LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 227 



A short time later, the manufacturer declared that he 

 could not be sure of the success of his enterprise with- 

 out the guarantee of the name of Metchnikoff, whose 

 researches had proved the advantages of the prepara- 

 tion 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 him- 

 self, in order to alleviate material difficulties. But 

 until the end of his life the undertaking had no 



