.
+
+This contemplative quietude was only interrupted by stations in the
+ports of large towns where deputations of the educated inhabitants came
+to wish the mission welcome. These functions had a cordial and touching
+character, for it was obvious that such enthusiastic demonstrations had
+for their source a sincere cult for the knowledge whose representatives
+were being feted; it was touching to see such a living ideal in this
+distant and oppressed land.
+
+At Tsaritsine, several Kirghiz embarked on our boat in order to go to
+a large fair which the inhabitants of the steppes attended in numbers.
+Metchnikoff thought this was a unique opportunity to learn whether
+there were any carriers of the plague bacillus among those many natives
+coming from all parts of the steppes. He therefore decided that those
+members of the expedition who had come to study plague would go to the
+fair with the Kirghiz, whilst he, with the rest of the expedition,
+would make observations on the Kalmuks of the Astrakhan region.
+
+A most hospitable welcome awaited us there; people vied with each other
+in their efforts to assist the expedition. The Governor-General of
+Astrakhan had ordered all preparations to be made, and the mission was
+provided not only with necessaries but with comforts which did much to
+alleviate the fatigue of the long journey.
+
+Whilst waiting for our companions, we had time to verify several
+diagnostical reactions, the Kalmuks lending themselves willingly to the
+operation. We heard later that they thought they were being vaccinated
+against small-pox, a disease much feared in the steppes.
+
+As soon as the plague mission arrived, we started towards the Kirghiz
+steppes, for there was a plague centre north of the Caspian Sea. When
+we were out at sea, an intense north wind began to blow the waves away
+from the Kirghiz bank, and soon the depth lessened to such an extent
+that we could make no progress. The sailors were perpetually making
+soundings, and their repeated cries of "Two and a half feet!" became
+a regular nightmare. The situation seemed critical, and returning to
+Astrakhan was suggested; an idea which infuriated Metchnikoff; he would
+not hear of it. At last, after several incidents we reached the Kirghiz
+bank, the crossing having lasted three days instead of the usual
+twenty-three hours.
+
+As we arrived, we could see from afar a sort of Valkyries' ride of
+natives clad in brilliant colours and riding up at full gallop with
+wild cries and exclamations. Before us spread a barren and sandy
+steppe, producing the sad impression of a land forsaken by God and
+man. How could life be possible there? But gradually, as we became
+captivated by the charm of the boundless space, the purity of the air,
+the harmonious colouring and the scent of wild heliotrope and wormwood
+which alone can grow in those sands, we began to understand that it was
+not only possible to live in those steppes, but also to love them.
+
+The plague centre stood among sandy hills with low-growing grass; the
+summit of one of them was black with charred remains of burnt objects;
+the corpses were buried in the same place. Only a few wretched forsaken
+hovels remained. In order to throw light upon endemic plague in the
+steppes, it was first of all necessary to ascertain whether the plague
+microbes remained alive for some time in places where the scourge had
+raged; if they were preserved in dead bodies which had been singed
+rather than burnt; if the worms, insects, rodents, and domestic animals
+on the spot were or were not carriers of the plague microbe, and could
+or could not transmit it to a distance from the initial focus.
+
+After organising a small emergency laboratory, the corpses were
+exhumed, and Dr. Salimbeni made a post-mortem examination. These
+corpses, having been in the ground for three months, were in a state of
+advanced decomposition and contained no living microbes.
+
+Having set the work of the plague mission going, Metchnikoff parted
+from it in order to accomplish the projected investigations on
+tuberculosis in the Kalmuk steppes. He made a very solemn entry into
+these steppes; a Kalmuk deputation welcomed the mission and presented
+Metchnikoff with a bronze Buddha.
+
+The aspect of those natives is sad and humble, their movements are
+slow, their eyes dull. In this they contrast with their neighbours,
+the quick and intelligent Kirghiz, and one reason for it is that the
+latter, being Moslems, absorb no alcohol, while the Kalmuks consume
+fermented milk (alcoholic fermentation) which poisons them slightly but
+continuously; this observation had already been made by Metchnikoff at
+the time of his previous visit.
+
+The Kalmuks live in tents covered with coarse felt; they transport
+these dwellings on camels from one place to another when their herds
+of sheep or horses have consumed the scanty pasture grass around the
+camp. There is no attempt at cultivation, and the steppes become more
+and more barren as the pastures become exhausted. In order to remedy
+this evil, the Russian administration has begun various experimental
+plantations. In some places the steppes are covered with small tamarisk
+bushes or with silky grass, but, as a rule, the chief growth is of
+silver wormwood. The monotony is not so great as one might think, for
+the steppes, like a mirror, reflect all the divers light-changes, and
+wonderful natural phenomena take place there. During the great heat,
+mirages are to be seen in the distance--a river, lakes, reed-grown
+shores; sometimes a sand-storm supervenes, more infernal than
+fairy-like, called here "smertch." The wind raises the sand in tongues
+of flames or in funnels running up to the sky with giddy rapidity.
+Gradually, all the separate turmoils join in a gigantic wall of sand,
+advancing in an orgy of movement; the heavy clouds fall towards the
+ground, the sand rushes upwards, everything becomes confounded in
+darkness and chaos.
+
+One feels so entirely in the power of natural forces that the fatalism
+of the poor inhabitants of the land is easily understood. The Kalmuks,
+primitive and nomadic, produce the impression of ghosts from distant
+centuries.
+
+Metchnikoff noticed that since his last visit in 1874, fatal influences
+had worked havoc on the population. Four scourges, all of them coming
+from outside, are destroying the Kalmuks: syphilis, alcoholism,
+tuberculosis, and the Russians who are constantly pushing them back.
+Those poor people realise the fate which is awaiting them, and resign
+themselves like a sick man who knows his sickness to be incurable.
+
+The spiritual life of the Kalmuks reduces itself to their religious
+cult. There are many Buddhist convents where children are being brought
+up for a monastic life. Religious rites are performed by priests
+dressed in purple and brilliant yellow; for the uninitiated, their
+part consists in unrolling interminable bands on which prayers are
+inscribed, and in executing a religious music which seemed a mixture
+of a camel's grunt, a dog's howling, and an infinitely sad plaint. Of
+the pure cult of Buddha, nothing seems to remain but an empty form.
+However, there is a convent in the steppes--Tshori--a sort of religious
+academy, where an effort is being made to restore the cult to the
+original level of Buddhist doctrines.
+
+Whilst gathering observations on tuberculosis, we traversed the steppes
+in a north-easterly direction as far as Sarepta. This town seemed like
+a civilised centre after the steppes, where the conditions of life were
+somewhat hard in spite of the cordial reception accorded us everywhere.
+The food, consisting solely in tinned goods and mutton, had caused
+intestinal trouble in nearly all the members of the expedition; on the
+other hand, we were greatly incommoded by the heat, lack of water, and
+abundance of insects of all kinds.
+
+In spite of all, Metchnikoff had hitherto borne the journey fairly
+well. However, since we left Moscow he had had frequent cardiac
+intermittence, accompanied sometimes by sharp pains along the sternum.
+But the stay at Sarepta especially tried his health; the heat reached
+35 deg. C. (95 deg. F.) in the shade and 52 deg. C. (about 125 deg. F.)
+in the sun; in the evening the windows could not be opened because of
+the mosquitoes. Metchnikoff, who had shown so much endurance, now
+became weak, drowsy, and nervous; he attributed his condition to the
+excessive heat. Yet he could not leave Sarepta, for all the members of
+both branches of the mission had agreed to meet there in order to sum
+up the results of their observations.
+
+The researches of the expedition for the study of plague were not
+finished, and the Russian mission had agreed to complete them. So far,
+it was established that neither the corpses--after a certain time--nor
+the ground, nor the surrounding animals contained any plague microbes,
+and no carriers had been found among the Kirghiz population.
+
+The data gathered among the Kalmuk population justified Metchnikoff's
+hypothesis. In the centre of the steppes, where the Kalmuks were still
+isolated, tuberculosis was completely unknown; diagnosis reactions
+were negative. They became positive more and more frequently as we
+came nearer the periphery of the steppes and the Russian population.
+The extreme sensitiveness of the Kalmuks must therefore depend on the
+fact that they have suffered no natural vaccination in the steppes,
+which would support the idea that some natural vaccine exists amongst
+us. Metchnikoff therefore concluded that he might direct ulterior
+researches towards the quest of natural tuberculous vaccines. Such were
+the scientific results of the expedition.
+
+Apart from that, the journey to Russia had a strong personal influence
+on Metchnikoff. He had formerly left his country under the impression
+of the fatal error committed by the revolutionaries in killing
+Alexander II., an error which had led to a protracted reaction. He had
+therefore remained very sceptical concerning the Russian revolutionary
+movement; he thought that the necessary reforms might come from a
+Government evolution. But, during his sojourn in Russia, he was able
+to appreciate events which modified his ideas to a great extent. He
+was impressed by the contrast between the progressive aspirations of
+the "intellectuals" and the inertia or noxious activity of the rulers.
+The policy of Casso, the Minister of Public Instruction, who ordered
+regular raids in the universities, the persecution of Poles and Jews,
+the encouragement of the "black band" obscurantism, giving plenary
+powers to creatures of darkness like Rasputin and his peers, all these
+things excited indignation in a man who placed the free development of
+human culture above everything.
+
+He thus ceased to count upon the progressive evolution of a Government
+which was incapable of solving the complicated problems of Russian
+life, and henceforward thought that those problems would be solved by
+the "intellectuals" apart from the Government and in opposition to it.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXII
+
+  Further researches on the intestinal flora--_Forty Years' Search for
+  a Rational Conception of Life._
+
+
+Since Metchnikoff had conceived the idea that a considerable part was
+played in human life by the intestinal flora, his thoughts had centred
+around a study which he thought profitable: that of the influence of
+intestinal microbes on the normal and on the pathological organism.
+
+So, on his return from Russia, he took advantage of the fact that an
+epidemic of infantile cholera had broken out in order to continue his
+former investigations of that disease. The numerous cases which he
+thus studied allowed him finally to establish the specific part of the
+_B. proteus_ as well as the similarity between infantile cholera and
+Asiatic cholera. This time he succeeded in contaminating, not only
+young anthropoid apes, but also new-born rabbits, and that not only
+through sick children's excreta, but by pure cultures of the _proteus_,
+which eliminated every doubt of the specificity of this microbe.
+
+Metchnikoff explained the contamination of children exclusively
+breast-fed, either by the presence of a carrier personally refractory,
+among the entourage, or by the transport of dirt, by means of flies,
+on the objects which infants so readily put into their mouths.
+He therefore advised preventive means of absolute hygiene and
+cleanliness, especially where suckling infants are concerned.
+
+During the year 1912, he studied the intestinal flora and the influence
+of divers food diets. He experimented upon the rat, an omnivorous
+animal whose mode of feeding resembles that of man. The rats were
+divided into three lots, of which one was kept to a meat diet, another
+to a vegetarian regime, and the third to a mixture of both. The meat
+diet was least favourable, and the best results obtained by the mixed
+food.
+
+These observations led Metchnikoff to the study of other problems
+intimately connected with the same question.
+
+He undertook a series of researches in collaboration with his pupils,
+MM. Berthelot and Wollman, on the conditions which cause the diminution
+within the organism of the toxic products of intestinal microbes. They
+found that the quantity of these products was very small in those
+animals which feed on vegetable or fruit containing much sugar, such
+as carrots, beetroot, dates, etc. This is explained by the fact that
+the products of the decomposition of sugar are acids which prevent the
+development of putrefying microbes. But the sugar, rapidly absorbed by
+the walls of the small intestine, only reaches the large intestine in a
+much reduced quantity, for it is only up to a certain point during its
+journey that the cellulose of vegetables, rich in sugar, protects that
+substance. The question, therefore, was to find the means of making
+it reach the large intestine in greater quantities. In the intestine
+of a normal dog, an innocuous microbe was found, the _Glycobacter
+peptonicus_, which decomposes starch into sugar.
+
+Metchnikoff made some laboratory animals ingest this microbe together
+with food, and ascertained that it reached the large intestine and
+decomposed in it the starch of farinaceous food into sugar, of which
+the acid products prevented the swarming of putrefying microbes. By
+this process it is possible to reduce to a minimum and even sometimes
+to eliminate the production of phenol and indol in rats subjected to a
+mixed diet and made at the same time to ingest cultures of the lactic
+bacillus and of the glycobacter.
+
+Metchnikoff applied these different diets to himself and to other
+individuals and obtained concordant results.
+
+However, he ascertained that it is not only the food diet which
+regulates the quantity of microbian poisons contained in the organism;
+that quantity sometimes varies very much in spite of an identical
+diet. He thought that a very important part of influence is due to
+pre-existing microbes which prevent or favour the development of
+microbes of putrefaction. All these questions, complicated by the
+richness and variety of the intestinal flora, still demanded a long
+series of laborious researches.
+
+At the end of the winter he felt tired, and we went to the seaside
+during the holidays. But the sharp sea air did not suit him; he had
+a beginning of cardiac asthma and nearly fainted during a walk. We
+therefore had to come away from the sea, and went inland, to Eu. At the
+beginning of our stay, Metchnikoff did not feel well, walking tired
+him, he suffered from cardiac intermittence; it was only gradually
+that his condition improved and he was able to write the preface to a
+Russian edition of his philosophical articles.
+
+This book was entitled _Forty Years' Search for a Rational Conception
+of Life_, and the articles record the evolution of his ideas and his
+search "not only for a rational understanding of life, but also for the
+solution of the problem of death, which is so full of contradictions."
+
+This collection of articles enables us at the same time to follow the
+gradual transition from the pessimism of his youth to the optimism of
+his maturity. His first writings[28] relate to the discords of human
+nature and the lack of a solid basis for morals.
+
+  [28] _Education from an Anthropological Point of View_, _The
+       Matrimonial Age_, _The Conception of Human Nature_, _The
+       Struggle for Existence in a General Sense_. See Bibliography.
+
+But, already in 1883, he concluded an opening _Causerie_ at the
+Naturalists' Congress in Odessa, by the following words: "The
+theoretical study of natural history problems, in the widest sense of
+the word, alone can give a sound method for the comprehension of truth
+and lead to a definite conception of life--or at least to an approach
+to it."
+
+Another article, _The Curative Forces of the Organism_, sums up his
+phagocyte theory, and states the fact that the organism possesses
+special powers of struggle against enemy elements.
+
+In 1891, he wrote _The Law of Life_, in which we find the dawning idea
+that the lack of harmony in human structure does not make a happy
+existence and a rational code of morals impossible. Morals must consist
+"not in rules of conduct adapted to our present defective human nature,
+but on conduct based upon human nature modified, according to the ideal
+of human happiness."
+
+_The Flora of the Human Body_, published in 1901, is a study in which
+Metchnikoff's optimism assumes a definite form, for he speaks of the
+efficacy of certain means of struggling with our lack of harmony.
+
+The last chapter in the book, "A Conception of Life and of Medical
+Science," introducing the word Orthobiosis, strikes the optimistic
+chord, winged and conclusive, which must result from victory over the
+disharmonies of human nature. This is Metchnikoff's ultimate formula,
+summing up the problems of life and of morals:
+
+  The ethical problem reduces itself to this: to allow the majority of
+  human beings to reach life's goal, that is, to accomplish the whole
+  cycle of a rational existence to its natural end. We are still very
+  far from that. We can but sketch the rules to follow in order to
+  attain this ideal. Its final realisation will demand more scientific
+  researches, which must be allowed the widest and freest scope. It is
+  to be foreseen that existence will have to be modified in many ways.
+  Orthobiosis demands an active, healthy, and sober life, devoid of
+  luxury and excess.
+
+  We must therefore modify present customs and eliminate those extremes
+  of wealth and poverty which now bring us so many evils. As time goes
+  on, when Science has caused present evils to disappear, when men no
+  longer tremble for the life and welfare of their dear ones, when
+  individual life follows a normal course--then Man can attain a higher
+  level and more easily devote himself to exalted goals.
+
+  Then Art and pure Science will occupy the place which is due to them
+  and which they lack at the present moment in consequence of our many
+  cares. Let us hope that men will understand their true interests and
+  contribute to the progress of orthobiosis.
+
+  Many efforts are necessary, much self-sacrifice, but they will be
+  attenuated by the consciousness of an activity directed towards the
+  real goal of human existence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII
+
+                            First our pleasures die, and then
+                            Our hopes, and then--our fears, and when
+                            These are dead--the debt is due.
+                            Dust claims dust--and we die too.
+
+                                                            SHELLEY.
+
+  Unpleasant incidents--The fabrication of lacto-bacilli--St.
+  Leger-en-Yvelines--Return to Paris--First cardiac attack--Evolution
+  of the death-instinct--Notes on his symptoms.
+
+
+The end of 1912 had some unexpected emotions in store for us.
+
+Metchnikoff had always been able to congratulate himself on the cordial
+hospitality which he had found in France, and to the end of his life he
+remained deeply grateful for it.
+
+But, in any country, incidents may occur about which it would be
+unjust to generalise when they are due to individuals or to particular
+limited circles, as was the fact in the present case. In spite of the
+broad and generous ideas so widespread in France, a sudden current
+of narrow nationalism became manifest, at this moment, in certain
+quarters. Foreigners were accused of invading the country, of occupying
+lucrative posts and increasing the difficulties of the bitter struggle
+for existence. At first, only vague allusions were made, but, little
+by little, the attacks of that nationalist circle went beyond all
+bounds of justice and decency and turned into brutal provocations. The
+contemptuous word _meteque_ was resuscitated.
+
+One newspaper especially led a furious propaganda and hesitated at no
+means of overwhelming its victims, one of whom was Metchnikoff.
+
+Those coarse attacks might have been ignored with the contempt which
+they deserved had they not been echoed by a writer in a serious
+publication. Dr. Roux then wrote a reply in the same paper, and the
+campaign ceased.
+
+A proverb says with truth, "Slander away! something will always
+stick." And it was thus in this case. Metchnikoff was reproached with
+having made money by his scientific discoveries. The story of his
+whole life and the fact that he left no fortune should suffice to
+answer this calumny, yet I am obliged to dwell on it, though I should
+have preferred not to do so. The incident is too characteristic of
+Metchnikoff to be omitted in this biography, which must be a faithful
+testimony. The calumny was based on a real fact, but the interpretation
+of it was absolutely false. After Metchnikoff's experiments on the
+lactic bacillus, a notion of the hygienic power of pure sour milk began
+to spread among the public. A manufacturer had the idea of preparing
+it on a large scale, according to the new scientific principles, and
+wished to form a company to that effect; he asked Metchnikoff to
+recommend to him some one whom he could entrust with the technical work
+of preparing the pure curded milk. It happened that we were just then
+trying to find a post for a young couple in whom we were interested,
+and whose child was my husband's goddaughter. He trained his protege
+in the technique required, and was therefore able to recommend him.
+A short time later, the manufacturer declared that he could not be
+sure of the success of his enterprise without the guarantee of the
+name of Metchnikoff, whose researches had proved the advantages of
+the preparation in question. After consulting the legal adviser of
+the Pasteur Institute, Metchnikoff consented to this, without of
+course having any pecuniary interest in it; the formula chosen was,
+"sole provider of Professor Metchnikoff." The undertaking succeeded,
+and our protege's future was assured. Metchnikoff himself, however,
+was attacked and accused most unjustly, though he had never made any
+personal profit whatever from the enterprise. And yet, when his friends
+told him that it had been very reckless on his part thus to expose
+himself, he answered that he thought it impossible to hesitate between
+the welfare of a whole family and the possibility of gossip. His
+reasoning was imprudent and perhaps erroneous, but he never hesitated
+between doing a kindness and the possible unpleasant consequences it
+might have for himself. If some people could not understand him, it was
+because he was far from the commonplace, "not like other people," a
+quality often misunderstood and unforgiven.
+
+Such are the facts. "Honi soit qui mal y pense!"
+
+The desire to lessen the ills around him was, in general, the cause of
+heavy anxieties in his later years. He had learnt that the discovery of
+an industrial process, of which the realisation required capital, would
+be an excellent investment. He immediately wished to make his friends
+profit by it, as well as himself, in order to alleviate material
+difficulties. But until the end of his life the undertaking had no
+results, and he was obsessed by the fear of having given bad advice to
+those who followed him.
+
+He knew not how to refuse, even when he should have done so; therefore
+he was odiously exploited. Often he worked, in his rare leisure
+moments, for people who were unworthy of his kindness. During the last
+years of his life, all these incidents grieved him so much that he used
+to say he felt the burden of existence. His soul was darkened, he felt
+very depressed, and his health suffered.
+
+We spent the summer holidays of 1913 at St. Leger-en-Yvelines, a
+pretty place on the edge of the Rambouillet forest. In his choice of a
+holiday resort, my husband was always guided by the desire to find a
+place favourable to my sketching, and St. Leger answered the purpose
+wonderfully. The fields with their vast horizons, the forest with its
+graceful bracken and carpets of softly-tinted heather, the mysterious
+ponds, all went to compose an admirable symphony, full of artistic
+suggestion.
+
+Elie himself was gay and full of spirits. He worked in the morning, and
+we spent the rest of the day in the forest. He often read aloud; he
+rested and enjoyed the peaceful calm, pure air, and verdure which he
+loved so much.
+
+He had arranged to take advantage of these holidays to execute work of
+which he had been thinking for a long time. As it has been said above,
+he thought that the life instinct was only developed gradually and
+produced at the same time an optimistic conception of life; he wished
+to verify this personal impression by the psychological evolution of
+divers other thinkers. He turned to Maeterlinck, as a representative of
+modern ideas. This author, mystical and pessimistic in his youth, had
+acquired in his maturity a far more optimistic conception of life. He
+himself explained this change by the influence of circumstances, but
+Metchnikoff saw in it a deeper cause, connected with the progressive
+evolution of the vital instinct which, by bringing equilibrium with
+it, suggests optimism. The study of Maeterlinck's works confirmed his
+opinion.
+
+Time flowed peacefully between rest and these occupations; at the end
+of the holidays, we congratulated ourselves on their result on my
+husband's health; on our return, his friends thought him looking well.
+Yet on the 19th October, about seven in the morning, he had a terrible
+cardiac attack without any apparent cause. I found him seated at his
+desk, and was terrified by his appearance; his lips were blue, and he
+was breathing with difficulty. And yet he was writing, and this is what
+he was writing:
+
+                           SEVRES, _19th October 1913_, 7.45 A.M.
