248 LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 



activity. Let those who will have preserved the combative 

 instinct direct it towards a struggle, not against human beings, 

 but against the innumerable microbes, visible or invisible, 

 which threaten us on all sides and prevent us from accom- 

 plishing the normal and complete cycle of our existence. 



The results acquired by the progress of the new medical 

 science allow us to hope that, in a more or less distant future, 

 humanity will be freed from the principal diseases which 

 oppress it. 



After describing the state of medical science before 

 Pasteur, Lister, and Koch, MetchnikofE compared 

 with it modern medicine, created by these three 

 Founders, and showed the great horizons opened by 

 them to the medicine of the future. 



On the 26th of September 1914, whilst we were still 

 in Paris, he had, in the laboratory, an attack of tachy- 

 cardia, which lasted three hours but was much less 

 violent than that of the year before. The winter, 

 however, passed fairly well in spite of the emotions 

 and continuous excitement caused by the war, and he 

 had no other attack until April 1915, when again he 

 had a slight tachycardiac crisis of a short duration. 

 Yet he was very much changed : his hair was much 

 whiter, his movements were slow, and his figure bent. 

 His infectious gaiety and vivacity had disappeared, 

 but he remained energetic and enthusiastic in his 

 work, and gained more and more in serenity. 



Little children in the street called him " Father 

 Christmas," and came confidingly to ask him for 

 presents. They knew him well, and were aware that 

 his pockets were always filled with sweets for them. 

 He used to say that his growing love for children 

 was the revelation of the grandfatherly instinct, for 

 which he had reached the proper age. He especially 



