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Title: How glands affect personality
Author: Grace Kinckle Adams
Editor: E. Haldeman-Julius
Release date: January 10, 2026 [eBook #77671]
Language: English
Original publication: Girard: Haldeman-Julius Publications, 1929
Credits: Tim Miller, Donald Cummings, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW GLANDS AFFECT PERSONALITY ***
LITTLE BLUE BOOK NO. 1477
Edited by E. Haldeman-Julius
How Glands Affect
Personality
Grace Adams
HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS
GIRARD, KANSAS
Copyright, 1929,
Haldeman-Julius Company
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
CONTENTS
Page
What Is Personality? 5
Our Knowledge of the Endocrin Glands 9
The Nature of Glands 11
The Function of the Endocrin Glands 13
Glandular Abnormalities 20
Glands and Normal Personality 29
HOW GLANDS AFFECT PERSONALITY
WHAT IS PERSONALITY?
How do glands affect personality? Before any answer can be given to
that question, before any discussion of the nature of glands can be
undertaken, it is essential to agree upon a working definition of that
currently popular but often rather ambiguous word――personality. What,
precisely, does it mean?
Alluring advertisements in innumerable gaudy magazines promise, for
a relatively small fee, to “develop your personality.” Even the
pages of otherwise sedate and classical college catalogues boast of
courses in “personality training.” And the term comes up incessantly
in everyday conversation. We hear that a woman is beautiful but that
she lacks personality; or that a man is not brilliant but that he has
a great deal of personality. Such uses of the word undoubtedly fill a
descriptive purpose. Most of us know what it means when it is employed
in this manner. Yet it may be misleading. It implies that personality
is a quality apart from physical and mental traits which some
individuals possess to a high degree and in which others are totally
deficient.
How can such an elusive attribute be either explained or defined?
It cannot be, of course, but then it does not need to be for it is
impossible to imagine a person without a personality. Every human
being has, of necessity, a personality. It is personality which
distinguishes him from some people and causes him to resemble others.
And into its make-up goes every trait, physical, mental, emotional and
temperamental, which he possesses; his sex, his height, his weight, the
size and character of his features, his emotional stability, his mental
powers, his special abilities. If these characteristics change to any
great extent then his total personality is different.
Some of these traits, of course, seem more important, more ingrained
in individuality than others. Sex, for example, appears more essential
than weight. A friend often becomes suddenly much stouter or thinner
and yet retains the same character. On the other hand, the whole
personality of the fat lady of the side show depends on her weight,
that of the human skeleton on his weight and height combined, and of
the bearded lady on her abnormal growth of hair. To a lesser degree
such gross physical traits play an important role in the personalities
of more normal individuals. And, speaking very generally, any marked
anatomical variation is apt to be accompanied by finer mental and
temperamental differences.
In everyday life we casually accept this correlation between physical
and mental characteristics. We somehow unthinkingly divide the
population into definite physiological types and we more or less
expect these physiological types to show certain well marked traits
of personality. In cartoons the reformer, the vice-crusader, is
always portrayed as a tall, stiff, angular individual with a long,
narrow face, a straight nose and tightly pressed lips. Without any
accompanying label we would know that such a character was supposed to
represent an intolerant, self-opinionated bigot. And without consulting
our programs we can usually guess correctly which member of the cast of
a musical comedy is the comedian. If there is an exceptionally plump
person on the stage it is more than likely that it is he who will have
most of the comical lines to repeat, who will be required to take the
awkward tumbles and, in general, be responsible for the audience’s
laughter. For it is customary to expect fat people to be jolly and
amusing. They look as though they should be and we feel disappointed
if they turn out to be morose or dignified or too energetic. And in
the same way we expect the sinister, dark mustachioed gentleman of the
comic strips to be the villain, and the dainty, graceful maiden on the
moving picture screen to be the sweet and guileless heroine.
