856 AUGUST STKAUCH 



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with a broad mesentery; superficial lobulation of the kidneys, small tes- 

 ticles, small, infantile uterus or ovaries, the persistence of markedly con- 

 voluted tubes and a hypoplastic circulatory system. 



Paradigms of topical infantilism are a left-sided cecum due to failure 

 of complete rotations of the mesenterium commune during the intra- 

 uterine life, congenital enteroptosis, certain dystopias of the kidneys, due 

 to retention into later life of their original position in the pelvis, cryptor- 

 chidism or incompleted descent of the testes. Defects of growth of hair, 

 as absence of beard or pubic crines or hair on the rest of the body in the 

 male with otherwise good physical proportions and also pure psychic 

 infantilism are examples of partial infantilism. 



As seen, a number of instances are identical with hypoplasias of the 

 organs concerned. While some instances of partial infantilism have 

 principally an anatomical but no clinical significance, others, as the partial 

 defects of the genital or the thyroid glands, will not remain local but 

 exert momentous effects upon the function of other organs and upon the 

 development and integrity of the entire organism. Thus well character- 

 istic clinical pictures of general infantilism will develop. 



Infantilism in Its General Aspects 



General infantilism is a disturbance of the development in which the 

 whole organism retains its infantile type somatically as well as psychically, 

 thus not obtaining the full characters of the adult of his species; it is the 

 arrest or delay in development of the entire organism during the pro- 

 gressive stage. In the phrase of Tandler it is a morphologic anachronism. 

 In the strict sense the term should be used only after the termination 

 of childhood; however, it is applied also to the early life, having then 

 only a relative meaning, of course, namely, designating the persistence in 

 size and transitory characteristics of an earlier period of development. 

 To be sure, it may be difficult or impossible to determine whether the 

 standstill during a certain period of childhood will be permanent or 

 whether the child will make up for the retardation of development later, 

 as is often the case. In the strict sense also, universal infantilism is only 

 partial and we cannot expect to find a complete congruency or identity in 

 the organs, their functions, the proportions of all parts, the metabolism 

 and the psychic activities with those of infancy orichildhood. The prin- 

 cipal characteristics of the latter are the faculty of growth, depending 

 upon the non-closure of the epiphyses, a head large in proportion to the 

 rest of the body, comparatively short legs, especially during the first year 

 of life, lack of function of the genitalia, and certain psychic qualities 

 marked by immaturity. The principal features of infantilism enumerated 

 are smallness of stature due to delay or arrest of the growth of the skeleton, 



