182 LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 



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 considera- 

 tions 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 



