1894.] Chemico- Physiological Discoveries: The Cell. 117 
power over the metabolic processes going on in the cell, modi- 
fying and regulating the nutritional changes.” And you will 
notice that I lay great stress upon the chemical nature of the 
karyoplasm, the inherent qualities of the plasm as indicated 
by its molecular condition. It is not the mere fact that the 
karyoplasm is housed, so to speak, in a certain definite struc- 
ture that it is possessed of its characteristic qualities, but the 
qualities are peculiar to the living molecules themselves. The 
living molecules are different from the dead molecules because 
they have a different chemical constitution, the atoms are 
arranged in a different manner. All this being true we can 
easily see how cells devoid of specific nuclei may perhaps be 
functionally active, to a slight extent, provided they contain 
the same chemical groups in the cytoplasm. 
But I have already exceeded the alloted time, while there is 
much that might be said. Still, the foregoing will indicate in 
a limited way that there is a field of work in connection with 
the chemistry of the cell that cannot consistently be ignored 
in biological inquiries. 
"Compare M. Verworn, “ Die physiologische Bedeutung des Zellkerns.” 
Pfliiger’s Archiv f. Physiol. Band 51, p. 1. 