These stock characters are, of course, highly conventionalized, but the
convention is a natural, not an artificial one. It is natural to assume
that certain physical types will show certain temperamental traits
because usually they do. Often, however, they do not run true to form.
And the personalities which surprise us by their anomalies are apt to
be the ones which pique our curiosity, which arouse our interest and
for whose individuality we seek an explanation. Yet it would be just as
instructive to find a reason for those who conform to type as for those
who differ; to learn why the thin, wiry, dark Frenchman is volatile,
quick and romantic, while the more stolidly built Scandinavian is
slower, surer, and less excitable. We might, if it were not for the
anomalies we have just noted, expect their respective physiques alone
to account for their temperamental differences. But we would still
have to explain the physiques, themselves. A great deal, of course,
could be laid to inheritance. But what, exactly, is inherited? And
why was the ancestor from whom the physiognomy was handed down built
the way he was? And so we become involved in the whole question of
racial differences, and it will be much safer to return once more to
individual cases; to see if we can assign any reason not only for the
fat man’s plumpness but for his customary good humor, and for the
reformer’s thinness as well as his usual sourness of disposition.
For a long time such reasons were largely matters of speculation,
but in recent years, particularly since 1889, science has turned its
attention to this problem of personality. And its solution seems
more and more to lie in an exact knowledge of the glands of internal
secretion, or as they are often called, the endocrin glands.
OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE ENDOCRIN GLANDS
The first physiologist to arouse any widespread interest among
his fellow medical men in these small ductless glands was a Paris
physician, Brown-Sequard. The experiments which he performed and the
theories which he propounded have, for the most part, been disproved,
but the enthusiasm which went into his investigations was soon caught
by other scientists. In the last forty years masses of data have been
collected which have thrown an increasingly brighter light on this
subject which until comparatively recently was completely shrouded in
darkness. Today candidates for medical degrees must have as full and
up-to-date knowledge of the endocrin system as they have of the action
of the heart and lungs and the disorders of digestion. Psychiatrists
prescribe glandular treatments as supplements to their mental analyses.
And attendants at feeble minded institutions and social workers must
learn to recognize distinctive glandular types.
There have been two methods of gathering information about these glands
whose importance for medicine and for psychiatry is becoming greater
and greater: the clinical and the experimental. In the experimental
method, which gives the more accurate results, animals are used as
subjects. A certain gland is removed from a certain animal and then
his growth, his movements, his whole life history subsequent to the
operation is carefully noted and compared to the life histories of
normal animals of the same species. Or the extract from another gland
is injected into the blood stream of another animal and his behavior
after the injection correlated with that of his fellows.
Human beings, of course, cannot be experimented upon in this ruthless
fashion, but medical clinicians have found that nature, herself, has in
many cases already done a good bit of experimenting. Some individuals
are born with one or another of their endocrin glands either smaller
or larger or more or less active than is customary. Several of these
glands grow so close to the surface of the body that any abnormality
of them can be easily seen. Others, which are more securely hidden,
can be detected by the X-ray. And it has been discovered that whenever
an endocrin gland is exceptionally large or small or extremely active
or noticeably sluggish, the individual in whom this abnormal condition
occurs will exhibit other peculiarities, either of physical or mental
development――most likely of both.
From these two sources, the clinic and the animal laboratory, some
very definite information about extreme types of personality has
been obtained, and the knowledge in many cases has been carried over
to explain commoner but even more interesting variations of normal
personality.
THE NATURE OF GLANDS
The human body contains many thousands of glandular structures,
some large, some small, some simple, some complex, but all of them
absolutely essential to its proper growth and health. Some of these
organs which are most familiar are the sweat glands through the
skin, the salivary glands of the mouth, the gastric glands of the
stomach, the liver, the kidneys, the pancreas, and the male and female
reproductive glands. Except for those of reproduction, the glands in
this list are not to any especial extent connected with personality.
