Chapter II: Preface: v

INTRODUCTION xxi

CHAPTER I

1845. Panassovka--Metchnikoff's parents--Country life in
Little Russia 1

CHAPTER II

Metchnikoff's brothers and sister--Childish characteristics 8

CHAPTER III

1850. Journey to Slaviansk--The coach attacked by peasants 12

CHAPTER IV

1851. Departure for Kharkoff--Town life 16

CHAPTER V

1853-1856. Leo Metchnikoff's illness--Private tutors--
Botanical studies--A memorable birthday 19

CHAPTER VI

Ancestors of the Metchnikoff family--The great "Spatar"--Leo
Nevahovitch 23

CHAPTER VII

1856-1861. The Kharkoff Lycée--Bogomoloff and Socialism--
Atheism--Natural History studies--Private lodgings--
Private lessons in histology from Professor Tschelkoff
--A borrowed microscope--First article--Italian opera--
The gold medal 28

CHAPTER VIII

An early love--A schoolfellow's sister--A pretty sister-in-law 35

CHAPTER IX

1862. Journey to Germany--Leipzig, Würzburg--A hasty return 37

CHAPTER X

1863. Kharkoff University--Physiology--The Vorticella--
Controversy with Kühne--_The Origin of Species_--
Gastrotricha--University degree 40

CHAPTER XI

1864-1866. Heligoland--Giessen Congress--Leuckart--Visit
to Leo Metchnikoff at Geneva--Socialist gatherings--
Metchnikoff's discovery appropriated by Leuckart--Naples
--Kovalevsky--Comparative embryology--Embryonic layers--
Bakounine and Setchénoff--Cholera at Naples--Göttingen--
Anatomical studies--Munich; von Siebold--Music--Return
to Naples--Intracellular digestion 43

CHAPTER XII

1867-1868. Petersburg--Baer Prize--Return home--Friendship
with Cienkovsky--Odessa--Naturalists' Congress at
Petersburg--Departure from Odessa--Zoological Lecturer's
Chair at Petersburg--Messina--Enforced rest--Reggio--
Naples--Controversy with Kovalevsky--Visit to the
B. family--Mlle. Fédorovitch--Educational questions--
Difficulties of life in Petersburg 58

CHAPTER XIII

1868-1873. Slight illness--Engagement to Mlle. Fédorovitch--
Marriage--Illness of the bride--Pecuniary difficulties
--Spezzia--Montreux--Work in Petersburg University--The
Riviera--Coelomata and Acoelomata--St. Vaast--Panassovka
--Madeira--Mertens--Teneriffe--Return to Odessa--Bad news,
hurried journey to Madeira--Death of his wife (1872)--
Return through Spain--Attempted suicide--Ephemeridæ 65

CHAPTER XIV

1874. Anthropological expedition to the Kalmuk steppes--
Affection of the eyes--Second expedition to the steppes--
The eggs of the _Geophilus_ 82

CHAPTER XV

1875. Studies on childhood--The family in the upper flat--
Lessons in zoology--Second marriage--Private life--Visit
and death of Lvovna Nevahovna--Conjugal affection 86

CHAPTER XVI

1875-1880. Metchnikoff at the age of 30--Lecturing in Odessa
University, from 1873 to 1882--Internal difficulties--
Assassination of the Tsar, Alexander II.--Further troubles
in the University--Resignation--Bad health: cardiac
symptoms--Relapsing fever--Choroiditis--Studies on
Ephemeridæ--Further studies on intracellular digestion--
The _Parenchymella_--Holidays in the country--Experiments
on agricultural pests 96

CHAPTER XVII

1881-1882. Death of his father- and mother-in-law--Management
of country estates--Agitation and difficulties--Departure
for Messina with young brothers- and sisters-in-law 112

CHAPTER XVIII

1883. Messina--Inception of the phagocyte theory--Encouragement
from Virchow and Kleinenberg--First paper on phagocytosis
at a Congress at Odessa in 1883--The question of _immunity_
--Article in Virchow's _Archiv_, 1884 115

CHAPTER XIX

1884-1885. Ill-health of his wife and sister-in-law--Journey
to Tangiers through Spain--Villefranche--Baumgarten
criticises the phagocyte theory 123

CHAPTER XX

1886. A Bacteriological Institute in Odessa--Unsatisfactory
conditions--Experiments on erysipelas and on relapsing
fever 127

CHAPTER XXI

1887. Hygiene Congress in Vienna--Wiesbaden--Munich--Paris
and Pasteur--Berlin and Koch--Failure of anthrax
vaccination of sheep--Decision to leave Russia 131

CHAPTER XXII

1888. The Pasteur Institute--Dreams realised--Metchnikoff
at 50--Growing optimism--Attenuated sensitiveness--The
Sèvres villa (1898)--Daily routine 135

CHAPTER XXIII

1892. Opposition to the phagocyte theory--Scientific
controversies--Experiments in support of the phagocyte
theory--Behring and antitoxins--The London Congress--
_Inflammation_ 147

CHAPTER XXIV

Cholera--Experiments on himself and others--Illness of M.
Jupille--Death of an epileptic subject--Insufficient results 154

CHAPTER XXV

1894. Pfeiffer's experiments--The Buda-Pest Congress--
Extracellular destruction of microbes--Reaction of the
organism against toxins--Dr. Besredka's researches--
Macrophages--The Moscow Congress--Bordet's experiments 158

CHAPTER XXVI

1900. Immunity--Natural immunity--Artificial immunity 168

CHAPTER XXVII

1893-1905. Private sorrows--Death of Pasteur--Ill-health
--Senile atrophies--Premature death--Orthobiosis--
Syphilis (1905)--Acquisition of anthropoid apes (1903) 181

CHAPTER XXVIII

Researches on the intestinal flora--Sour milk 196

CHAPTER XXIX

1908. The Nobel Prize--Journey to Sweden and Russia--A day
with Léon Tolstoï 199

CHAPTER XXX

Intestinal flora--Infantile cholera--Typhoid fever--Articles
on popular Science 206

CHAPTER XXXI

1911. Expedition to the Kalmuk steppes to study tuberculosis
--Plague 210

CHAPTER XXXII

Further researches on the intestinal flora--_Forty Years'
Search for a Rational Conception of Life_ 220

CHAPTER XXXIII

Unpleasant incidents--The fabrication of lacto-bacilli--St.
Léger-en-Yvelines--Return to Paris--First cardiac attack
--Evolution of the death instinct--Notes on his symptoms 225

CHAPTER XXXIV

1914. Return to St. Léger-en-Yvelines--Norka--Studies on the
death of the silk-worm moth--War declared--Mobilisation 237

CHAPTER XXXV

1915. Return to Paris--The deserted Institute--Memoir on the
Founders of Modern Medicine--Metchnikoff's Jubilee--Last
holidays at Norka 244

CHAPTER XXXVI

1916. Bronchial cold--Aggravated cardiac symptoms--Farewell
to Sèvres--Return to the Institute--Protracted sufferings
--Intellectual preoccupations--Observations on his own
condition--The end--Cremation. 254

EPILOGUE 276

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX 285

INDEX 291