THE ENERGY OF THE LIVING PROTOPLASM. 



nucleus was observed by Klebs and Haberlandt, (l) so that 

 it is probable that the nucleus prepares the proteids suitable 

 for the purpose of organisation. The vegetal nucleus performs 

 this by far-reaching synthesis, the animal nucleus by transform- 

 ing the resorbed peptone. (2) 



Clearly, the nucleus of the living cell cannot be identical 

 with that of the dead, and the nuclein known to chemists, ex- 

 tracted with alkalies and precipitated with acids, is a relatively 

 stable compound, which would be entirely incapable of serving 

 the physiological phenomena of karyokinesis, which are made 

 possible only by a highly labile state of the proteid composing 

 the nucleus. (3) 



Division of labour, still of restricted compass in a single 

 plant-cell, keeps growing in importance and extent with the 

 development of multicellular organisms, plants as well as 

 animals. Some cells serve mechanical devices, others do 



(1) Biol. Centralbl. s, 133. 



(2) I consider the process of organisation as a sort of polymerisation, in which 

 only molecules of equal configuration can participate, and in which isomeric and stereo- 

 isomeric molecules would be hurtful, the mutual reaction of their labile groups being 

 facilitated (Cf. O. Loew, Natural System of Poisonous Actions, Ch. V. On the 

 poisonous proteids, 82). This, again, would imply a specific tectonic for the nuclei 

 of different species as the necessary condition for yielding one and the same active 

 albumen for the organisation of each cytoplasm. This view could also furnish a 

 plausible explanation of certain observations in regard to the propagation of the 

 species. A specific configuration of the nuclein will naturally lead to a specific 

 tectonic of the nucleus, i.e., the invisible anatomical structure will be in close connec- 

 tion with the configuration of the proteid. Such considerations may finally also 

 throw some light upon the fact, that the fibrins, the oxyhemoglobins, the alexines of 

 different species are by no means identical. The possible stereo-isomers of a proteid 

 reach evidently to an immense number, even if we start from one and the same 

 active peptone. [Stereo-isomerism conceives of compounds as containing the same 

 elements in the same proportion and arranged in the same groups, and yet differing 

 in properties, because of a different arrangement in space of the constituent groups]. 



(3) Various observations prove that the nucleus is even of much greater lability 

 than the cytoplasm. The problem of karyokinesis appears still more complicated now 

 that the centrosomes have been observed, initiating the division. 



Differences have been observed between the nuclei of nerves, glands, and 

 muscles ; further, between those of the male and female sexual cells, the former being 

 richer in nuclein (E. Zaccharias). Still greater must be the differences between the 

 nuclei of the germ-cells and those of the somatic cells, especially in animals. 



