402 DAVID H. DOLLEY 



More broadly, to cover both the resting and the functioning 

 state, the disturbance and possible upset of the nucleus-plasma 

 relation can be produced by the continuance of normal function 

 and by the depression of function. Divisional activities, which 

 are outside this discussion as without application to the nerve 

 cell, constitute the only other primary factor of disturbance of 

 the relation. The disturbance of normal function may be the 

 purely quantitative reaction of a single process of activity from 

 rest to exhaustion in a virile animal. Or it may be the alike 

 quantitative reaction of a single process of activity which starts 

 from a senile resting cell, the distinction being that such a cell is 

 qualitatively deteriorated in its power of recuperation after the 

 repeated cycles of activity of a lifetime, and hence its nucleus- 

 plasma relation has become changed to a correspondingly less 

 efficient level. 



Function does not affect the resting cell as such save as an 

 eventual senile qualitative result. The immediate reaction to 

 function is that the resting cell merges into a functioning cell and 

 thus loses its former identity. Depression, since it lowers metab- 

 olism in all types whether in function or rest, does affect the 

 resting cell. 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A CONSTANT NUCLEUS-PLASMA RELATION 

 FOR EVERY CELL OF A TYPE WITHIN A SPECIES 



If the deeper significance of the nucleus-plasma relation has 

 been properly interpreted, the obvious working of such a law 

 of a constant quantitative relation common to each particular 

 type of cell of a particular species is to place corresponding cells 

 on an identical physico-chemical basis that I do not believe has 

 been suggested from such evidence from cytological work. Not 

 only is the reaction of a given type of cell an exact quantitative 

 reaction, judging from the measurable and constant changes of 

 activity, but, within rather narrow limits of deviation, there is a 

 common quantitative reaction for this type of cell for the species. 

 What this identity within the species predicates as a part of the 

 nucleus-plasma relation is a closer quantitative unity than the 

 general constitutional unity underlying nerve cells. Phylogeneti- 



