CLINICAL ASPECTS OF ENDOCRINOLOGY 31 
whereas somatic fibres have a connection in the brain 
cortex. 
This intimate relationship with the cerebrum and the 
emotional life is found in many types of disorders—the 
individual leading purely a vegetative existence, as seen 
in the mentally defective child, the adult in a state of 
mental deterioration. The profound epileptic shows 
the loss of control of such impulses as inhibit the func- 
tion of the salivary glands, the sweat glands, the intes- 
tinal tonus and vascular stability. The sweating and 
drooling, the low-tensioned pulse, the intestinal spas- 
ticity are not uncommon symptoms in the praecox, the 
defective, the epileptic. In the praecox there is an emo- 
tional blunting, in the defective a lack of development 
of normal emotion, and in the epileptic an instability 
of the emotion. In lesions of the caudate and lenticular 
nuclei, among the most prominent symptoms are the 
emotional outbursts (Mills), Wilson®®). This would 
seem to point towards a disturbance in the passage of 
impulses from the cerebrum via the basal ganglia and 
probably through the sympathetic system. 
EMOTIONAL ASPECTS OF ENDOCRINOLOGY 
Disturbances in the threshold of emotion are not un- 
common in the quantitative disorders of the endocrine 
glands—the stolid, non-responsive hypothyroid; the ex- 
citable, unstable hyperthyroid; the sensitive and touchy 
adrenal; and the apprehensive and depressed ovarian 
type. In these individuals their emotional life plays an 
important part in enhancing the visceral symptoms. 
They have a weak, affective tone, and do not respond or 
adjust themselves to the ordinary problems of life. 
When unavoidable experiences occur one must expect a 
profound visceral reaction, the type depending upon the 
system so-called “conditioned.” Nervous reactions will 
become manifest through dermal activity, digestive 
upsets and cardiovascular disturbances. That these in- 
