INFANTILISM 857 



delay of ossification with persistence of the epiphysial discs, underdevel- 

 opment of the musculature and a corresponding smallness of the organs, 

 especially faulty development of the sexual apparatus, the secondary sexual 

 characters and the vita sexualis ; and finally the persistence of the psychic 

 attributes in the childhood stage. This premature stoppage of develop- 

 ment shows also a tendency to end in premature degeneration with in- 

 creased liability to premature senility. 



Infantilism is of great pathogenetic importance. Due to the constitu- 

 tional inferiority of the whole organism or certain parts even the normal 

 demands of daily life overtax the functional capacity of the individual 

 who suffers much under the rough influences of life and is liable to suc- 

 cumb prematurely in the struggle for existence. The lowered resistance of 

 the cells not only facilitates infections but renders their prognosis more 

 grave than in the normal individuals. Thus the majority die young and 

 tuberculosis especially reaps a rich harvest among them. In addition, 

 mechanical conditions with or without a local tissue inferiority may cre- 

 ate a locus minoris resistentia3, predisposing to serious disturbances. Thus 

 the so-called asthenic thorax with stenosis of the upper aperture, as result 

 of developmental inhibition invites apical tuberculosis, and very tor- 

 tuous, infantile Fallopian tubes predispose to extension of a gonorrheal 

 infection and the aggravation of its severity. The fertilized ovum on its 

 transport is liable to be retained in one of the tubal loculamenta, finding 

 there a nidus with the result of tubal pregnancy and its complications. An 

 infantile uterus causes sterility and an abdominal testicle has a tendency 

 to undergo malignant degeneration. The whole sexual life of a decidedly 

 infantile woman is, as W. A. Freund has characterized it, subject to a 

 great many troubles. "Even the development at puberty is difficult; the 

 menstruation has a tardy onset, is often scanty, ceases for months or even 

 years with chlorotic manifestations; it reappears with dysmenorrhoic 

 symptoms. All disorders become aggravated under the influence of the 

 various noxse, as perverted physical and psychic life, refrigerations or 

 excessive exertions so frequent at that period of life. The cervix is often 

 the seat of a chronic catarrh. Coitus not infrequently is disturbed by 

 vaginism. Conception takes place either not at all or late; therefore old 

 primiparse are often examples of infantilism. Pregnancy often terminates 

 .in abortion because the corpus uteri with its unequally developed walls 

 cannot adapt itself to the evenly growing ovum. The expulsion of the 

 embryo is protracted on account of the difficult dilatation of the long 

 anteflexed cervix. ... In the second stage of labor inefficiency of the 

 uterine contractions and in the third stage retention of the placenta with 

 a rapidly contracting os internum are frequent complications. In septic 

 infection the disease assumes the most severe form of puerperal fever." 



It is well known that harmonious development and normal growth 

 depend on the inherited constitution, on the normal function of the nerv- 



