DISCUSSION 121 



tasied or actual, and connects them with ovaries, testicles, pros- 

 tate, and adrenals. Our cases who confessed to having committed 

 perversions (excluding Sabin and his one unsuccessful attempt 

 at puberty) had hyperthyroidism and dyspituitarism. If only 

 fancied perversions are meant, probably every one of our cases 

 would be included. 



Prior states that mentally deficient patients after being fed 

 for several months on thyroid and pituitary extracts gained 

 percentages in the Binet-Simon intelligence tests several years in 

 advance of the grade they reached before treatment began. 



Of our two morons Nolan, who had already recovered from 

 his psychosis, took desiccated thyroid and gained remarkably in 

 energy and intelligence. His mental age, according to the 

 Terman test, advanced from eight years seven months to nine 

 years eleven months, and his intelligence quotient from 54 per 

 cent, to 62 per cent. O'Neil was emerging from his psychosis 

 before he began to take desiccated suprarenal, and the speed of 

 his convalescence did not seem to change during the gland feeding. 

 His gains in intelligence were practically the same as Nolan's ; 

 eight years to nine years three months, and 50 per cent, to 58 

 per cent. 



Gushing 12 draws attention to the close relation between the 

 function of the anterior lobe of the pituitary and the gonads, since 

 if one is hyper or hypoactive the other is also, and thinks the 

 psychoanalytic school should take cognizance of this in their 

 theories of infantile sexual complexes. He believes that sexual 

 precocity or backwardness, due to disturbances of these glands, 

 might well give rise to abnormal sexual mentality. 



Jelliffe deals with the same problem as follows : " Variations 

 in the actual endocrine organs undoubtedly alter the reactivity of 

 the individual, so that certain complexes, always difficult in them- 

 selves even under the best of circumstances, are not as well dealt 

 with by reason of this (for lack of a better term) what may be 

 called ' sensitiveness.' We know the complexes are a necessary 

 part of everyone's evolution. Why should fixation and regression 



12 Gushing, Harvey, Psychic Disturbances Associated with the Duct- 

 less Glands, American Journal of Insanity, vol. 69, p. 965 (1913). 