+
+  This morning, after a good night, my heart was working well; I had
+  from 58 to 59 regular pulsations. But, as I rose, I suddenly felt
+  acute pain along the sternum; at the same time began a strong crisis
+  of tachycardia. I had never in my life felt anything like it....
+
+Here he had to stop as the crisis was becoming intolerable, but a few
+hours later he took up his pen again:
+
+                                           _19th October_, 3 P.M.
+
+  The crisis lasted till one o'clock (six hours' duration).
+
+  There were times when the pain in the chest was unendurable.
+
+  I was thirsty and drank hot, weak tea; I vomited; I felt wind in the
+  stomach and the intestine. About noon the pain decreased, but the
+  heart-beats were frequent and extremely irregular. I lunched in
+  order not to alarm my wife, though I feared to aggravate the attack
+  by filling my stomach.
+
+  But the opposite happened. From the first mouthfuls (I naturally
+  eat very little) the pain became more tolerable and the pulse less
+  frequent. After lunch, everything became normal again; the pain
+  ceased, the pulsations slackened (78-80 per min.) and became much
+  more regular. Intermittence was rare, and I several times counted
+  100 regular beats in succession. I remained absolutely conscious
+  during the whole crisis, and what chiefly pleased me is that I felt
+  no fear of death, which I was expecting at every moment. It was not
+  only _reasoning_ which made me understand that it was better to die
+  now, whilst my intellectual powers had not yet gone from me and I had
+  evidently accomplished all of what I was capable; I resigned myself
+  also _in feeling_, and quite serenely to the catastrophe which was
+  coming upon me and which would be far from unexpected.
+
+  My mother, who had suffered from heart attacks during a great part of
+  her life, died at 65. My father died of apoplexy in his 68th year.
+
+  My eldest sister succumbed to an oedema of the brain; my brother
+  Nicholas died at 57 of _angina pectoris_.
+
+  Undoubtedly my cardiac heredity is a bad one. Already in my youth, I
+  suffered from my heart. At 33 I had such cardiac pains that sometimes
+  I had to rest after walking a few paces. At 34, I had much giddiness
+  and a feeling of heaviness in the head. I could not read a few lines,
+  a poster even, without a painful sensation. In 1881, during relapsing
+  fever, I had severe cardiac intermittence, very fatiguing and only
+  relieved by small doses of digitalin.
+
+  I afterwards had periodical attacks of intermittence but never any
+  tachycardia, at least none that lasted more than a few seconds.
+  A little tincture of strophanthus used to relieve me during
+  intermittence. I ended by consulting Dr. Vaquez, but the treatment
+  he prescribed gave me no relief. As I attributed my condition to
+  poisoning by the toxins of intestinal microbes, I resolved to give
+  up raw food and to purge myself now and then with Carabana water.
+  The success of this treatment was indisputable, and in 1897 the
+  intermittence ceased. In the autumn of 1898 I was beginning to suffer
+  from polyuria; I consulted Albaran, who counselled Contrexeville
+  water, but this cure caused the appearance of _albumen_ in my urine.
+  In 1898 I consulted Norden at Frankfort and Leube in Paris during
+  the Exhibition of 1900. Neither found anything alarming. Norden had
+  told me that I had _symptoms of arterio-sclerosis inherent to my age_
+  (53). I adopted a mixed diet; I took, regularly, sour milk prepared
+  with cultures of the Bulgarian lactic bacillus, and, during some
+  years, my health was quite satisfactory.
+
+  It was only after my journey to Russia in 1909 that a notable
+  aggravation supervened. I felt acute pains in the chest, along the
+  sternum, especially after eating or walking.
+
+  In 1911 the intermittence reappeared. In January 1911, I consulted
+  Dr. Heitz in order to know whether I could undertake an expedition in
+  the Kalmuk steppes, where hygienic conditions are very unfavourable.
+  Dr. Heitz found my heart hypertrophied, some slight galloping noise,
+  the blood-pressure (Pachon's apparatus) 17-16-15. He said, however,
+  that I might undertake the journey, but added, "People die suddenly
+  with less the matter than that with their hearts." The journey went
+  well, though I suffered from frequent intermittence and pains along
+  the sternum when I walked.
+
+  After my return, my heart was fairly satisfactory.
+
+  What consoles me especially is that I have preserved my activity, my
+  passion for work, and my intellectual powers. But, naturally, I am
+  ready to die at any moment.
+
+  At the beginning of the summer I was sounded by Dr. Manoukhine and
+  Professor Tchistovitch; both thought the heart-sounds satisfactory,
+  but Manoukhine was rather struck by the weakness of the first
+  aortic sound whilst the second was very strong. I had frequent
+  intermittence, but with intervals of normal pulsations. Latterly I
+  have felt better in that respect, and the pain along the sternum only
+  occurred in exceptional cases.
+
+  Whilst preparing for my end, I am glad that I can face it with
+  courage and serenity.
+
+  As I look back upon my life, it seems to me to have been as
+  "orthobiotic" as possible.
+
+  If it may seem premature to die at 68 years and 5 months, it must not
+  be forgotten that I began to live very early (I published my first
+  scientific work at 18); that I have had many emotions during my life;
+  that I was, so to speak, in a state of continual ebullition.
+
+  The polemics concerning phagocytosis might have killed or finally
+  enfeebled me much earlier. At times (for instance, I refer to
+  Lubarsch's attacks in 1889 and those of Pfeiffer in 1894) I was ready
+  to rid myself of life.
+
+  Moreover, I only began to follow a rational hygiene (according
+  to my opinion) after I was 53 years old and already had symptoms
+  of arterio-sclerosis. I have been fairly successful in combating
+  intestinal putrefaction (phenols and indols),[29] but I could not
+  succeed in getting rid of abundant _clostridium butyricum_ which were
+  implanted in my intestine.
+
+  To sum up, I rejoice that I have had an existence not devoid of
+  sense, and I feel some satisfaction in considering my conception of
+  the problem of life as being accurate.
+
+  As I prepare to die, I have not the shadow of a hope of a life
+  beyond, and I calmly look forward to complete annihilation.
+
+  It is possible that having very early begun a very intense life, I
+  have attained at 68 a precocious satiety of living, just as certain
+  women cease to menstruate earlier than the great majority.
+
+                                                 EL. METCHNIKOFF.
+
+  _P.S._--I believe everything is in order in view of my end (my will,
+  my affairs, etc.).
+
+  _P.S._--Let those who think that, according to my principles, I
+  should have lived a hundred years, "forgive" me my premature end in
+  view of the extenuating circumstances above-mentioned (intense and
+  precocious activity, excitable temperament, nervous disposition, and
+  late beginning of the rational diet).
+
+                                                            E. M.
+
+  [29] 28th _June_ 1914.--I have again analysed my urine and I
+       again find indican in fairly large quantities in spite of
+       a diet which is as rational as possible. I am trying to
+       elucidate this strange contradiction.
+
+The very next day he felt well enough to return to his work.
+
+When urged to settle down in Paris in order to avoid the fatigue of
+the journey, he replied that the peace and pure air of Sevres were
+indispensable to his health, that the journey did not fatigue him in
+the least, but on the contrary provided him with wholesome exercise and
+a pleasant walk. Knowing how prudent he was, I did not dare to insist
+for fear of mistaking what was really best for him. And life gradually
+resumed its normal course....
+
+For a long time Metchnikoff had been observing himself very
+attentively; he took regular notes on the influence of the food
+diet which he followed; by the analysis of his urine, he sought for
+indications respecting the toxic products of his intestinal flora; he
+studied upon himself the advance of senility, whitening of hair, etc.
+
+Since his crisis he had adopted the habit of writing occasional notes
+on his psychical state. This is what he wrote on the 23rd December 1913
+at Sevres:
+
+  Two months and more have passed since I wrote the preceding lines.
+  During that period my health has been satisfactory; nevertheless I
+  have wondered every day whether it would be my last.
+
+  I am therefore hastening to write my memoir on infantile cholera.
+
+  The cardiac intermittence has been more or less frequent, yet every
+  day I have had periods of regular pulsations (58-66-72 per minute) as
+  usual.
+
+  The day before yesterday I contracted a bad cold, accompanied by a
+  little fever. Wondering if it would degenerate into pneumonia, I
+  faced anew the possibility of a near end, and I resumed the analysis
+  of my thoughts, feelings, and sensations.
+
+  As my 70 years draw near to their close, it seems to me that a
+  feeling of satiety with life, what I call the "natural death
+  instinct," is gently beginning to evolve.
+
+  When, in autumn 1910, experimenting with typhoid cultures, I had
+  soiled my face and mouth, I naturally said to myself that it might
+  give me typhoid fever. I washed my face and beard with soap and a
+  solution of sublimate without considering that I was safe against
+  the infection. I _reasoned_ that it would be preferable to contract
+  the disease and to die of it. (At my age typhoid fever is almost
+  always fatal. I had never had it, and might therefore consider myself
+  in a state of receptivity.) It is fine to fall on the battlefield,
+  especially at an age when life and activity are already on the
+  wane. But all that was pure _reasoning_; _instinctively_ I still
+  felt a great desire to live, and it was with joy that I counted
+  the days which separated me from the danger of having contracted
+  typhoid fever. I felt much relieved a fortnight after the incident,
+  considering that the limit of incubation was passed.
+
+  Thus _reasoning_ and feeling or _instinct_ were not in accord.
+
+  Since then, in the three following years, a modification has taken
+  place in my psychical condition.
+
+  The prospect of death _frightens me less than before_. During my
+  cardiac crisis of the 19th October 1913 I even felt no fear of death,
+  and my satisfaction at my recovery was _less_ than before.
+
+  I think it is that difference in quantity which constitutes the first
+  symptoms of _indifference_ towards death, an indifference which is
+  hardly perceptible at first.
+
+  Satiety with life is sometimes observed in old people of 80; it is
+  not surprising to feel the first approach of it about 70, especially
+  in the case of a man like myself who began very early to lead a very
+  intense life.
+
+  Other special circumstances influence even more this precocious
+  satiety of life. As I become more indifferent to my own life I feel
+  a more and more acute anxiety for the health, life, and happiness of
+  those who are dear to me.
+
+  I am especially troubled by a consciousness of the imperfection
+  of modern medicine. In spite of the progress realised in these
+  latter days, it is still powerless against a multitude of diseases,
+  threatening us on all sides.
+
+  Pulmonary lesions (tuberculosis, pneumonia, etc.), the nephrites, and
+  an infinite quantity of other diseases can yet neither be prevented
+  nor cured. So we live in constant fear for those we love. When
+  medicine shall (as I am persuaded) have conquered all these evils,
+  one cause of the bitterness of life will cease--but that is not yet
+  the case.
+
+  That is why, besides the weakening of the life-instinct, a
+  resignation towards death grows in us, as a means of no longer
+  feeling the ills which afflict our neighbours.
+
+  With time, when that source of unhappiness has been eliminated by
+  medicine, old age will be more attractive, and an orthobiotic life
+  will become normal and realisable.
+
+  At the ages of 50, 60, 65, I felt an intense joy in living, such as I
+  described in my _Studies on Human Nature_ and _Optimistic Essays_. In
+  the last few years it has lessened markedly.
+
+  Scientific work still provokes in me an invincible enthusiasm, but I
+  am becoming more indifferent to many of the pleasures of life.
+
+And indeed he no longer had the joyous soul of former days; into his
+life a funereal note had crept, low but continuous and obstinate. He
+gave all the more energy to the study of those questions the solution
+of which was to bring about the reign of orthobiosis. He spent
+the whole winter in researches on the intestinal flora and on the
+completion of his studies on infantile cholera.
+
+In the spring, on the occasion of his anniversary, he wrote the
+following:
+
+                                         SEVRES, _16th May 1914_.
+
+  I have to-day entered my 70th year; it is a great event for me. As I
+  analyse my feelings, I realise more and more the _weakening_ of my
+  "life-instinct."
+
+  In order to verify my impressions, I wished to hear again the
+  musical compositions which formerly used to make me shed tears of
+  enthusiasm (for instance, Beethoven's 7th Symphony or Bach's aria
+  for the violin). Well, my impressionability towards music has very
+  much lessened. In spite of the facility with which old people weep, I
+  hardly shed a single tear, save with rare exceptions.
+
+  I observe the same change in other circumstances.
+
+  This spring, the blossoming of flowers, buds, bushes, and trees, all
+  this renascence of nature, has not excited in me a shadow of the
+  emotion of preceding years.
+
+  Rather I felt a melancholy, not on account of my coming end, but
+  because of the consciousness of the burden of existence.
+
+  There is no question for me now of the old joy of living; my
+  predominant feeling is _infinite anxiety_ for the health and
+  happiness of those I love. I now so well understand Pettenkoffer,
+  who committed suicide at 84 after losing all his family. Their
+  death had evidently been precocious because of the impotence of
+  medicine. At every step, one comes across cases where neither
+  hygiene nor therapeutics can do anything. How many are infected with
+  tuberculosis, no one knows how or where. What is to be done to avoid
+  it? And the consequences of measles, of scarlet fever, perhaps of a
+  simple sore throat, followed sometimes by tuberculosis or nephritis!
+
+  What is the use of being able to foretell, by means of the proportion
+  of urea in the blood, the precise moment of the death of an
+  "azotemic" patient when you cannot prevent it or cure him?
+
+  This imperfection of medical science prevents many from reaching true
+  _orthobiosis_, and it is understandable that, seeing the present
+  state of medicine, the feeling of the "burden of existence" may be
+  precocious, as in my case.
+
+  But it is indubitable that, in spite of the slowness with which
+  medical science is developing, it will in the future reach a degree
+  which will enable us to cease to tremble any longer before all sorts
+  of incurable diseases. Orthobiosis will then appear, no longer under
+  its present incomplete form, but as the solid and essential basis of
+  life.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXIV
+
+  Return to St. Leger-en-Yvelines--Norka--Studies on the death of the
+  silk-worm moth--War declared--Mobilisation.
+
+
+The drawback of the holidays consisted, for Metchnikoff, in coming away
+from his laboratory and in the impossibility of following his diet in a
+hotel or a boarding-house. We therefore resolved to hire a cottage in
+some quiet place, to organise a small laboratory, and to continue our
+usual mode of life.
+
+St. Leger-en-Yvelines, where we had spent part of the preceding summer,
+answered all our requirements. We took a small villa there and called
+it "Norka," which means in Russian "little hole," "little refuge," and
+came there for the holidays in July 1914.
+
+Elie seemed pleased to be there; thanks to the laboratory, he could
+easily vary his occupations, for continuous reading fatigued him. His
+reflections having led him to the problem of natural death, he had
+for some time been seeking for a subject on which he could study the
+mechanism of the phenomenon. He had formerly studied the May-flies
+(Ephemeridae), predestined to a natural death by their rudimentary
+buccal organs, incapable of use in feeding. But the life of those
+insects, a life of a few hours or a few days at the most, was too short
+to allow the necessary researches. The males of the Rotifera, which are
+also deprived of buccal organs and even of digestive organs, were too
+small in size for physiological experiments. Thus, those two examples
+of natural death among multicellular beings were unsuitable to the
+projected study.
+
+He found a more favourable subject in the moth of the silk-worm
+(_Bombyx mori_); the rudimentary buccal organs of that insect make all
+feeding impossible and predestine it to a natural death. The dimensions
+of the silk-worm moth are large enough and it has a life duration of
+twenty-five or thirty days, therefore sufficient to allow the study of
+the mechanism by which its death is brought about. Metchnikoff procured
+a quantity of silk-worms, and soon the moths hatched and covered all
+the mantelpieces and tables in Norka with white flakes. He ascertained
+that it was not hunger which brought about the death of the moths, for
+their organism was not in the least exhausted.
+
+The nutrition of the latter takes place at the expense of the fatty
+substance which remains after the metamorphosis of the chrysalis into
+a moth. The dissolution of this fatty substance produces toxins which
+pass into the urine. Thus the obvious cause of the death of the moth
+is an acid intoxication by toxic urine secreted in the bladder. As the
+latter does not empty itself, uraemia becomes inevitable.
+
+The majority of moths contain no micro-organisms which could suggest
+death by infection.
+
+The only theoretic objection against a natural death might consist
+in the existence of "invisible microbes." Indeed, the question
+of invisible microbes revealed in certain infections perturbed
+Metchnikoff's mind to such an extent that, during his last illness,
+he used to say that it would have been a curse to his ulterior
+activity, a sort of ghost preventing all definite conclusions in
+problems connected with the absence or presence of microbes. The last
+word on natural death, he said, will only be spoken when, owing to
+the improvement of the microscope, those microbes which are as yet
+invisible to us will become visible. Nevertheless, as far as can be
+judged at present, the death of the _Bombyx mori_ is due, not to
+external causes, but to the structure of the insect itself, and is
+therefore a natural death.
+
+During these holidays, Metchnikoff also wrote reminiscences of his
+friend the physiologist Setchenoff.[30]
+
+  [30] In the Russian Review, _Messenger of Europe_.
+
+We went quietly for fairly long walks; Metchnikoff rested on the shores
+of his favourite lake (Vilpert), and his health was very satisfactory.
+
+After the intense heat, some rain came and the weather became ideal;
+there was a perceptible lull in nature; the underwood was becoming
+purple with heather; the corn was ripening; harvest had begun, and
+sheaves stood up in the fields. All was calm and peaceful; we never
+tired of the charm of the forest, of the fields, of the beautiful
+rustic surroundings, and our souls sang in unison with Nature....
+
+Suddenly, like a flash of lightning in the pure sky, the news of the
+war burst out!
+
+The possibility had so often been mentioned in late years that no one
+believed in it. Even now, on the eve of the catastrophe, it was hoped
+that all would settle down....
+
+Until the last moment Metchnikoff refused to believe in it; he could
+not admit that a pacific solution was impossible. "How is it possible
+that in Europe, in a civilised country, mutual interests should not be
+reconciled without killing?" he said. "A war would be madness, even
+from the point of view of Germany, who risks having to face three great
+powers. No, war is not possible."
+
+And yet war was spreading all over Europe.
+
+The situation of France seemed critical, for the country had just gone
+through a series of internal storms. The labour question, that of
+income tax, and that of the three years' military service had raised
+sharp controversies; the Caillaux affair had revealed hidden sores in
+political life; the insane assassination of Jaures, of which the reason
+was still unknown, gave rise to the blackest prognostications.
+
+Already on the 28th July, date of the declaration of war by Austria
+against Serbia, anxiety had become intense, but it was hoped that
+Russia would settle matters between the two countries, and that the
+trouble would remain local.
+
+On the 1st August, Germany declared war on Russia, and it became
+obvious that the storm was coming on apace. The aspect of life suddenly
+changed; a feeling of dread and expectancy unnerved everybody;
+mobilisation was mentioned; automobiles at full speed hurried along the
+roads; the harvest was hastily gathered.... We could no longer work, go
+for walks, or admire nature without a feeling of heavy anxiety.
+
+We went about like automatons, all our thoughts centred on one
+point--the threatening, inevitable war. Everything had put on a
+sinister aspect, and Nature herself joined in the general gloom; the
+weather became stormy, thunder rolled alarmingly, heavy clouds hurried
+and met in a gigantic struggle, evoking the image of other coming
+struggles. During the night of the 1st August the storm never ceased,
+we could not sleep; all night long, frenzied automobiles raced along
+the high road, sounding their lugubrious horns. In the middle of the
+night, we heard some one knocking at the doors of the police station
+opposite. What was happening? In the darkness, illumined by flashes of
+lightning, we saw horsemen with lanterns; they were messengers bringing
+the orders for mobilisation. It was proclaimed the next day.
+
+The population gathered at the _mairie_, a grave, silent crowd; the few
+words exchanged only concerned war and partings. Old men, who had lived
+through 1870, were low-spirited; young ones, on the contrary, were
+excited.
+
+We had to think of our return home, which might be difficult later.
+We went into the forest for the last time; the evening was mild and
+calm after the storm. The peace and beauty around us were such that
+we longed not to believe in the terrible reality. But we had to bid
+farewell to all that had charmed us. We went once again into the
+meadows near Norka. The hayricks were standing in rows, their soft,
+golden silhouettes harmoniously outlined against the hilly background
+purple with heather. We sat down on the mown grass. Suddenly, in the
+calm of the evening, bells began to sound. It was not the distant and
+poetic call for vespers, nor the sad sound of the passing bell, but the
+hard, sinister, ill-omened tocsin, warning the whole countryside, down
+to the most distant, most peaceful hamlets and to the wood-cutters in
+the forest, that mobilisation had commenced....
+
+Another storm broke out in the night. Again the rolling of the
+thunder shook our nerves and seemed like the echo of distant battles;
+again mysterious automobiles and horsemen raced along the road, and
+everything, every sound, every shadow seemed sinister.
+
+We did not feel any fear, but a kind of insupportable nervous tension.
+Later, when we were much nearer real danger, we did not experience this
+electric, almost morbid feeling.
+
+The next day, Germany had declared war on France.
+
+It was only with much difficulty that we found a carriage to take us
+to the station. On the road we were constantly being passed by various
+vehicles, crowded with soldiers and young men going off. The little
+station was full of people, the train also. Moved and excited, the
+people shouted, "Vive la France!" and sent friendly salutes to unknown
+soldiers in the train. Women, seeing their men off, were trying to be
+gay; they encouraged the departing ones, and only wept after they were
+gone. The general impression, both moral and material, was excellent;
+every one seemed equal to his task, conscious of his duty, and desirous
+of fulfilling it well. The mobilisation seemed well organised,
+everything was being accomplished without any flurry or bustle, even
+the trains were almost punctual.
+
+All small personal interests and party quarrels which had latterly
+poisoned life now suddenly disappeared; everywhere the desire to be
+useful was noticeable; people became better, there was more sympathy,
+more solidarity; the distance between classes seemed to decrease, the
+common trial made all equal.
+
+There was beauty in that moment, for it showed that the greatest of
+evils might yet exalt and purify the human soul.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXV
+
+  Return to Paris--The deserted Institute--Memoir on the Founders of
+  Modern Medicine--Metchnikoff's Jubilee--Last holidays at Norka.
+
+
+This was but the beginning of the war; soon it spread with vertiginous
+rapidity, and made its cruel destructive force felt.
