Return to Paris--The deserted Institute--Memoir on the Founders of
Modern Medicine--Metchnikoff's Jubilee--Last holidays at Norka.
This was but the beginning of the war; soon it spread with vertiginous
rapidity, and made its cruel destructive force felt.
On our return from Norka, we found everything on a war footing. The
very next morning, Metchnikoff hurried to the laboratory. He only
reached Paris with some difficulty, all means of communication being
encumbered by soldiers. He had left the house nervous and excited but
full of courage and energy. I shall never forget his return home....
I was awaiting him as usual, just outside the station, and, as he got
out of the train, I did not recognise him. I saw a stooping old man,
bent as under a heavy burden; his usual vivacity was gone, and had
given place to the deepest depression.
He told me in a broken voice that the Institute was already deserted;
that it was under the orders of the military authorities, and
completely disorganised for scientific work. The younger men were
mobilised; the laboratories empty; the animals used for experiments had
been killed on account of the departure of the servants, and for fear
of a lack of food. Everything that had been devoted to the service of
science and of research into means of preserving life had been handed
over to the service of war. Normal and cultured life was arrested. And
that was the outcome of civilisation.
Metchnikoff felt as if he had suddenly been dropped into the abyss of
centuries, into the times of human savagery. He could not accustom
his mind to the idea of such a fall; it seemed to him a paradox, an
impossibility, that civilised peoples could not do without sanguinary
fights in order to solve questions of mutual relations.
The events which were taking place agitated and depressed him all the
more that he had not the possibility of becoming absorbed in scientific
investigations; he was completely thrown off his balance.
And as, one by one, the news came of the death in action of several
of the young men who had left the Institute, Metchnikoff's grief knew
no limits. He could not bear the idea, now a terrible reality, that
these brilliant young lives should be sacrificed, victims of those who
should have directed the peoples towards peace and a rational life,
and who, instead of that, threw the most precious part of humanity
into the abyss of death. War became a dark, sinister background to
his daily life. The victims of war were not only those who fell on
the battle-field, but included him whose whole life-effort had been
directed towards the conservation of human existence and the search
for rational conceptions. The contrast between his aspirations and the
cruel reality had been to him a blow which his sensitive and suffering
heart was not fit to bear.
The Germans were advancing rapidly. Then came the sad days of panic,
when the inhabitants were leaving Paris in numbers and the Government
started for Bordeaux. At night, the sky was swept by the gigantic,
luminous sword of the searchlights; the rumble of cannon could be heard
in the distance....
Metchnikoff, however, had no personal fear whatever. He very simply
decided on his course of action, which was to remain at the Institute
if his presence there could be of use; if not, to retire to some quiet
place where he could work. As there was hardly any staff left at the
Institute on account of the mobilisation, he did not go away, but, on
the contrary, we came to live in Paris, the communication with Sèvres
being very difficult.
The day we arrived was that on which the first German aeroplanes
appeared, and they dropped bombs near the St. Lazare station just as we
were alighting from the train. For some time after that, they carried
out a raid above Paris every Sunday.
In spite of the disorganisation of his whole life, Metchnikoff had
succeeded in resuming his work to a certain extent. He took advantage
of an opportunity to observe an old dog who was suffering from
diabetes, and hastened to examine his organs as soon as he died, whilst
they were still fresh. He had for some time supposed that diabetes
might be an infectious disease; yet he was unable to discover any
specific microbe either in the humors or in the organs of the dog. But
he succeeded in provoking symptoms of the disease (traces of sugar in
the urine) in a healthy dog, by inoculating him with the pancreatic
gland of the diabetic dog. He was much encouraged by this result,
and would have liked to continue his researches, but was unable to
do so because of the general disorganisation and the impossibility
of obtaining animals for experiments. He had to content himself with
continuing his memoir on infantile cholera and his observations on the
silk-worm moth.
As he was almost altogether precluded from laboratory work, he began
to write a study on "The Founders of Modern Medicine," in order to
demonstrate, by concrete examples, the importance of positive science
in its application to life. This is what he said in his preface to the
book:
These pages were written under special circumstances. If not in the
actual hearing of guns, it was in expectation of it that I had to
spend several weeks in my Paris laboratory, now under war conditions.
These meant an almost complete cessation of any scientific activity
in our Institute.
For fear of a lack of food, the animals used for our experiments had
been killed, which deprived us of the possibility of proceeding with
our researches.
The stables of the Institute were filled with cows who provided milk
for the hospitals and children's homes.
The greater number of our young collaborators, assistants, or
laboratory attendants were mobilised, and only the female employees
and old men remained. One of the latter, I found myself in the
impossibility of pursuing my investigations and in possession of much
leisure. I made use of it to write this book in the hope that it
might be helpful.
It is not intended for physicians, for they know all that is
expounded in it, but for young men who are seeking a scope for their
activities.
We may be sure that the insane war which broke out in consequence of
the lack of knowledge or of power of those who should have watched
over peace, will be followed by a long period of calm. It is to be
hoped that this unexampled butchery will, for a long time, do away
with the desire for fighting, and that soon the need will be felt
of a more rational 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 accomplishing 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, Metchnikoff 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 tachycardia, 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 loved one of his god-daughters, little Lili; he had become
attached to the child on account of her kind heart and exceptional
sweetness, and also because, from the cradle, she had shown a marked
preference for him. And yet his love for children was not to him a
source of joy, for anxiety on their account predominated over other
feelings.
In spite of the physical change which had supervened, his brain
continued to work untiringly as in the past, and he tackled new
problems with youthful courage and boldness. He had planned a work on
the sexual question, which, according to him, was treated erroneously,
with the result that grave disharmonies occurred in human existence.
Thus he reached some quite revolutionary conclusions respecting
education and marriage. He thought that morality should be set upon
a quite different basis, new and rational; and that was the question
which he prepared to treat.
