THE GENITAL GLANDS 15 



insufficiency diseases of either of them in man, 

 leads to sexual infantilism. 



On the other hand, great enlargement, and therefore 

 presumably, hypersecretion of the cortex of the 

 suprarenal (hypernephroma), causes precocious sexual 

 development of the male type. In boys this leads to 

 overgrowth of the sexual organs with early activity. 

 In girls, there is enlargement of the cHtoris, growth 

 of hair on the face and pubes, and sometimes a male 

 type of external genitals (pseudo-hermaphroditism), 

 but there is not premature menstruation or 

 fertihty. 



Very few cases of overgrowth of the pineal gland 

 are on record, but in some of these there has been 

 sexual precocity in boys. 



Sexual precocity in girls is not uncommon ; it 

 appears to be due to excessive ovarian secretion. 

 In one case a girl aged seven showed precocious 

 development and menstruation ; an ovarian swelling 

 was removed, and the signs of puberty subsided. 



It is found in gynaecological practice that thyroid 

 and pituitary feeding may hasten puberty in cases 

 where it is unduly delayed. After twenty, how- 

 ever, a small uterus cannot be stimulated to grow. 



We have no sufficient evidence yet of the value or 

 otherwise of feeding with the ductless glands in cases 

 of cryptorchism with atrophic testes. 



The Ductless Glands after Puberty. — Here 

 again deficient internal secretion of the thyroid 

 gland appears to be a cause of amenorrhoea, painful 

 menstruation, and monthly pain in the breasts, and 

 Blair Bell states that thyroid feeding cures many 



