LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 159 



seemed so isolated, that Metchnikofi supposed an 

 error of interpretation must have been made and 

 tried to throw light upon it. He spent sleepless 

 nights seeking the conclusive experiment which might 

 explain Pfeiffer's phenomenon. 



His excitement was all the greater that he was 

 very soon going to the International Congress at 

 Buda-Pest, where he intended to expose the results 

 of his new researches, and he feared that he should 

 not have time to make all the experiments which he 

 required in support of his arguments. However, the 

 general impression of the Congress was clearly favour- 

 able to the phagocyte theory. This is how M. Roux 

 picturesquely described the scene at MetchnikofE's 

 Jubilee in 1915 : 



" I can see you now at the Buda-Pest Congress in 1894, 

 disputing with your antagonists ; with your fiery face, 

 sparkling eyes, and dishevelled hair, you looked like the 

 Daemon of Science, but your words, your irresistible arguments 

 raised the applause of your audience. 



" The new facts, which had at first sight seemed to contra- 

 dict the phagocyte theory, now entered into harmony with it. 

 It was found to be sufficiently comprehensive to reconcile the 

 holders of the humoral theory with the partisans of the 

 cellular theory." 



This is how Metchnikoff had reconciled the apparent 

 disagreement of Pfeiffer's phenomenon with the 

 phagocyte doctrine : he demonstrated, by a series of 

 experiments, that the extracellular destruction of the 

 cholera vibriones in the peritoneum of a guinea-pig 

 vaccinated against cholera, did in no wise depend on 

 the chemical properties of the blood serum, but was 

 simply due to the digestive juices which had escaped 

 from the inside of the leucocytes, damaged by the 