Of course, if they do not function correctly, the health is impaired
and changes in temperament result. But that much can be said of any
other physiological organ. For the most part these glands of external
secretion, as they are called, each has its own specific function to
perform. They take up certain substances from the blood stream, or
from the intestinal tract, transform them and then emit them through
well defined ducts. In this manner the kidneys secret urine, the liver
bile, the gastric glands gastric juices. The ducts or tubes which carry
the transformed substances to the exterior are essential parts of the
glands, themselves, and the secretions are always ejected through them.
There are, however, other glandular structures in the body which have
no definite outlets. The substances which they secrete do not pass out
through well defined passages but are absorbed directly by the blood
stream. Their effect is the same as that of drugs injected into the
blood by a hypodermic needle. In fact, if the chemical constituent
of a ductless gland’s secretion is known and can be prepared in
the laboratory, the same results can be got through its artificial
injection as from the increased activity of the gland itself.
THE FUNCTION OF THE ENDOCRIN GLANDS
It is these ductless glands, or endocrin glands, or glands of internal
secretion (they are known by any one of these names) which especially
concern us when we speak of the effect of glands on personality.
Besides the ovaries and testes, which give off an internal as well as
an external secretion, they include the thyroid and parathyroid glands
of the neck, the thymus gland in the chest, the adrenal glands situated
just above the kidneys, and the pineal and pituitary bodies both
located within the cranium close to the brain.
Because these organs have no visible outlets, it was only within
comparatively recent times that they were supposed to have any function
at all. Or if a purpose was assigned to them, it was usually highly
fantastic and without any basis in fact. Thus the thyroids, which
can be easily felt at the lower part of the neck on each side of the
trachea, were supposed to keep the larynx moist and so produce a dulcet
singing voice. But the thyroids, on account of their conspicuous
position, are the glands about which we have the fullest information.
Because the secretions of the endocrin glands flow directly into the
blood stream and are therefore carried very quickly to all parts of
the body, their exact location is of slighter importance than might at
first be thought. Because the pineal and pituitary bodies happen to
be situated within the skull, they do not necessarily have a peculiar
effect upon the brain. In fact, the thyroid in the neck probably is
more closely connected with mental development than either of them. And
the function of the pineal is more like that of the thymus than it is
that of its nearer neighbor, the pituitary.
_The thymus and the pineal._ Broadly speaking, we may say that the
thymus and the pineal are the glands which control childhood. Both are
present and well developed at birth but continue to grow and expand
for some years later. Each ceases to grow at puberty when the sexual
glands become active. In normal individuals the pineal body disappears
entirely after adolescence and very little is left of the thymus
subsequent to this period.
_The internal secretion of the reproductive glands._ Simultaneously
with the atrophy of the thymus and the pineal body, the internal
secretion of the reproductive glands, which up to this time have
been dormant, commences and puberty sets in. The chief effect of the
endocrin activity of the testes and ovaries lies in the development
of the secondary sexual characteristics. In this connection the
investigations of Steinach are the most authoritative as well as the
most widely known. His experiments proved conclusively that it is not
the reproductive elements proper but the interstitial cells of Leydig,
which lie within the larger sex glands, which furnish the internal
secretion. Professor Howell sums up Steinach’s primary investigations
as follows:
“Making use of very young animals (Steinach) has transplanted
the testes from their normal position to other regions. Such
animals develop normally, show all of the usual secondary sexual
characteristics, and manifest full sexual desire and potency at the
proper period. When the transplanted glands are examined the sexual
elements are lacking, but the interstitial cells are increased in
amount. It would appear from this work that sexual puberty is dependent
upon the internal secretion furnished by these cells, and Steinach
proposes to designate them collectively as the ‘puberty glands.’ This
observer reports further remarkable experiments in which young males
(rats, guinea pigs) were first castrated and then had transplanted
under the skin or in the peritoneal cavity the ovary from a female
of the same species. Under such conditions the graft of the ovary
takes, and unlike the grafted testicle both the reproductive cells and
the interstitial cells survive. In such animals the secondary male
characteristics do not develop, his genital organs remain infantile;
he exhibits, on the contrary, the female characteristics, as shown by
his size, the character of the hair, and especially by the development
of mammae and nipples. So far as the external characteristics are
concerned the animal is completely feminized, and Steinach states that
such an animal is sought by the male as though it were a true female.”
