Whilst preparing for my end, I am glad that I can face it with courage and serenity.
As I look back upon my life, it seems to me to have been as “orthobiotic” as possible.
If it may seem premature to die at 68 years and 5 months, it must not be forgotten that I began to live very early (I published my first scientific work at 18); that I have had many emotions during my life; that I was, so to speak, in a state of continual ebullition.
The polemics concerning phagocytosis might have killed or finally enfeebled me much earlier. At times (for instance, I refer to Lubarsch’s attacks in 1889 and those of Pfeiffer in 1894) I was ready to rid myself of life.
Moreover, I only began to follow a rational hygiene (according to my opinion) after I was 53 years old and already had symptoms of arterio-sclerosis. I have been fairly successful in combating intestinal putrefaction (phenols and indols),[29] but I could not succeed in getting rid of abundant clostridium butyricum which were implanted in my intestine.
To sum up, I rejoice that I have had an existence not devoid of sense, and I feel some satisfaction in considering my conception of the problem of life as being accurate.
As I prepare to die, I have not the shadow of a hope of a life beyond, and I calmly look forward to complete annihilation.
It is possible that having very early begun a very intense life, I have attained at 68 a precocious satiety of living, just as certain women cease to menstruate earlier than the great majority.
El. Metchnikoff.