THE INTERSTITIAL GLANDS 373 



versed. In women the shoulder-girdle is relatively small, the hips broader, 

 hairs of the head in woman are much longer, the hairiness of the body is 

 absent. Michaeli's quadrangle is broader in woman, the sacrum is less curved 

 and is shorter, the symphysis is broader and lower, the pubic angle is greater, 

 the iliac fossae are broader, the transverse extension of the pelvis is greater, 

 the pelvic entrance and exit are greater and wider. The glandular substance 

 in the breast is always developed even in the virgin, the nipples are more 

 prominent, and more easily erectile. In addition there is in woman a less 

 number of erythrocytes per cubic millimeter of blood. Then there are 

 differences in the psyche, that become more prominent from the time of 

 puberty. 



I would now briefly sketch those problems that seem to me most im- 

 portant for the evaluation of the secondary sexual characters and for their 

 genesis. 



Almost all of the distinguishing signs that have been mentioned may 

 be included under Darwin's definition. The mammary glands seem to me 

 to form an exception. Much seems to speak for the fact that the female 

 mammary glands are a primary sexual character, or rather that they should 

 be directly ascribed to the generative apparatus. We cannot say of them 

 that they have nothing to do directly with propagation, for in mammals 

 the brood would be annihilated if the mammary glands were to cease to 

 functionate. We can, however, go farther and suppose that the growth im- 

 pulse and mammary glands experience in women emanates not from the 

 interstitial glands, but from the generative apparatus, that there exists 

 no development of the glandular substances (certainly not of the fat sub- 

 stances) without development of the follicular apparatus, and that the 

 most extensive growth impulse, namely that during pregnancy, proceeds 

 from the generative apparatus, equally if we regard as the source of the 

 mammary hormone the growing fetus or the chorionic epithelium. We 

 shall enter more fully into this question later. 



A further moot point is whether the secondary sexual characters are 

 performed from the ovum as to the question whether before or after con- 

 ception, I shall not enter into here at all or whether they develop in the 

 masculine or feminine direction under the influence of the sexual glands. 

 Lenhossek and Halban hold the opinion that the total sexual characters are 

 somewhat preexistent and that the sexual glands exercise only a protective 

 action on their development. 1 Another view that stands rather bluntly 

 opposed to that just described is that the sexual glands furnish a direct 

 formative stimulus on the sexual characters. Recently Steinach on the 



1 Also Tandler upholds the opinion that the sexual sphere of action of the secondary sexual 

 characters as well as those of the germinal glands are preexistent. Tandler and Grosz mention 

 in this connection that the so-called secondary sexual characters are only characters of species 

 and enter into relation to the genital sphere only secondarily. 



