On returning to Odessa, Metchnikoff began to prepare his resignation and his departure. Yet he still had time to make some researches on phagocytosis in tuberculosis, in reply to the objections which rained upon his theory.
In the spring, he handed over the direction of the Institute to Dr. Gamaléia and took leave; we went to the country for a while before our final departure. During that time, Drs. Gamaléia and Bardach were making anthrax vaccinations on a large scale in a vast private property in the province of Kherson. When we were settled in our country home, Metchnikoff received a telegram announcing that the first anthrax vaccine had killed many thousand sheep. Though, as a matter of fact, his personal responsibility was not involved, the blow was a terrible one; he hastened back to Odessa to elucidate the cause of the catastrophe. But it remained obscure....
This painful episode was the last drop which made the cup brim over; it strengthened Metchnikoff in his resolve to leave Russia.
[CHAPTER XXII]
The Pasteur Institute — Dreams realised — Metchnikoff at fifty — Growing optimism — Attenuated sensitiveness — The Sèvres villa — Daily routine.
Having decided to settle in France, we hastened to make ourselves acquainted with contemporary French literature, thinking to find in it a reflection of the soul and manners of the nation. But the realistic literature of the time, in spite of the great artistic worth of many of the authors, gave us an erroneous idea of life in France, of which it represented but one of many aspects. It was therefore with apprehension that we asked ourselves if we should ever be able to adapt ourselves to the new conditions, and whether our isolation would not be great.
We arrived in Paris on the 15th of October 1888, and we lodged at a small hotel in the Latin quarter, not far from the rue d’Ulm where the old Pasteur Institute stood, the new one not being completed. There was but little room in the laboratory, and Metchnikoff felt rather uneasy, fearing that he was in the way. But the new Institute soon was sufficiently advanced for him to settle there.
He was given two rooms on the second floor; I served as his assistant; he was perfectly happy at being at last able to give himself up in peace to his work. Soon, young physicians came to work under his direction. Their number having increased, he was given a whole floor in which to instal them, two rooms on that floor being reserved for his own use. He occupied these rooms until the end of his life.