New Britain herald., 1916-07-15

lated himself with the new "glyco- bacteria" His theory as to the sour milk Urea tment may be traced in part to the environment of his youth He was a Russian, born at Kharkoff, May Is, 1845. I nthat region and particu- larly in neigh boring Bulgaria a sur prisingly large portion of the inhabi- tants live to be centenarians, and Metchinof believed that their longevity was due largely to the fact that their diet included the bacilli of sour milk.
 Following his education at Khar- koff, Metchnikoff studied at Giessen and Munich, and in 1870 he was ap- pointed professor of zoology at Odessa. He held this post until 1882 when he resigned to devote himself to private researches into the anatomy of invertebrates. It was while work ing at lowly organized forms of life such as sponges that he first made the observations which constituted the basis of all subsequent work. In 1888 he had attracted the notice of Louis Pasteur, the founder of the famous Pasteur Institute for the treatment of rabies in Paris, and he was invited to become one of Pasteur's associates. Tn 1895 he succeeded as the director of the institute, a post which he held to the time of his death.
 In his study of longevity, Prof Metchnikoff came to the belief that 1t should not be uncommon for people to live to the age of 15O years. He found every indication that the human mechanism was calculated to last far longer than it actually does His researches showed among other things that animals which had no large intestines lived to an advanced age particularly birds, which pre- serve their youthful agility and spry- ness to the end of their long span. In the case of human beings he found that even among those whose suffer irgs were terrible, there were few who wanted to be put out of their agony by death. They all wanted to live. '"This,' said Metchnikoff, "shows that death between the ages of 60 and so is not natural. It should not occur so soon. There is some cause for it, which should be discovered and renedied.' If the normal specific longevity were attained by human beings he believed that old and not degenerate individuals would lose the instinct for life and acquire an in stinct for death and that as they had fulfilled the normal cycle of life, they would accept death with the same re- lieved acquiesence as they now accept sleep.
 On his seventieth birthday, 1915. Prof. Metchnikoff was presented with a golden book forming a unique rec ord of the latest scientific researches, signed by men of science of the day. Although there was much con- troversy in the scientific world re- garding his original ideas. he was fully recognized as one of the most eminent bacteriologists.
 He was the author of a number of books, including: "The Nature of Man, Immunity in Affective Dis eases," "Prolongation of Human Life" and "Optimistic Essays"
 Tn 1908 the Nobel Prize for medi- cal research was divided between the late Dr. Paul EhrHch of Berlin and Prof. MetchnilIOff. The $20, 900 which he thus received he devoted entirely to tho furt hcrance of his scientific re- searches. Personally he was not we'll off. and throughout his long life sac rificed all but the plainest living ne cessities to the cause Of science.