Palla Ákos szerk.: Az Országos Orvostörténeti Könyvtár közleményei 29. (Budapest, 1963)
Dr. Harangby László: Mecsnyikov munkássága és jelentősége az orvostudományban
mostly investigated outside of the organism by chemical and serological tests. This tendency was very alient to the biologist Mechnikov who was inseparably welded with the process of life and it was no wonder that the overheated debates broke out very soon particularly with the members of Koch's Institute. There were deep-going differences between the interests and individual qualities of the parties in this dispute, and the contrast between Pasteur and Koch the two founders of the respective institutes appeared later on. Pasteur was a sensitive minded chemist whose activity was characterized by genius and sharp logic, but at the same time by dazzling imagination as well. Koch was a scrupulously precise physician of unyielding character and iron diligence, who proceeded his tests forming as such a wholly connected system, with exceedingly severe criticism and wonderful technical skill. Pasteur's sympathy towards Mechnikov was not a quick flaming mood or sympathetic compassion but it originated from common features of their mentality, and when many years after Pasteur's death, in the year of 1905, Mechnikov became one of the directors of the Pasteur Institution, few people could have been worthier representative of Pasteur's inheritance than he. But on the other hand, the contrast between Koch and Mechnikov was likewise based upon the differences of their character, and the violent discussions with Koch's most outstanding followers for instance with Behring can be partly understood by the same. Behring the smart exmilitary physician who was usually precise and systematic was as far from Mechnikov as Koch himself; and the discussions which broke out between them were likewise greatly influenced by the temperamental and mental differences of the two schools. The themes of their discussions were mostly turning around the fact whether the protection e. i. the immunity was connected to the tissue fluids, and first of all to the blood serum or whether-as Mechnikov maintained-the cells of the organism produced the immunity against infectious diseases. Behring and his followers (generally accepting the abovementioned doctrines of tissue fluids, so called Humoral doctrine f. e. English Nuttal) considered Mechnikov' s conception as totally unfounded and the discussion became at last personal offences, and made Mechnikow often so desperate that he
