TABOO AND GENETICS 25 



called the " secretory balance " or " internal 

 secretory balance." This balance is literally 

 the key to the sex differences we see, because 

 it lies back of them ; i.e., there are two general 

 types of secretory balance, one for males and one 

 for females. Not only are the secretions from 

 the male and the female sex glands themselves 

 quite unlike, but the whole chemical system, 

 balance or " complex " involved is different. 

 Because of this dual basis for metabolism or 

 body chemistry, centring in the sex glands, 

 no organ or cell in a male body can be exactly 

 like the corresponding one in a female body. 



In highly organized forms like the mammals 

 (including man), sex is linked up with all the 

 internal secretions, and hence is of the whole 

 body. (3.) As Bell (2, p. 5) states it : " We 

 must focus at one and the same time the two 

 essential processes of life — the individual meta- 

 bolism and the reproductive metabolism. They 

 are interdependent. Indeed, the individual 

 metabolism is the reproductive metabolism." 



Here, then, is the reason men have larger, 

 differently formed bodies than women — why 

 they have heavier bones, tend to grow beards, 

 and so on. The sex glands are only part of 

 what we may call a well-organized chemical 

 laboratory, delivering various products to the 

 blood, but always in the same general propor- 

 tions for a given sex. The ingredients which 