+
+On our return from Norka, we found everything on a war footing. The
+very next morning, Metchnikoff hurried to the laboratory. He only
+reached Paris with some difficulty, all means of communication being
+encumbered by soldiers. He had left the house nervous and excited but
+full of courage and energy. I shall never forget his return home....
+
+I was awaiting him as usual, just outside the station, and, as he got
+out of the train, I did not recognise him. I saw a stooping old man,
+bent as under a heavy burden; his usual vivacity was gone, and had
+given place to the deepest depression.
+
+He told me in a broken voice that the Institute was already deserted;
+that it was under the orders of the military authorities, and
+completely disorganised for scientific work. The younger men were
+mobilised; the laboratories empty; the animals used for experiments had
+been killed on account of the departure of the servants, and for fear
+of a lack of food. Everything that had been devoted to the service of
+science and of research into means of preserving life had been handed
+over to the service of war. Normal and cultured life was arrested. And
+that was the outcome of civilisation.
+
+Metchnikoff felt as if he had suddenly been dropped into the abyss of
+centuries, into the times of human savagery. He could not accustom
+his mind to the idea of such a fall; it seemed to him a paradox, an
+impossibility, that civilised peoples could not do without sanguinary
+fights in order to solve questions of mutual relations.
+
+The events which were taking place agitated and depressed him all the
+more that he had not the possibility of becoming absorbed in scientific
+investigations; he was completely thrown off his balance.
+
+And as, one by one, the news came of the death in action of several
+of the young men who had left the Institute, Metchnikoff's grief knew
+no limits. He could not bear the idea, now a terrible reality, that
+these brilliant young lives should be sacrificed, victims of those who
+should have directed the peoples towards peace and a rational life,
+and who, instead of that, threw the most precious part of humanity
+into the abyss of death. War became a dark, sinister background to
+his daily life. The victims of war were not only those who fell on
+the battle-field, but included him whose whole life-effort had been
+directed towards the conservation of human existence and the search
+for rational conceptions. The contrast between his aspirations and the
+cruel reality had been to him a blow which his sensitive and suffering
+heart was not fit to bear.
+
+The Germans were advancing rapidly. Then came the sad days of panic,
+when the inhabitants were leaving Paris in numbers and the Government
+started for Bordeaux. At night, the sky was swept by the gigantic,
+luminous sword of the searchlights; the rumble of cannon could be heard
+in the distance....
+
+Metchnikoff, however, had no personal fear whatever. He very simply
+decided on his course of action, which was to remain at the Institute
+if his presence there could be of use; if not, to retire to some quiet
+place where he could work. As there was hardly any staff left at the
+Institute on account of the mobilisation, he did not go away, but, on
+the contrary, we came to live in Paris, the communication with Sevres
+being very difficult.
+
+The day we arrived was that on which the first German aeroplanes
+appeared, and they dropped bombs near the St. Lazare station just as we
+were alighting from the train. For some time after that, they carried
+out a raid above Paris every Sunday.
+
+In spite of the disorganisation of his whole life, Metchnikoff had
+succeeded in resuming his work to a certain extent. He took advantage
+of an opportunity to observe an old dog who was suffering from
+diabetes, and hastened to examine his organs as soon as he died, whilst
+they were still fresh. He had for some time supposed that diabetes
+might be an infectious disease; yet he was unable to discover any
+specific microbe either in the humors or in the organs of the dog. But
+he succeeded in provoking symptoms of the disease (traces of sugar in
+the urine) in a healthy dog, by inoculating him with the pancreatic
+gland of the diabetic dog. He was much encouraged by this result,
+and would have liked to continue his researches, but was unable to
+do so because of the general disorganisation and the impossibility
+of obtaining animals for experiments. He had to content himself with
+continuing his memoir on infantile cholera and his observations on the
+silk-worm moth.
+
+As he was almost altogether precluded from laboratory work, he began
+to write a study on "The Founders of Modern Medicine," in order to
+demonstrate, by concrete examples, the importance of positive science
+in its application to life. This is what he said in his preface to the
+book:
+
+  These pages were written under special circumstances. If not in the
+  actual hearing of guns, it was in expectation of it that I had to
+  spend several weeks in my Paris laboratory, now under war conditions.
+  These meant an almost complete cessation of any scientific activity
+  in our Institute.
+
+  For fear of a lack of food, the animals used for our experiments had
+  been killed, which deprived us of the possibility of proceeding with
+  our researches.
+
+  The stables of the Institute were filled with cows who provided milk
+  for the hospitals and children's homes.
+
+  The greater number of our young collaborators, assistants, or
+  laboratory attendants were mobilised, and only the female employees
+  and old men remained. One of the latter, I found myself in the
+  impossibility of pursuing my investigations and in possession of much
+  leisure. I made use of it to write this book in the hope that it
+  might be helpful.
+
+  It is not intended for physicians, for they know all that is
+  expounded in it, but for young men who are seeking a scope for their
+  activities.
+
+  We may be sure that the insane war which broke out in consequence of
+  the lack of knowledge or of power of those who should have watched
+  over peace, will be followed by a long period of calm. It is to be
+  hoped that this unexampled butchery will, for a long time, do away
+  with the desire for fighting, and that soon the need will be felt
+  of a more rational activity. Let those who will have preserved the
+  combative instinct direct it towards a struggle, not against human
+  beings, but against the innumerable microbes, visible or invisible,
+  which threaten us on all sides and prevent us from accomplishing the
+  normal and complete cycle of our existence.
+
+  The results acquired by the progress of the new medical science allow
+  us to hope that, in a more or less distant future, humanity will be
+  freed from the principal diseases which oppress it.
+
+After describing the state of medical science before Pasteur, Lister,
+and Koch, Metchnikoff compared with it modern medicine, created by
+these three Founders, and showed the great horizons opened by them to
+the medicine of the future.
+
+On the 26th of September 1914, whilst we were still in Paris, he had,
+in the laboratory, an attack of tachycardia, which lasted three hours
+but was much less violent than that of the year before. The winter,
+however, passed fairly well in spite of the emotions and continuous
+excitement caused by the war, and he had no other attack until April
+1915, when again he had a slight tachycardiac crisis of a short
+duration. Yet he was very much changed: his hair was much whiter, his
+movements were slow, and his figure bent. His infectious gaiety and
+vivacity had disappeared, but he remained energetic and enthusiastic in
+his work, and gained more and more in serenity.
+
+Little children in the street called him "Father Christmas," and came
+confidingly to ask him for presents. They knew him well, and were aware
+that his pockets were always filled with sweets for them. He used
+to say that his growing love for children was the revelation of the
+grandfatherly instinct, for which he had reached the proper age. He
+especially loved one of his god-daughters, little Lili; he had become
+attached to the child on account of her kind heart and exceptional
+sweetness, and also because, from the cradle, she had shown a marked
+preference for him. And yet his love for children was not to him a
+source of joy, for anxiety on their account predominated over other
+feelings.
+
+In spite of the physical change which had supervened, his brain
+continued to work untiringly as in the past, and he tackled new
+problems with youthful courage and boldness. He had planned a work on
+the sexual question, which, according to him, was treated erroneously,
+with the result that grave disharmonies occurred in human existence.
+
+Thus he reached some quite revolutionary conclusions respecting
+education and marriage. He thought that morality should be set upon
+a quite different basis, new and rational; and that was the question
+which he prepared to treat.
+
+The 16th of May of that year was his seventieth anniversary.
+
+His satisfaction was great at having reached the normal limit of age,
+for he saw in that a conclusive proof of the efficacy of his hygiene.
+Indeed, he showed on that day a sort of rejuvenation: his aspect was
+quite different, he was gay and animated as he had not been for a long
+time.
+
+The Pasteur Institute celebrated his jubilee. In spite of the absence
+from "The House" of many members on account of the war, the library
+filled with people, and the fete had a cordial and intimate character.
+Dr. Roux's speech[31] will remain the best description of E. Metchnikoff
+and of his scientific activity. He himself responded to all those
+manifestations of sympathy by a spirited speech, in which, _a propos_
+of his own particular case, he expounded his ideas on senility and the
+duration of life in general. This is what he wrote on that same day in
+his note-book:
+
+  [31] _Annales de l'Institut Pasteur_, Jubile d' E. Metchnikoff,
+       1915.
+
+  16th May 1915. To-day I have at last accomplished my seventy years!
+  I have attained the normal limit of life, a limit mentioned by King
+  David and confirmed by the statistical researches of Lexis and
+  Bodio.[32] I am still capable of work and of reflection. But the
+  changes in my psychical state which I had observed a year ago have
+  become sensibly accentuated. The difference in acuteness both of
+  pleasant and painful sensations is becoming more and more marked.
+  Agreeable sensations are becoming weaker; I am now indifferent to
+  many things which I used to appreciate very much.
+
+  It is useless to say that I am indifferent to the quality of my food;
+  my need of musical impressions has become so much less that I hardly
+  feel the desire to satisfy it. The charm of spring no longer touches
+  me and only provokes sadness in my mind.
+
+  On the other hand, my anxiety for the health and happiness of those
+  I love is getting more and more acute. I find it difficult to
+  understand how I ever could bear it.
+
+  The powerlessness of medicine grieves me more and more, and,
+  as a last straw, the war has interrupted all the work that had
+  been undertaken against disease. In these conditions, it is not
+  astonishing that I should feel a growing satiety with existence.
+  Last year [16th May 1914 to 16th May 1915] I had two attacks of
+  tachycardia, during which I should have been glad to die, but in
+  general my health is satisfactory and that sustains me. What would
+  have become of me if, to crown my misfortunes, I had fallen ill! I
+  certainly no longer fear death, but I desire to die suddenly during a
+  heart attack and not to go through a long illness.
+
+  My comparative longevity is not due to family heredity (my father
+  died in his 68th year, my mother in her 66th, my sister also, my
+  eldest brother at 45, my second brother at 50, the third in his 57th
+  year; my grandparents I have not known). It is to my hygiene that I
+  give the credit for having attained my 70 years in a satisfactory
+  condition. I have taken no raw food for eighteen years and I
+  introduce as many lactic bacilli as possible into my intestines. But
+  it is but a first step; in spite of all, I am being poisoned by the
+  bacteria of butyric fermentation. However, I have practically reached
+  the normal term of life and I must be satisfied. I have, so to speak,
+  accomplished the programme of a "reduced orthobiosis."
+
+  When macrobiotics become more perfect, when people have learnt how to
+  cultivate a suitable flora in the intestines of children as soon as
+  they are weaned from their mother's breast, the normal limit of life
+  will be put much further back and may extend to twice my 70 years.
+  Then, also, satiety with existence will appear much later than it has
+  done in my case.
+
+  To-day they celebrated my jubilee at the Pasteur Institute, which
+  touched me very much, in spite of my distrust of sentimental
+  manifestations, for I realised their sincerity. I should have liked
+  to set out a programme of the researches which should be accomplished
+  by the Pasteur Institute, but I feared to detain my audience too long.
+
+  I believe that Science will solve all the principal problems of Life
+  and Death and that she will enable human beings to accomplish their
+  vital cycle by real orthobiosis, not by a reduced caricature of it as
+  in my case. Nevertheless, I consider the experiment practised upon
+  myself as having already given some result and that is to me a real
+  satisfaction.
+
+  [32] _Annales de l'Institut Pasteur_, 1915.
+
+We spent that summer a few weeks at Norka, where Metchnikoff completed
+his researches concerning the death of the silk-worm moth.
+
+We went for delicious walks; we spent all the afternoon by the lake
+or under the pines in the heather, reading and working. Once only,
+during a walk, he had a strong cardiac intermittence, but as a rule
+he felt well. I could see, however, that he was obsessed by a grave
+preoccupation which he did not express. Later, during his last illness,
+he confessed to me that during the whole of that stay at St. Leger he
+had feared to die suddenly during one of our walks. The thought of my
+isolation weighed on his mind and he hid his anxiety so as not to alarm
+me....
+
+With a view to the work which he had planned on the sexual question,
+he interested himself in the influence that their sentimental life had
+had on the activity of great men, and we read together the biographies
+of Beethoven, Mozart, and Wagner. Elie was more than ever desirous of
+making our holidays as pleasant as possible, as if he already felt that
+they were our last. Here are more extracts from his note-book:
+
+                         ST. LEGER-EN-YVELINES, _24th June 1916_.
+
+  When saying that I did not fear death, I had in view the dread of
+  annihilation. That fear, manifested during a long period of life
+  and disappearing towards the end, may be compared with the fear of
+  darkness which children instinctively feel and which also disappears
+  gradually and naturally. When, towards the end of life, the fear of
+  nothingness ceases, no desire remains for a future life, for the
+  immortality of the soul. It would even be painful to me to think
+  that the soul, surviving the body, could watch, from beyond, the
+  misfortunes of those who remain on the earth. On the contrary,
+  towards life's decline, a desire for complete annihilation becomes
+  developed.
+
+He spent the autumn collecting and preparing the materials he required
+for his book on the sexual function. It was a relief from the sad
+impressions of the war and the deserted laboratory. But new troubles
+were in store for us; I became ill, and had scarcely recovered when we
+heard the news of the death of a nephew who was very dear to us. The
+death of the young had always deeply moved Metchnikoff, and it was so
+in this case. It was another weight thrown into the already descending
+scale.
+
+In spite of all, he continued to work with enthusiasm, planting young
+trees that future generations might enjoy their shade.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXVI
+
+  Bronchial cold--Aggravated cardiac symptoms--Farewell to Sevres
+  --Return to the Institute--Protracted sufferings--Intellectual
+  preoccupations--Observations on his own condition--The end--
+  Cremation.
+
+
+If in this sad last chapter I occasionally dwell on details which may
+seem insignificant in themselves, it is because, at this supreme moment
+of Elie Metchnikoff's existence, everything was full of significance,
+for everything converged to emphasise the powerful unity and the
+ascending and continuous progress of his ideas.
+
+His attitude in the face of illness and death was a teaching, a
+support, and an example. That is why, relating the story of his last
+days, I piously describe everything.
+
+Towards the end of November, he caught a slight cold, which did not
+prevent him from leading his usual life, but which, nevertheless, was
+the starting-point of the illness which took him from us.
+
+On the 2nd of December, during a walk, he suddenly felt a cardiac
+commotion such that he thought he was dying. For hours, his pulse
+remained intermittent and very rapid, and from that day he felt unwell
+but continued to go to the laboratory.
+
+On the 9th of December his condition became worse and forced him to
+interrupt his normal life. All the doctors were away or very busy on
+account of the war, and it was only on the 11th that Dr. Renon could
+give him a consultation at the Laennec Hospital. He found Metchnikoff's
+heart very tired and nervous, prescribed a treatment, and told us to
+come back in twenty-five days.
+
+But the disease was making giant strides. In the night of the 12th to
+13th a first attack of cardiac asthma supervened, an extremely painful
+one; we had the impression that the end was near. Elie suffered agonies
+but remained morally calm and ready for death, as he had ever been
+since his first heart attack, two years previously. He repeated that he
+had accomplished his task and run through his vital cycle; that what he
+could yet do would be but a supplement, and that it was better to die
+than to outlive his own decadence.
+
+He only wished not to suffer too long, but that humble desire was not
+to be realised. We spent two more nights at Sevres, terrible nights not
+to be forgotten if one had centuries to live, and we then decided to go
+to a nursing home in Paris, as it was imprudent to remain any longer
+isolated as we were.
+
+Having heard of Metchnikoff's illness, Dr. Roux offered to receive us
+at the Pasteur Institute in a small lodging which was now free, the
+house-physician who had occupied it having been killed.
+
+Dr. Widal, in whom Metchnikoff had absolute confidence, came to
+Sevres on the 14th and found myocarditis. Thanks to an absolutely
+incomprehensible phenomenon, Elie had suddenly ceased to realise the
+rapidity of his pulse; he had 160 beats in a minute and only perceived
+less than half; it was therefore easy to keep the truth from him.
+
+After a last night of suffering we left our Sevres nest, which we had
+so loved. Leaning on my arm, he slowly walked through the little
+garden and gazed for the last time at the home that we were leaving for
+the unknown.... He looked worn and bent under the weight of suffering,
+but he was quite calm, and his eyes, though firm and gentle, already
+seemed to me to be looking very far away.
+
+The automobile bore us slowly from Sevres to the Pasteur Institute,
+and we found ourselves in the small flat which had been inhabited by
+the young doctor who had been killed in the war. He had only spent a
+short stage of his life there. How long should we remain? And what road
+should we take when we left it? We tried to smile, though our hearts
+were terribly heavy, in order to cheer each other.
+
+But, in the course of the day, we were surrounded by friends full of
+solicitude, the tension relaxed, and we felt a growing sense of comfort
+and security. No more nights of mortal dread and loneliness, with no
+help at hand! That thought alone inspired courage and hope. In case of
+need, I had only to send down to the next floor to ask for a doctor.
+
+For a few days, Elie felt much better, perhaps on account of the mental
+relief, but his heart was weak and his pulse extremely rapid. Drs.
+Widal, Martin, Veillon, Salimbeni, and Darre came to see him every day;
+during the whole of his long illness, they never ceased to show him the
+most attentive and devoted care. They attempted by every means to save
+him from pain, for, alas, they had no hope of curing him. Nothing was
+neglected, and many still greater sufferings were spared him.[33]
+
+  [33] For instance, Dr. Widal, very early in his illness, had
+       advised a saltless diet, which caused the infiltration in
+       the tissues to remain comparatively slight.
+
+The war was an inexhaustible and passionately interesting subject
+of conversation; Elie read a number of newspapers and listened with
+avidity to every news from private sources. Often, too, scientific
+questions were discussed, which continued to interest him intensely.
+These talks were an invaluable relaxation.
+
+Feeling infinitely grateful towards his medical advisers and friends,
+he showed himself a most docile patient, following their prescriptions
+with absolute punctuality. When his condition grew worse and he felt
+no hope whatever of his recovery, he often used to say, "What is to be
+done? the doctors can do nothing, for medicine is powerless. Unhappily,
+it will remain so for a long time. Much work will have to be done to
+rid humanity of the scourge of diseases. But, surely, one day science
+will succeed in doing so; that will be chiefly through prophylaxis and
+rational hygiene. There will also be a new science--the science of
+death; it will be known how to make it less hard."
+
+After lunch and a short sleep, he received the daily visit of his
+friend Dr. Roux, with whom he talked in the full intimacy of friendship
+and affection. He confided to him his apprehensions and desires, and
+felt unlimited gratitude for his kindness to us, often saying to me,
+with tears in his eyes, "I knew Roux was a kind man and a true friend,
+but I see now that he is incomparable." Other friends also did their
+utmost to serve him and to show their sympathy. He had the great joy
+of feeling himself beloved and surrounded with an atmosphere of real
+kindness. Many times he said to me, "Now, only, have I appreciated the
+warm-heartedness of the French at its full value. Do not fail, in my
+biography, to emphasise how deeply I feel it, and how grateful I am. I
+want them to know it."
+
+Yet all the care and devotion of which he was the object could neither
+arrest the fatal progress of disease nor spare cruel suffering to him
+who had thought of nothing but relieving the pains of others. All our
+efforts were as flowers scattered over a tomb; he, poor tortured one,
+was slowly, consciously sinking into it through the implacable logic
+of Fate. From the beginning of his illness, he foresaw the issue; he
+lived in constant expectation of death, on the threshold of which his
+calm and serenity remained as unalterable as were his patience and
+resignation.
+
+After a temporary and comparative lull, which lasted until the end of
+December, the disease began to progress again, and almost every week
+brought a fresh alarming symptom. It was especially during the night
+that the pain, treacherously, reappeared. After dropping asleep fairly
+early, he would begin to breathe with difficulty and then awake in
+an indescribable state of anguish; perspiration drenched his head,
+neck, and chest, several towels often being required to dry him. His
+breathing was hard; during bad attacks, the wheezing of his bronchial
+tubes was terrifying.
+
+He would sit up, his hands clenched, his face blue and contracted by
+suffering, his darkened lips apart, his eyes dilated--the face of a
+man on the rack. He gasped like a suffocating man; at last a tearing
+cough supervened, followed by expectoration, and the attack gradually
+subsided.
+
+For a time we were able to relieve him without the use of narcotics. As
+long as there was a ray of hope--not of recovery, but of a bearable
+life and further work--he wished at all costs to avoid the influence of
+narcosis. He breathed fumes of pyridin or ether, he smoked Escouflaire
+cigarettes, and inhaled various other things. In order to sleep after
+an attack, he ate a few biscuits, and I sprinkled his head with a
+menthol solution, with which I damped his temples and forehead. That
+eased him, and sometimes he slept again for a few hours.
+
+But how many were the nights of insomnia and suffering! How many times
+did he call for death as a deliverer, and say that he _resigned_
+himself to live for my sake only!
+
+And in spite of the martyrdom he endured, he always had gentle words,
+a caress, a consolation even! He constantly returned to the thought
+that he had nothing to complain of, that he had had a large share of
+happiness and good fortune in having accomplished his task, and even
+arrived at the development of the natural death-instinct.
+
+All those who saw him every day knew that he was courageous and
+patient, every one admired his serenity, but no one could realise the
+_degree_ of his courage and patience, for no one had seen and lived
+through those miserable nights.
+
+Often, even, when asked how he was, he said "not bad!" after a terrible
+night, saying to me afterwards in explanation, "Why grieve them, since
+it cannot be helped?"
+
+At the beginning of our stay in the Institute, he was not yet quite
+bedridden. After his morning toilet, he would lie for some hours on a
+sofa, reading almost continuously, newspapers, scientific reviews, and
+many works in connection with the book he had planned on the sexual
+function, of which he wrote only the introduction and a few lines of
+the first chapter.[34]
+
+  [34] He expounded the theory that ideas on the sexual function
+       had been falsified through fear of venereal diseases at a
+       time when people did not know either how to avoid or cure
+       those diseases. He showed that the condemnation of a natural
+       function by divers religions was based on that fear. He
+       analysed the deplorable consequences of that, and set forth
+       the necessity of returning to more wholesome ideas, more in
+       conformity with nature and allowing the study and avoidance
+       of many evils. He thought that, in this connection, a new
+       direction should be given to the education of children
+       and to marriage. He then examined the part played by the
+       sexual function in the lives of men of genius and, with
+       that object, read many biographies and literary works.