Working with very old animals, Steinach has further proved that by
splitting the seminal duct, thus blocking the external secretion of the
testes, the interstitial cells can be made to function more vigorously
and a temporary rejuvenation, a sort of second adolescence, can be
produced.
Not all of the phenomena usually associated with puberty are, however,
caused directly by the activity of the reproductive endocrin glands.
Many of them are effected by the interstitial secretions stimulating
to greater activity other ductless glands, namely, the pituitary, the
adrenals and the thyroid.
_The thyroids and parathyroids._ So tightly are the parathyroids
imbedded in the thyroids in all carnivorous and omnivorous animals,
that many fatal operations were performed before it was discovered
that the two are separate, if not completely independent organs.
Goiters, which are always either enlargements of the thyroids,
themselves, or of the connecting tissue surrounding the thyroids,
can be easily eliminated by making a small incision in the neck and
cutting away the superfluous tissue. In certain geographical regions
where the soil contains very little iodine (the most important element
in thyroid secretion) the thyroids, in an attempt to overcome this
deficiency, grow abnormally large and endemic goiters result. In the
country surrounding the Great Lakes of America and in the valleys of
Switzerland such goiters are common. Often they are not large enough to
be especially dangerous or conspicuous, but in some individuals they
attain an enormous size and, of course, their possessors are anxious to
have them reduce. Soon after the introduction of medical surgery, many
beautiful Swiss ladies went into Paris to have their unbecoming tumors
removed. And about half of those who were operated upon died within
a few days. The rest recovered and showed no ill effects of their
experience. Physicians were at a loss to account for the fatalities.
But as animal experimentation was making headway, an explanation was
soon forthcoming from the physiological laboratories.
The laboratory investigators discovered that if both thyroids were
removed from carnivorous animals the subjects were within a few hours
seized by severe convulsions and soon died. Herbivorous animals, on
the other hand, lived for a long time after complete thyroidectomy,
although they exhibited profound changes in what might be termed their
personalities. Anatomical examinations showed that in all carnivorous
and omnivorous animals the four tiny parathyroids are imbedded in the
thyroid, while in herbivorous species two of the parathyroids are
separated from and lie outside of the larger gland. From this it was
decided that the thyroids, although they are most important to proper
development, are not essential to life, while the parathyroids, through
the cancelling effect they have upon various poisons continually given
off by the body, are. In the case of the unfortunate Swiss beauties,
the parathyroids had been inadvertently cut away with parts of the
thyroids in those who succumbed to the operation, but were left intact
in those who survived.
_The function of the thyroid._ The thyroid is the endocrin gland
about whose function we have the most complete information. Diseases
of the thyroid, in particular goiters, are far from uncommon and
the effects of these diseases have been carefully studied. Also the
chemical constituents of the thyroid secretion has been determined and
an artificial thyroid extract is now easily manufactured. This has
been widely used in animal experimentation and as a human therapeutic.
In normal individuals the thyroid glands function throughout life.
In children they are necessary both to normal physical growth and to
proper mental development. In adult life they are essential to body
metabolism and mental stability.
_The pituitary and the adrenals._ Although the adrenal and the
pituitary is each a single gland, both of them have two well defined
parts. As in the case of the parathyroids and the thyroids, the
anterior lobe of the pituitary and the cortex of the adrenals are
essential to life, while the medulla of the adrenals and the posterior
lobe of the pituitary furnish the secretions which have the more
pronounced effect on the personality. Unlike the parathyroid, however,
the life-essential portions of each of these glands is intimately
connected with sexual development.
