THE FUNCTION OF THE OVARY 215 
to precocious sexual development. This is not well 
proven. The thymus is also antagonistic; its abnormal 
persistence results in delayed puberty and sexual in- 
fantilism. If it atrophies early precocious puberty 
supervenes and the girl’s growth is stunted, owing to 
the ensuing loss of calcium and consequent disturb- 
ance of bony development. 
With the subsidence of the pineal and thymus there 
is left, in the adult, the thyroid, pituitary and adrena! 
cortex to reckon with in any consideration of the 
ovary. The action of the thyroid and pituitary upon 
the ovary is such that depending on variations in their 
functional activity “there is a normal menstruation, 
menorrhagia, relative amenorrhea, or varying degrees 
of actual amenorrhea.” ® 
The menstrual history of a woman’s life and the 
part played in it by the ovary and other endocrine 
glands is interesting. For approximately twelve or 
fifteen years the thymus dominates the situation and 
there is no development of secondary sexual char- 
acteristics and no menstrual flow. At the end of that 
time the ovary either begins to function or adds a new 
secretion to its repertoire and the thymus fades away. 
The thyroid certainly, and the pituitary probably, as- 
sume added activities at that time and the menstrual 
flow begins, a phenomenon that continues more or less 
regularly for about thirty years. At the menopause 
the ovary undergoes some atrophy and some related 
change of function, menstruation ceases and probably 
the pituitary becomes less active or ceases its endo- 
crine service entirely. The rodle of the thyroid is dis- 
puted, some claiming that there is a hypofunction and 
others a hyperfunction. It seems to me about equally 
divided, some being influenced the one way and some 
the other. I hope soon to have something definite to 
say on this point by measuring the basal metabolic rate 
of a series of women at various stages in the meno- 
