The Morphology of Fimctioiial Activity in tlie tiaiiglioii CVlls etc. 533 
a) The enibryological origin froni the micleus. 
b) The staining reaction. 
c) The niicro-chemical tests of the diffusioii of nucleins. 
d) The morphological shifts in the distribiition that occur in function, 
namely, the disappearing of fornied chromatin in certain stages froni 
within the niiclear membrane in association with a limited further con- 
tinuance of the cytoplasmic snpply in the hyperchroniatic stages, or in 
association with its reappearance at two later periods when the cell is 
approaching exliaustion. 
e) The similar role to that postiüated for the chromidial apparatus 
as regards functional activity. It is used up during work and replenished 
diu’ing rest. 
It is claimed that the nerve cell, far above any other cell, is the best 
criterion of the essential principles of Goldschmidt’s doctrine. As it 
has been expressed, “Of all such substances, the chromatic substance 
of nerve cells, so labile in character and so sensitive in reaction, ah’eady 
long connected in the opinion of many directly with the functional ex- 
pression of the cell and so readily subjected to experiment, is perhaps 
the best and most obvious tyjie for investigation.” And it appears, 
unless the writer is unduly prejudiced, that the trend of opinion among 
those investigators who are particuliu'ly concerned with the nerve cell 
is most strongly toward some such conception, whether specifically ex- 
pressed in the exact terms of it or not. 
On the contrary, as a doctrine of universal application, it is nieet- 
ing with strong Opposition. \Vhile as regards this side I am not in Po- 
sition to have an opinion, the general conception cannot be sweepingly 
denied or unduly depreciated untü certain evidence from the nerve ceU 
has been \’iewed and tested from aU sides and I desh'e only to call attention 
to this evidence and its source. There can be no argument untd there 
is an adverse opinion upon this. At the time of vaiting, the latest sum- 
ming up of the evidence for and against from the side of the Opposition 
is by V. Keäinitz (1912). As a result of his micro-chemical studies upon 
the cell metabolism of Ascaris lumbricoides he regards the nuclear natiire 
of the chromidial apparatus as »Zum mindestens höchst problematisch«. 
Limiting the review of the work in general to the piu’pose just indicated, 
a Statement of v. Kemnitz appears to afford a faii' point of introduction — 
»Es bleiben daher nur die genetischen Beziehungen zum Kern, d. h. 
direkte Beobachtungen von Chromatinaustritt im Verein — zum min- 
destens im Zweifelsfalle — mit unzweideutigen mikrochemischen Re- 
aktionen, als Kriterium dessen, was man als Chromatin zu betrachten 
Archiv f. Zellforschung. IX. 3G 
