116 THE GLANDS REGULATING PERSONALITY 



Wo are, as yet, far from an exact endocrine analysis of the 

 individual. But we know that the endocrines rule over growth 

 and nutrition, a vast dominion which incorporates every organ 

 and every tissue. By enhancing or retarding the nutritional 

 changes, the growth of the organ or tissue is favored or re- 

 stricted. The size and shape of an individual, as a whole, as well 

 as of the specialized cell masses composing him, as hands and 

 feet, the nose and ears, and so on, are therefore controlled by 

 them. Whether an organism is to be tall or short, lean or corpu- 

 lent, graceful or awkward, is decided by their interactions. 

 These, like human covenants, vary with the different reactions of 

 the parties to the contract. And so a great deal depends upon 

 whether they work harmoniously or discordantly, and upon 

 which does the most work and which the least. 



Undersecretion and Oversecretion 



It is when a gland, either in the course of development, or be- 

 cause of the influence of starvation, shock, injury, poisoning or 

 infection, begins to undersecrete or oversecrete that its effects 

 upon growth and nutrition become grossly manifest. A veritable 

 transfiguration of the individual may occur, the black magic of 

 which may perplex him for a lifetime. A man, made eunuchoid 

 by an accident or by mumps, will observe in himself astonishing 

 changes in his constitutional make-up, mentality and sexuality. 

 He would be more astounded to learn that beneath the appear- 

 ances, the changes, so alarming him, there are profound altera- 

 tions in the rate at which he is taking in oxygen, burning up 

 sugar, accumulating carbon dioxide and excreting waste by- 

 products through the kidneys, which are responsible for them. 



The differences between the normal and abnormal are only a 

 matter of degree. And so, to be sure, are differences between 

 types. But it is hard to realize that the striking distinctions 

 between the thyroid type and the pituitary, comparable, as said, 

 to the differences between a greyhound and a bull-dog, are de- 

 pendent solely upon quantitative variations in the general and 

 local speeds of metabolism, among the cells. 



Division of Labor 



Besides the antagonisms and co-operations between them, there 

 are certain lines along which the glands, in their effects, special- 



