SIZE CHANGES IN NERVE CELL BODIES 305 
study in separating them as well as myself. As Kocher denies 
‘progressive changes in the morphology of the cells,” it is evi- 
dent that he missed the finer points essential to a differentiation. 
Outside of these technical points, no denial of the existence of 
quantitative differences can be made on the comparison of 
four animals. The range of individual variation is too great. 
There is no way of telling what the state of activity with which 
the experiment begins. Kocher’s control animal may very well 
have been two or three times as functionally advanced as the one 
exercised the most was to begin with. I have seen several undis-' 
turbed animals who showed a degree of activity almost as great 
as one subjected to exhausting overstrain. The control com- 
parison method, though valuable and frequently the only re- 
source, affords no absolute deductions, unless all conditions are 
certain. Apparent inconsistencies, of which I have encountered 
many, one by one have cleared up as all conditions became known. 
Just for one example, age is a factor. Very young animals 
usually show a hyperactive state as compared to the adult. 
Resting and early active cells may be absent in section after sec- 
tion. Very probably this is the reason why Kocher’s three 
month old puppies showed ‘‘no discoverable differences in stain- 
ing reaction.” 
One final rejoinder concerns a matter, which, though even 
more distasteful, I refuse to pass over. In April, 1910, I pub- 
lished the results of 2200 cell measurements. Even in the pre- 
liminary communication of November, 1909, on normal func- 
tional activity, which Kocher cites, the results from 1500 of 
these measurements were stated, which explicitly did not include 
those previously published from the shock and hemorrhage 
series. Further, in the same paper the results of differential 
counts of 3,600 cells were included. In still earlier communi- 
cations, of April and July, 1909, on shock and hemorrhage re- 
spectively, which he also cites, it was made sufficiently clear that 
preliminary counts of 1300 and 1200 cells had been made, as it 
was stated that 100 cells were counted in each experiment. 
From this brief survey, it may be imagined with what pained 
surprise one reads from Kocher, ‘‘Obviously the observations 