+       During his illness he read books concerning Victor Hugo and
+       Napoleon, J. J. Rousseau's _Confessions_ and even parts of
+       the _Nouvelle Heloise_.
+
+Another question occupied him at that time, that of first-born
+children. Certain data led him to think that men of genius were but
+rarely the first-born of their parents, and he sought for every
+possible information on the subject. In his constant desire to improve
+life-conditions, he even thought that a demonstration of this fact
+might have a desirable influence on the increase of population in
+France after the war; if it were proved that the most successful
+children are not the first-born, perhaps the system of having two
+children only would be given up in order to have a chance of giving the
+country a more capable population.
+
+His reflections on the sexual questions led him to seek for
+experimental means of studying gonorrhoea. He thought of inoculating
+the gonococcus into the eye of new-born mice and entrusted M.
+Rubinstein, the only worker left in the laboratory, with these
+experiments. The latter began them and obtained encouraging results,
+but he left Paris in the spring and the work remained unfinished.
+
+Metchnikoff's mind never ceased to work unless interrupted by acute
+pain; until the very end, his brain never failed him. He often used to
+say how far he was from any mystic aspirations, and how sure he was of
+remaining a rationalist until the end. And such was the case. Faithful
+to himself, not even in the most painful moments did he feel a desire
+to look for support outside the ideas and principles of his whole life.
+Yet his soul was sad and full of care; the war grieved him utterly,
+every newspaper he read renewed his sorrow. When a severe engagement,
+Verdun for instance, was going on, he lost the little sleep he had, and
+his agitation became painful.
+
+He was deeply disillusioned by the Germans. Having always felt great
+esteem for their scientific work, he had believed in their high
+culture, and now he was absolutely disconcerted by the mentality which
+they manifested during the war.
+
+Neither could he understand how the war had been allowed to come
+about. He thought it ought to have been avoided, and considered the
+authorities guilty for not having done so. He said that nothing could
+compensate the harm done by this insane butchery.
+
+The deserted laboratories, the interruption of scientific work, filled
+his soul with melancholy. For, he said, all the great, all the real
+questions should have been solved by Science and were kept waiting....
+
+He also had material worries, the war having brought great perturbation
+in his affairs. The fate of his mobilised pupils preoccupied him
+constantly. The least indisposition, however trifling, of those he
+loved made him unhappy. His sensibility, which had always been very
+marked, increased still more, and consumed him; it surely was one of
+the causes that had worn his heart out. When already very weak and ill,
+he constantly thought of giving pleasure to those who were with him; he
+read innumerable reviews and periodicals, and would tell each friend
+what he had found of particular interest to the latter, even when
+speech was difficult to him. His gentleness and cordiality were most
+touching during the whole of his illness, though he preserved his usual
+outspokenness.... It seemed to me that this offended no one; they all
+understood Elie now.
+
+He sought a refuge from his sufferings in his own ivory tower; these
+sufferings themselves were to him a source of observations. He
+studied his body and his soul as he would have studied any subject
+under experiment. Every day he wrote down his auto-observations, and
+carefully read the diary which I kept for him.
+
+During the whole of the winter he had ups and downs. Towards the end
+of December the cough and respiratory symptoms increased, and at the
+beginning of January he expectorated clots of blood, due to a passive
+congestion of the right lung.
+
+On the 19th January, some liquid appeared in the pleura on the same
+side. Pleurisy persisted for a whole month and necessitated three
+punctures. Every time we feared to tell him that the puncture was
+necessary, but he received the news with complete coolness, saying that
+he had always been in favour of radical measures.
+
+After the third puncture, which took place on the 19th February, a
+marked relief supervened, and the improvement lasted for some time; it
+was the only moment when we saw a ray of hope.
+
+Though keeping to his bed, he worked a great deal, read, and received
+not only his friends but other visitors. At the beginning of March and
+at the end of April he again expectorated blood, and the terrible,
+tragical nights began again. Yet the days were fairly good.
+
+During that period, he had the pleasure of seeing some of his pupils
+again, and of receiving several Russian deputies and journalists. They
+talked to him of political events, of the war, of the moral state of
+Russia. All that interested him immensely; he plied them with the most
+varied questions. It must be remembered that, before that interview, we
+had lost all touch with Russia.
+
+During the whole of May he again had ups and downs, but the progress of
+the disease was indisputable.
+
+Tachycardia was constant, urine more and more scanty, the swelling of
+the legs never decreased, cough and oppression occurred frequently
+even during the day. Elie awaited his seventy-first birthday with
+impatience. Often during the night, after a painful attack, he would
+count the days, hours, and minutes which separated him from that date.
+At last it arrived. Here are the lines which he added to his notes on
+that day:
+
+  16th May. Against all expectation, I have lived until this day. I
+  have reached my 71 years. My dream of a rapid death without a long
+  illness has not been realised. I have now been bedridden for five
+  months. After several crises of tachycardia, following upon a slight
+  grippe with asthma, I had congestion of one lung with pleuritic
+  exudate. Though some improvement followed after that, nevertheless I
+  am tormented by fits of sweating followed by cough and oppression. I
+  suffer chiefly in the night from those attacks; they provoke insomnia
+  which can only be combated by pantopon.
+
+  My psychical state is twofold. In one way, I should like to get well,
+  but, on the other hand, I see no sense in living any longer. Illness
+  has not provoked in me any fear of death, and I am more deprived than
+  formerly of the joy of living. The reawakening of spring leaves me
+  quite indifferent. There can be no question for me of that pleasure
+  which convalescents often feel, nor indeed of any pleasure. To the
+  despair that I feel in the face of medicine's powerlessness to cure
+  the ills of my friends is added the feeling of its powerlessness
+  towards my own illness. I think that my desire to recover and to
+  continue to live is connected with practical causes.
+
+  The war has compromised our finances, our income from Russia has
+  practically disappeared. If I die, my wife may find herself in a very
+  difficult situation. Given her lack of practical notions, that may
+  lead to very sad results. Yet it is quite impossible to straighten
+  our affairs before the end of the war and the re-establishment of
+  normal conditions.
+
+These were the last words he wrote in his book of notes; his hand had
+become weak and trembling; he tired very soon, and henceforth I wrote
+under his dictation. On the 18th June, one month before his cremation,
+he dictated to me for the last time, and this is what he said:
+
+  This is the seventh month that I have been ill and it brings my
+  thoughts back to the gravity of my condition. I therefore continually
+  realise how much satisfaction I have derived from life during my long
+  years. The gradual disappearance of my "life-instinct," which already
+  began a few years ago, is now more marked, more precise. I no longer
+  feel that degree of pleasure which I felt only a few years ago. My
+  affection for my nearest and dearest shows itself much more by the
+  anxiety and suffering provoked by their diseases and sorrows than by
+  the pleasure I derive from their joys or normal health.
+
+  Those to whom I describe my feelings tell me that satiety with living
+  is not normal at my age. To that I oppose the following: Longevity,
+  at least to a certain point, is hereditary. Now I have already
+  mentioned, on the occasion of my 70th anniversary, that my parents,
+  sister, and brothers died before reaching my present age. I knew
+  neither of my grandparents, which shows that they could not have been
+  very old when they died.
+
+  Let us now turn to the profession, since it is an established fact
+  that it has an influence on the duration of life. Pasteur died at 72,
+  but for a long time he had been unable to do scientific work. Koch
+  did not reach the age of 67. Other bacteriologists died at a much
+  earlier age than I (Duclaux, Nocard, Chamberland, Ehrlich, Buechner,
+  Loeffler, Pfeiffer, Carl Fraenkel, Emmerich, Escherich).
+
+  Among those bacteriologists of my generation who are still living the
+  majority have already ceased from working. All that should indicate
+  that my scientific life is over and confirm at the same time the fact
+  that my "orthobiosis" has actually reached the desirable limit.
+
+He was anxious to prove that his end, which seemed premature at first
+sight, did not contradict his theories, but had deep causes such as
+heredity and the belated introduction of a rational diet. He had only
+begun to follow it at fifty-three. Facts corroborated him after his
+death, for the post-mortem examination showed that the heart lesions
+were of long standing. He himself thought they went back at least to
+1881, when he had had a very grave relapsing fever. The doctors even
+wondered how he had lived with his heart in such a state, and only
+accounted for it by the strict regime which he had followed during the
+latter part of his life.
+
+And indeed when it is remembered how pugnacious, how vehement he
+was--always, so to speak, in a state of ebullition, feverishly active,
+intensely sensitive--it must be admitted that his life really held more
+than an ordinary life of longer duration.
+
+He was very desirous that the example of his serenity in the face of
+death should be encouraging and comforting. It should prove that, at
+the end of his vital cycle, man fears death no longer; it has lost its
+sting for him.
+
+Early in June his condition became still worse. The nights were so
+painful that, every evening, recourse had to be had to pantopon.[35] It
+was with the greatest impatience that he awaited his "dear Darre and
+dear Salimbeni," as he called them.
+
+  [35] Pantopon is a narcotic drug prepared from opium.
+
+After Dr. Darre had finished his complete and thorough medical
+examination, we three remained talking around Elie's bed for a short
+hour. He often recalled his personal or scientific memories when he was
+not too weary; we talked of the war, of medical questions; often, too,
+we would evoke, with Salimbeni, recollections of our journey to the
+Kalmuk Steppes.
+
+We loved that peaceful hour, which ended by an injection of pantopon,
+the only relief, alas, that could be procured for him. He would thank
+Dr. Darre with gratitude, and drop his poor weary head on the pillow,
+awaiting in absolute security the blessed sensation of warm heaviness
+which pervaded him, for he knew that sleep and rest from his sufferings
+would not be long in coming. The spectre of tragical nights never
+ceased to haunt us.
+
+Until the hot weather came, he was quite comfortable in the small flat
+in the Pasteur hospital; the temperature there had been perfectly
+regular all through the winter; but now he began to be incommoded by
+the heat.
+
+M. Roux then proposed that we should be transferred to Pasteur's old
+flat; the rooms were spacious and much cooler. This idea rejoiced and
+touched Elie very much. As he thanked M. Roux, he said to him: "See
+how my life is bound with the Pasteur Institute. I have worked here
+for years; I am nursed here during my illness; in order to complete
+the connection I ought to be incinerated in the great oven where our
+dead animals are burnt, and my ashes could be kept in an urn in one
+of the cupboards in the library." "What a gruesome joke!" answered M.
+Roux, really taking those words for a joke. But directly after he was
+gone Elie turned to me with an anxious look and said, "Well, what do
+you think of my idea?" I saw by his earnest expression that he meant
+what he said, and I answered that I thought it a very good idea.
+The Pasteur Institute had become his refuge, the centre of all his
+scientific interests; he loved it; he had spent his best years there.
+Let his ashes be laid there some day; it would be in perfect harmony
+with his past. Let us only hope that would not be too soon! But why had
+he given his words that jesting form which must have misled M. Roux? He
+explained it to me: knowing how deeply conscientious his friend was,
+he did not wish to express his desire as a dying wish in order that he
+should feel no obligation. A simple jest, on the contrary, left him
+absolutely free.
+
+On the 26th June, Elie was carried into Pasteur's flat; it was a very
+great satisfaction to him, it brought him nearer his laboratory. Now
+and then, very seldom now, he thought he might return there one day;
+he said I should wheel him there in his bath-chair. "I know I could
+scarcely work there myself. But perhaps I might still play the part of
+a ferment, be useful to my pupils by giving them advice. I am leaving
+so much unfinished work which it would be interesting to go on with:
+the question of intestinal flora, that of diabetes, which surely
+is an infectious disease--but that will have to be proved,--and my
+experiments on the subject were scarcely begun. I think the study of
+gonorrhoea will give very interesting results when they succeed in
+inoculating it in new-born animals. And the question of tuberculosis is
+well started! I could still help my pupils and encourage them if I were
+a little better!... But I have no illusions! I must live now only from
+day to day...."
+
+Those words were uttered with heart-rending resignation.
+
+He continued to get worse....
+
+It was fortunate that pantopon should have given him good nights, for
+attacks of oppression now supervened several times during the day;
+tachycardia was continuous, the heart was weakening. The quantity of
+urine diminished; it often did not surpass 250 cubic centimetres, and
+no diuretic succeeded in increasing it; the legs remained swollen,
+ascitis was beginning to become visible; in the night he occasionally
+grew slightly delirious.
+
+At the beginning of July he wished to sit up; he spent part of the
+afternoon in an armchair, his legs lying on cushions. We thought it
+was a good sign, but in reality he found it difficult to breathe lying
+down. Several times he asked me to play to him, very soft music, as
+noisy sounds wearied him. I played him some Beethoven, some Mozart;
+the last time it was a Chopin prelude.
+
+On the 9th his temperature went down in an alarming way to 35.2 deg.
+C. (95 F.). For the first time he would not write down his ordinary
+observations. "What is the good?" said he, "it has no longer any
+interest." Yet the next day he did so, for the last time. On the 11th
+and 12th he put down his temperature, and glanced superficially at the
+notes I had written. On the 12th, about five o'clock in the morning, he
+had a bad fit of breathlessness followed by coughing, and brought up
+large clots of very red blood. He smiled faintly. "You understand what
+that means," he said, adding some tender words.
+
+I wheeled him to his bed, which he never left again.
+
+On the 13th, in the early morning, he felt very ill. Calmly and gently
+he warned me to be ready. "It will surely be to-day or to-morrow."
+
+My heart breaking, I asked him why he said that; was he feeling very
+weak? or suffering very much?
+
+"No," he said, "it is difficult to say what I feel; I have never felt
+anything like it; it is, so to speak, a death-_sensation_.... But I
+feel very calm, with no fear. You will hold my hand, will you not?"
+
+How can I describe those last three days? He preserved all his lucidity
+and serenity, often smiling at me and drawing me towards him. He
+inhaled oxygen very often, as breathlessness became almost continuous.
+
+On the 14th there was to be a _matinee_ performance of _Manon Lescaut_,
+and remembering that his god-children had long wished to see that
+opera, he had had a box taken for them. He was now quite uneasy about
+it. "What ill-luck," he said, "if _it_ happened just before and
+prevented them from going. In any case they must not come here on their
+way to the theatre, so that if _it_ happens they will not know, and can
+still enjoy the performance."
+
+Thanks to pantopon, he spent a very good night. He awoke about five
+o'clock, but remained so quiet that I thought him asleep. When I rose
+about six he held out his hand to me and told me he had been awake for
+a long time. He talked to me tenderly, in the full intimacy of our
+affection; he spoke sweet, unforgettable words. He made me promise once
+again not to give way to grief. "At first, our friends will help you,
+and then work, that infallible remedy, and duty.... You will have that
+of writing my biography. Remember how much I wish the _last_ chapter to
+be complete. You alone can write it, for you have seen me all the time;
+I have told you all my thoughts, and yet...." I understood that he had
+occasionally, out of pity for me, hidden his sufferings and his sad
+thoughts. But he did not know how often I guessed what he did not say;
+love and pain have a dumb language, more eloquent than any human words.
+
+"You will hold my hand when the moment comes," he repeated. "But do
+not think I am afraid, now that it is near. No, I assure you, I have
+an absolute serenity of soul! I spent a divine night. It seemed to
+me that I was already half outside life. This night has taught me
+many things.... Everything which troubled me, everything that seemed
+so disturbing, so terrible, like this war for instance, seems so
+transitory now, such a small thing by the side of the great problems of
+existence!... Science will solve them some day." He ceased speaking. He
+seemed illumined by a very exalted feeling; it was like the last chord
+of his harmonious soul. What a consolation if he could have died then!
+
+But life is cruel. He lived through two more days of suffering. On
+the 14th he inhaled oxygen almost continually. He asked for pantopon,
+but we feared to give him too much. I told him it would induce such
+continuous sleep that he would not even be able to enjoy it. "But an
+eternal sleep is precisely what I want! Do understand that now nothing
+is left to me but pantopon. What is the good of making me last? Is
+this a life? A few days or a month have no importance when one is not
+going to recover. And you cannot wish to prolong my sufferings." His
+breathlessness increased; he said, "Give me your hand; stay near me!" I
+knew what he meant; he had the "death-sensation."
+
+His poor hands were hot and warmed my cold ones.... The next day I
+could not warm his hands, ice-cold for ever.
+
+The whole day he awaited with impatience the hour for pantopon. About
+nine o'clock, when Dr. Darre came in, he said, "Dear Darre, at last!"
+
+There was no talk that evening, he was so weary. With what anguish I
+awaited the stroke of midnight, which ended those two dread days! He
+had been mistaken by barely one day. The night was not bad, in spite
+of breathlessness and some fits of coughing. The next morning he felt
+better. He had not read the papers the day before, to-day I read him
+the communiques in the _Petit Parisien_, he said it was enough. He also
+turned the pages of a book he had recently begun to read, _La Science
+et les Allemands_.
+
+I told him how pleased I was to see him better. "It is true," he said,
+"to-day I have no death-sensation, but I beg you, have no illusions!"
+
+Always that preoccupation of breaking the shock for me. He made me
+bring a pocket-book with some money in it and a few envelopes; in each
+of them he made me place notes of similar value, then with his already
+shaking hand, he himself wrote on each envelope the value of the notes
+multiplied by their number, and explained that it was to help me to
+find quickly what I should require after the catastrophe.
+
+He ate better at lunch than he had done lately; but already at two
+o'clock the breathlessness increased. Yet he did not look pale; he had
+preserved his rosy complexion. As he inhaled the oxygen, he was shaken
+by a hiccough. He pressed my hand. "It is the end," he said, "the death
+rattle; that is how people die." He looked at his watch on the small
+table, it marked four o'clock.
+
+"No," he said, "it must have stopped. Four o'clock struck some time
+ago." And he smiled. "Is it not strange that it should have stopped
+before I? Go and see what time it is."
+
+I ran out to see the clock from the window of another room; it was
+twenty minutes to five. I met some one in the passage and asked him to
+go quickly to fetch one of the Institute doctors. Then I begged Elie
+not to have such ideas, and tried to cheer him.
+
+"But, my child, why do you want to calm me? I am quite calm; I am only
+stating facts," he said, adding tender words.
+
+At that moment Salimbeni came in. Elie said to him: "Salimbeni, you are
+a friend; tell me, is it the end?" And as he protested, he added, "You
+remember your promise? You will do my post-mortem? and look at the
+intestines carefully, for I think there is something there now." MM.
+Roux and Martin then arrived. The feeling of weight in the intestines
+of which he complained was mentioned. He did not know that he had
+ascitis in the peritoneum.
+
+As I was attending to him I felt him move suddenly, and said, "I beg
+you, do not make such sudden movements; you know it is not good for
+you." He did not answer. I raised my head; his was thrown back on the
+pillows, his face had assumed a blue tinge, the white of the eyes alone
+could be seen under the half-closed lids.
+
+Not a word, not a sound.
+
+All was over.[36]
+
+  [36] It was 5.20 by the conventional war time, 4.20 in reality.
+
+Then an abyss of oblivion....
+
+I saw him again, stretched on his deathbed. He was white, cold, and
+dumb. His face bore a calm and very serious expression. He looked like
+a martyr who had at last entered into rest. Death had marked his face
+with no dread seal. The lids had closed of their own accord, and he
+seemed to be sleeping after great lassitude; one might have thought
+that, with his usual kindness, he wished to spare us all too painful an
+impression....
+
+All through the night and the next morning his face preserved the same
+expression.
+
+In the afternoon Salimbeni performed the autopsy. Then he was laid in
+his coffin; twenty-four hours had elapsed since the end. Wrapped in a
+white sheet, which framed his fine face, he had the appearance of a
+biblical prophet.
+
+Now his expression had assumed absolute serenity, illumined by
+gentleness and kindness. He had a look of elevation, grandeur, and
+beauty which was really divine. It was an apotheosis. His beautiful
+soul beamed in its full purity; neither suffering nor any earthly
+preoccupation had any hold on it. He gave an impression of eternal rest.
+
+It was his final image, a splendid one, the last ... for ever.
+
+The bier was closed and covered with a heavy black pall. On life also a
+blacker and heavier pall had fallen. The light had gone out.
+
+Two days later, on the 18th July, he was carried to the cemetery of
+the Pere Lachaise, to be cremated in all simplicity, as he had wished.
+Faithful to his ideas, he had wished for a lay funeral, with no
+speeches, flowers, or invitations.
+
+His bier disappeared into a large sarcophagus; on each side black
+curtains fell to hide what was going on.... Then one hour of heavy
+silence whilst the poor body was being consumed by the flames....
+
+A death silence....
+
+And that was all....
+
+The mercurial, vivacious child, good-hearted, intelligent, and
+precocious; the young man, ardent, impetuous, passionate, a lover of
+science and of all that was exalted; the mature man, a bold thinker,
+an indefatigable investigator, eager, generous, tender, and devoted;
+the old man, in everything faithful to himself, but progressing in
+serenity, shining with an ever softer light, like a mountain peak in
+the setting sun; the martyr at last, enduring suffering with patience
+and resignation, seeing the approach of death without fear, observing
+it as he had observed life....
+
+The hour of silence was over; the incineration accomplished. Of his
+body, little was left--a handful of ashes. They were enclosed within an
+urn and placed in the library of the Pasteur Institute.
+
+But his beautiful, ardent soul, his audacious and fertile ideas, all
+that rich inner life which had developed into a harmonious and puissant
+symphony, all _that_ cannot be dead, cannot disappear! The ideas, the
+influence we give to life must persist, must live; they are the sacred
+flame which we hand on to others and are eternal.
+
+
+
+
+                               EPILOGUE
+
+
+The life and work of Elie Metchnikoff are so intimately bound together
+that, in a biography, it is impossible to separate them. That is why
+the description of his work necessarily has been dispersed along the
+story of his life; but, just as, in order to judge of a work of art,
+one has to draw back and contemplate the whole, we must also, after
+following the evolution and successive stages of E. Metchnikoff's
+scientific works, take a full view of his work as a whole.
+
+He was a born biologist; everything connected with life interested
+him. In his childhood, he observed plants and animals. At the age of
+fifteen, he became acquainted with microscopic beings; they aroused in
+him such powerful interest towards the primitive forms of life that,
+from that moment, not only his future path was marked out for him but
+also his method of starting from the simple to elucidate the complex.
+He was imbued with Darwin's theory of evolution; having begun by the
+study of inferior animals, he began to look for their connections with
+other groups.
