CHAPTER XXIII 



Opposition to the phagocyte theory — Scientific controversies — ^Experi- 

 ments ID support of the phagocyte theory — Behring and anti- 

 toxins — ^The London Congress — Inflammation. 



As long as MetchnikofE was but a zoologist, the 

 scientific atmosphere around him remained calm and 

 serene. But everything changed suddenly when he 

 entered the domain of pathology with his theory of 

 phagocytes and phagocytosis. 



Here was the realm of secular traditions, deeply 

 rooted, and of theories generally admitted but restitig 

 on no biological basis. Attacks and objections against 

 his theories came following upon each other with a 

 rush, only to be compared with the racing clouds of a 

 stormy sky or the hurrying waves of a tempestuous 

 sea. An epic struggle began for Metchnikoff which 

 was to last for twenty-five years, until the moment 

 when the phagocyte theory, his child now grown 

 up, emerged victoriously. To each attack, to each 

 objection, he answered by fresh experiments, fresh 

 observations annihilating objections ; his theory was 

 assuming a wider and wider scope, becoming more 

 soM, more convincing. . . . But only his intimates 

 knew how much the struggle cost him in vital force, 

 what sleepless nights, due to continuous cerebral 

 tension and to the effort to conceive some new and 

 irrefragable experiment, what alternations of hope 



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