86 



DISCOVERY 



by one of the endocrine glands more powerfully than 

 by any of the remainder. In Chapter X Dr. Berman 

 describes in detail these various " types " — " the adrenal 

 centered, the thyroid centered, the thymus centered, 

 the pituitary centered, the gonad centered, and their 

 combinations." It is only fair to the doctor to say 

 that he admits there are infinite modifications of these 

 main types. 



* 4: * 4: * 



Now for one of the main types : " An adrenal 

 personality is one dominated by the ups and downs of 

 his adrenal gland. In the large, the curve of his life 

 is the curve of secretion by this gland, both of its 

 cortex and medulla. Such an adrenal personality is 

 entirely normal, within the definition of the nonnal 

 as scmething not threatening the duration of life, nor 

 comfortable adaptation to it. So are the other glan- 

 dular types. . . . The epidermis is always slightly, 

 somewhat, or deeply pigmented. . . . The hair is . . . 

 ubiquitous, thick, coarse, and dry. . . . When the 

 pituitary type has a properly co-operating pituitary 

 and thyroid, he possesses a striking \"igor, energy, and 

 persistence. With a fortunate combination, he deve- 

 lops into a progressive winning fighter, arri\'ing at the 

 top in the long run every time." And so on. By 

 the end of the chapter the reader is, of course, trying 

 to find which group of personalities he belongs or 

 approximates to, and is in much the same state of 

 mind as a person in a fortune-teller's booth. But, 

 before he has time to recover his wits, he has been 

 plunged into Chapter XI. In Chapter XI he is given 

 extra proof of Chapter X. This proof consists in the 

 application of the findings in Chapter X to " Some 

 Historic Personages." Here he will learn that " the 

 rise and fall of Napoleon followed the rise and fall of 

 his pituitary gland " ; that " the physique and physi- 

 ognomy of Nietzsche, his migraine attacks and the 

 later fate which overtook him, his likes and dislikes, 

 his tastes, abilities, and acccmpUshments followed frcm 

 his composition as one pituitary-centered, with post- 

 pituitary domination, a superior thyroid, and inferior 

 adrenals " ; and that Oscar Wilde's aberrations may 

 be accounted for by the fact that he was a " thymo- 



centric " ! 



***** 



You see, it is all so easy and obvious, isn't it ? So 

 easy and obvious, indeed, that we are constantly re- 

 membering the quotation from Francis Bacon's Novum 

 Orgamim that Dr. Berman has placed upon his title 

 page : " The passage frcm the miracles of nature to 

 those of art is easy." But, when we ccme to look at 

 the author's findings more closely, we begin to realise 

 that many of them are entire speculation. Where are 

 the facts, experiments, statistics on which Dr. Berman 

 builds his simple edifice in Chapter X ? In illustrating 



his statements in Chapter X by historical examples in 

 Chapter XI, the author appears to us Uke the man 

 who got up in the market square and proved that the 

 combination of the colours green and white produces 

 the colour black by showing a piece of black paper 

 which he declared was the result of the combination 

 of white and green. In fact, we found no good reasons 

 given anywhere for allotting certain " types " to cer- 

 tain glands, although abnormal activity of certain 

 endocrine groups (e.g. pituitary, adrenal, and thyroid) 

 can be demonstrated by physiological tests. It does 

 not follow, of course, that Dr. Berman is wrong in 

 associating certain mental types with, let us say, an 

 abnormally active thyroid, but without any facts it 

 is a big jump to say that the gland is the cause of the 

 condition. In this connection lies the book's worst 

 flaw — that it pays scarcely any attention to the fact 

 that organs are apt to develop in response to the 

 demands, including the mental demands, made upon 

 them. Dr. Berman 's purely physiological explanation 

 of personality is unfair, one-sided, and untenable in 

 these early days of research. 



***** 

 We cannot leave this most ludicrous yet dangerous 

 piece of pseudo-scientific literature without mention- 

 ing in detail seme of its many inaccuracies. On page 

 46 we are told that the thyroid gland swells " with 

 sexual excitement, menstruation, and pregnancy " ; 

 this is not a constant factor, and all the ductless 

 glands play a part in phases of sexual activity. On 

 page 48, that " Under the microscope . . . the thyroid 

 shows remarkable and unique features " ; but these 

 " unique " features are also found in the pituitary 

 gland. On page 62 that " the pituitary is a lump of 

 tissue about the size of a pea " ; but it is actually 

 a good deal larger. On page 66 that " The giants and 

 ogres of folklore and fairy-tales are favoured with the 

 most extraordinary mental advantages " ; on the con- 

 trary, they are almost always represented as rather 

 stupid and easily outwitted by the normal man or the 

 cunning dwarf. On page 85 that " Removal of the 

 thymus hastens the development of the gonads " ; 

 this statement is not borne out by experiment. On 

 page 188 that " The idea of repression, to the Freudian, 

 means the pushing down into the subconscious of 

 some experience " ; before criticising the poor old 

 Freudians, Dr. Berman might at least have mastered 

 their terminology ; " repression " means nothing of 

 the kind ; the word " suppression " is used for this 

 performance. Again, the conception of a physiological 

 urge or tension as a mo'ving factor in life is, of course, 

 well known. Freud places this urge in the sexual 

 glands ; Dr. Berman locates it in the endocrine system, 

 the ductless glands, a theory which is not very logical, 

 seeing that they are of ccmparatively late develop- 