+
+He endeavoured to establish the continuity and the unity of phenomena
+in all living beings. According to his method of studying first what
+was simplest, he turned to embryology, for in the egg and the embryo
+it is possible to follow step by step the transformation of the
+simple to the complex and to see the origin and development of all the
+constituent parts of the organism. Moreover, the embryo is exempt from
+secondary complications, due to the multiple external conditions of
+post-embryonic life.
+
+Metchnikoff was able to establish, from embryological data, that the
+development of lower animals takes place according to the same plan
+and under the same laws as that of higher animals. In all of them,
+the segmentation of the egg is followed by the formation of embryonic
+layers, of which each gives birth to cells and to definite organs.
+Superior forms repeat, in their embryonic life, the evolution cycle of
+inferior forms.[37]
+
+  [37] Thus the _parenchymella_, _phagocytella_, and _gastrula_
+       stages correspond in the embryo with the adult form of
+       certain very primitive Metazoa and even to a colony of
+       unicellular animals.
+
+This common plan in the embryology of all animals established their
+genealogical continuity and strengthened the Darwinian theory.
+
+Metchnikoff's studies, carried out on the various groups of animals,
+contributed towards the foundation of comparative embryology. Owing to
+the comparative method, he had made himself familiar not only with the
+morphological and functional continuity of divers organisms, but also
+with that of their constituting cells; a comparison between the latter
+and unicellular beings was inevitable. That is why, having ascertained
+that the mobile cells of the lower Metazoa absorbed foreign bodies by
+inclusion, he naturally concluded that that phenomenon was similar to
+digestion in unicellular beings.
+
+Having established the fact of intracellular digestion in lower
+animals, he extended it to certain cells of the higher animals; thus
+his phagocyte theory was born.
+
+Seeing that unicellular beings, like the mobile cells of Metazoa,
+englobe, not only food, but foreign bodies, he asked himself whether
+this was not at the same time a defensive action. Such a possibility
+brought no surprise to a zoologist, accustomed to see that, in the
+struggle for existence, animals often devoured their enemies.
+
+All the materials for the building up of the phagocyte theory were
+therefore ready in Metchnikoff's mind when he asked himself, as by an
+intuition, whether the white globules of our blood, globules so similar
+to amoebae, do not play the part of a defensive army in our organism
+when they envelope in accumulated masses intrusive bodies injurious to
+the organism.
+
+The thought was but the result of a preparatory work already
+accomplished; it was the butterfly escaping out of the chrysalis.
+
+Metchnikoff had recourse to his method of simplification in order to
+solve the question.
+
+The organism of the higher animals being extremely complicated, he went
+down as far as the transparent larva of the starfish (bipinnaria) in
+order to watch with his own eyes the phenomena which take place within
+it. He introduced a rose-thorn into the transparent body of the larva,
+and noted the next day that the mobile cells in the latter had crowded
+towards the splinter, like an army rushing to meet a foe.
+
+The analogy of this phenomenon with inflammation and the formation
+of an abscess was striking. Metchnikoff said to himself that since
+most diseases in the higher animals are accompanied by inflammation
+and provoked by microbes, it was chiefly against these microbes that
+our defensive cells had to struggle. He named the defensive cells
+_phagocytes_.
+
+He confirmed his hypothesis by another observation, equally simple. In
+a little transparent crustacean (Daphnia) infected by a small parasitic
+fungus, (_Monospora bicuspidata_), he was easily able to observe the
+struggle between the animal's mobile cells and its parasites.
+
+These two simple observations served as foundation and supports to the
+bridge by which Metchnikoff connected normal biology with pathological
+biology. Having entered the domain of the latter, he studied various
+microbian diseases, and asked himself why the organism was sometimes
+liable and sometimes refractory. In order to elucidate this question,
+he turned again to lower animals, in which he could easily observe the
+most intimate phenomena, simplified.
+
+He ascertained that liability in an animal corresponded with the fact
+that microbes introduced into the organism remained free and invaded
+it, whilst immunity coincided with the inclusion and digestion of the
+microbes by phagocytes.
+
+He also found that, in artificial immunity, the phagocytes are
+accustomed gradually, by preventive inoculations, to digest microbes
+and their toxins.
+
+Thus he established the fact that phagocytosis and inflammation are
+curative means employed by the organism.
+
+All his ulterior researches, his studies on the various categories of
+phagocytes and their properties, on their digestive liquids, on the
+formation of antitoxins, on the different properties acquired by the
+blood, etc., were but the natural development of those premises.
+
+He had proved that the part played by the phagocytes consists, not only
+in the struggle against microbes and their poisons, but also in the
+destruction of all the mortified or enfeebled cells of the organism,
+and that atrophies are nothing more than the absorption of cellular
+elements by the phagocytes.
+
+He found that senile atrophies have the same cause, and asked why the
+cells of old people's organisms should become enfeebled.
+
+He demonstrated that the principal cause is the chronic poisoning
+of the cells by toxins manufactured by microbes in the intestine.
+Premature senility was the result--a phenomenon as pathological as any
+disease.
+
+The source of the evil, therefore, resides in the intestinal flora.
+Accordingly he started to study the latter, as also senility, in order
+to find means of struggling against both.
+
+His researches enabled him to indicate a series of means, based, on the
+one hand, on the struggle against microbes, and, on the other, on the
+defence of the noble cells against destructive ones.[38]
+
+  [38] Replacement of the wild and noxious flora of the intestines
+       by antagonistic cultivated microbes; strengthening and
+       vaccinating of noble cells.
+
+The study of old age led him to that of syphilis, a disease which
+provokes an arterio-sclerosis which is similar to that of old people;
+the study of the normal intestinal flora was followed by that of
+intestinal diseases, such as typhoid fever and infantile cholera.
+
+Finally, he progressed towards the last phenomenon, the most mysterious
+in nature, Death.
+
+Researches on the silk-worm moth--a rare example of an animal the life
+of which ends in natural death--allowed him to conclude that the latter
+is due to an auto-intoxication of the organism.
+
+But he only just raised the veil of the great mystery; it was his last
+work....
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Metchnikoff's philosophical evolution ran on parallel lines with his
+scientific researches.
+
+When studying the laws and the unity of vital phenomena he found that
+their harmony was occasionally broken by the collision of internal
+conditions with the environment and that regrettable consequences
+ensued. He saw an example of that in human nature, full of disharmonies
+due to its animal origin.
+
+These considerations caused the pessimism of his youth. But his
+energetic, pugnacious temperament could not remain content with a
+passive acceptance of facts.
+
+He started to study the lack of harmony in human nature and its causes,
+and sought for means to combat these causes. Gradually he reached the
+conclusion that the greatest human disharmonies are provoked by the
+rupture of the normal cycle of our life, by the precocity of senility
+and of death, chiefly arising from a chronic poisoning by the toxins of
+intestinal microbes.
+
+But having acquired the conviction that it is possible to struggle
+against that intoxication, he concluded that science, which has already
+done so much to fight diseases, would also find means of struggling
+against _premature_ old age and _precocious_ death, thus leading us to
+the normal vital cycle, _orthobiosis_.
+
+Then disharmony, transformed into harmony, will cause the greatest of
+ills to disappear.
+
+Faith in the power of Science and in the possibility of modifying human
+nature itself through Science was the foundation of the optimistic
+philosophy of his maturity. Thoughts full of strength and hope shine
+like leading stars all along his philosophical works.
+
+"Alone, Rational Science is capable of showing humanity the true path."
+
+"The real goal of human existence consists in an active life in
+conformity with individual capacity; in a life prolonged until the
+appearance of the _death-instinct_, and until Man, satisfied with the
+duration of his existence, feels the desire for annihilation."
+
+"Man is capable of great works; that is why it is desirable that
+he should modify human nature and transform its disharmonies into
+harmonies."
+
+"If an ideal capable of uniting _men_ in a sort of religion is
+possible, it can only be founded on scientific principles. And, if it
+is true, as is often affirmed, that man cannot live without faith, it
+must be faith in the power of Science."
+
+Thus Elie Metchnikoff had begun by the study of nascent life in
+inferior beings; by a logical and continuous chain, he had followed the
+whole cycle of development of living beings in their continuity and
+their whole.
+
+From the initial question of intracellular digestion he had reached the
+most exalted problems which can occupy our minds, the harmonising of
+human discords through knowledge and will.
+
+Such is the harmonious edifice which he has built.
+
+No vital question was indifferent to him. He tackled the most difficult
+and most mysterious among them with courage, moved by an invincible
+impulse towards Truth and sustained by enthusiasm and faith in the
+power of Science.
+
+The beauty of a work of art consists in the harmony and unity of a
+realised conception.
+
+Thus a Gothic cathedral, by its graceful and harmonious lines,
+expresses an impulse towards higher spheres; it leans solidly on the
+earth only in order to soar better towards the heavens.
+
+Such is also the character of Elie Metchnikoff's life-work.
+
+
+
+
+                       BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
+
+
+                       WORKS OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF
+
+  1865. "Beitraege zur Kenntniss der Chaetopoden," Zeitschrift fuer
+           wissenschaftliche Zoologie, xv. 3, p. 328.
+
+        "Ueber einige wenig bekannte Thierformen," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xv. 4, p. 450.
+
+        "Ueber Geodesmus bilineatus Nob. (Fasciola terrestris), eine
+           europaeische Landplanarie, Melanges biologiques" (Bull. de
+           l'Academie des Sciences de Saint-Petersbourg, vol. v.).
+
+  1866. "Untersuchungen ueber die Embryologie der Hemipteren
+           (vorlaeufige Mitteilung)," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xvi. 1, p.
+           128.
+
+        "Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte von Myzostomum," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xvi. 1, p. 326.
+
+        "Apsilus lentiformis, ein Raederthier," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+           xvi. 3, p. 1.
+
+        "Embryologischen Studien an Insecten," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xvi. Entgegnung auf die Erwiederung des Her. Prof.
+           Leuckart in Giessen, in Betreff der Frage ueber die
+           Nematodenentwicklung (Goettingen, Verlag von Adalbert Rente).
+
+  1867. "Beitraege zur Naturgeschichte der Wuermer," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xvii. 4, p. 539.
+
+        "Embryology of the Sepiola" (in Russian), Archives des Sciences
+           physiques et naturelles, Geneve, vol. 21.
+
+  1868. "Beitraege zur Kenntniss der Entwicklungsgeschichte der
+           Chaetopoden" (in collaboration with Ed. Claparede), Zeit. f.
+           wissen. Zool. xviii.
+
+  1869. "Embryology of Nebalia" (in Russian), Melanges biologiques
+           de l'Academie de Saint-Petersbourg, vi. p. 730.
+
+        "Untersuchungen ueber die Metamorphose einiger Seethiere,
+           Tornaria," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xx. p. 131.
+
+        "Ueber ein Larvenstadium von Euphausia," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+           xix. 4, p. 179.
+
+        "Ueber die Entwicklung der Echinodermen und Nemertinen,"
+           Memoires de l'Acad. de Saint-Petersbourg, xiv. 8, p. 33.
+
+  1870. "Bemerkungen ueber Echinodermen," Bulletins de l'Acad. de
+           Saint-Petersbourg, xiv. p. 51.
+
+        "Embryologie des Scorpions," Zeitschr. f. wissen. Zool. xxi.
+
+  1871. "Ueber die Metamorphose einiger Seethiere," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xxi. 2, p. 235.
+
+        "Entwicklungsgeschichte des Chelifers," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+           xxi. p. 513.
+
+        "Ueber den Naupliuszustand von Euphausia," ibid. Bd. xix.
+
+  1872. "Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der einfachen Ascidien," Zeit.
+           f. wissen. Zool. xxii. 3, p. 339.
+
+        "Vorlaeufige Mitteilung ueber die Embryologie der Polydesmiden,"
+           Melanges biologiques des Bullet. de l'Academie des Sciences
+           de Saint-Petersbourg, vol. viii.
+
+        "Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Kalkschwaemme," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xxiv. p. 1.
+
+        "Studien ueber die Entwicklung der Medusen und Siphonophoren,"
+           Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xxiv. p. 15.
+
+        "Embryologie der doppelfuessigen Myriapoden," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xxiv. p. 253.
+
+  1874. "Embryologisches ueber Geophilus," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+           xxv. p. 313.
+
+  1876. "Beitraege zur Morphologie der Spongien," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xxvii. p. 275.
+
+  1878. "Spongiologische Studien," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xxxii. p.
+           349.
+
+  1879. "Spongiologische Studien," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xxxii. p.
+           374.
+
+  1880. "Ueber die intracellulaere Verdauung bei Coelenteraten,"
+           Zoologischer Anzeiger, No. 56, p. 261.
+
+        "Untersuchungen ueber Orthonectiden," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+           xxxv. p. 282.
+
+        "Ueber die systematische Stellung von Balanoglossus,"
+           Zoologischer Anzeiger, pp. 139, 153.
+
+  1881. "Zur Lehre ueber die intracellulaere Verdauung niederer
+           Tiere," Zoologischer Anzeiger, p. 310.
+
+        _Vergleichend-embryologische Studien_:
+
+        1. Entodermbildung bei Geryoniden.
+
+        2. "Ueber einige Studien der Cunina," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool.
+           xxxvi. p. 433.
+
+  1882. 3. "Ueber die Gastrula einiger Metazoen," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xxxvii. p. 286.
+
+        "Die Embryologie von Planaria polychroa," Zeit. f. wissen.
+           Zool. xxxviii. 3, p. 331.
+
+  1883. "Untersuchungen ueber die intracellulaere Verdauung bei
+           wirbellosen Tieren," Arbeiten d. zool. Instituts zu Wien, v.
+           2, p. 14 (Quarterly Journal of Micr. Science, vol. 93).
+
+        "Untersuchung ueber die mesodermalen Phagocyten einiger
+           Wirbeltiere," Biologisch. Centralblatt, No. 18, p. 560, Bd.
+           iii.
+
+  1884. "Embryologische Mitteilungen ueber Echinodermen,"
+           Zoologischer Anzeiger, vii. Nos. 158, 159.
+
+        "Ueber eine Sprosspilzkrankheit der Daphnien; Beitrag zur Lehre
+           ueber den Kampf der Phagocyten gegen Krankheitserreger,"
+           Virchow's Archiv, vol. 96, p. 177.
+
+        "Ueber die Beziehung der Phagocyten zu Milzbrandbacillen,"
+           Virchow's Archiv, vol. 97, p. 502.
+
+        "Ueber die pathologische Bedeutung der intracellulaeren
+           Verdauung," Fortschritte der Medizin, 1884, p. 558, No. 17.
+
+  1885. _Vergleichend-embryologische Studien_:
+
+        4. "Ueber die Gastrulation und Mesodermbildung der Ctenophoren,"
+           648.
+
+        5. "Ueber die Bildung der Wanderzellen bei Asterien und
+           Echiniden," Zeit. f. wissen. Zool. xlii. p. 656.
+
+  1886. "Medusologische Mittheilungen," Arbeiten d. zool. Instituts
+           zu Wien, vi. 2, p. 1.
+
+        Embryologische Studien an Medusen, ein Beitrag zur Genealogie
+           der Primitivorgane, Wien, 1886.
+
+  1887. "Sur l'attenuation des bacteridies charbonneuses dans le
+           sang des moutons refractaires," Annales de l'Institut
+           Pasteur, i. p. 42, No. 1.
+
+        "Ueber den Kampf der Zellen gegen Erysipelkokken, ein Beitrag
+           zur Phagocytenlehre," Virchow's Archiv, vol. 107, p. 209.
+
+        "Ueber den Phagocytenkampf bei Rueckfalltyphus," Virchow's
+           Archiv, vol. 109, p. 176.
+
+        "Sur la lutte des cellules de l'organisme contre l'invasion des
+           microbes," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, i. p. 321, No. 7.
+
+        "Kritische Bemerkungen ueber den Aufsatz des Herrn
+           Christmas-Dirckinck-Holmfeld, I. V.," Fortschritte der
+           Medizin, 17, p. 541.
+
+  1888. "Ueber die phagocytaere Rolle der Tuberkelriesenzellen,"
+           Virchow's Archiv, vol. 113, p. 63.
+
+        "Pasteuria Ramosa, un representant des bacteries a division
+           longitudinale," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, p. 165, t.
+           ii. No. 4.
+
+        "Ueber das Verhalten der Milzbrandbakterien im Organismus,"
+           Virchow's Archiv, vol. 114, p. 465.
+
+        "Reponse a la critique de M. Weigert au sujet des cellules
+           geantes de la tuberculose," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur,
+           ii. p. 604.
+
+  1889. "Recherches sur la digestion intracellulaire," Annales de
+           l'Institut Pasteur, iii. p. 25, No. 1.
+
+        "Contribution a l'etude du pleomorphisme des bacteries,"
+           Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, iii. p. 61, No. 2.
+
+        "Note sur le pleomorphisme, etc.," Annales de l'Institut
+           Pasteur, iii. p. 265, No. 5.
+
+        _Studies on Immunity_:
+
+        1. "Immunite des lapins contre le bacille du rouget des porcs,"
+           Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, iii. p. 289, No. 6.
+
+  1890. 2. "Le Charbon des pigeons," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur,
+           iv. p. 65, No. 2.
+
+        3. "Le Charbon des rats blancs," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur,
+           iv. p. 193, No. 4.
+
+  1891. 4. "L'Immunite des cobayes vaccines contre le Vibrio
+           Metchnikowii," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, v. p. 465, No.
+           8.
+
+        "Sur la propriete bactericide du sang de rat" (in collaboration
+           with Dr. Roux), No. 8.
+
+        "Recherches sur l'accoutumance aux produits microbiens" (in
+           collaboration with Dr. Roudenko), Annales de l'Institut
+           Pasteur, v. p. 567, No. 9.
+
+        "Beitraege zur vergleichenden Pathologie der Entzuendung,"
+           Virchow Festschrift, vol. 11.
+
+  1892. "La Phagocytose musculaire" (in collaboration with Dr.
+           Soudakevitch), Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, vi. p. 1.
+
+        Lecons sur la pathologie comparee de l'inflammation. Paris,
+           1892.
+
+        "On Aqueous Humour, Micro-organisms and Immunity," Journal of
+           Pathology, i.
+
+        _Studies on Immunity_:
+
+        5. "Immunite des lapins vaccines contre le microbe du
+           Hogcholera," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, vi. p. 189, No.
+           5.
+
+        "Atrophie des muscles pendant la transformation des
+           batraciens," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, vi. No. 1.
+
+        "Note au sujet du memoire de M. Soudakevitch (Parasitisme
+           intracellulaire des neoplasmes cancereux)," No. 3.
+
+        "Ueber Muskelphagocytose," Centralblatt fuer Bakteriologie, 1892.
+
+        "La Lutte pour l'existence entre les diverses parties de
+           l'organisme," Revue scientifique, 10 sept. 1892, No. 11.
+
+  1893. "Recherches sur le cholera et les vibrions, 1er memoire"
+           (Sur la propriete preventive du sang humain vis-a-vis du
+           vibrion de Koch), Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, vii. p.
+           403, No. 5.
+
+        2. "Memoire," idem (Sur la propriete pathogene des vibrions),
+           tome vii. p. 562, No. 7.
+
+        Comparative Pathology of Inflammation. Lectures at the Pasteur
+           Institute. Paul: London, 1893. 8vo. (The name of the
+           translator is not stated.)
+
+  1894. 3. "Memoire," idem (Sur la vaccination artificielle du
+           vibrion cholerique), Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, viii. p.
+           257, No. 5.
+
+        4. "Memoire," idem (Sur l'immunite et la receptivite vis-a-vis
+           du cholera intestinal), tome viii. p. 529, No. 8.
+
+        "L'etat actuel de la question de l'immunite" (Rapport du
+           Congres international de Budapest), Annales de l'Institut
+           Pasteur, viii. p. 706, No. 10.
+
+  1895. _Studies on Immunity_:
+
+        6. "Sur la destruction extracellulaire des bacteries dans
+           l'organisme," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, ix. p. 433, No.
+           6.
+
+  1896. "Toxine et antitoxine choleriques" (in collaboration with
+           Drs. Roux and Salimbeni), Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, x.
+           p. 25, No. 5.
+
+        "Quelques remarques a propos de l'article de Gabritchevsky sur
+           la fievre recurrente," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, x. No.
+           11.
+
+        _Recherches sur l'influence de l'organisme sur les toxines_:
+
+  1897. 1st Memoir. "Recherches sur l'influence de l'organisme sur
+           les toxines," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xi. p. 801.
+
+        "Reponse a M. Gabritchevsky," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur,
+           xi. No. 3.
+
+        "Immunitaet," Weyl's Handbuch der Hygiene. Jena, 1897.
+
+        "Recherches sur l'influence de l'organisme sur les toxines"
+           (Communication faite au congres de Moscou en aout 1897),
+           Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xi. No. 10.
+
+  1898. 2nd Memoir. "Influence du systeme nerveux sur la toxine
+           tetanique," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xii. No. 2, p. 81.
+
+        3rd Memoir. "Toxine tetanique et leucocytes," Annales de
+           l'Institut Pasteur, xii. No. 4, p. 263.
+
+  1899. "Resorption des cellules," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur,
+           xiii. No. 10, p. 737.
+
+  1900. _Researches on the Influence of the Organism on Toxins_:
+
+        4eme memoire. "Sur la spermotoxine et l'antispermotoxine,"
+           Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xiv. p. 5.
+
+        "Sur les cytotoxines," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xiv. No.
+           6. p. 369.
+
+        "Recherches sur l'action de l'hemotoxine sur l'homme," Annales
+           de l'Institut Pasteur, xiv. No. 6, p. 402.
+
+  1901. _Biological Studies on Old Age_:
+
+        1st Memoir. "Sur le blanchiment des cheveux et des poils,"
+           Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xv. No. 12, p. 865.
+
+        L'Immunite dans les maladies infectieuses. Paris, 1901.
+
+  1902. _Biological Studies on Old Age._ "Recherches sur la
+           vieillesse des perroquets" (in collaboration with Drs.
+           Mesnil and Weinberg), Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xvi.
+           No. 12.
+
+        The Nature of Man. Studies in optimistic philosophy. The
+           English translation by P. Chalmers Mitchell. Heinemann:
+           London; Putnams: New York, 1903. 8vo.
