CHAPTER IX 



Journey to Germany — Leipzig — Wiirzburg — A hasty return. 



DuEiNG his later years at the Lycee, Elie had attended 

 several courses at the Kharkoff University and had 

 realised the inadequacy of the teaching and the im- 

 possibility of any personal research work in the 

 laboratories. His greatest desire, therefore, was to 

 go abroad to study. At that time, the German 

 universities, being nearer, chiefly attracted Russian 

 students. Their laboratories were widely opened to 

 foreigners, and lectures were being given by a pleiad 

 of celebrated professors. 



In order to attain his object, Elie took care to 

 secure his mother's support. It was not very diffi- 

 cult, for she believed in her son's scientific future and 

 was anxious to help him ; she succeeded in convincing 

 his father and, by means of serious sacrifices, the 

 necessary sum was procured. Elie, who was espe- 

 cially interested in the study of protoplasm, chose 

 the University of Wiirzburg, where the celebrated 

 zoologist Kolliker was lecturing. Thinking that in 

 Germany the term began in September, as in Russia, 

 he hastened to depart. The journey at that time was 

 long and complicated ; yet, in spite of much fatigue, 

 Elie only stopped one day in Berlin and hurried to 

 Leipzig, the centre of the book trade, in order to 

 procure the necessary books. He reached Leipzig in 



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