ANTERIOR PITUITARY GLAND 105 



and power partially fails. This points to the 

 importance of careful observation in childhood. 

 We see children developing in a hesitating way, 

 both in mind and body, not going straight. We 

 are too apt to think of it as a character-deficiency, 

 or we call it laziness or wilful stupidity, but it is 

 nearly always endocrine deficiency. 



We see the extreme proof in the treatment 

 of the cretin by thyroid, but these endocrine dis- 

 harmonies are at work, unseen generally, and often 

 very slight, through most of childhood's years. 

 Much has been done by thyroid treatment, but 

 still more would be accomplished if we realized 

 that thyroid, adrenal, and anterior pituitary 

 deficiency generally exist together. 



The thyroid tells perhaps more on the brain 

 and the nervous development, and the pituitary 

 on the osseous and the sexual, but no fast line 

 can be drawn between the two influences. 



We see often the slow-developing, dull adenoid 

 type improve rapidly under thyroid as far as 

 intellect is concerned, but the body and limb 

 growth falters. Here the combination of the 

 three glands does exceedingly well. In girls, 

 especially, the intellectual life may be active and 

 even brilliant, but the uterine and ovarian 

 development are almost standing still, unobserved 



