204 ON VARIABILITY AND ADAPTATION 



bodies. It is more particularly the existence of phosphorus 

 and these xanthin bases that differentiate the nucleus from the 

 cell body. How the iron is combined is as yet undetermined. 

 We know at most from Spitzer's observations that it is the 

 iron-containing products of dissociation of the nucleoproteins 

 that retain the oxidative properties. But clearly in the nucleus 

 we have as essential constituents compound proteins of great 

 complexity of organization. As Spitzer, Herter, and others have 

 indicated, the iron is of the utmost importance in bringing about 

 oxidative processes, while the phosphorus likewise would appear 

 to favour oxidative changes. These and other chemical considera- 

 tions tend to the conclusion that nuclear material possesses in itself 

 potentialities superior to those of any ordinary constituent of the 

 cell body, and again support the view that the nucleus is the 

 centre or source of the higher cell activities. 



6. The Ferment Actions of the Cell and their 

 Relationship to Nuclear Activity 



Jacques Loeb, indeed, has been led to the conclusion that the 

 nucleus is the centre of the oxidative processes of the cell, and 

 the correctness of this view has of late been demonstrated by 

 his pupil Lillie. It would open up too large a field to detail • 

 and weigh the data indicating that nuclear matter is the essential 

 source of those bodies which afford the enzyme actions of the 

 cell. We would merely note in passing that it is now universally 

 accepted that much of the cell function — I do not say all — is 

 the outcome of enzyme action, and I would recall the data already 

 brought forward to show that in the absence of the nucleus the 

 higher specific cell activities are at a standstill ; the evidence 

 also of the relationship of the nucleus to the formation of 

 zymogens. 



Referring to the discharge of plasmosomes or spherules of 

 nuclear matter into the cell body it may now be asked, What 

 chemical processes do these indicate ? It is suggestive that 

 under normal conditions this discharge has been noted in cells 

 affording specific secretion, and in abnormal conditions accom- 

 panied by the accumulation in the cell body of modified para- 

 plasmic granules or globules. It is at least suggestive that in 



