Palla Ákos szerk.: Az Országos Orvostörténeti Könyvtár közleményei 29. (Budapest, 1963)
Dr. Harangby László: Mecsnyikov munkássága és jelentősége az orvostudományban
was about considering again suisidical plans. Mechnikov however overcame this crisis soon enough. His delight for life helped him again as well as the affection and adoration of his devoted wife and that of his students. The desperate Mechnikov became-among the almost unlimited possibilities of the Pasteur Institute - a fearful opponent. He defended his veracity in his brilliant and exceedingly vivid lectures, he protected his own truth succesfully, and refuted the argument of his opponents one after the other by spendidly excogitated tests. He used his immeasurable great biological notions against the narrow, especial medical knowledge of his adversaries, and few books ever obtanied such permanent value, as his work „L'immunite", published in 1901. The struggle continued for many years with unaltered energy. By the side of the masters the disciples started a dispute too, and neither of the parties could convince the other in the discussion. Behring at last declared that time would show which view was the right one. Time, however, brought an other result, because as Tomcsik stated; time admitted both theories to be right by bringing the two opposite views in harmony; in the meantime, however, the science of immunity developed bulk of tests and data gathered in order to support the views of the two opposite parties. This is one of the chief merits of Mechnikov's activity and this was remunerated by Nobel prize, he got in 1908 together with Ehrlich. The motives of the Nobel prize were fully right, to call this two researchers the creators of the discipline of the immunity as a science. The activity of the two researchers stood far from each other in respect: Ehrlich was a medical chemist, he joined Koch, in the tests and wanted to explain the complicated processes of serology by genial theories and exceedingly wittily excogitated laboratory tests. On the other hand Mecbnikov-as we have been mentioning several times-dealt with the phenomeny of the doctrine of immunity from a biological point of view; he belonged to the circle of Pasteur, Koch's great opponent; he cared for the living organism and not for the test-tubes and retorts. The two tendencies complete each other organically. Without Mechnikov s activity and fights the overwhelming humoral doctrines (i. e. the tendency looking for the factors of immunity exclusively in the blood and tissue fluids) would have led the immunity theory; completely alien to the living system and to any biological point of
