THE GLANDS: THYROID AND PITUITARY 55 



sweep the gland's lariat embraces. Skin, hair, bones, muscle and 

 : fat, brain and intelligence, growth and development, are modified 

 precisely as the size and shape of certain crystals are modified 

 by the presence or absence of ingredients in an apparently homo- 

 geneous solution. A fertilized ovum, in which the predecessor 

 of the thyroid gland is present, that is to say, in which there is 

 , the seed and soil for its sprouting, looks the same as one without 

 that formative material. Yet, when the time comes for the 

 internal secretion of the thyroid to put in its oar in the metabolic 

 game, its presence or absence makes all the difference in the world 

 to the individual. 

 In the middle of the nineteenth century, when the concentra- 

 : tion of phosphorus in the brain was established as significant, 

 the cry for the emphasis of that fact was — without phosphorus 

 no thought is possible. We can much more relevantly declare 

 that without thyroid, no thought, no growth, no distinctive 

 humanity or even animality is possible. For the epigram about 

 phosphorus was bombast, since it can be declaimed with equal 

 truth that without oxygen, without carbon, without nitrogen, 

 without any of the food elements that go to make up the chemical 

 composition of brain matter, no thought is possible. Indeed, if 

 r one were set upon the indictment of a single chemical element as 

 the begetter of consciousness, the prisoner at the bar would have 

 j to be copper. There is more copper in the brain by a considerable 

 \ degree than in any other organ of the body. Which perhaps 

 ] will be exceedingly regretted by the patrons of the aristocracy of 

 I the soul who would have it as an emanation of a deposit in the 

 \ brain of silver at least, if not gold. They are like the old lady 

 who would never permit herself to be cured of her ailments 

 except by gold plated pills. Copper, however, is not necessary 

 to intelligence. Without thyroid there can be no complexity of 

 thought, no learning, no education, no habit-formation, no re- 

 sponsive energy for situations, as well as no physical unfolding 

 of faculty and function, and no reproduction of kind, with no 

 sign of adolescence at the expected age, and no exhibition of sex 

 tendencies thereafter. 



Effects of Feeding Thyroid 



How subtly the internal secretion affects every phase and 

 aspect of child as well as adult, by doing something to the speed 

 of activities in their cells, is told straightway by the effects of 