The chemical properties of the secretion produced by the medulla of
the adrenal glands are known and form the basis of the drug called
adrenalin. The effects of this drug have, of course, been carefully
studied. The two most important results of an artificial injection of
adrenalin lie in a strong stimulation of the nerves which control the
heart, the blood vessels and the muscles; and an increase in the amount
of sugar in the blood. Translated into more general terms, which will
be explained in detail later, this means that the adrenals regulate our
emotions as the thyroids do our mental life. And the posterior lobe of
the pituitary body, in much the same manner, controls the muscles and
skeletal bones directly.
From this brief outline of the role of the various ductless glands
it should be evident that a well balanced person, a thoroughly
normal individual, is one whose endocrin system is nicely attuned.
His every gland secretes just enough but not too much. From the
interstitial cells of his sexual glands he gets his secondary sexual
characteristics, which until he reaches adolescence were kept in
abeyance by his thymus and his pineal. His thyroid keeps his brain
active; his pituitary body his muscles well toned; his adrenals his
circulation well regulated and his emotional apparatus ready for
emergencies. But, let us see what happens to an individual when one
particular gland is either more or less active than it properly should
be.
GLANDULAR ABNORMALITIES
The effects of heightened or lessened secretion of the sexual glands
can be easily predicted. Abundant and very active interstitial cells
cause the completely masculine man or the entirely feminine woman. When
these cells are greatly reduced in number or dormant in their function,
the sexual types are not so pronounced and approach each other in
secondary characteristics. It is not until this condition becomes
complicated by derangements of other ductless glands that it becomes
definitely abnormal, but any variation in any one of these other organs
is more than apt to have a direct effect on the reproductive system.
This is shown clearly in the case of the thymus and the pineal.
The pineal gland, as we have seen, is essentially a gland of childhood.
If both his pineal and his thymus are functioning normally then a child
will be like other children. He will grow and develop gradually until
he reaches his teens when the more drastic changes of puberty commence.
It is at this time that his pineal body should cease to function and
begin to atrophy. But suppose, for some reason, it begins to atrophy
when he is only about six or seven years of age. What happens then?
The child begins to grow remarkably, his reproductive organs develop,
his figure becomes like that of an adult and he shows a strange mental
precocity. This is the classical type of the child prodigy. And it was
the pineal gland about which so much was said in the Leopold-Loeb
murder trial.
If the pineal body continues to function well into the teens an
individual who is almost the exact opposite of the one just described
develops. Puberty is delayed for a long while――probably indefinitely.
The child never grows up either anatomically, sexually or mentally.
The abnormal history of the thymus gland is similar to that of the
pineal, but with a few slight differences. While the pineal and the
thymus both act reciprocally with the sexual glands, they also have
some check upon each other. It may be said in general that while both
of these glands function in lieu of sexual secretion, the thymus
allows the child to grow to its full stature while the pineal protects
him from growing too rapidly. (It was to be borne in mind, however,
that both of these glands of childhood control growth indirectly, as
we shall see when we come to study the pituitary in more detail.)
Accordingly then, if a child has an insufficient thymus, his growth is
stunted, his bones do not harden properly, he is subject to rickets and
to malnutrition, he is apt to become either very fat or very thin; and
there is a corresponding retardation of mental growth.
If the thymus continues to be active after the age at which puberty
normally occurs, the results are more striking even than they are
when this gland is insufficient during childhood. In this case the
child proceeds to grow, but he grows only as a child. His reproductive
organs do not develop and he acquires none of the characteristics
which typify adolescence. Human beings of this class are not rare, but
on account of the striking changes which occur when a tadpole matures,
that is when its metamorphosis into a frog takes place, the result of
a prolonged activity of the thymus is illustrated more clearly in the
case of this animal than of any other.
Tadpoles fed upon a continual diet of thymus extract will not change
into frogs. They remain tadpoles, but tadpoles of tremendous size.
