18 THE SEX-COMPLEX 



influence of gonads which causes retrogression in the thymus 1 . It 

 giTndfon is possible that both views are correct; for experi- 

 pubescent mentally it has been found that removal of the ovaries 



development J 



of reproduct- leads to hypertrophy of the thymus, even after atrophy 

 organs. ^ ^^ or g an ^as occurred in the normal course of 

 events 2 , and that removal of the thymus in male guinea- 

 pigs is followed by a rapid development of the genital 

 glands 3 . 



It may be well to interpose a few words here by way of 

 explanation and illustration of the inner meaning of the 

 correlations that exist between the organs of internal 

 secretion. One organ, such as the thymus, is not nor- 

 mally antagonistic to another, such as the ovary, for 

 any but specific reasons. Moreover, they probably 

 counteract one another not only directly but also in- 

 directly through the general metabolism. 



Pubescent To make the principle of this indirect effect clearer, 



o^secSary * et us g a little more fully into the illustration just given. 



character- it j s believed, whether correctly or not is immaterial 



istics and the J 



metabolism, at the moment, that the thymus produces calcium 

 retention in the tissues, and thus assists in building up 

 the bony skeleton in fact, animals from which the 

 thymus had been removed were found by Basch 4 and 

 others to Suffer with softening of the bones 5 . On the 

 other hand, I have shown experimentally that the 

 ovaries are katabolic in regard to the calcium salts 6 ; 

 and this is also indicated in certain pathological con- 

 ditions to be mentioned later. Now the calcium meta- 

 bolism, around which for the moment I am building up 

 my argument, is differently employed, if I may so use 

 the term, at three different periods of life. Until puberty 

 calcium is chiefly utilized for building up the skeleton ; 



1 Biedl, A., Innere Sekretion, 1913, 2nd ed. 



2 Calzolari, A., Archiv. Ital deBiol, 1898, vol. xxx, p. 71. 

 8 Paton, Noel, Journ. Pkysiol, 1904, vol. xxxii, p. 59. 



* Basch, K., Wien. Klin. Woch., 1903, vol. xvi, p. 8<J3. 

 6 Compare p. 84. 



6 Bell, W. Blair, Arris and Gale Lectures, Lancet, 1913, vol. i, 

 p. 809. 



