THE RHYTHMS OF SEX 157 



two glands, the ovary and the posterior pituitary, modified by 

 accessory influences, determine the relative intensity of the two 

 instincts. In a sense, the two glands may be said to be anta- 

 gonistic and yet one stimulates and complements the other. 



The Transfigurations of Child-Bearing 



Though what happens at puberty, what happens all through 

 life through the agencies of the endocrines is amazing enough, 

 what occurs during the period of child-bearing is pernaps the 

 most amazing of all. As emphasized, pregnancy is the time, 

 among the internal secretions, of a great uprooting and stirring, 

 of fundamental and cataclysmic changes in the most intimate 

 chemistry of the cells. It is as if a dictator, inspired by his 

 country's danger, its enemies at the gates of its capitol, were to 

 draft and mobilize everyone, man woman and child from every- 

 day activities to the necessities of defense. Or rather it is as if 

 there appeared within the heart of our civilization a common 

 purpose and intelligence, now so palpably lacking, which magne- 

 tized and drew to itself all the streams of individual self-aggran- 

 dizing effort. Imagine that possibility and how it would change 

 the face of the earth and the entire basic constitution of human 

 life and society. So do the profound tides of the hormones, 

 centering around the new creature being made in the womb, 

 transfigure the face and constitution of the child-bearing woman. 



During pregnancy, in consequence, the integrity of every struc- 

 ture of the body is tested. A stern, relentless accountant goes 

 over the cells, counts up their reserves, establishes a balance, 

 credits and debits according to the demands of the growing 

 parasite within them. Follow changes in the skin, the bones, 

 the nervous system and the mind. That is, all the glands, subtle 

 recorders, transmitters, producers of the vibrations of change 

 are influenced. But the most influential are the most affected, 

 as the most dominant personalities in a community are most 

 disturbed by a revolution. 



In Sinclair Lewis' "Main Street," the best novel ever made 

 about America as a nation of villagers, the heroine, Carol Kenni- 

 cott, has this to say to someone sentimentalizing about maternity. 



"I do not look lovely, Mrs. Bogar. My complexion is rotten, 

 and my hair is coming out, and I look like a potato bag, and I 

 think my arches are falling, .... and the whole business is a 

 confounded nuisance of a biological process." 



The exploration of the internal secretions has brought us an 



