GLANDS AS AN INTERLOCKING DIRECTORATE 97 



supplies of producer, middle man, and consumer, there is no 

 one of the great organizations of the captains of industry which 

 can for a moment approach it. 



Of this corporation the glands of internal secretion are the 

 directors. But the huge corporation, not to topple over with 

 its own unwieldy size, must be composed of smaller units, each 

 within itself a corporation, and governed by a directorate. There 

 are, in the corporation-organism, different departments and 

 bureaus, subdivisions of function, which constitute the smaller 

 corporations within the larger corporation. These subsidiary 

 companies have their own glands of internal secretion as their 

 directors. 



Thus, the growth of the brain is presided over by the adrenal 

 cortex, the thyroid, the thymus and the pituitary. They deter- 

 mine the size of the brain, the number of its cells, the complexity 

 of its convolutions and the speed of its chemistry, which means 

 the speed of thought and memory and imagination. As its direc- 

 torate, therefore, they may be entitled. The disturbance of one 

 of them means the disturbance of all of them, and a consequent 

 deleterious effect upon the brain. Now take the burning up of 

 sugar in the organism, the great material source of energy, which 

 is controlled by the pancreas, the adrenals and the liver, the 

 thyroid and the pituitary. Together they form the directorate 

 of sugar metabolism. But, as is evident from a glance at the 

 membership of the growth directorate, and comparing it with 

 the directorate of sugar metabolism, there are some members 

 who are present on both boards. An infection, an illness, an ail- 

 ment, an exaltation or intoxication of such members will produce 

 reverberations in both directorates. A disturbance of sugar 

 metabolism might then cause a disturbance of growth. The 

 advantages and disadvantages are before us of having, in the 

 glands of internal secretion, an interlocking directorate, rulers 

 over all the varied and manifold activities of the organism. 



Behind the body, and behind the mind is this board of gov- 

 ernors. Indeed, from the administrative and legislative points 

 of view, the body-mind may be said to be governed by the House 

 of Glands. It is the invisible committee behind the throne. 

 Upon the throne is what? Man, the most baffling of complexi- 

 ties. Man who is not a mind, but. owns a mind — Man who is not 

 a body, but possesses a body, just as he might have a motor car, 

 a fortune or a calamity. Back of all his daily activities, behind 

 the life of body-mind is the mysterious unique individuality, the 



