274 THE GLANDS REGULATING PERSONALITY 



predisposed to crime. A recent study of twenty murderers in 

 the State of West Virginia showed them all to have a persistent 

 thymus and the thymocentric constitution. A study of the 

 recidivists, those who return for second and third offences, in 

 one institution, disclosed that a large majority had a subnormal 

 temperature and an increased heart and breathing rate. These 

 are endocrine-controlled functions. Conduct, normal or abnor- 

 mal, being the resultant of the conflict of conscious and subcon- 

 scious impulses and inhibitions, the internal secretions as 

 controllers of the susceptibility of the brain cells to impulses and 

 inhibitions, must be held accountable for a portion at least of 

 the chemical reactions behind crime. 



It is possible, by X-ray treatment of the thymus, to cause it 

 to shrink to more normal proportions. It is possible, by feeding 

 various glandular extracts, to correct deficiencies or excesses of 

 their function, and so to remedy the underlying basis for a crim- 

 inal career. Here and there work of this kind has been success- 

 fully carried out in selected instances. What a suitable drive 

 upon the whole matter would yield in happiness to the individual 

 and dollars and cents to society, time alone will show. 