And a eunuch who has been castrated just before adolescence has,
essentially, a tadpole personality. Because his interstitial cells
never become active, no check is put upon his thymus. Instead of
atrophying, it continues to enlarge. Consequently a eunuch is apt to
be very tall, possibly also babyishly plump, but he undergoes none of
the usual adolescent transformations. His voice remains high pitched,
he does not grow a beard and all of his other characteristics remain
almost completely childlike.
If thyroid extract is fed to young tadpoles an effect which is the
exact opposite of that produced by thymus feeding results. The tadpoles
do not grow, but metamorphosis into frogs takes place when they are
still very tiny. Frogs scarcely larger than a fly can be developed in
this manner. Thus it appears that not all of the processes usually
associated with puberty are caused directly by the sexual glands, but
rather by the internal secretions of these glands stimulating others
to greater or lesser activity.
The thyroid, however, is essential to normal development in childhood
and later life as well as at adolescence. In children an insufficient
amount of thyroid secretion produces a state of arrested development
known as cretinism. Cretins are familiar figures in all feeble-minded
institutions. They are small in stature, their skin is rough and
coarse, their features are flat and characterless, and their tongues
large and thick. They are awkward, unkempt and lazy. Mentally they are
classified as idiots. Since the discovery of the active principle of
the thyroid――thyroixin――cretinous children, if treated early enough,
exhibit signs of marked improvement. They grow, they become more
energetic and their mentality approaches more nearly to the normal.
When an insufficiency of thyroid extract occurs after adolescence, the
disease known as myxedema sets in. Persons afflicted with this malady
show definite and characteristic symptoms. Their hair begins to fall
out, their skin becomes moist and swollen and they suffer continually
from exhaustion. Most noticeable of all is a pronounced mental
deterioration. This disease is commonly caused by an abnormal growth
of the tissues surrounding the thyroid. This enlarged tissue crowds in
upon the gland and causes it to shrink in size. It cannot under these
conditions secrete the amount of extract necessary to bodily health,
and myxedema results. The disease can be helped to some extent by
regular doses of thyroixin and a permanent cure can be effected by
an operation through which the superfluous tissue is removed and the
thyroid allowed once more to resume its natural size.
An exophthalmic goiter produces results which are the exact opposite
of those just described. In this case it is the thyroid gland, itself,
which expands and therefore becomes hyperactive. The resulting
excess in thyroid secretion causes the victim of the goiter to
become extremely nervous and irritable (in contrast to the lassitude
accompanying cretinism and myxedema). One of the most striking symptoms
of this disease are the characteristic bulging, staring eyes. An
operation by which the gland is cut down to its normal size alleviates
the effects of the exophthalmic goiter.
When we were speaking of the growth of the skeleton, both in children
and in adults, we noted that although it was influenced by the thymus,
the pineal and the sexual glands, it was directly caused by another.
This growth controlling organ is the pituitary. An excess of pituitary
secretion in children brings about a condition known as gigantism. It
is a hyperactive pituitary which is responsible for the giants to be
seen in side shows, and a hypoactive one which occasions their fellow
freaks, the midgets. An insufficiency of the secretion of this gland
causes pronounced obesity and an unnatural craving for sweets in adults.
The pituitary, like most of the other ductless glands, is also
definitely related to the reproductive organs. If for any reason
its development in a child is retarded, puberty does not occur. An
individual showing eunuchoid tendencies results.
An increase in the amount of sugar in the blood and a superactivity of
the entire circulatory system always follows an injection of adrenalin.
This is given as proof of the fact that the adrenal glands have a
definite control over the emotions. A brief summary of some recent
investigations will explain this statement. Cannon of Harvard working
with dogs, and Watson of Johns Hopkins using human subjects, discovered
that the chief characteristics of the primary emotions, such as fear
and rage, were an increase in blood pressure and an unusual supply of
sugar in the blood. These two conditions constitute the physiology
of an emotion, whatever its mental correlate may be. Cannon found
further that the adrenals, as opposed to some of the other ductless
glands, are richly supplied with nerve fibers. From this and from
other experimental evidence he concluded that impulses from the brain
stimulating the adrenals bring about the characteristic emotional
symptoms. Of course these glands are not dormant at unemotional periods
but under stress of mental excitement they become superactive. If the
adrenal is unusually large and consequently congenitally hyperactive,
an emotional state can be induced by a very mild stimulation.
