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with the accompanying idiocy. And with this the answer has been 
given to the question asked, for clinical observations of this disease 
point most decidedly in the direction of glandula thyroidea. 
It will not have eseaped the attentive hearer that in the preceding, 
notone, but several points of view have been discussed collectively. The 
first point of view I could summarize in this thesis: the specifically human 
characters are persisting foetal properties; the second point of view in 
this: the specifically human characters originate in the general develop- 
mental process of primates having been retarded in certain parts; 
the third view in this; this retardation is caused by the various 
endocrine organs, and finally the fourth in this: with affection of 
the endocrine organs this retardative influence is removed and the 
human body recovers pithecoid properties. Now I cannot conclude 
this contribution before, on the basis of the theses just mentioned, 
opening up before you another point of view of more general bio- 
logical interest. The specifically morphological characteristics of man 
are a result of retardation; well then, this influence of the endo- 
crine organs not only concerns the development of morphological 
properties, but has stamped the entire developmental process of man 
as such, his rate of development has been slackened, his youth, as 
compared with the other Primates, has been lengthened, the adult 
phase of his life also, and perhaps also his phase of senility. This 
is an idea which I had carried about with me for years, but for 
which I had really never been able to find a proper correlation to 
other views or observations, until I at last found it in my view of 
the significance of the endocrine organs for the bringing about of 
the morphological properties during evolution. 
Still this idea was formerly’ not a merely intuitive one, it was 
founded on a fact. This was supplied by the peculiar behaviour of 
the genital glands in human beings, particularly in woman. These 
glands show the remarkable phenomenon that after that the specifical 
elements have developed, and no longer increase by division — 
which is already the case in the second year — a phase of rest 
begins. The histological differentiation of the genital glands is finished 
in the second year, but their function only begins at a later age — 
say between the 12‘ and tbe 14th year. Between the histological 
final stage and the beginning of the function a pause, a latent period 
is shoved in. This latent phase in human beings has always seemed 
something very remarkable to me. And, to put it briefly, it has 
always seemed to me that a discongruency has arisen between the 
sexual and the somatic development. How far this also occurs in 
other mammals may here be left undiscussed; so much is certain 
