LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 139 



have given a noble example of disinterestedness by refusing 

 any salary in those years when the budget was balanced 

 with difficulty and by preferring to the glorious and lucrative 

 situations that were offered to you the modest life of this 

 house. Still a Russian by nationality, you have become 

 French by your choice, and you contracted a Franco-Russian 

 alliance with the Pasteur Institute long before the diplomats 

 thought of it. 



At the beginning the members of the Pasteur 

 Institute were few, and the association bore a quasi- 

 family character, Pasteurians often being compared 

 with a monastic order, united by the worship of 

 science. The progressive growth of the Institute 

 inevitably destroyed its character of intimacy, but it 

 remained a precious scientific focus, and this is what 

 Metchnikoff said of it in 1913, apropos of the twenty- 

 fifth anniversary of its foundation : 



If we weigh the for and against of the Pasteur Institute, 

 it is indisputable that the first surpasses the second by a 

 great deal. I do not think another institution exists that is 

 equally favourable to work. Innumerable proofs have been 

 adduced to attest this in the twenty-five years that our 

 House has existed. 



It was especially the development of pure scientific ', 

 research in the Institute which interested Metchni- \ 

 koff ; lie continually considered means of contributing 

 towards it ; he thought it necessary to attract active 

 scientific forces regardless of their origin, to institute 

 generous scientific " scholarships," and to stimulate 

 by every means scientific activity and spirit. 



As the rapid development of bacteriology necessi- 

 tated having recourse to chemistry, physics, and 

 physiology, he considered it indispensable to organise 

 collective work in which specialists in these divers 

 branches should take part, thus collaborating to the 



