LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 189 



stood the audacious beauty of sucli a struggle, the 

 benefit conferred by the belief that the human will 

 and the human mind are capable of transforming 

 Evil into Good according to a conceived ideal ! . . . 



In the meanwhile MetchnikofE, convinced that 

 Knowledge is Power and that " Science alone can 

 lead suffering Humanity into the right path," quietly 

 continued his task. 



One of the most characteristic symptoms of old 

 age is the hardening of the arteries — arterio-sclerosis. 

 He therefore especially wished to elucidate the mechan- 

 ism of that phenomenon. 



Whilst many, yet unknown, factors come into 

 play ru senility, one disease, syphilis, often provokes 

 arterio-sclerosis, indisputably due to a morbid agent. 

 MetchnikofE therefore began to study this disease, 

 of which the origin is infectious — especially as he 

 thought he could do so experimentally. 



Long before this, he had conceived the idea that 

 the study of those human diseases which cannot be 

 transmitted to ordinary laboratory animals might be 

 carried out on anthropoid apes, of all animals the 

 nearest to man. He had spoken of it to M. Pasteur, 

 but, at that time, the Institute could not afiord to 

 acquire these costly animals. In 1903, at the Madrid 

 Congress, MetchnikofE received a 5000 fr. prize and 

 utilised this money in the acquisition of two anthro- 

 poid apes. The same year M. Eoux won the Osiris 

 prize of 100,000 fr. which he devoted to the same 

 object, and it was decided that the two together 

 would undertake researches on syphiUs. Other dona- 

 tions, 30,000 fr. from the Morosofis of Moscow and 

 250 roubles from the Society of Dermatology and 



