LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 111 



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 MetchnikofFs mind for the con- 

 ception 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 devastat- 

 ing 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 experi- 

 ments ; 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. 