+
+  1903. _Studies on Human Nature_: Paris, 1903.
+
+        Etudes experimentales sur la syphilis (in collaboration with
+           Dr. Roux):
+
+        1st Memoir. Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xvii. No. 12, p. 809.
+
+  1904. 2nd Memoir. "Etudes experimentales sur la syphilis" (in
+           collaboration with Dr. Roux), Annales de l'Institut Pasteur,
+           xviii. No. 1, p. 1.
+
+        3rd Memoir. Id. No. 11.
+
+  1905. 4th Memoir. Id. Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xix. No. 11.
+
+        Immunity in Infective Diseases. Translated from the French by
+           F. G. Binnie. University Press: Cambridge; The Macmillan
+           Co.: New York, 1905. 8vo.
+
+  1906. 5th Memoir. Id., Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xx. No. 10.
+
+        The New Hygiene: three lectures on the prevention of infectious
+           diseases. Translated and a preface written by E. Ray
+           Lankester. Heinemann: London, 1906. 8vo.
+
+        [Another edition.] Chicago Medical Book Co.: Chicago, 1906. 8vo.
+
+  1907. [Another edition.] W. T. Keener & Co.: Chicago, 1907. 8vo.
+
+        "Sur la prophylaxie de la syphilis" (Paper read at the XIIth
+           International Congress in Berlin), Annales de l'Institut
+           Pasteur, xxi. No. 10.
+
+        The Prolongation of Life: optimistic studies. The English
+           translation edited by P. Chalmers Mitchell. Heinemann:
+           London, 1907. 8vo.
+
+        _Essais optimistes._
+
+  1908. "Etudes sur la flore intestinale," "Putrefaction
+           intestinale," Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xxii. No. 12.
+
+  1909. Idem. "Roussettes et microbes" (in collaboration with MM.
+           Weinberg, Pozersky, Distaso, Berthelot), Annales de
+           l'Institut Pasteur, xxiii. No. 12.
+
+        Notes on Sour Milk and other Methods of administering Selected
+           Lactic Germs in Intestinal Bacterio-therapy. J. Bale, Sons &
+           Co.: London, 1909. 8vo.
+
+  1910. Idem. "Poisons intestinaux et scleroses," Annales de
+           l'Institut Pasteur, xxiv. No. 10.
+
+        The Prolongation of Life. New and revised edition, Heinemann:
+           London; Putnams: New York, 1910. 8vo.
+
+  1911. "Sur la fievre typhoide experimentale" (Metchnikoff et
+           Besredka), Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, xxv. No. 3.
+
+        Annales de l'Institut Pasteur:
+
+        Tome xxv. No. 6. Quelques remarques sur la vaccination a propos
+           du memoire de M. Choukevitch sur le cholera.
+
+        Tome xxv. No. 6. Reponse de MM. Metchnikoff et Besredka a M. le
+           Dr. Vincent (remarques sur la vaccination antityphique).
+
+        Tome xxv. No. 11. El. Metchnikoff, E. Burnet et L.
+           Tarassevitch, "Recherches sur l'epidemiologie de la
+           tuberculose dans les steppes Kalmouks."
+
+        Tome xxv. No. 12. El. Metchnikoff et A. Besredka, "Des
+           vaccinations antityphiques (2nd Memoir)."
+
+  1912. Tome xxvi. No. 11. El. Metchnikoff et Eug. Wollman, "Sur
+           quelques essais de desintoxication intestinale,"
+           "Bacteriotherapie intestinale."
+
+        The Warfare against Tuberculosis--being the Priestley Lecture
+           of the National Health Society for the year 1912. Published
+           in Bedrock, January 1913. Constable: London.
+
+  1913. _Etudes sur la flore intestinale._
+
+        Tome xxvii. No. 8. "Des vaccinations antityphiques" (El.
+           Metchnikoff et A. Besredka).
+
+        Tome xxvii. No. 11. "Toxicite des sulfoconjugues de la serie
+           aromatique."
+
+  1914. Tome xxviii. No. 2. "Etudes sur la flore intestinale" (4eme
+           memoire). "Les diarrhees des nourrissons."
+
+  1915. Tome xxix. No. 8. "Causerie de El. Metchnikoff a l'occasion
+           de son jubile."
+
+        Tome xxix. No. 10. "La Mort du papillon du murier."
+
+        "Founders of Modern Medicine: Pasteur, Lister, Koch" in Russian
+           (a French translation to appear shortly).
+
+  1915-16. "Introduction a 'Etudes sur la fonction sexuelle'"
+           (posthume, dans Le Mercure de France, 1917).
+
+  1916. The Nature of Man. Popular edition. Heinemann: London, 1916.
+           8vo.
+
+  _Note._--Sources consulted: British Museum Catalogue; English
+           Catalogue; American Catalogue.
+
+
+
+
+                                 INDEX
+
+
+  Acoelomata, development of, 73
+
+  Albaran, Dr., 231
+
+  Alexander I., Tsar of Russia, 26
+
+  Alexander II., 28;
+      assassination of, 101, 104, 218
+
+  Alexis Michailovitch, Tsar, sends Spatar on mission to China, 24;
+      death of, 25
+
+  Alhambra, the, 124
+
+  Amour (Amur) river, Spatar's exploration of, 24
+
+  _Anisoplia austriaca_, experiments on, 111
+
+  _Annales de l'Institut Pasteur_, 1915, 249-50 _n._
+
+  Anthrax vaccine experiment, unfortunate result of, 133-4
+
+  Anthropoid apes, Metchnikoff's desire to experiment with, 140, 189;
+      syphilis experiments with, 190, 191;
+      infantile cholera experiments with, 207, 220;
+      typhoid fever experiments with, 207
+
+  Antitoxins, Metchnikoff's experiments with, 162
+
+  _Arbeiten des zool. Inst. zu Wien_, publication of Metchnikoff's
+    "Untersuchung ueber die intracellulaere Verdauung bei wirbellosen
+    Tieren," 119 _n._
+
+  Arterio-sclerosis, 189, 206
+
+  Ascidia, Metchnikoff's difference with Kovalevsky _re_, 62, 73
+
+  Asiatic cholera, 220
+
+  Astrakhan steppes, 84, 85
+
+  Austria, declaration of war on Serbia, 1914, 240
+
+
+  Baer, Prof., and Baer Prize, 58
+
+  Bakounine, 52, 56
+
+  Bardach, Dr., 127, 133
+
+  Bassarab, Constantine, 24
+
+  Baumgarten, Prof., hostile criticism of phagocyte theory, 126, 129;
+      criticism refuted, 148
+
+  Behring, theory of immunity, 148;
+      discovery of antitoxins, 149, 150
+
+  Beketoff, Prof., 40, 58
+
+  _Bell_, the, 29
+
+  Berlin Congress, 1890, 148-9
+
+  Berthelot, M., pupil and collaborator of Metchnikoff, 197, 221
+
+  Besredka, Dr., researches, 161-2, 207-8
+
+  Birsch, 169 _n._
+
+  Bobrinsky, Count, 111, 112
+
+  Bogomoloff, 29
+
+  _Bombyx mori_ (moth of the silk-worm), Metchnikoff's experiments
+    with, 238-9, 251
+
+  Bordet, M. I., important researches and experiments, 165
+
+  Borrel, M., 162
+
+  Brockhaus and Effrone, _Encyclopaedia_ quoted, 25-6
+
+  Bronn, _Classes and Orders of the Animal Kingdom_, 31
+
+  Buechner, 169, 265;
+      paper on humoral theory, 150
+
+  Buckle, _History of Civilisation_, 29
+
+  Buda-Pest Congress (International, 1894), 159
+
+  _Bulletin of the Moscow Society of Naturalists_, 33
+
+  Bunsen, 48
+
+  Burnet, M., 211
+
+
+  Caillaux affair, 240
+
+  Cantemir, Prince, 26
+
+  Casso, Minister of Public Instruction, 219
+
+  Cephalopoda, Metchnikoff's study of, 56, 57
+
+  Chamberland, 265
+
+  Chauveau, 169 and _n._
+
+  Cholera outbreak in France, 1892, 154;
+      Metchnikoff's experiments with cholera vibrio, 154-7, 158 _seq._
+
+  Choukevitch, Dr., 212
+
+  Cienkovsky, friendship for and interest in Metchnikoff, 59, 60, 73;
+      resigns from Odessa University, 75;
+      bacillus, 210
+
+  Claus, Prof., 48, 119
+
+  Coelentera and intracellular digestion, 107, 110, 116
+
+  Coelomata, development of, 73
+
+  Cohendy, M., research work of, 196
+
+  Cohn, association with and interest in Metchnikoff, 43, 45
+
+  "Conception of Nature and of Medical Science, A," Metchnikoff's
+    Stuttgart Lecture, 1909, 209, 224
+
+  Crimea, and Black Sea fauna, 59
+
+  Ctenophora, 73
+
+  "Curative Forces of the Organism, The," Metchnikoff Lecture on, in
+    Berlin, 1908, 208, 223
+
+  Curded milk, manufacture, Metchnikoff's connection with, 226-7
+
+
+  Daphniae, experiments with, 121, 279
+
+  Darre, Dr., 256, 266, 271
+
+  Darwin, _The Origin of Species_, 41;
+      theories, 276, 277
+
+  Diabetes, 246
+
+  Dubois-Reymond, journal of, 48
+
+  Duclaux, M., 137, 265
+
+  Duniasha (Avdotia Maximovna), 4, 10
+
+
+  Eberth's bacillus, 207-8
+
+  Echinodermata, Metchnikoff's researches, etc., 61, 62, 70;
+      metamorphoses of, 72, 73;
+      and intracellular digestion, 107, 110, 116;
+      observations on larvae transformation, 119
+
+  _Education from an Anthropological Point of View_, Metchnikoff's
+    paper on, 63, 74
+
+  Ehrlich, Prof., 199, 265
+
+  Embryology, comparative, Metchnikoff's studies in, 50-51, 56, 57,
+    107, 277
+
+  Emmerich, 265;
+      attack on phagocyte theory, 131;
+      attacks refuted, 148
+
+  Engelmann, 45
+
+  Ephemeridae, Metchnikoff's study of, 105, 106, 193, 237
+
+  Escherich, 265
+
+  _Essais optimistes_, 191-2, 209
+
+  _Etudes sur la nature humaine_, 185, 191, 209;
+      quoted, 188
+
+  Evolution, Metchnikoff's researches in, 50-51
+
+
+  _Fabricia_, Metchnikoff's researches on, 43
+
+  Fedorovitch, Mlle. Ludmilla, afterwards Madame Elie Metchnikoff, 63;
+      engagement to Metchnikoff, 65-9;
+      marriage to Metchnikoff, 69;
+      illness of, 69-70;
+      a clever draughtswoman, 71;
+      temporary recovery of, 73;
+      relapse, 74, 75, 78;
+      death, 79
+
+  Fedorovitch, Mlle., 71, 74, 78, 80;
+      account of interview with Metchnikoff, 83
+
+  "Flora of the Human Body," Wilde Lecture, 1901, 182
+
+  _Flore du corps humain_, La, 224
+
+  "Forces curatives de l'organisme," quoted, 120-21
+
+  _Forty Years' Search for a Rational Conception of Life_, 223
+
+  _Founders of Modern Medicine, The_, extract from preface to, 247-8
+
+  Fraenkel, Carl, 265
+
+
+  Gamaleia, Dr., 127, 133
+
+  Garibaldi Movement, the, 47
+
+  Garnier, M., 21, 22
+
+  _Gastraea_, Haeckel's theory of the, 108
+
+  "Gastrotricha," Metchnikoff's establishment of, 42
+
+  Geneva, young revolutionary centre, 47-8
+
+  _Geodesmus bilineatus_, 106-7
+
+  Geophilus (_see_ Myriapoda)
+
+  George, Henry, 202
+
+  Germany, Metchnikoff's appreciation of scientists of, 55
+
+  Germany, declaration of war on Russia, 240;
+      on France, 242
+
+  Giessen, Naturalists' Congress at, 1864, 44-5
+
+  _Glycobacter peptonicus_, 221, 222
+
+  Goethe, _Faust_, 195, 204
+
+  Goldschmidt, Dr., 78, 79
+
+  _Goettingen News_, Leuckart's memoir on Nematodes in, 48
+
+  Granada, 124
+
+  Gravitz, 169 _n._
+
+  Grove, _The Unity of Physical Forces_, 32
+
+  Guancios, Caves of the, 77
+
+
+  Haeckel, theory of the _gastraea_, 108
+
+  Hayem, 169 _n._
+
+  Heitz, Dr., 231
+
+  Heligoland, flora and fauna of, 43
+
+  Helmholtz, 48
+
+  Henle, Prof., 54
+
+  Herzen, _Passe et pensees_, 47
+
+  Hirschfeld, 169 _n._
+
+  Hodounof, 19, 20, 22
+
+  Hueppe, Prof., 131
+
+  Hugo, Victor, 260 _n._
+
+
+  Iamanouchi, M., 211
+
+  Immunity, 122;
+      opposing theories of Behring and Metchnikoff, 148, 149, 150, 151;
+      ancient and modern theories of, 168-70;
+      Metchnikoff's exposition of, 171-180
+
+  _Immunity in Infectious Diseases_, 170
+
+  Infantile cholera, 207, 220-21
+
+  _Inflammation_, Metchnikoff's lectures on, 152-3
+
+  Intestinal flora, problem of, 196-8, 206;
+      further researches, 220, 235, 280;
+      experiments with rats, 221, 222
+
+  Intracellular digestion, Metchnikoff's studies of, 57, 105, 107, 110,
+    116, 170, 277, 278
+
+
+  Jaures, assassination of, 240
+
+  Jelly-fish, Metchnikoff's monograph on embryology of, 126
+
+  Jenner and method of antivariolic vaccination, 168
+
+  _Journal de Moscou_, Elie Metchnikoff's first publication in, 33
+
+  Jupille, M., 155
+
+
+  Kalmuk steppes, Metchnikoff's journey to, 82-3;
+      description of, 215-16;
+      Metchnikoff's anthropological work among natives of, 84-5;
+      liability of natives to tuberculosis, 210-11;
+      Pasteur Institute expedition to, 212;
+      description of, 215-17
+
+  Keferstein, Prof., 54
+
+  Kent, Saville, discoveries of _Protospongia_, 110
+
+  Kharkoff, 1, 16, 20;
+      Lycee, progress in, 28;
+      University, ancient methods in, 31-2, 37, 40
+
+  Kherson, peasants' grievances and vexatious conduct in, 113, 114
+
+  Kirghiz steppes, endemic plague in, 211;
+      Russian plague mission to, 211, 215, 218;
+      description of, 214
+
+  Kleinenberg, Prof., encouragement of Metchnikoff, 118, 119
+
+  Kleps, 169 _n._
+
+  Koch, Prof., 265;
+      attitude to Metchnikoff's theory, 133, 149
+
+  Koelliker, Prof., 37
+
+  Kovalevsky, Alexander, friendship with Metchnikoff, 49, 58;
+      work of, 51, 52, 61, 62, 72, 73, 108;
+      divides Baer Prize with Metchnikoff, 58
+
+  Kriloff, 26
+
+  Kuehne, 41
+
+
+  Latapie, M., 155
+
+  _Law of Life, The_, 223
+
+  _Lecons sur la pathologie comparee de l'inflammation_, 152-3
+
+  Leube, Dr., 231
+
+  Leuckart, Prof., 43-5, 46
+
+  Lilienfiorse, 199
+
+  Lister, Dr., 148
+
+  Loeffler, 265
+
+  London Congress, 149-50
+
+  Lubarsch, attacks on Metchnikoff's theory, 232
+
+  Lucernaria, 73
+
+
+  _Macaques_ or Barbary apes, 124;
+      Metchnikoff's typhoid experiments with, 207-8
+
+  Macrophages, 163-4, 166, 178, 184
+
+  Madeira, 75
+
+  Maeterlinck, Maurice, 228-9
+
+  Maisonneuve, M., 191
+
+  Malaga, gardens of, 124
+
+  Manoukhine, Dr., 231
+
+  Martin, Dr., 256, 273
+
+  Medusae, 72, 73, 116
+
+  Mertens, 76, 79
+
+  _Messenger of Europe_, Metchnikoff's contributions to, 208-9,
+    239 _n._
+
+  Messina, Metchnikoff's work at, 61
+
+  Messina, the Metchnikoff home at, 115
+
+  Messina, earthquake at, 1908, 115, 116
+
+  Metazoa, 277
+
+  Metchnikoff, Dmitri Ivanovitch, devotion to his brother's family, 5,
+    17, 21, 28;
+      appearance and character, 5-6;
+      other references, 12, 14
+
+  Metchnikoff, Elie (or Ilia), parents' home at Panassovka, 1-3;
+      birth of, 3;
+      appearance and disposition in childhood, 8-11;
+      early indications of unusual intelligence, 9, 16, 20;
+      an adventurous journey to Slaviansk, 12-15;
+      life at Kharkoff, 16-18;
+      develops natural history tastes with Hodounof, 20-22;
+      ancestry, 23-7;
+      entry into and progress at Kharkoff Lycee, 28-34;
+      friendships and their influence, with Bogomoloff, 29,
+          with Tschelkoff, 32-3, 42,
+          with Kovalevsky, 48 _seq._,
+          with Cienkovsky, 59-60,
+          with Kleinenberg, Virchow, and others, 118-19,
+          with Pasteur, 132 _seq._,
+          various, 56, 58-9, 63, 65, 93, 137;
+      adopts atheism and shows continued interest in natural history,
+        29-30;
+      love of music, 31, 34, 54-5, 93;
+      plans a scientific career, 31;
+      early publications, 33, 41;
+      devotion to his mother, 35, 93-4;
+      early love affairs, 35-6;
+      abortive journey to Wuerzburg, 37-9;
+      at Kharkoff University, 40-42;
+      an early controversy with Kuehne, 41;
+      influenced by Darwin, 41, 50;
+      early researches and privations in Heligoland, 43-5;
+      letters to his mother quoted, 44-6, 65-9;
+      at Giessen Congress, 45;
+      work and relations with Leuckart, 45-8;
+      eyesight troubles, 46, 62, 82-3, 105;
+      visit to Geneva, 46-8;
+      researches, Mediterranean, 48-53, 56-7, 61 _seq._,
+          in the Crimea, 59-60,
+          at Spezzia, etc., 70-73,
+          anthropological among Kalmuks, 84-5,
+          in intracellular digestion and Ephemeridae, 105-11, 116,
+          in infectious diseases, 128,
+          in tuberculosis and phagocytosis, 133;
+      at Pasteur Institute, 135-6,
+          in cholera, 154-157,
+          in immunity, 168-80,
+          in senile atrophies and intestinal flora, 182-9, 191, 196-8,
+            206-8, 220 _seq._,
+          in syphilis, 189-91,
+          in infantile cholera and typhoid, 207-8, 220,
+          in tuberculosis and plague among Kalmuks, 210-19;
+      silk-worm moth, 238-9, 251;
+      contribution to foundation of comparative embryology, 51, 56;
+      studies in Germany and opinion of German scientists, 54-5, 57;
+      illnesses, 55-56, 65, 104, 181, 217, 222, 229 _seq._, 249;
+      return to Russia and Odessa University appointment, 58-60;
+      appointed Zoology Professor at Petersburg, 61;
+      interest in educational questions, 63, 100;
+      life at Petersburg, 63-4, 71 _seq._;
+      engagement and first marriage, 66-70;
+      reappointed to Odessa University and difficulties of appointment,
+        73, 75, 78, 98 _seq._;
+      his philosophical theory and its evolution, 74-7, 184-9, 191-5,
+        209, 222-4, 228-9, 281-3;
+      visit to and life at Madeira, 75-7;
+      death of first wife, 79;
+      attempts suicide, 80-81;
+      Mlle. Fedorovitch's description of, 83;
+      journey to Astrakhan steppes, 82-3;
+      studies of childhood, 86;
+      meeting with family of second wife and growing intimacy, 86-8, 94;
+      Setchenoff's description of, 88;
+      harmony of second marriage, 89-95;
+      character and disposition 96-8, 143-5;
+      views of women's scientific capacity, 103;
+      inoculates himself with relapsing fever, 104;
+      and the phagocyte theory, first statement of, 110,
+          describes first inception of, 116-17,
+          progress in, 117-22, 126, 128, 142, 148, 150-53, 158-66,
+            183, 208-9,
+          controversies and attacks on, 131, 133, 142, 147-9;
+      difficulties over Russian estate management, 112-14;
+      life at Messina, 115-19;
+      again returns to Russia, 119;
+      journey through Spain to Tangiers, 123-4;
+      life at Tangiers and Villefranche, 125-6;
+      describes work at Bacteriological Institute, Odessa, 127-8;
+      describes first meeting with Pasteur, 132;
+      Pasteur's offer, 132;
+      visit to Berlin and reception by German scientists, 133;
+      work and influence at Pasteur Institute, 135-146;
+      M. Roux's appreciations of, 138-9, 150, 159;
+      other appreciations, 141, 165;
+      life at Sevres and Paris, 144-5;
+      visit to England, 149;
+      triumph at London Congress, 150;
+      interest in Pfeiffer's phenomenon, 158-60;
+      theory and studies of natural death, 192-5, 230-35, 237-8, 252;
+      receives Nobel Prize, 199;
+      journey to Sweden and Russia, 199-200;
+      visit to Tolstoi, 200-205;
+      expedition to Kalmuk steppes, 210 _seq._;
+      unpleasant incident of lacto-bacilli fabrication, 225-7;
+      kindness to friends, 227-8;
+      descriptions of his own symptoms, etc., 229-36, 250-51, 263-5;
+      holidays at St. Leger-en-Yvelines, 228, 237-9, 251;
+      effect of war on, 239-46, 261;
+      preface to _Founders of Modern Medicine_ quoted, 247-8;
+      plans a work on sexual questions, 249, 252, 260;
+      jubilee celebrations, 249-50;
+      last illness, 254-73;
+      last days at Pasteur Institute, 256-73;
+      death, 273;
+      synopsis of work and achievements, 276-81
+
+  Metchnikoff, Madame, meeting with Metchnikoff, 87,
+      parents and family, 87-8, 94,
+      marriage, 89, 90,
+      relations between husband and wife, 90-95,
+      illness of, in 1880, 104,
+      loss of both parents, 112,
+      illnesses of, 123, 181, 252
+
+  Metchnikoff, Emilia Lvovna (_nee_ Nevahovna), appearance and
+    disposition, 2, 5, 6, 93;
+      a capable housewife, 3;
+      a devoted mother, 4, 6, 13, 14, 18, 37;
+      delicacy of, 22;
+      ancestors, 26;
+      influence on Elie Metchnikoff's choice of a career, 41;
+      endeavours to prevent Elie's first marriage, 66;
+      letters to, from Elie quoted, 44-5, 65-69;
+      death of, 94
+
+  Metchnikoff, Elena Samoilovna, 4, 8, 10
+
+  Metchnikoff, Ilia Ivanovitch, home at Panassovka, 1,
+      appearance and character, 2,
+      marriage, 2,
+      easy-going temperament, and extravagance, 2-6,
+      attitude to his family and servants, 6-7
+
+  Metchnikoff, Ivan, 3, 8
+
+  Metchnikoff, Katia, appearance and character, 8,
+      marriage, 16, 21,
+      other references, 12, 14
+
+  Metchnikoff, Leo, 3, 8,
+      illness of, 19,
+      gifted but superficial nature of, 19, 46-7;
+      activities in Geneva and connection with Garibaldi Movement,
+        46-7, 80
+
+  Metchnikoff, Nicholas, birth of, 3;
+      appearance, 8;
+      his great-aunt's favourite, 8, 10;
+      boyhood pursuits, 17-18;
+      enters Kharkoff Lycee, 28;
+      life in Kharkoff, 31;
+      death of, 230
+
+  _Microphages_, 163-4, 166
+
+  Morosoffs, the, of Moscow, 189
+
+  Moscow, Anthropological Society of, Metchnikoff's report to, 85
+
+  Moscow, International Congress, 1897, 164-5;
+      Skin Disease Research Society, 189
+
+  Mueller, Fritz, _For Darwin_, 50
