Elie Metschnikoff and his Theory of an "Instinct De La Mort"

It cannot, I think, be without importance for the history of science or without interest for psycho-analysts that a distinguished contemporary of Professor Freud's, Professor E. Metschnikoff, should have produced independently somewhat similar ideas in certain directions. The most interesting and most important similarity lies in Metschnikoff's formulation of the idea of a 'Todestrieb'. Before dealing with this I may remind the reader of the more important facts concerning Metschnikoff's life and works, drawing attention at the same time to other points of similarity and dissimilarity. I shall take the liberty of assuming that references to Freud's works are unnecessary.

Elie Metschnikoff was born in 1845 of Russian Jewish parents. He died in Paris in 1916. He studied natural sciences in Cracow (1862–1864) and then started a life of research, which took him to Italy, Switzerland and Germany. Influenced by Darwin's Origin of Species, his early work was mainly directed towards finding additional proof for the general theory of evolution in the invertebrate kingdom. The rather lucky discovery of phagocytosis in 1882 brought him first notoriety and, later, fame, as the discovery proved to be of first-class importance for the future development of pathology. The years from 1888 until his death were spent in Paris at the Pasteur institution, where he did very valuable work on phagocytosis, immunity, cholera, syphilis, and the pathology of old age, work which received only its due recognition when he shared the Nobel Prize with P. Ehrlich in 1908. He was made an honorary doctor of science of Cambridge University in 1891 and an honorary doctor of medicine of the military academy of St. Petersburg in 1909, besides being a honorary member of seven scientific academies.

In the latter part of his life (in Paris) he began to apply to the general problems of life the scientific method that had served him so well in the limited field of detailed scientific research. Then a