208 



ON VARIABILITY AND ADAPTATION 



Nucl. 



there is interposed between the two an intermediate mass. The 

 direct attraction of new matter is, in the main, accomplished by 

 the intermediation of this outer cytoplasmic zone. So that 

 eventually we reach the stage in which with increasing com- 

 plexity of organization 

 Cytopi. the biophoric molecules 

 proper, deprived of the 

 outer cytoplasmic zone, 

 are unable to attract 

 ions to themselves in 

 the proper order — these 

 must first have been 

 built up into particular 

 orders of radicals within 

 the cytoplasm. In other 

 FlG * 1 ' # words, the presence of 



preformed cytoplasm becomes essential for the continued exist- 

 ence and growth of the nucleus — of the nuclear-biophoric matter. 

 Each becomes essential for the continued existence of the cell 

 as a whole. 



This, frankly, is all hypothetical, but it is the hypo- 

 thesis which seems best to throw light upon and to harmonize 

 the data we possess regarding the function and the relative 

 importance and nucleus and cytoplasm respectively. Nay 

 more, it is in harmony with what we know concerning 

 the very lowest forms of life, and their imperfect nuclear de- 

 velopment. 



I feel I shall have done some service if I have demon- 

 strated the dominance of the nucleus and impressed you with 

 the conviction that the future will see not merely a cellular but 

 a nuclear pathology and physiology. From the omne vivum ex 

 vivo to the omne ovum ex ovo and the omnis cellula e cellula of 

 our predecessors we now reach the omne chromosoma e chromo- 

 somate of the modern student of development and see before us 

 surely the conclusion omne biophorum ex biophoro ejusdem generis. 

 If this be the ultimate conclusion of the investigator, it is 

 at the same time the point from which chemist and physicist, 

 anatomist and physiologist, pathologist and physician 1 must 

 start to develop harmoniously, each along his respective line, 



1 [And, I would add, zoologist and botanist.] 



