THE BASIC PHYSIOLOGIC REGULATORS gt 
action is apparent: gastric, intestinal and renal de- 
rangement, giving indigestion, malnutrition and faulty 
renal elimination—all of which lowers the vitality and 
bodily power of resistance to infection, which usually 
follows. 
Now, to complete the picture of endocrine disorder, 
let us consider the gonads. The gonads either make 
or mar reproductive capacity and the sexual life of the 
individual. On them depends not only the propagation 
of humanity but that greatest of all the propensities, 
sexual instinct, upon which rests that greatest, strong- 
est and most ennobling of all the emotions—love—that 
binds together families, communities and races, and 
is the foundation of modern society and civilization. 
Anatomically, the gonads are not ductless glands; 
but, in addition to their reproductive usefulness, it is 
now an unquestioned fact that they manufacture an 
internal secretion, which is correlated with the 
hormones of the true ductless glands in maintaining 
the physio-chemical balance of the body. 
When we think of sexual disorders it is but natural 
that we think of the sexual organs. However, in a 
majority of such cases, the primary, underlying cause 
really is with the other ductless glands. Indeed this 
seems to be true of practically all cases except tubercu- 
losis or specific infection. 
Too often we have seen the healthy, robust, energetic 
and kind husband and father become a sickly, miser- 
able, cruel and worthless man. And oftener, we have 
seen the young, healthy, tenderly-loving wife and 
mother develop into a sickly woman, displeased and 
disgusted with husband, home, family and life in 
general. Such conditions are the instigating cause of 
many separations and divorces. 
It would be a waste of time and effort to give in 
detail all the symptoms of such cases—loss of appetite; 
indigestion; nausea; sexual frigidity; irregular, diffi- 