+
+  _Mueller's Archives_, Metchnikoff's memoir on the Vorticella in, 41
+
+  Myriapoda, embryology of, 76, 85
+
+
+  Naegeli, 169 _n._
+
+  Naples, cholera epidemic in, 1865, 53;
+      Metchnikoff's first stay at, 49-53,
+      second stay, 62
+
+  Napoleon, 260 _n._
+
+  Natural death, Metchnikoff's studies of, 237, 280-81
+
+  Natural science, Metchnikoff's campaign for the teaching of, 100
+
+  Nematodes, Metchnikoff's discoveries, etc., 42, 46
+
+  Nevahovitch, Leo, 26
+
+  Nicholas I., 28
+
+  Nobel Prize, the, 199
+
+  Nocard, M., 265;
+      appreciation of Metchnikoff, 165
+
+  Norden, Dr., 231
+
+
+  Odessa, University of, 58-9,
+      Metchnikoff's work at, 60-61, 98-9,
+      party intrigues at, 75, 101,
+      rights to autonomy threatened, 101-3,
+      Congress, 1883, 120,
+      bacteriological Institute founded at, 127
+
+  Oldenburg, Prince of, 129
+
+
+  Panassovka, the home of the Metchnikoffs, 1, 3,
+      fire at, 20-21
+
+  _Parenchymella_, explanation of, 109-110
+
+  Paris, International Congress, 1900, 170
+
+  Paris, air raids on, 246
+
+  Pasteur, antirabic inoculations, 127,
+      Metchnikoff's first interview with, 132,
+      friendship with Metchnikoff and interest in phagocyte theory, 137,
+      experiments in vaccination and immunity, 168-9,
+      death of, 181,
+      discovery of lactic fermentation microbe, 193,
+      age at death, 265
+
+  Pasteur Institute, the, 132,
+      Metchnikoff's work and influence at, 134-142, 144,
+      Metchnikoff's appreciation of, 139,
+      effect of outbreak of European War on, 244-5;
+      celebration of Metchnikoff's jubilee, 249
+
+  Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, 24, 25, 26
+
+  Petersburg, 2, 19,
+      Congress of Russian Naturalists at, 1867, 60-61,
+      difficult conditions of Metchnikoff's work at, 63-4, 71,
+      foundation of Bacteriological Institute at, 129
+
+  Petersburg Geographical Society, 82
+
+  Petrushka, 4, 12, 13
+
+  Pettenkoffer, 154, 236
+
+  Pfeiffer, 265,
+      experiments in extracellular destruction of microbes, 158-60,
+        165-6, 175;
+      attacks on Metchnikoff's theory, 232
+
+  _Phagocytella_, 110, 126
+
+  Phagocytes, origin of Metchnikoff's theory of, 51, 57, 278,
+          development of theory, 110, 111, 113, 120-22, 142,
+          inception of theory, 116-19,
+          Baumgarten's hostile criticism of theory, 126;
+      application of theory to erysipelas, 128,
+          opposition to theory, 131, 151,
+          controversy, 148,
+          renewed experiments for proving theory, 148, 149, 150, 151,
+            152, 153, 279;
+      vindication of, at Buda-Pest Congress, 159, 160;
+      experiments with toxins and poisons, 160-62;
+      experiments with antitoxins, 162-164,
+          and doctrine of immunity, 170-80,
+          and senility, 183, 280
+
+  Phagocytosis, Metchnikoff's first paper on, read at Odessa Congress
+    of Physicians and Naturalists, 1883, 120
+
+  _Phyllirhoe_, 175
+
+  Picot, E., _Chronicle of John Neculua_ quoted, 23
+
+  Pirquet's test, 211
+
+  _Pleomorphism of Microbes_, Metchnikoff's memoir, 1888, 211
+
+  Poland, Revolution in, 1830, 26
+
+  Polypi, 72
+
+  _Popular Star_, 29
+
+  Preyer, theory of fatigue and sleep, 194
+
+  _Protospongia_, discovery of, by Saville Kent, 110
+
+  Pushkin, 2, 26
+
+
+  Radlkoffer, _The Crystals of Proteic Substances_, 33
+
+  Rasputin, 219
+
+  Recklinghausen, 169 _n._
+
+  Relapsing fever, experiments to prove phagocytic reaction, 129
+
+  Renon, Dr., 255
+
+  Rotifera, 193, 237-8
+
+  Rousseau, J. J., _Confessions and the Nouvelle Heloise_, 260 _n._
+
+  Roux, Dr., 137, 255,
+      appreciation of Metchnikoff quoted, 138-9, 141, 159, 249;
+      collaboration with Metchnikoff, 150, 162, 163, 164,
+      wins Osiris Prize, 189;
+      reply to campaign against Metchnikoff, 226;
+      friendship with and visits to Metchnikoff in his last illness,
+        257, 267, 273
+
+  Rubinstein, M., 260
+
+
+  St. Leger-en-Yvelines, 228, 237
+
+  Salimbeni, Dr., 163, 184, 211, 215, 256, 266, 272-3
+
+  Sanarelli, Dr., discovery of choleriform bacilli, 156
+
+  Sarepta, 217-18
+
+  Schaudinn, discovery of syphilitic treponema, 190
+
+  Scorpion, the, Metchnikoff's researches concerning the development
+    of, 71
+
+  Senility and death, Metchnikoff's views on and researches, 182-8,
+    191-5
+
+  Serums, their action, 177
+
+  Setchenoff, Prof., 52-3, 71, 73, 78, 239;
+      autobiography quoted, 88
+
+  Sevres, Metchnikoff Villa at, 144, 145
+
+  Siphonophora, 72
+
+  Slaviansk, adventurous journey of the Metchnikoff family to, 12
+
+  Spain, Metchnikoff's eventful journey through, 80
+
+  Spatar, Joury Stepanovitch, 26
+
+  Spatar, Nicholas Milescu, exploits and adventures of, 23-4,
+      mission to China, 24,
+      literary activities and services to Peter the Great, 25,
+      death of, 25
+
+  Spezzia, the Metchnikoffs sojourn at, 70-71
+
+  Sponges and Echinodermata, Metchnikoff's study of, 61, 72, 106, 117
+
+  Stepanita, Prince, his dealings with Nicholas Milescu Spatar, 24
+
+  Syphilis, Metchnikoff's researches on, 189-91, 280
+
+
+  Tangiers, journey to, through Spain, 123-4,
+      description of, 124-6
+
+  Tarassevitch, Dr., 212
+
+  Tchistovitch, Dr., 231
+
+  _Time for Marriage, The_, Metchnikoff's paper on, 77
+
+  Tolstoi, Leon, a day at Iasnaia Paliana, 200-205
+
+  Tolstoi, Countess, 203
+
+  Tornaria, Metchnikoff's discovery concerning, 70
+
+  Toxins and the phagocyte theory, experiments, 160 seq.
+
+  _Trattoria della Harmonia_, the, 53
+
+  Trieste, Metchnikoff's work at, 62
+
+  Tschelkoff, Prof., 32, 33, 40, 41, 42
+
+  Tshori, Convent of, 217
+
+  Tuberculosis, researches on phagocytosis, in, 133;
+      Metchnikoff's theory of natural vaccination, 210-11, 218
+
+  Typhoid fever, 207-8
+
+
+  Vaquez, Dr., 230
+
+  Veillon, Dr., 256
+
+  Vienna, Hygienists' Conference at, 1887, 131
+
+  Villa Orotava, giant dragon-tree at, 77
+
+  Virchow, cellular theory, 32, 48, 169 _n._;
+      encouragement of Metchnikoff, 118-19;
+      _Archives_, publication of Metchnikoff's researches in, 122, 129
+
+  Volga, description of, 212-13
+
+  von Noorden, 182
+
+  von Siebold, Prof., 54
+
+  Vorticella, the, Metchnikoff's memoir on, 41
+
+
+  Waldeyer, 169 _n._
+
+  Weinberg, M., 184
+
+  Widal, Dr., 255, 256
+
+  Wollman, pupil and collaborator of Metchnikoff, 196-7, 221
+
+  Wuerzburg, University of, Metchnikoff's abortive journey to, 37
+
+
+  Zalensky, 32
+
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+_Printed in Great Britain by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
+
+
+
+
+                    READERS OF THIS BOOK INTERESTED
+                       IN MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC
+                        BIOGRAPHY ARE REFERRED
+                               OVERLEAF
+
+
+
+
+                      MEN OF MEDICINE AND SCIENCE
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF PASTEUR. By RENE VALLERY-RADOT. Translation by Mrs. R. L.
+    DEVONSHIRE. New Edition with a Preface by Sir WILLIAM OSLER, Bart.,
+    M.D., F.R.S.
+
+                                     Demy 8vo. Portrait, 10s. 6d. net.
+
+      "A classic of scientific biography."--_Saturday Review._
+
+      "The translation of M. Vallery-Radot's admirable biography of the
+      great Frenchman is a book which every English-speaking admirer of
+      Pasteur will desire to possess."--_The Athenaeum._
+
+      "Pasteur's career is set out in the fullest detail, making an
+      absorbing narrative, and the scientific, social, and political
+      environment is sketched with vivid accuracy. It is the picture of
+      a great man, a great career, and a great epoch in the history of
+      France and of science."--_The Times Literary Supplement._
+
+
+  SIR VICTOR HORSLEY. By STEPHEN PAGET. Foreword by LADY HORSLEY.
+
+                                      Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.
+
+      "All the aspects of Horsley's strenuous life are depicted with
+      the writer's accustomed sympathy and skill. Mr. Paget has given
+      us a study of absorbing interest.... We are never allowed to
+      lose sight of the restless energy and indomitable courage that
+      characterised all that Horsley undertook."--_British Medical
+      Journal._
+
+      "No biographer who agreed with Horsley could have given us
+      anything so valuable, so convincing, so vitally defined.... Mr.
+      Paget has never had an equal as a medical biographer, and here he
+      has excelled himself."--_The Observer._
+
+
+  LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH BLACK, M.D. By Sir WILLIAM RAMSAY, K.C.B.,
+    LL.D., F.R.S., etc. Introduction by F. G. DONNAN, F.R.S.
+
+       Demy 8vo. Frontispiece Portrait and Illustrations. 6s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  ROBERT BOYLE: A Biography. By FLORA MASSON.
+
+                             Frontispiece. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+      "May be recommended as an excellent study of the great Irishman
+      to whose services as natural philosopher and chemist even modern
+      scientists owe a debt of gratitude."--_Pall Mall Gazette._
+
+
+                 PUBLISHED BY CONSTABLE & COMPANY LTD.
+                   10-12 ORANGE STREET LONDON W.C.2.
+
+
+
+
+                              Biography &
+                             Reminiscence
+                               Military
+                               Political
+                                Social
+                               Literary
+                              Scientific
+                               & General
+
+
+                             Published by
+                         Constable & Co. Ltd.
+                           10-12 Orange St.
+                             London W.C.2
+
+
+
+
+                                  I.
+
+       Military Biographies, Autobiographies and Reminiscences.
+
+
+  FIRST WORLD WAR, 1914-1918. By Lieut.-Col. CHARLES A COURT REPINGTON,
+    C.M.G.
+
+                                           Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 42s. net.
+
+      "Few if any two-guinea books have had such a sale as the _First
+      World War_."--_Evening Standard._
+
+      "Colonel Repington's fame as a military critic is world-wide.
+      He now gives us his personal experiences of the war in the form
+      of a Diary which will compare with the most famous diaries in
+      literature.... Few diarists show keener observation or greater
+      power of description than Colonel Repington here displays,
+      and none before has had such a period of history for his
+      theme."--Major-General Sir FREDERICK MAURICE in _The Daily News_.
+
+      "... There are countless piquant little pen pictures through
+      these two books.... Colonel Repington met all the great soldiers
+      of the Allies.... The book is full of extraordinarily good
+      stories and remarks."--_Sunday Times._
+
+
+  EXPERIENCES OF A DUG-OUT. By Major-General Sir C. E. CALLWELL, K.C.B.
+
+                                                             18s. net.
+
+      The General held the appointment of Director of Military
+      Operations during the early years of the war, and was indeed
+      in the saddle at the beginning of the operations in 1914. In
+      this volume he shows us behind the scenes and enables us to see
+      clearly much that was obscure. His book reveals to us in an
+      intimate way the personality of Lord Kitchener and many others,
+      and introduces us to the War Cabinet.
+
+      "A vivacious picture of life behind the scenes of the great drama
+      ... told keenly and poignantly, with a biting humour ... and with
+      a frankness of disclosure."--_The Times._
+
+      "Sir Charles Callwell is one of the soundest military critics in
+      the country.... He is a writer ... his sense of proportion is
+      never at fault."--_Spectator._
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF LIEUT.-GEN. SIR STANLEY MAUDE, K.C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O.
+    Authorised Memorial Biography of the Conqueror of Baghdad. By
+    Major-General Sir C. E. CALLWELL, K.C.B.
+
+                                                Illustrated. 21s. net.
+
+      "General Callwell is in the very front rank of military writers
+      ... one of the very few who combine learning in the military art
+      with ability to make it interesting to others."--_Times Literary
+      Supplement._
+
+      "A good book.... Should be in the hands of every newly joined
+      subaltern, for no nobler picture of a British officer and a
+      gentleman could be laid before them."--Hon. JOHN FORTESCUE in
+      _The Observer_.
+
+
+  SUVOROF. By W. LYON BLEASE. With an Introduction by Major-General Sir
+    CHARLES CALLWELL, K.C.B.
+
+                       Frontispiece and 21 Maps. Demy 8vo.   25s. net.
+
+      "Mr. Blease has done his work uncommonly well. The book is
+      well arranged and well written.... Sir E. Callwell in his
+      preface pronounces Suvorof to have been, next to Frederick the
+      Great, unquestionably the greatest soldier of the last half
+      of the eighteenth century.... We hold that Sir E. Callwell is
+      undoubtedly right. He was a very great soldier and a great
+      man."--_Times Literary Supplement._
+
+
+  FREDERICK THE GREAT. By H. DE CATT. Translated by F. S. FLINT.
+    Introduction by LORD ROSEBERY.
+
+                                           Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 24s. net.
+
+      "Entertaining and instructive.... Perhaps the main attraction is
+      the masterly introduction by Lord Rosebery which occupies some
+      forty pages."--_British Weekly._
+
+      "A very human book. We have never read anything giving so simple
+      and homely a picture of Frederick as that drawn by his admiring
+      Swiss reader."--_Spectator._
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. By NORWOOD YOUNG.
+
+                            Front. Maps and Plans. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.
+
+
+      "The book shows both energy and industry.... Mr. Young has a
+      large acquaintance not only with the original authority but also
+      with the literature of the subject."--_Times Literary Supplement._
+
+
+  MOLTKE. By Lt.-Col. F. E. WHITTON. (Makers of XIX. Century Series.
+    See p. 4.)
+
+  AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SIR WILLIAM BUTLER.
+
+                                       Frontispiece and Maps. 6s. net.
+
+      "This book must always occupy a prominent place in our military
+      literature, and its vivid portraiture and its humour, as well as
+      the light it throws on the 19th century history, must carry it
+      beyond the circles of military interest."--_Aberdeen Free Press._
+
+
+  LIFE OF SIR FREDERICK HAINES. By ROBERT S. RAIT, M.A.
+
+                                Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  THE LIFE AND CAMPAIGNS OF HUGH, 1ST VISCOUNT GOUGH, FIELD MARSHAL. By
+    ROBERT S. RAIT, M.A.
+
+               Illustrations and Maps. Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 31s. 6d. net.
+
+      "By no means a mere compilation, but a substantial and
+      independent work bearing the clear interests of individuality,
+      power of research, and historic training.... The style is
+      suited to the work--clear, vigorous, and graphic.... By
+      means of his own letters, a brave, hot-headed, affectionate,
+      pure and conscientious soldier is revealed to us in all his
+      naturalness."--_Athenaeum._
+
+
+
+
+                      Makers of the XIX. Century.
+
+    Biographies of Men of all Countries who have had a definite
+    influence on thought or action in the Nineteenth Century. Edited by
+    BASIL WILLIAMS. Demy 8vo. With Frontispiece, Bibliographies, and
+    Full Index.
+
+
+
+  DELANE OF THE "TIMES." By Sir E. T. COOK.     6s. net.
+
+  ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By LORD CHARNWOOD.           10s. 6d. net.
+
+  ABDUL HAMID. By SIR EDWIN PEARS.              6s. net.
+
+  HERBERT SPENCER. By HUGH S. ELLIOT.           6s. net.
+
+  DIAZ. By DAVID HANNAY.                        6s. net.
+
+  LI HUNG CHANG. By J. O. P. BLAND.             6s. net.
+
+  BISMARCK. By C. GRANT ROBERTSON, C.V.O.       10s. 6d. net.
+
+  CECIL RHODES. By BASIL WILLIAMS.              15s. net.
+
+  VICTOR HUGO. By MARY DUCLAUX.                 14s. net.
+
+  MOLTKE. By Lieut.-Col. F. E. WHITTON.
+
+
+
+
+                                 II.
+
+         Political and Social Biographies and Reminiscences.
+
+
+  AN ENGLISH WIFE IN BERLIN: A Private Memoir of Events, Politics and
+    Daily Life in Germany throughout the War and the Social Revolution
+    of 1918. By EVELYN, PRINCESS BLUECHER.
+
+                                         Portrait. Demy 8vo. 19s. net.
+
+      "If there are any other diarists who managed to preserve as much
+      fairness and coolness as Princess Bluecher displays in this book
+      they need not be ashamed to publish their records. If she had a
+      just mind she had a stalwart one."--_Spectator._
+
+      "This is a book apart. Nothing yet published gives so clear and
+      honest a picture of German mentality. The soul of Germany is laid
+      bare and the exposure achieved without the slightest pretension.
+      The character of the Berlin aristocracy is written in every page
+      of this honest and absorbing document."--_Daily Telegraph._
+
+      "Perhaps the most absorbingly interesting war book that has been
+      written.... Altogether the book is a most remarkable one. The
+      kind that causes one to forget one's meals and other pleasures
+      until the last page is read. Princess Bluecher has earned the
+      undying gratitude of her countrymen for her indefatigable work on
+      behalf of prisoners of war."--_Globe._
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF JOHN BRIGHT. By G. M. TREVELYAN.
+
+                                 20 Illustrations. Med. 8vo. 15s. net.
+
+      "A book of great and vivid interest."--_Westminster Gazette._
+
+      "The book, fully commensurate with the fame of its subject, will
+      take its place with the standard Lives of Statesmen."--_Daily
+      Telegraph._
+
+      "Mr. George Trevelyan has had the honour of writing what must
+      henceforth be the accepted Life.... Finely written. We only wish
+      we had space to quote in full."--_Spectator._
+
+
+  EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AND AFTER. By Sir GEORGE KEKEWICH, K.C.B.
+
+                                                   Demy 8vo. 21s. net.
+
+      "His reflections upon the Civil Service are full of
+      interest.... There is much entertaining matter in the book,
+      which touches in turn on almost every topic of present-day
+      administration."--_Morning Post._
+
+      "Sir George Kekewich and Anthony Trollope are, so far as we
+      know, the only permanent officials who have written a book about
+      their own departments.... Sir George was genuinely interested
+      in his duties and did well the work which he found to his
+      hand."--_Saturday Review._
+
+
+  THE END OF A CHAPTER. By SHANE LESLIE, M.A.
+
+                                                   Fcap. 8vo. 2s. net.
+
+
+  A BEACON FOR THE BLIND: Being a Life of Henry Fawcett, the Blind
+    Postmaster-General. By WINIFRED HOLT. Foreword by Rt. Hon. Viscount
+    BRYCE.
+
+                              16 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+      "The whole wonderful story of this life Miss Holt tells with a
+      proper warmth of enthusiasm.... Carefully and intimately, so
+      that the reader is able to love the man as well as admire the
+      hero."--_Observer._
+
+      "A valuable memorial of a noble character and a truly
+      extraordinary man."--_Times._
+
+
+  CHARLES STEWART PARNELL. A Memoir by his Brother, JOHN HOWARD PARNELL.
+
+                                 Frontispiece. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  GENERAL BOTHA: The Career and the Man. By HAROLD SPENDER. Portrait
+    and Maps. New and Enlarged Edition, bringing the story down to
+    General Botha's death.
