THE ADRENAL GLANDS 85 



is dependent upon the handling of food lime by the body. Eunuchs 

 and eunuchoids, that is, individuals with insufficient internal 

 secretion of the interstitial cells, have longer bones and more 

 fragile bones than the normal. Vice versa, those with an excess 

 of the secretion have shorter and thicker bones. The earlier the 

 onset of menstruation, which means puberty, the shorter the 

 extremities, as the action of the internal secretion of the ovaries 

 closes the story of the growth of the long bones. 



The ovaries are a most important factor in the regulation of 

 the power of the organism to keep lime in the bones. If they over- 

 secrete in an excess which cannot be taken care of by the other 

 glands of internal secretion, the body loses lime, a softening and 

 curving of the bones occurs, and the most horrible deformities 

 and tortures for the sufferer. Taking out the ovaries has cured 

 some of the afflicted. Administration of the antagonizing gland 

 extracts has helped others. An Italian, Bossi, in 1907, used 

 adrenal gland curatively. More recently, a British student of 

 the subject, Blair Bell, was given the direction of the treatment, at 

 long range, of a number of cases in India, the land of chronic 

 pregnancy with insufficient food, and consequent oversecretion of 

 the ovaries, with the typical softening of the bones. At his sug- 

 gestion pituitary was used successfully. 



Some of the glands of internal secretion act as accelerators to 

 the sex glands. Others act as retarding antagonists. Among the 

 most important of the latter is 



The Thymus 



The thymus is the gland which dominates childhood. It ap- 

 pears to do so by inhibiting the activity of the testes or ovaries. 

 Castration causes a persistent growth and retarded atrophy of 

 the thymus. Removal of the thymus hastens the development 

 of the gonads. 



Situated in the chest, astride the windpipe, it descends and 

 covers over the upper portion of the heart, overlapping the great 

 vessels at the base of the heart. It is a brownish red mass, which 

 when cut presents the spongy effect of a sweetbread. The more 

 intimate view of detail revealed by the higher powers of the 

 microscope shows conglomerations of the white cells of the blood 

 known as lymphocytes. But scattered through the substance of 

 the gland, between these lymphocytes, like the interstitial cells 

 of the sex glands rJlaced between the sex cells, are peculiarly 



