86 THE GLANDS REGULATING PERSONALITY 



staining cells in whorls. Of which there are many more in the 

 thymus of embryonic and early postnatal life, known after their 

 discoverer as Hassal's Corpuscles. They are believed by some to 

 elaborate the specific internal secretion of the thymus. Present 

 in all vertebrates, there seems to be more of it in the carnivora 

 than in the herbivora, like the thyroid. 



Concerning the exact function of the thymus, we are a good 

 deal at sea. The latest opinion about the results of extirpation 

 even in young and growing animals is that they are nil. Yet there 

 is a certain justification for proclaiming the thymus the gland 

 of childhood, the gland which keeps children childish and some- 

 times makes children out of grown-ups. There is a quantity of 

 data for that proposition. In the first place, the curve of rise of 

 growth of the gland seems to coincide with the period of child- 

 hood, the curve of its decline with the period of adolescence and 

 the rise of the sex glands. In the past, it was accepted, that 

 with puberty the thymus atrophied and was replaced by some 

 sort of fatty tissue. Nowadays, it is held that secretion cells 

 persist throughout life. When the extent of this persistence is too 

 great, the gland being from five to ten times as large as the 

 normal, a number of other features become prominent to make 

 the extraordinary individual, the status lymphaticus, who amid 

 the hazards of life will react in an extraordinary way. He will 

 be taken up in the consideration of internal secretion person- 

 alities. 



Then there are the varied and remarkable phenomena of 

 thymus enlargement and hyperactivity in childhood itself. When 

 an enlarged thymus is present in an infant, the initiation of 

 breathing in the new-born, the introduction of the newcomer t 

 the oxygen of the air, may be an exceedingly prolonged, difficult, 

 matter. Such a baby is said to be born blue, and the breathing 

 may be stridorous for days, becoming normal for a time, to be 

 followed later by spells of trouble in breathing, breathlessness 

 or breathlessness with blueness, and threatened extinction. Some- 

 times these spells come out of a clear sky in an apparently healthy 

 child. That some poison, probably an oversecretion of the 

 thymus, is responsible is shown by the relief obtainable by X-ray 

 shrinkage of the gland, or the surgical removal of a part of it. 



Moreover, the gland is influenced by and influences the factors 

 of body weight and growth with an extreme readiness and 

 lability. Deficient general undernutrition leads to rapid decline 



