THE DOMINANCE OF THE NUCLEUS 189 



logists and students of " Entwickelungsmechanik," physiological 

 chemists and morbid histologists have been recording facts 

 regarding the nucleus, and these facts brought together point to 

 the one conclusion that the nucleus is the dominating structure 

 in the cell — dependent, it is true, upon the cytoplasm, or cell- 

 body, but nevertheless dominant. The time has come to realize 

 that general advance lies in a recognition of these foremost 

 properties of nuclear matter, to recognize the fact that within 

 the unit, the cell, is the more intimate unit, the nuclear matter, 

 so that the physiology and the pathology of the future are destined 

 to be nuclear rather than cellular. Or, to be more exact, while 

 the cell remains our natural unit, within that cell the modifications 

 that have taken place must receive their explanation primarily 

 in terms of nuclear change. Possibly this may seem to be a 

 matter of little moment to the practitioner. So, I doubt not, 

 appeared fifty years ago Virchow's insistence upon the all- 

 importance of the cell. We can but say here that to the thought- 

 ful man, ever seeking the why and wherefore of things, even if 

 the ultimate answer is never to be reached, each successive step 

 onwards towards that ultimate answer is a notable achievement, 

 and this because each such step affords wider generalizations and 

 the recognition of a fuller harmony of phenomena. 



And there are other and weighty reasons, first amongst which 

 is the opportunity this choice affords as a means of rapprochement 

 between the physiologists and pathologists, and, if the remark be 

 not impertinent, as a means of encouragement to the former. 

 It is good and natural that these two branches of medicine 

 should come together. For many years they have tended to 

 drift apart ; the problems which have interested the one have 

 had little compelling interest for the other ; and I fear it must 

 be admitted that there has been a feeling on the part of patho- 

 logists, and of medical men in general, that the teaching in the 

 one subject has too often not been in the direct line of preparation 

 for the study of other branches of medical science. In short, 

 physiologists were already embarked in the study of mass effects 

 before the cellular structure of tissues was discovered, and they 

 had so large a field before them that for long years organs 

 and their properties occupied their whole attention. Modern 

 pathology, developing later under the guidance of Virchow, has 

 been essentially based on the cell theory ; it is the cell and not 



