120 THE GLANDS REGULATING PERSONALITY 



nations. The relationship of height and weight, as well as of 

 length and breadth, to other physical traits, have formed the 

 subject of scientific study. There is, for instance, the classifi- 

 cation of Bean, who divided mankind generally into two types, 

 those of a medium size, stocky long legs and arms, large hands 

 and feet, short trunk, and face large in comparison to the head 

 (the meso-onto-morphs) and those who were either tall and 

 slender, or small and delicate, with the smaller face, eyes close 

 together, long, high, narrow nose, and trunk longer as compared 

 with the extremities (the hyper-onto-morphs) . Bean showed, 

 too, that the hypers (to use a short word to contrast with the 

 mesos) were present to the extent of almost a hundred per cent 

 in a series of tuberculosis, and about ninety per cent in a series 

 of central nervous system disease. All of which is exceedingly 

 interesting and suggestive, but throws no light upon the under- 

 lying mechanisms of statures. 



Stature and Growth 



Stature is essentially determined by the growth of the long 

 bones. They are the pace-makers, and the muscles and soft 

 tissues follow the pace they set. Now ithe primary determinant, 

 catalyst or sensitizer of the growth of the long bones is the 

 anterior pituitary. All statures should therefore be first scruti- 

 nized from the point of view of the pituitary. Individuals over 

 six feet tall or under five feet five inches should be looked upon 

 as having a pituitary trend. This pituitary trend may be pri- 

 mary, due to its own undergrowth or overgrowth, or it may be 

 due to lack of inhibition from the sex glands such as occurs in 

 eunuchs and eunuchoids, or excessive or premature inhibition 

 from them as happens in certain salacious dwarfs. 



The long bones grow at a point of junction between the bone 

 proper and an overlying layer of gristle or cartilage, known as 

 the zone of ossification. It is upon this zone of ossification that 

 the various growth influences appear to focus and concentrate 

 their efforts, among them the internal secretions. After growth 

 has been finished, that is, after adolescence, these zones of ossifi- 

 cation close, so that growth is no longer possible unless they 

 become reactivated. Upon the zone of ossification must act the 

 pituitary, and indirectly the thyroid, the interstitial cells, the 

 thymus and the adrenals. Individuals oversized or undersized 

 either belong to the pituitary type, or if hyphenated, have the 



