THE GLANDS: THYROID AND PITUITARY 67 



or of undersecretion, may interfere with the proper functioning 

 of the posterior gland, the secretion of which is tonic not only 

 to the brain cells, but also to the sex cells. Thus, young animals 

 deprived of the pituitary will not, if male, grow spermatozoa, nor 

 ripe ova in the female. Moreover, the feeding of pituitary in- 

 creases sexual activity. In the case of hens, this has been demon- 

 strated to be about thirty per cent by a pretty experiment. At a 

 time of the year when eggs diminish, six hundred and fifty-five 

 hens laid two hundred and seventy-three eggs upon an ordinary 

 diet. When pituitary was added to their food for four days, 

 the number of eggs rose to three hundred and fifty-two, an in- 

 crease of seventy-nine. In addition, the fertility of the chicks 

 born of these eggs was augmented, especially if both parents 

 had been fed on pituitary. There are other aspects of the rela- 

 tion of the pituitary to sex, which will be treated in another 

 chapter. 



The Bony Cradle of the Pituitary 



Always, in attempting to understand the pituitary, it is neces- 

 sary to remember that it is tightly packed in the bony cradle, 

 the Turkish Saddle or Sella Turcica. Should some stimulus, local, 

 or in the blood, arouse the gland to growth, a good deal will 

 depend upon whether it has room to grow in, or it will make 

 room by eroding the bone. With space for the formation of a 

 large anterior and posterior pituitary gland, there will be 

 created the long, lean individual, with a tendency to high blood 

 pressure and sexual trends, great mental activity, initiative, irri-~ 

 tability and endurance. An outstanding trait of these favorites 

 of fortune is that they remain thin no matter how much food they 

 consume, and they have the best of appetites. They often are 

 subject to severe headaches because of intermittent swelling of 

 the gland against the bone of its container. 



If the bony container is or becomes too small for its contents, 

 it is interesting that along with the other signs of pituitary insuf- 

 ficiency, such as undersize, obesity, and asymmetry, there devel- 

 opes conspicuous moral and intellectual inferiority. The unfor- 

 tunates suffer from compulsions and obsessions and lack inhibi- 

 tions. They are the pathological liars with little or no initiative 

 or conscience — amoral, not merely theoretically, but instinctively 

 and unconsciously, with all the certitude and perfection of the 

 unconscious accomplishment. 



