THE LEUCOCYTES IN ORGANIC FUNCTIONS. 683 



a very stable, inert body, and, on the other, for containing a 

 large quantity (according to some observers, nearly 10 per cent.) 

 of phosphorus, which appears to enter more closely into the 

 structure of the molecule than it does in the case of proteids." 

 We evidently have, in the nuclein of the nuclear ground-sub- 

 stance, a body which, as does lecithin in the myelin of nerves, 

 myosinogen in muscles, etc., enters into active combination 

 with the oxidizing substance, and the resulting reaction must 

 necessarily yield functional energy, as elsewhere in the or- 

 ganism. 



The character of the reaction which the simultaneous 

 presence of nuclein and the oxidizing substance within the 

 precincts of the nucleus sustain is clearly suggested by the kind 

 of dyes taken by the canaliculi (both of the nucleus and of the 

 cell-substance) and the p'erinuclear vacuole. E. T. Williams, 13 

 in a study of the chemical properties of leucocytes, refers to 

 this feature of the problem in the following words: "The nu- 

 clei of all three classes stain best with alkaline dyes, as methy- 

 lene-blue, methyl-green, or dahlia. They are, therefore, acid." 

 Farther on, he says: "We have seen that all nuclei are acid. 

 They owe this property, without doubt, to the nuclein which 

 they contain. Nuclein is acid. When boiled with alkalies it 

 yields phosphoric acid. Phosphoric acid, it may be remarked, 

 is the only mineral acid which does not coagulate albumin. It 

 is the presence of this acid undoubtedly which makes nuclein 

 acid. According to the experiments of Kossel, quoted by 

 Vaughan and Novy, 14 nuclein, when boiled with acids, yields 

 certain organic, albuminoid bases, as adenin, sarcin, xanthin, 

 spermin, and others." . . . "We must conceive, therefore, 

 of nuclein as some sort of a phospho-albumin whose composi- 

 tion has not been precisely determined." The source of the 

 various chemical bodies involved in these processes is shown in 

 the following lines of Professor Foster's: "The ash of the white 

 corpuscles is characterized by containing a relatively large 

 quantity of potassium and of phosphates, and by being rela- 

 tively poor in chlorides and in sodium. But, in this respect, 



" E. T. Williams: Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Sept. 5, 1901. 

 14 Vaughan and Novy: "Ptomaines and Leucomaines," 1891. 



