128 LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 



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 over- 

 whelmed 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 infec- 

 tious 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. 



