30 LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 



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 addi- 

 tion of dancing lessons, inspired him with the deepest 

 aversion ; he resolved to obtain from his parents per- 

 mission 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 intel- 

 lectual 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 