The 16th of May of that year was his seventieth anniversary.
His satisfaction was great at having reached the normal limit of age,
for he saw in that a conclusive proof of the efficacy of his hygiene.
Indeed, he showed on that day a sort of rejuvenation: his aspect was
quite different, he was gay and animated as he had not been for a long
time.
The Pasteur Institute celebrated his jubilee. In spite of the absence
from "The House" of many members on account of the war, the library
filled with people, and the fête had a cordial and intimate character.
Dr. Roux's speech[31] will remain the best description of E. Metchnikoff
and of his scientific activity. He himself responded to all those
manifestations of sympathy by a spirited speech, in which, _à propos_
of his own particular case, he expounded his ideas on senility and the
duration of life in general. This is what he wrote on that same day in
his note-book:
[31] _Annales de l'Institut Pasteur_, Jubilé d' E. Metchnikoff,
1915.
16th May 1915. To-day I have at last accomplished my seventy years!
I have attained the normal limit of life, a limit mentioned by King
David and confirmed by the statistical researches of Lexis and
Bodio.[32] I am still capable of work and of reflection. But the
changes in my psychical state which I had observed a year ago have
become sensibly accentuated. The difference in acuteness both of
pleasant and painful sensations is becoming more and more marked.
Agreeable sensations are becoming weaker; I am now indifferent to
many things which I used to appreciate very much.
It is useless to say that I am indifferent to the quality of my food;
my need of musical impressions has become so much less that I hardly
feel the desire to satisfy it. The charm of spring no longer touches
me and only provokes sadness in my mind.
On the other hand, my anxiety for the health and happiness of those
I love is getting more and more acute. I find it difficult to
understand how I ever could bear it.
The powerlessness of medicine grieves me more and more, and,
as a last straw, the war has interrupted all the work that had
been undertaken against disease. In these conditions, it is not
astonishing that I should feel a growing satiety with existence.
Last year [16th May 1914 to 16th May 1915] I had two attacks of
tachycardia, during which I should have been glad to die, but in
general my health is satisfactory and that sustains me. What would
have become of me if, to crown my misfortunes, I had fallen ill! I
certainly no longer fear death, but I desire to die suddenly during a
heart attack and not to go through a long illness.
My comparative longevity is not due to family heredity (my father
died in his 68th year, my mother in her 66th, my sister also, my
eldest brother at 45, my second brother at 50, the third in his 57th
year; my grandparents I have not known). It is to my hygiene that I
give the credit for having attained my 70 years in a satisfactory
condition. I have taken no raw food for eighteen years and I
introduce as many lactic bacilli as possible into my intestines. But
it is but a first step; in spite of all, I am being poisoned by the
bacteria of butyric fermentation. However, I have practically reached
the normal term of life and I must be satisfied. I have, so to speak,
accomplished the programme of a "reduced orthobiosis."
When macrobiotics become more perfect, when people have learnt how to
cultivate a suitable flora in the intestines of children as soon as
they are weaned from their mother's breast, the normal limit of life
will be put much further back and may extend to twice my 70 years.
Then, also, satiety with existence will appear much later than it has
done in my case.
To-day they celebrated my jubilee at the Pasteur Institute, which
touched me very much, in spite of my distrust of sentimental
manifestations, for I realised their sincerity. I should have liked
to set out a programme of the researches which should be accomplished
by the Pasteur Institute, but I feared to detain my audience too long.
I believe that Science will solve all the principal problems of Life
and Death and that she will enable human beings to accomplish their
vital cycle by real orthobiosis, not by a reduced caricature of it as
in my case. Nevertheless, I consider the experiment practised upon
myself as having already given some result and that is to me a real
satisfaction.
[32] _Annales de l'Institut Pasteur_, 1915.
We spent that summer a few weeks at Norka, where Metchnikoff completed
his researches concerning the death of the silk-worm moth.
We went for delicious walks; we spent all the afternoon by the lake
or under the pines in the heather, reading and working. Once only,
during a walk, he had a strong cardiac intermittence, but as a rule
he felt well. I could see, however, that he was obsessed by a grave
preoccupation which he did not express. Later, during his last illness,
he confessed to me that during the whole of that stay at St. Léger he
had feared to die suddenly during one of our walks. The thought of my
isolation weighed on his mind and he hid his anxiety so as not to alarm
me....
With a view to the work which he had planned on the sexual question,
he interested himself in the influence that their sentimental life had
had on the activity of great men, and we read together the biographies
of Beethoven, Mozart, and Wagner. Elie was more than ever desirous of
making our holidays as pleasant as possible, as if he already felt that
they were our last. Here are more extracts from his note-book:
ST. LÉGER-EN-YVELINES, _24th June 1916_.
When saying that I did not fear death, I had in view the dread of
annihilation. That fear, manifested during a long period of life
and disappearing towards the end, may be compared with the fear of
darkness which children instinctively feel and which also disappears
gradually and naturally. When, towards the end of life, the fear of
nothingness ceases, no desire remains for a future life, for the
immortality of the soul. It would even be painful to me to think
that the soul, surviving the body, could watch, from beyond, the
misfortunes of those who remain on the earth. On the contrary,
towards life's decline, a desire for complete annihilation becomes
developed.
He spent the autumn collecting and preparing the materials he required
for his book on the sexual function. It was a relief from the sad
impressions of the war and the deserted laboratory. But new troubles
were in store for us; I became ill, and had scarcely recovered when we
heard the news of the death of a nephew who was very dear to us. The
death of the young had always deeply moved Metchnikoff, and it was so
in this case. It was another weight thrown into the already descending
scale.
In spite of all, he continued to work with enthusiasm, planting young
trees that future generations might enjoy their shade.