+
+                                               Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+      "A tale worth the telling, and set forth with a lucidity,
+      a sympathy, and a comprehension remarkable in one whose
+      acquaintance with South Africa can only be slight.... A book
+      which is not only a valuable historical document but absorbingly
+      interesting in every page."--_Westminster Gazette._
+
+
+  CECIL RHODES. By BASIL WILLIAMS. (Makers of XIX. Century Series. See
+    p. 4.)
+
+
+  LORD GEORGE BENTINCK: A Political Biography. By BENJAMIN DISRAELI.
+    Introduction by CHARLES WHIBLEY.
+
+                                                    Demy 8vo. 6s. net.
+
+      "A fascinating edition of a fascinating book."--_Morning Post._
+
+      "Mr. Whibley's introduction contains an appreciation of
+      Lord Beaconsfield concisely just to his great gifts, to the
+      general consistency of his life, and to his qualities as a
+      statesman."--_Outlook._
+
+
+  OLIVER CROMWELL. By THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
+
+                                    Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. net.
+
+
+  BISMARCK. By C. GRANT ROBERTSON, C.V.O. (Makers of XIX. Century
+    Series. See p. 4.)
+
+
+  THE LIFE AND TIMES OF CAVOUR. By WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER.
+
+                                    Front. Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 30s. net.
+
+      "A real benefit to the cause of recent history.... Mr. Thayer
+      has done his work notably well. It is accurate, thorough,
+      well-balanced, essentially lucid. Well-written, solid yet
+      inspiring, admirably produced.... Such a work is a credit to the
+      book industry from every point of view."--_Bookman._
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF VENIZELOS. By S. B. CHESTER.
+
+      In this volume the author has traced the life of one of the
+      most remarkable men of to-day. BOOK I.--Crete before and during
+      the rise of Venizelos--deals with the early life of this great
+      patriot; his early struggles as leader of the Cretan revolution;
+      his final triumphal election to the Greek National Assembly. BOOK
+      II.--Venizelos as Maker of Modern Greece--is a history of the
+      gradual aggrandisement of Greece. From 1910 to 1920 the life of
+      Venizelos is synonymous with that of his country.
+
+
+  ISMAIL KEMAL BEY. Memoirs. With an Introduction by W. MORTON
+    FULLERTON.
+
+                                                   Demy 8vo. 18s. net.
+
+      "An invaluable source for the historian of the downfall of the
+      Turkish Empire, and adds materially to our knowledge of the
+      intrigues of the great continental powers in Egypt and the Near
+      East."--_Manchester Guardian._
+
+      "Of profound interest and reveals some inner secrets of Near
+      Eastern policy."--_Sunday Times._
+
+
+  ABDUL HAMID. By Sir EDWIN PEARS. (Makers of XIX. Century Series. See
+    p. 4.)
+
+
+  LI HUNG CHANG. By J. O. P. BLAND. (Makers of XIX. Century Series. See
+    p. 4.)
+
+
+  DIAZ. By DAVID HANNAY. (Makers of XIX. Century Series. See p. 4.)
+
+
+  NADIR SHAH. By Sir H. MORTIMER DURAND.
+
+                                Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  THE WINTER QUEEN: The sad story of Elizabeth of Bohemia. By MARIE HAY.
+
+                                                         12s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  EMMA, LADY HAMILTON. From New and Original Documents, together with
+    an Appendix of Notes and Letters. By WALTER SICHEL.
+
+                                        Illust. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ANDREW CARNEGIE.
+
+                                                Illustrated. 25s. net.
+
+      "He was in spirit a true sportsman, and his autobiography, fresh,
+      crisp, and entirely unaffected, will do something to put him in
+      his right niche."--_Observer._
+
+      "The two stages of his extraordinary career as he describes them
+      in great detail, with honest self-satisfaction and a good deal of
+      quiet humour, make a story--almost a romance--which is not only
+      entertaining but instructive."--_Westminster Gazette._
+
+
+  A CYCLE OF ADAMS LETTERS, 1861-1865. Edited by W. C. FORD.
+
+                                      With many Illustrations. 2 vols.
+
+      Letters of CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, American Minister to England
+      during the Civil War, and his two sons--HENRY ADAMS, who acted as
+      secretary, and CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Jr., then serving in the
+      Northern Armies.
+
+      These two volumes of family letters form an unique series. They
+      contain detailed description of social conditions, discussion of
+      public questions, and wise and informed comments on the events in
+      Great Britain and America during the war between North and South.
+      Social, military, and diplomatic, the importance of so long a
+      series of letters between members of a distinguished family
+      cannot be over-estimated.
+
+
+  LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN HAY. By WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER.
+
+                                                     2 vols. 21s. net.
+
+      "Mr. Thayer's very interesting biography."--LORD CROMER in _The
+      Spectator_.
+
+      "Mr. Thayer is to be congratulated on this biography.... He
+      has made a most skilful and attractive book, full of good
+      reading, dealing with great events and little, and adding to our
+      knowledge of men and things at moments of real importance to
+      history."--_Westminster Gazette._
+
+      "One of the most comprehensive and masterly biographies I have
+      ever read."--CLAUDIUS CLEAR in _The British Weekly_.
+
+
+  THEODORE ROOSEVELT. An Intimate Biography. By WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER.
+
+                                           Illust. Demy 8vo. 25s. net.
+
+      "A vivacious narrative, decidedly more attractive for the English
+      reader than Roosevelt's record of his career."--_Manchester
+      Guardian._
+
+
+  ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By LORD CHARNWOOD. (Makers of XIX. Century Series.
+    See p. 4.)
+
+
+  LINCOLN, MASTER OF MEN. By ALONZO ROTHSCHILD. Illustrated with
+    Portraits.
+
+                                               Demy 8vo. 17s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  ALEXANDER HAMILTON. An Essay on American Union. By F. S. OLIVER. With
+    Portraits.
+
+                                                    Demy 8vo. 6s. net.
+
+      "A thorough and penetrating review of the circumstances which
+      united the States of America under a common and supreme
+      government. On literary grounds it is a book of singular merit,
+      while as a contribution to the political and constitutional
+      history it deserves the closest study."--_Liverpool Post._
+
+
+  THE DIARY OF GIDEON WELLES, with a Memoir. Edited by JOHN T. MORSE.
+
+                                        Illustrated. 3 vols. 42s. net.
+
+
+  AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER. With a Memoir by his
+    Wife.
+
+                                    Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 16s. net.
+
+
+
+
+                         Modern Biographies.
+
+    With Bibliographies and Portraits. Fcap. 8vo. 1s. 6d. net each.
+
+
+  LAFCADIO HEARN. By EDWARD THOMAS.
+
+  W. E. HENLEY. By L. COPE CORNFORD.
+
+  TOLSTOY. By EDWARD GARNETT.
+
+  PAUL BOURGET. By ERNEST DIMNET.
+
+  VERLAINE. By WILFRED THORLEY.
+
+  DR. BARNARDO. By A. R. NEUMAN.
+
+  CARDUCCI. By ORLO WILLIAMS.
+
+
+
+
+                                 III.
+
+            Literary, Artistic, Philosophical and General.
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF SIR E. T. COOK. By J. SAXON MILLS.
+
+                                               Frontispiece. Demy 8vo.
+
+      This is the authorised life of the famous journalist and
+      publicist, friend and biographer of Ruskin, who became during the
+      War one of the chiefs of the Press Bureau. Sir Edward Cook was
+      in his time editor of the _Pall Mall Gazette_, the _Westminster
+      Gazette_, and the _Daily News_, and Mr. Saxon Mills' book throws
+      much valuable light on the political and social England of the
+      last thirty years. Contents:--Parentage and School; Oxford Days;
+      Early Journalism; Early Days on the _Pall Mall_; Politics in
+      the 'Eighties; Editor of the _Pall Mall_; From _Pall Mall_ to
+      _Westminster_; The _Westminster Gazette_; The _Daily News_; The
+      South African Scene; Sale of the _Daily News_; As Editor and
+      Journalist; Literary Work; The Last Task; Death and Character;
+      The Age of Puff; Some Stories.
+
+
+  ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH: A Critical Biography. By JAMES I. OSBORNE.
+
+                                                Demy 8vo. 8s. 6d. net.
+
+      "Mr. Osborne has approached his difficult task with ardour and
+      taste."--EDMUND GOSSE in the _Sunday Times_.
+
+      "A very careful and interesting piece of work."--W. L. COURTNEY
+      in the _Daily Telegraph_.
+
+      "A most admirable exposition of character of singular and
+      beautiful integrity."--NEW STATESMAN.
+
+      "This acute and interesting book."--_Times Literary Supplement._
+
+
+  MEMORIES OF GEORGE MEREDITH, O.M. By LADY BUTCHER.
+
+                              Three Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 5s. net.
+
+      "All the swift criticisms and unpremeditated comments that
+      this indefatigable diarist has recovered from her treasures
+      make it clear that Meredith's wit was as spontaneous as it was
+      characteristic."--_Saturday Westminster._
+
+      "Lady Butcher deserves very hearty thanks for this little volume
+      of her charming memories."--CLEMENT SHORTER in _The Sphere_.
+
+
+  FREDERICK LOCKER LAMPSON. By the Rt. Hon. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL.
+
+                                     Illustrated. Fcap. 4to. 25s. net.
+
+      *** 100 copies on hand-made paper, bound in white and gold and
+      signed by the author, were also issued.
+
+      "Life is more than politics, and if we deal with a book this week
+      it is because we have found in it an ironic and reconciling charm
+      to make us more content with existence as it is. We are restored
+      to the forgotten grace of letters, and Mr. Birrell has done this
+      with that way of his own which is like no other man's. This
+      little quarto with the rough edges, perfect in form and texture
+      to a book lover's eye, written with a deep-laid negligence, makes
+      us surer that Mr. Birrell will be remembered when more ponderous
+      reputations have foundered.... A collector can see at a glance
+      that the book lovers of posterity will always gather this volume
+      like amber.... This character sketch, followed by a little
+      masterpiece of editing applied to family letters and a book list,
+      makes us regret the fate that lured Mr. Birrell from writing
+      and wasted him on political clubs.... He is a cross between Dr.
+      Johnson and Charles Lamb."--_Observer._
+
+      "Nothing that Mr. Birrell has previously written has been
+      conceived in so happy a vein as this monograph.... A charming
+      little quarto."--_Daily Chronicle._
+
+      "The book to delight the heart of every one who really cares for
+      literature. Written with a manly and tender affection and with
+      the reverence which the subject demands. The publishers have done
+      their part admirably."--CLAUDIUS CLEAR in _The British Weekly_.
+
+
+  GEORGE MEREDITH: His Life, Genius, and Teaching. By S. C. PHOTIADES.
+    Rendered into English by ARTHUR PRICE.
+
+                                             Extra Crown 8vo. 6s. net.
+
+
+  W. E. HENLEY. By L. COPE CORNFORD. (Modern Biographies Series.
+    See p. 9.)
+
+
+  HERBERT SPENCER. By HUGH S. ELLIOT. (Makers of XIX. Century Series.
+    See p. 4.)
+
+
+  THE MIDDLE YEARS: Reminiscences. By KATHERINE TYNAN.
+
+                                               Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  THE YEARS OF THE SHADOW. By KATHERINE TYNAN.
+
+                                                   Demy 8vo. 15s. net.
+
+  THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS. With an Introduction BY HENRY CABOT
+    LODGE.
+
+                                                             21s. net.
+
+      "This fascinating autobiography.... A brilliant picture of
+      a social epoch now completely vanished, and a record of an
+      intellectual pilgrimage which will stand along with the few
+      perfect examples."--_Manchester Guardian._
+
+
+  LETTERS TO A NIECE, and Prayer to the Virgin of Chartres. By HENRY
+    ADAMS, Author of _The Education of Henry Adams_, etc.
+
+      "These letters written from Washington and during his travels
+      in the Pacific, in Egypt, Paris, etc., leave in their playful
+      and tender intimacy a pleasant impression which forms a
+      welcome memorial of the inner life of a distinguished man of
+      letters."--_Times Literary Supplement._
+
+
+  REMINISCENCES OF ARTHUR COLERIDGE. By J. A. FULLER-MAITLAND.
+
+                                                             Demy 8vo.
+
+      Arthur Duke Coleridge, born in 1830, was the grand-nephew of
+      the great poet, S. T. Coleridge. Educated at Eton and King's,
+      Cambridge, he acted for fifty-four years as an official on the
+      Midland Circuit. He died in October 1913. Very few people have
+      had so fine a gift for friendship as Arthur Coleridge. Few
+      also have had the privilege of knowing so many of those who
+      interpreted the artistic feeling of their time. He himself did
+      much to stimulate the vogue of the best in music. His musical
+      recollections are a delightful account of his important work
+      towards the musical revival in England.
+
+
+  VIA GIBBS. A Memoir by Mrs. ALSTON.
+
+               Photogravure Portrait and 8 half-tone Illust. Demy 8vo.
+
+      A memorial volume to Victoria Florence de Burgh Gibbs, C.B.E.,
+      eldest daughter of the Rt. Hon. W. H. Long, M.P., and the wife of
+      Lieut.-Col. G. A. Gibbs, M.P. "The path of a good woman is indeed
+      strewn with flowers, but they rise behind her steps, not before
+      them."--RUSKIN.
+
+
+  DELANE OF THE "TIMES." By Sir E. T. COOK. (Makers of XIX. Century
+    Series. See p. 4.)
+
+
+  LORD STOWELL: His Life and the Development of English Prize Law. By
+    E. S. ROSCOE.
+
+                                         Front. Med. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+      "Mr. Roscoe has collected diligently and reverently and has
+      been able to present a picture such as we have not had before
+      of a great judge and a constructive jurist."--_Times Literary
+      Supplement._
+
+
+  THE LIFE AND A SELECTION FROM THE LETTERS OF WILLIAM STUBBS (Bishop
+    of Oxford). 1825-1901. Edited by W. H. HUTTON, B.D.
+
+                                                    Demy 8vo. 6s. net.
+
+      "Mr. Hutton gives an excellent account of the Bishop's
+      career.... Of Stubbs as a historian the book can only recount
+      the achievements, but of Stubbs as a man it gives an excellent
+      portrait."--_Athenaeum._
+
+
+  PAUL VERLAINE. By HAROLD NICOLSON.
+
+      It is not easy to write a critical biography of Verlaine without
+      either patronage or pomposity. Mr. Nicolson succeeds because he
+      treats his subject whimsically but with respect. He does not
+      seek to excuse or to minimise the failings of Verlaine as a man,
+      nor does he make extravagant claims of poetical genius, but he
+      tells with genial sympathy a rather pitiful life story, and by
+      skilful quotation enables the reader to form his own judgment
+      of Verlaine's work. Contents:--Youth; Marriage; Arthur Rimbaud;
+      "Sagesse"; Middle Age; The Last Phase; Verlaine's Literary
+      Position.
+
+
+  VERLAINE. By WILFRED THORLEY. (Modern Biographies Series. See p. 9.)
+
+
+  PAUL BOURGET. By ERNEST DIMNET. (Modern Biographies Series. See p. 9.)
+
+
+  VICTOR HUGO. By MARY DUCLAUX. (Makers of XIX. Century Series. See p.
+    4.)
+
+
+  CARDUCCI. By ORLO WILLIAMS. (Modern Biographies Series. See p. 9.)
+
+
+  DANTE ALIGHIERI: A Biographical Study. By CHARLES A. DINSMORE.
+
+                                            Large Crown 8vo. 15s. net.
+
+      "Dante's latest biographer has made out a very just summary of
+      modern opinion and research."--_New Statesman._
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF TOLSTOY. By AYLMER MAUDE.
+
+    Vol. I. First Fifty Years to 1870.
+
+    Vol. II. Later Years.
+
+                   Each vol. illustrated. Price per vol. 12s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  TOLSTOY. By EDWARD GARNETT. (Modern Biographies Series. See p. 9.)
+
+
+  JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH. His Life, Art, and Work. Translated from the
+    German of JOHANN NIKLAUS FORKEL. With Notes and Appendices by
+    CHARLES SANFORD TERRY, LITT.D.
+
+                                      Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.
+
+      "Very much more than a re-translation of an old work which was
+      previously translated very imperfectly into English a hundred
+      years ago.... Though it bears the name of Forkel on the cover,
+      it contains material for a history of Bach criticism from
+      the beginning of the 19th century until the present day, and
+      incidentally suggests directions which future research may
+      follow."--_Times Literary Supplement._
+
+
+  TSCHUDI, THE HARPSICHORD MAKER. By WILLIAM DALE, F.S.A.
+
+                                 Demy 8vo. Illustrations. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  MICHEL-ANGELO: A Record of his Life as told in his own Letters and
+    Papers. By R. W. CARDEN, R.W., A.R.I.B.A.
+
+                                Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  LIFE AND LETTERS OF LAFCADIO HEARN. By ELIZABETH BISLAND.
+
+                                Illust. Demy 8vo. 2 vols. L3: 3s. net.
+
+
+  LAFCADIO HEARN. By EDWARD THOMAS. (Modern Biographies Series. See p.
+    9.)
+
+
+  THE JAPANESE LETTERS OF LAFCADIO HEARN. By ELIZABETH BISLAND.
+
+                                       Illust. Demy 8vo. 31s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS. Author of "Uncle Remus." By
+    JULIA COLLIER HARRIS.
+
+                                      Demy 8vo. Illustrated. 18s. net.
+
+
+  THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOHN FISKE. By JOHN SPENCER CLARK.
+
+                              Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 2 vols. 50s. net.
+
+
+  LETTERS OF ROBERT WATSON GILDER. Edited by ROSAMOND GILDER.
+
+                                    Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 14s. net.
+
+
+  THE MEMORIAL BIOGRAPHY OF W. G. GRACE. By LORD HAWKE, LORD HARRIS,
+    and Sir HOME GORDON. Published under the auspices of M.C.C.
+
+                                      Demy 8vo. Illustrated. 21s. net.
+
+      "Of inestimable value.... Sir Home Gordon must have had
+      an extremely difficult and laborious task, and is to be
+      congratulated on the way in which he has accomplished
+      it."--_Field._
+
+
+
+
+                                 IV.
+
+                       Scientific and Medical.
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF. By OLGA METCHNIKOFF. Translated by Mrs.
+    R. L. DEVONSHIRE.
+
+                                               Frontispiece. Demy 8vo.
+
+      Reviewing the French edition of this book in January 1921, _The
+      Times Literary Supplement_ said: "Madame Metchnikoff's excellent
+      analysis of her husband's scientific theories does not hinder
+      her from showing us the living, the lovable, the extraordinary
+      human being who conceived so many ideas, who developed so many
+      theories, inventions, innovations.... Mme. Metchnikoff has made
+      us admire the man of science and warmly the man."
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF PASTEUR. By RENE VALLERY-RADOT. Translation by Mrs. R. L.
+    DEVONSHIRE. New Edition with a preface by Sir WILLIAM OSLER, Bart.,
+    M.D., F.R.S. 2nd edition.
+
+                                     Demy 8vo. Portrait. 10s. 6d. net.
+
+      "A classic of scientific biography."--_Saturday Review._
+
+      "The translation of M. Vallery-Radot's admirable biography of the
+      great Frenchman is a book which every English-speaking admirer of
+      Pasteur will desire to possess."--_The Athenaeum._
+
+      "Pasteur's career is set out in the fullest detail, making an
+      absorbing narrative, and the scientific, social, and political
+      environment is sketched with vivid accuracy. It is the picture of
+      a great man, a great career, and a great epoch in the history of
+      France and of science."--_The Times Literary Supplement._
+
+
+  SIR VICTOR HORSLEY. By STEPHEN PAGET. Foreword by LADY HORSLEY.
+
+                                      Illustrated. Demy 8vo. 21s. net.
+
+      "All the aspects of Horsley's strenuous life are depicted with
+      the writer's accustomed sympathy and skill. Mr. Paget has given
+      us a study of absorbing interest.... We are never allowed to
+      lose sight of the restless energy and indomitable courage that
+      characterised all that Horsley undertook."--_British Medical
+      Journal._
+
+      "No biographer who agreed with Horsley could have given us
+      anything so valuable, so convincing, so vitally defined.... Mr.
+      Paget has never had an equal as a medical biographer, and here he
+      has excelled himself."--_The Observer._
+
+
+  LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH BLACK, M.D. By Sir WILLIAM RAMSAY, K.C.B.,
+    LL.D., F.R.S., etc. Introduction by F. G. DONNAN, F.R.S.
+
+       Demy 8vo. Frontispiece Portrait and Illustrations. 6s. 6d. net.
+
+
+  ROBERT BOYLE: A Biography. By FLORA MASSON.
+
+                                  Frontispiece. Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
+
+      "May be recommended as an excellent study of the great Irishman
+      to whose services as natural philosopher and chemist even modern
+      scientists owe a debt of gratitude."--_Pall Mall Gazette._
+
+
+  THE LIFE OF SIR CHARLES TILSTON BRIGHT. By CHARLES BRIGHT, F.R.S.E.
+    Revised and Abridged.
+
+                                Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
+
+      "The life story of Sir Charles Bright presents the career
+      of a famous Englishman with all the charm of simplicity and
+      enthusiasm.... As the chief engineer of the Atlantic cable
+      Sir Charles Bright will always have a memorable place in the
+      scientific progress of this century.... These volumes possess a
+      special interest for men of science, but they tell with clearness
+      and simplicity the career of a man of whom Englishmen must always
+      feel proud."--_Morning Post_.
+
+                                                      [_Spring 1921._]
+
+
+MESSRS. CONSTABLE will be glad to send free on application classified
+Lists of their publications. The following subject headings are ready:--
+
+  POLITICS, POLITICAL SCIENCE, AND SOCIOLOGY.
+
+  HISTORY.
+
+  WAR AND MILITARY HISTORY.
+
+  RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY.
+
+  EDUCATION AND PSYCHOLOGY.
+
+  ECONOMICS AND COMMERCE.
+
+  ART AND ILLUSTRATED BOOKS.
+
+  FICTION.
+
+_Please write to_
+
+10-12 ORANGE STREET LONDON W.C.2.
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Variations in spelling and hyphenation have been retained except in
+obvious cases of typographical error.
+
+Names and terms which deviated between chapter headings and text have
+been made consistent.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF,
+1845-1916***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 44194.txt or 44194.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/4/1/9/44194
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
+  www.gutenberg.org/license.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at 809
+North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887.  Email
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For forty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/old/44194.zip b/old/44194.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1709707
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44194.zip