THE RECOVERY FROM DEPRESSION 473 



It follows, therefore, from the preceding discussion that the 

 permanent involvement of the chromatic substance is a rela- 

 tive, not an absolute one. The production of chromatic sub- 

 stances, however minimal, ceases only with loss of the nuclear 

 substance, and hence with cell death. This belongs to the 

 quantitative principle which governs the functional reaction. 



The minimal of chromatic production, as it exhibits itself after 

 about two months of recovery after prolonged depression (ether 

 and morphine) , is reduced to the vanishing point. Only in some of 

 the depressed hyperchromatic stages in terms of the normal func- 

 tional cycle does any extranuclear chromatic substance appear. 

 Mainly only cells of such type show intranuclear chromatin, an d 

 field after field is characterized by no chromatic substance what- 

 ever. It is obvious that the cells are working on such a quanti- 

 tatively lower levee of production that all is consumed as fast as 

 made. On the other hand, there is the presumption with more 

 time of some greater restoration proportionate to the degree of 

 permanent involvement. 



Cell death and cell atrophy 



Of permanent changes cell death is the absolute one. The dis- 

 appearance and irreparable damage of cells are to be traced through 

 acute into chronic states. Though reached by opposite processes, 

 functional activity and depression of function have finally this 

 end in common, just as immediate recuperable extremes of either 

 are characterized by a common functional incapacity — exhaustion 

 or a complete metabolic standstill. 



Cell atrophy, grading as it does to cell disappearance, is a per- 

 manent change, though a relative one. Its initial phase in the 

 plasma has already been discussed. Set against acute depression, 

 it is clear that atrophy of the nucleus, if it occurs — and depression 

 goes far without it — results from actual nuclear disorganization. 

 Yet, though this might appear to necessitate the ending of the 

 characteristic nucleus-plasma relation of depression in favor of 

 the nucleus, that is not the case. In imperfect recoveries, the 

 nucleus, though atrophic, undoubtedly holds the relative ad- 