Consequently persons who possess exceptionally hard working adrenals
can under very ordinary conditions become keyed up to a high pitch
of excitement. Their hearts pound fiercely, their nerves are taut and
they are constantly ready for action. Their digestions may suffer
as a result of most of their energies being turned away from normal
nutritive activities, but they can accomplish a great deal as long as
their health continues.
Persons with a deficiency of adrenal secretion show opposite
characteristics. They tire easily, they are continually depressed and
they take very little interest in life.
Each gland which we have studied has been shown to have some connection
with sexual development. The adrenals form no exception to this rule
but their influence in this respect is even less straightforward than
that of the pituitary and thyroids. This is how Professor Berman
describes the relation between the adrenal glands and sexual phenomena:
“In certain disturbances of these glands, especially when there are
tumors, which supply a massive dose of the secretion to the blood
presumably, peculiar sex phenomena and irregularities are produced.
If the disease be present in the fetus, taking hold before birth, and
so brought into the world with the child, there evolves the condition
of pseudo-hermaphroditism. The individual, if a female, presents to a
greater or less extent the external habits and character of the other
sex. So that she is actually taken for a man, although the primary
sex organs are ovaries, often not discovered to be such except when
examined after an operation. How closely such an occurrence touches
upon the problems of sex inversion and perversion comes at once to mind.
“If the processes involving the adrenal cortex attacks it after birth,
the symmetrical correspondence and harmony of the secondary sex
characters are not affected. But there follows a curious hastening
of the ripening of body and mind summed up in the word puberty,
a precocious puberty, with the most startling effects. A little
girl of 2, 3, or 4 years of age perhaps will come to exhibit the
growth and appearance of a girl of 14. She begins to menstruate,
her breasts swell, she shoots up in height and weight, sprouts the
hair distribution of the adult, and the mentality of the adolescent,
restless, acquiring, doubting emerge. A tot bewitched into puberty!
A boy of six or seven may suddenly, in the course of a few weeks or
months, become a little man, robust, rather short and stocky, but
moustached, with the muscular strength and sexual power of a man and
thinking as a man....
“If the trouble in the adrenal cortex starts after puberty, phenomena
of the same type, but of a different order, exhibit themselves. A
woman, say in the thirties, becomes thus afflicted. Slowly or quickly
her body will be covered by an abundant growth of hair, more or less
of a beard and moustache appear upon the face, her voice will become
deep and penetrating, her muscles will harden, and she will show a
capacity for hard physical labor. Sexually she appears to be made
over, masculinity now predominates in her make-up. Virilism is the name
by which the French in particular have popularized the knowledge of the
condition.”
GLANDS AND NORMAL PERSONALITY
Most of these cases which have been described, where one single gland
is much too active or a great deal too sluggish, would be classified as
extreme types of personality. They are, for the most part, definitely
normal. Primarily because they are so distinctive it was fairly easy to
ascertain just which form of glandular disorder conditioned which kind
of mental or physical peculiarity. With personalities which conform
more closely to the norm, the question of specific glandular control
becomes more baffling. Yet when we note how accurately each specific
glandular derangement is correlated with a definite peculiarity of
personality, it seems highly probable that slighter variations in
individuality may also be due to differences in the endocrin system.
When we further realize that any one of the seven glands of internal
secretion may be either a little overactive or a little underactive
while the rest are normal, or that two or three or four or five glands
may be slightly abnormal in one way or another, it begins to appear
as though this complicated endocrin system may be responsible for all
the lesser variations of personality as well as those which are more
pronounced.
