THE TYPES OF PERSONALITY 217 



frequently suffer from insomnia, planning in bed what they are 

 to do next day. 



Certain types of thyroid excess associated with the thymus do- 

 minant next to be described are peculiarly susceptible to emo- 

 tional instability. They are subject to brain storms, outbreaks 

 of furious rage, sometimes associated with a state of semi-con- 

 sciousness. To emphasize the analogy to epilepsy, their attacks 

 have been called psycholepsy. Among the Italians especially they 

 were watched and reported during the War, when the explosive 

 fits were seen to take the form of irresponsible acts of insubordi- 

 nation or violence. 



The Thymo-Centric Personalities 



During the first period of childhood, up to five, six or seven, or 

 more accurately, up to the point at which the permanent teeth 

 begin to appear, every child may be said to be a tlrymu^-domi^ 

 a ted organ ism, because the thymus, holding the other endocrines 

 in check, controls its life. That is why up to the third and fourth 

 years at any rate, most children seem alike. Closer observation, 

 however, reveals points of differentiation and signs of the coming 

 potencies of the other hormones. During the second period, 

 up to puberty, these marks of the deeper underlying forces of 

 the personality make themselves more and more felt. The thy- 

 mus, like a brake that is becoming worn out, continues to function 

 in a progressively weaker fashion. Until with the arrival of the 

 g onadal (ovaries' oar testes*) internal secretion, its influence is 

 wiped ouk 



~TKere is a definite degree of thymus activity during everyone's 

 childhood, unless by its premature involution, precocity displaces 

 juvenility. Yet even during childhood, there are certain indivi- 

 duals with excessive thymus action, foreshadowing a continued 

 thymus predominance throughout life. The "angeljchild" is the 

 type: regularly proportioned and perfectly made, likea fine piece 

 of sculpture, with delicately chiselled features, transparent skin 

 changing color easily, long silky hair, with an exceptional grace 

 of movement and an alertness of mind. They seem the embodi- 

 mentof beauty, but somehow unfit for the coarse conflicts oTlife. 

 In Englisn~nTerature several characters are recognizable as por- 

 traits of the type, notably Paul Dombey, whose nurse recognized 

 that he was not for this world. They may look the picture of 

 health, but they are more liable than anv other children to be 



