368 INTERNAL SECRETIONS 



prevail, the activity of the cells producing female sexual 

 hormones will be inhibited according to the law of antagonism 

 between the hormones of both sexes. The individual will 

 show normal somatic characters and a normal psycho-sexual 

 behaviour, though male and female sexual hormones can be 

 produced owing to the intersexual condition of its sex gland. 

 "If now the vitaHty of the male cells should sooner or later 

 decrease for some reason and their endocrine function should 

 cease, the female cells present will be released from inhibition 

 and become activated" (Steinach, 1916 b, p. 327). The female 

 endocrine cells activated owing to some pathological condition 

 of the male cells will now exercise their endocrine function and 

 influence the somatic and psychical sex characters. 



The above-mentioned statement of Steinach that special 

 endocrine cells like luteal cells are to be found in the testicle 

 of homosexual individuals has not been confirmed, as pointed 

 out especially by Benda (1921), Hirschfeld (1921) and Sternberg 

 (1921). The proportions of the interstitial cells in the normal 

 testicle vary very much. According to my observations on 

 the guinea pig the variation seems to be especially great when 

 there is a degeneration of seminal tubules and a concomitant 

 reaction on the part of the surrounding interstitial tissue. 

 There can be no doubt, therefore, that Steinach was mistaken 

 about those large interstitial cells. 



Though Steinach failed to show that there are really special 

 endocrine cells of both sexes in the testicle of the homosexual 

 individual it nevertheless remains very likely that his as- 

 sumption about the periodic changes in the psycho-sexual 

 behaviour being caused by periodic changes in the production 

 of sexual hormones is not without foundation. We must 

 assume that the different parts of the organism will react to 

 the changed quantities of the hormones of both sexes in the 

 same individual in a way that is not uniform. They will change 

 very little if already fixed previously by ordinary growth or 

 by the action of sexual hormones; they will change more if 

 they still maintain a certain degree of growth intensity, and 

 if they still possess great plasticity or lability like the central 

 nervous system. On such an assumption one can explain how 

 it is that homosexuality or an intersexuality concerning the 

 psycho-sexual behaviour only is much more mdely spread 

 than somatic intersexuality 