An individual whose thyroid is underactive will be different from
an individual whose thyroid is overactive, and he will be still
more unlike one whose pituitary and adrenals are also exceptionally
forceful. Moreover X-ray pictures show that when any one gland is
especially small and unable to grow larger in order to compensate for
its deficiency, some other gland may expand and in some manner take
over its function. So when we come to the study of normal personalities
the role of the endocrin system may be much more complex than it is
with the simpler and more distinctive glandular types. Our knowledge of
the glandular control of the average man is still far from complete,
but, remembering the striking symptoms of abnormal functioning, we can
discern certain general glandular tendencies among mainly normal types.
We cannot as yet say that Mr. Smith’s thyroid is one hundred per cent
efficient while his pituitary works only one half as energetically as
it should and his adrenals twenty per cent actively. But we can say
that from certain physical or mental traits which Mr. Smith shows his
whole personality is probably dominated by one or more of his endocrine
glands.
If Mr. Smith is exceptionally tall and the bones in his face and hands
and feet noticeably large, it is safe to assume that Mr. Smith has a
very forceful pituitary body. Yet, if in spite of his height, Mr. Smith
appears young for his age, has a smooth boyish face and a youthful
outlook on life, then we may correctly infer that his thymus has been
active longer than is customary with adults. Mrs. Smith, too, may seem
much younger than her chronological age would lead one to expect,
and she, also, may have a rudimentary thymus which is continuing to
function. But if, as opposed to her husband, she is small and dainty,
we would suppose that her pituitary is also smaller than his. And if
with her doll-baby stature, she had a still childish mind and was not
particularly energetic, we might further conclude that her thyroid
was not accomplishing all that it should. If, as she grew older, she
became suddenly nervous and irritable, it would seem evident that this
gland was suddenly expanding in an attempt to overcome its earlier
deficiencies.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith might have two children, a son and a daughter, who
while they were young resembled each other rather closely. But as they
grew older they might seem more and more different. Perhaps the girl
could continue to grow rapidly after she was twelve years of age but
would still appear childish. She would still play with her dolls and
with younger children and take no interest in the activities which
normally absorb the attention of a young girl. Then we would infer
that the thymic tendency which she inherited from both parents was
intensified in her case. If, however, her other glands were able to
overcome this dominance of the thymus and so allow her to achieve
adolescence, she might still never become so completely feminine as her
mother. She would never be very interested in boys or young men, but
would be enthusiastic about athletics and feminist movements. Then it
would be reasonable to assume that her adrenal glands had taken over
the supremacy once held by the thymus.
The Smith boy, on the other hand, might mature rapidly. He would become
quiet and serious at the age when most boys are still playing marbles
and hooky. His voice would change and his beard would begin to grow.
In this case we could be certain that either his thymus or his pineal
gland had deserted him too soon. If he stopped growing at this time it
would indicate that his thymus was failing him, but if he continued to
become taller and his mind also matured quickly the evidence would be
in favor of an atrophying pineal. If later in life he suddenly became
exceedingly plump and rather listless, we might conclude that still
another gland was not working as hard as it might. This time it would
be his pituitary.
These cases are, of course, merely hypothetic and it is entirely too
much to expect such a small family to show such divergent types and
so many changes in personality. But it does indicate how glandular
activity can affect the character and habits of persons who would not
be considered abnormal. And taking the population as a whole, certain
glandular tendencies do determine definite types of personality. The
slow, stupid, colorless people have too little thyroid secretion. Those
who are superactive mentally and temperamentally have a large amount
of this extract. The very fat or very tall people have extraordinary
pituitaries. The energetic, executive types are well supplied with
adrenalin. And most of those who seem exceptionally youthful long after
they have reached chronological maturity have had thymuses or pineals
which have functioned longer than is natural in adult life.
* * * * *
Transcriber’s Notes:
――Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
――Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
――Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
――Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.
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