434 INTERNAL SECRETIONS 



A local paper described this case anticipating that the 

 boy would become a giant. This prognosis, however, is 

 entirely erroneous, as the body size of individuals showing 

 sexual precocity in general is not beyond the normal. There 

 are cases even in which the precocious individual attains a 

 smaller size than the normal one. This is due to the fact that 

 the growth of the bones stops sooner than in normal individuals. 

 The condition of the skeleton in sexual precocity is the opposite 

 to what we observe in eunuchoidism ; in the latter the suppres- 

 sion of the endocrine function of the sex gland causes a more 

 prolonged persistence of the zone of proliferation in the long 

 bones, whereas in sexual piecocity an exaggerated hormonic 

 activity of the sex gland causes disappearance of the zone of 

 proliferation sooner, and thereby the growth of the long bones 

 comes to an end precociously. 



This may be illustrated by the following case of Krabbe (1919), 

 which may also serve as an example of sexual precocity in 

 women. A girl menstruated regularly from her birth, and 

 ivom the beginning had developed mammary glands. She 

 grew well up to her 7th year, having then attained an abnormal 

 height. Afterwards growth ceased. At 13I- years of age she 

 was 131 cm. in height as compared with 145 cm. in normal 

 individuals. The under extremities were strikingly short in 

 relation to the trunk — -just the opposite of what is to be 

 observed in eunuchoidism. The zones of proliferation in the 

 bones of the upper and under extremities had disappeared; 

 the photograph of her hand may serve as an example {Fig. 136). 

 In cases of sexual precocity in women there is also precocious 

 development of the hair in the regio pubis and in the axillae. 

 In Krabbe's case the girl was psychically normal, and there 

 was no erotization, though at 134- she was somaticallj^ 

 entirely mature. 



The question whether sexual precocity can be interpreted on 

 an hormonic basis is naturally of great interest for us. First, 

 it must be questioned whether sexual precocity can be explained 

 by a precocious development of the sex gland. We do find in 

 such cases a precocious development of the sex gland, as, for 

 instance, in the above-mentioned case of Masing, and pre- 

 sumably also in those cases where precocious menstruation 

 occurs. But there is no reason for assuming that the precocious 

 development of the sex gland is always of primary origin in 



