186 LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 



Man, after acquiring a still higher development, 

 realised these evils and made concentrated efforts to 

 fighfc them and to soothe his own terrors. It is for 

 that object that the divers religious and philosophical 

 systems were created, in which humanity sought for 

 consolation. Finding none there, man turned to 

 Science, which, at first, neither solved his doubts nor 

 eliminated his sufferings. But Science provided him 

 with rational methods of research, owing to which he 

 gradually progressed and conquered a series of truths, 

 allowing him gradually to struggle against some of 

 his troubles and to solve some of his problems. 

 Science has already done much to diminish the diseases 

 which are among the chief scourges of humanity. 

 It has thrown light upon the causes of many of them 

 and has found preventive and curative remedies for 

 several. 



Surgery, antiseptics, serotherapy, vaccinations 

 already yield secure results. Hygiene and prophy- 

 laxis are in course of development, and a vast prospect 

 is open to them in the future. But our heaviest 

 burdens, senility and death, common to all, have yet 

 scarcely been studied. Having expounded his views 

 on senility and proved that it is a pathological pheno- 

 menon, Metchnikoff concluded that to struggle against 

 it was quite as possible as to struggle against disease. 



The principal causes which bring about premature 

 senility are : alcoholism, chronic poisoning by intes- 

 tinal microbes, and infectious diseases, headed by 

 syphilis. Surely Science will discover efficacious 

 means against all these. 



The strengthening of the beneficent cells in our 

 organism ; the transformation of the wild intestinal 

 flora into a cultivated flora, by the introduction of 



