The Morphology of Functional Activity in the Ganglion Cells etc. .537 
diate vicinity but not necessarily. The poiiit is not tliat the chroinatin 
must be fully fonned within the nucleus, it is that the nucleus takes a 
necessary share in its forination which it can accomplish as well by fnrnish- 
ing the material to the cytoplasni. In tiiis sense I grant a chromatin 
Synthesis in the plasma for the nerve cell. To restrict the entire process 
of formation to the inside of the nuclear membrane would not accord 
with the facts. But wherever it is formed, inside in a more active ela- 
boration or outside ordinarily, the nucleus fimiishes an integral eonstituent. 
\Vhile the relation of the changes of size to the formation of chromatin 
are not as indicated so characteristic in the crayfish cells as in the Purkinje 
cell, the course of the size variations in both is so remarkably identical 
that they must have a common significance and purpose. Also, when 
considered independently, the variations in the amount of chromatin as 
resulting from the antagonistic processes of formation and consumption, 
in the degree to which they appear, correspond with the variations in 
the more differentiated cell. The same indications that the chromatin is 
a shifting quantity, that its formation is a continuous process are to be 
found in its progressive increase and its later diminution, which are ac- 
companied first by increase and finally and more significantly by de- 
crease of the nucleolar substance. There is something more specific here 
than the well-known generalization by Verwohn (1891) regarding the 
interchange between plasma and nucleus. The nucleus gives of its own 
peculiar and inherent nucleolar substance which is not only objectively 
apparent but has beeil proved by measurenient, as Figure 7 with the 
end results in tables and curves can leave no doubt despite the State- 
ment of V. Keäenitz that such a thing caniiot be proved morphologically. 
Also there is the same indication of a progressively greater intake by 
the cell, as found in the edema. Consequently, with such a dose corres- 
pondence, an interpretation of the significance of the reaction in Cam- 
ianis may be made in the light of the Purkinje ceU. 
Without going into the details of the discussion regarding the me- 
chanics of nerve ceU activity, which has been fully considered eaiiier 
(1910), it is necessary to summarize the deductions for the sake of clear- 
ness in comparison. In the resting cell, the relation between the cell 
body and its nucleus must be one of equilibrium. There is an exact 
balance among the factors concerned in the formation and consumption 
of chromatin. On the side of chromatin formation, the first phenomenon 
of activity is one of over-prodiiction, the hyperchromatism. The equili- 
brium is disturbed in favor of the formation of chromatin and the ex- 
planation of it must lie in an initial overactivity on the part of the nu- 
