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By the Same Author

THE NATURE OF MAN

Studies in Optimistic Philosophy. By ÉLIE METCH-
NIKOFF, Professor at the Pasteur Institute. The English
Translation edited by P. CHALMERS MITCHELL, M.A., D.
Sc. Oxon., Secretary of the Zoological Society of London.
One vol., 6s. net.

The Lancet. "Those who read this remarkable book can convince themselves that his story and the message of hope which it conveys are not the vain imaginations, but the logical inferences to be drawn from observed facts. The argument which Professor Metchnikoff unfolds in a story more fascinating than the " Arabian Nights" is that human misery and suffering are due to disturbances in our organic equilibrium which strike discords within our mortal frame and rack our flesh with the torments of Procrustes. Dr. Mitchell is not only to be congratulated on his courage in translating this volume, but also on the elegance and the refinement of the language by which he has enabled Professor Metchnikoff to present his philosophic conceptions to the English-speaking peoples.”

IMMUNITY IN INFECTIVE DISEASES

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By ÉLIE METCHNIKOFF, Foreign Member of the Royal
Society of London, Professor at the Pasteur Institute,
Paris. Translated from the French by Francis G.
Binnie, of the Pathological Department, University of
Cambridge. With Forty-five Figures in the Text.

Royal 8vo., pp. xvi.+592. Price $5.25 net. Athenæum. "The subject with which this admirable volume deals is one which has in recent years attracted a vast amount of attention, not only on account of its practical importance in medicine, but also because of the fascinating interest of the problems involved. The present translation of Prof. Metchnikoff's work has been admirably carried out.... We have here the record of five-and-twenty years of thoughtful speculation tested by laborious experiment, and no more important book on the subject has ever appeared in the English language."

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P. CHALMERS MITCHELL
M.A., D.Sc. OXON., HON. LL.D., F.R.S.

Secretary of the Zoological Society of London; Corresponding Member of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia

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ÉLIE METCHNIKOFF has carried on the high purpose of the Pasteur Institute by devoting his genius for biological inquiry to the service of man. Some years ago, in a series of Essays which were intended to be provocative and educational, rather than expository, he described the direction towards which he was pressing. I had the privilege of introducing these Essays to English readers under the title The Nature of Man, a Study in Optimistic Philosophy. In that volume, Professor Metchnikoff recounted how sentient man, regarding his lot in the world, had found it evil. Philosophy and literature, religion and folk-lore, in ancient and modern times have been deeply tinged with pessimism. The source of these gloomy views lies in the nature of man itself. Man has inherited a constitution from remote animal ancestors, and every part of his structure, physical, mental and emotional, is a complex legacy of diverse elements. Possibly at one time each quality had its purpose as an adaptation to environment, but, as man, in the course of his evolution, and the environment itself have changed, the old harmonious intercourse between quality and circumstances has been dislocated in many cases. And so there have come into existence many instances of what the Professor calls "disharmony," persistences of structures, or habits, or desires that are no

longer useful, but even harmful, failures of parallelism between the growth, maturity and decay of physical and mental qualities and so forth. Religions and philosophies alike have failed to find remedies or efficient anodynes for these evils of existence, and, so far, man is justified of his historical and actual pessimism.

Metchnikoff, however, was able to proclaim himself an optimist, and found, in biological science, for the present generation a hope, or, at the least, an end towards which to work, and for future generations a possible achievement of that hope. Three chief evils that hang over us are disease, old age, and death. Modern science has already made vast strides towards the destruction of disease, and no one has more right to be listened to than a leader of the Pasteur Institute when he asserts his confidence that rational hygiene and preventive measures will ultimately rid mankind of disease. The scientific investigation of old age shows that senility is nearly always precocious and that its disabilities and miseries are for the most part due to preventable causes. Metchnikoff showed years ago that there exists in the human body a number of cells known generally as phagocytes, the chief function of which is to devour intruding microbes. But these guardians of the body may turn into its deadly enemies by destroying and replacing the higher elements, the specific cells of the different tissues. The physical mechanism of senility appears to be in large measure the result of this process. Certain substances, notably the poisons of such diseases as syphilis and the products of intestinal putrefaction, stimulate the activity. of the phagocytes and so encourage their encroachment on the higher tissues. The first business of science is to remove these handicaps in favour of the wandering, corroding phagocytes. Specific poisons must be dealt with

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