LIFE OF ELIE METCHNIKOFF 265 



sorrows than by the pleasure I derive from their joys or 

 normal health. 



Those to whom I describe my feelings tell me that satiety 

 with living is not normal at my age. To that I oppose the 

 following : Longevity, at least to a certain point, is hereditary. 

 Now I have already mentioned, on the occasion of my 70th 

 anniversary, that my parents, sister, and brothers died before 

 reaching my present age. I knew neither of my grand- 

 parents, which shows that they could not have been very old 

 when they died. 



Let us now turn to the profession, since it is an established 

 fact that it has an influence on the duration of life. Pasteur 

 died at 72, but for a long time he had been unable to do 

 scientific work. Koch did not reach the age of 67. Other 

 bacteriologists died at a much earlier age than I (Duclaux, 

 Nocard, Chamberland, Ehrlich, Biichner, Loeffler, PfeiSer, 

 Carl Fraenkel, Emmerich, Escherich). 



Among those bacteriologists of my generation who are still 

 living the majority have already ceased from working. All 

 that should indicate that my scientific life is over and confirm 

 at the same time the fact that my " orthobiosis " has actually 

 reached the desirable limit. 



He was anxious to prove that Ids end, which 

 seemed premature at first sight, did not contradict 

 his theories, but had deep causes such as heredity 

 and the belated introduction of a rational diet. He 

 had only begun to follow it at fifty-three. Facts 

 corroborated him after his death, for the post-mortem 

 examination showed that the heart lesions were of 

 long standing. He himself thought they went back 

 at least to 1881, when he had had a very grave 

 relapsing fever. The doctors even wondered how he 

 had lived with his heart in such a state, and only 

 accounted for it by the strict regime which he had 

 followed during the latter part of his life. 



And indeed when it is remembered how pugna- 



