We were no longer held back by family considerations; our links with Russia had gradually loosened. He had resigned from the University, discord reigned at the Odessa Bacteriological Institute, conditions of life in Russia were very unfavourable to scientific activity; in a word, "obstacles from above, from below, and from all sides,"--as Metchnikoff expressed it,--gradually led to his resolution to leave his native country. CHAPTER XXI Hygiene Congress in Vienna--Wiesbaden--Munich--Paris and Pasteur--Berlin and Koch--Failure of anthrax vaccination of sheep--Decision to leave Russia. In 1887 we went to Vienna, where a Congress of Hygienists was held, in which, for the first time, bacteriologists took part. Metchnikoff thus had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with many of them and to make inquiries concerning bacteriological laboratories. Professor Hueppe, of Wiesbaden, very kindly invited him to come to work in his own. The idea pleased Metchnikoff, who thought that a peaceful little University town would be very favourable to his work. But he found that his situation would be very difficult at Wiesbaden on account of the lack of harmony between the different laboratories in the town; he therefore gave up the project which had seemed to him so tempting. By this time many objections had been raised against the phagocyte theory, and, Emmerich having attacked him very violently, Metchnikoff went to Munich to have an explanation with him. This gave him the opportunity of realising that Munich, like Wiesbaden, was not a place where he would care to settle. He had a great desire to know Pasteur and his collaborators, who had just been playing such an important scientific part, and, finding ourselves within easy reach of Paris, we repaired thither, without the slightest idea of settling there. This is how Metchnikoff himself described his first interview with Pasteur: On arriving at the laboratory destined for the antirabic vaccinations, I saw an old man, rather undersized, with a left hemiplegia, very piercing grey eyes, a short beard and moustache and slightly grey hair, covered by a black skull-cap. His pale and sickly complexion and tired look betokened a man who was not likely to live many more years. He received me very kindly, and immediately spoke to me of the question which interested me most, the struggle of the organism against microbes. "I at once placed myself on your side," he told me, "for I have for many years been struck by the struggle between the divers micro-organisms which I have had occasion to observe. I believe you are on the right road."