INTERNAL SECRETIONS OF SEXUAL GLANDS 103 



deviations which the medical man and the educationahst have 

 to cope with. 



It is merely an abstraction that we are dealing with when we 

 consider the relations existing between the internal secretion 

 of the sex gland and the psycho-sexual behaviour of man. But 

 even within the limits of this problem our knowledge relates 

 only to some general points. We shall see in the following 

 chapters how little we know about the pathological changes 

 in the sex glands or in the other glands of internal secretion in 

 cases of quantitative and qualitative variation in human 

 psycho-sexual behaviour. But, on the other hand, anyone 

 who has learnt something about the physiology and pathology 

 of the organs of internal secretion, and especially of the 

 hormone-producing sex gland, will agree that in a scientific 

 analysis of the psycho-sexual behaviour of man the endo- 

 crinological aspects cannot be left unconsidered. 

 * * * 



Another question may be shortly discussed here. Many 

 authors in recent years have adopted the view that the sex 

 characters depend in reality not only upon the sex glands, 

 but upon the vv^hole internal secretoiy system. We have 

 already touched on this question in Chapters I. and II. 

 There can surely be no development of sex characters 

 without all the other organs of internal secretion par- 

 ticipating; all of these glands are influenced by the internal 

 secretion of the sexual glands, and the latter are influenced 

 by the former, and no doubt these interrelations between the 

 endocrine glands are of the greatest importance in relation to 

 the development of the sex characters. But this does not mean 

 that the determination of somatic and ps^^chical sex characters 

 is in no special relation with the sexual glands, or that there is 

 no special link between the sex gland and somatic and psychical 

 sexuality. 



I think that in belittling the influence of the gonads one is 

 making two great mistakes. The first mistake is a logical 

 one, whereas the second is due to not taking into consideration 

 the facts concerned. Let us discuss these two points. 



When we speak in science of the " cause " of a thing we mean 

 by this a factor which is able to change a certain thing into the 

 given thing. We always leave on one side the whole complex of 

 other factors involved in this given thing; scientific research. 



