24 R. G. HOSKINS 



all three zona of the cortex. In the medulla no disintegrative or degen- 

 erative changes were made out. 



In case of one organ, the ovary, the evidence of an important relation- 

 ship to bodily alterations in the latter period of life is adequate. The 

 genital atrophy that follows the menopause in women is strikingly similar 

 to that following removal of the ovaries at an earlier period. Such changes 

 are atrophy of the uterus and Fallopian tubes, of the structures about the 

 vulvar orifice, and of the breasts. As is well known, the ovaries after 

 the menopause become shrunken and fibrotic, and their endocrin function 

 supposedly becomes correspondingly depressed. The persistence of libido 

 after the climacteric, however, is not so very uncommon, and this may 

 indicate some persistence of endocrin activity in the ovary. 



In case of the male, conditions are somewhat more complex. There 

 is great variability in the sex manifestations of elderly men. Usually, 

 perhaps, after middle age there is a gradual decline in libido and potentia 

 which goes pari passu with the slowing down of general bodily activity. 

 Cases are by no means rare, however, in which the sex life remains active 

 even past the allotted three-score years and ten. In some instances indeed, 

 there seems to be even an augmentation of the sex activities in the fifth 

 or sixth decade. To what extent general bodily vigor is dependent 

 upon gonadal functioning is not at all clear. In this connection Brown- 

 Sequard's famous experiments upon himself suggest themselves. This 

 able observer believed that as a result of subcutaneous injections of tes- 

 ticular extracts his vitality was greatly increased. Of recent years there 

 has been a recrudescence of Brown-Sequard's ideas, based upon the claims 

 of Lydston, Voronoff, and others, that old men can be rejuvenated by 

 grafting into their bodies testicular material. Steinach has claimed (but 

 others have denied) that a similar rejuvenation can be brought about 

 merely by ligation of the vasa defer entia, an operation which supposedly 

 results in augmented activity of the interstitial cells of Leydig at the 

 expense of the atrophic seminiferous cells. That the Leydig cells may 

 persist, or even he increased somewhat in old age, has been reported by 

 several observers. The writer is not acquainted with any definite 

 evidence, however, of a correlation between such persistence and the sex 

 activities. 



As to changes in the other endocrin organs in old age, little evidence is 

 available. Tn his dogs Goodpasture noted the occasional occurrence of 

 cysts in the hypophysis, but such have been reported also in younger 

 animals. That the pineal organ and the thymus undergo at least some 

 degree of atrophy, beginning at about the age of puberty, has often been 

 claimed, but later investigators have maintained that age involution in 

 these structures is less striking than was formerly believed. That the 

 pancreas deteriorates in old age is probable from the fact that senile 

 diabetes is not uncommon. According to Allen, there is a margin of safety 



