PINEAL BODY 393 



girl who had the symptoms of a brain tumour. At the post- 

 mortem examination a compound tumour of the pineal body 

 was found. It is not certain whether the obesity is due to a 

 hyper- or to a hypo-function of the gland. Marburg is inclined 

 to the former view, but the preponderance of evidence is, 

 perhaps, in favour of the latter (Biedl). 



But there are other interesting conditions besides obesity 

 found in patients with pineal tumours. These are found in 

 young subjects. It has been found that in boys under 

 seven years of age symptoms of brain tumour and disease 

 of the corpora quadrigemina are associated with abnormal 

 tallness, unwonted growth of hair, premature sexual and 

 genital development, and early maturity. In these cases 

 there is frequently found on post-mortem examination a 

 teratoma of the pineal body. The symptoms just enumerated 

 are generally supposed to be due to a hypof unction of the pineal 

 gland. Frankl-Hochwart urges the importance of the symp- 

 toms mentioned as diagnostic of pineal tumours. 



Pellizi has described the pineal syndroma as " macro- 

 genitosomia prsecox." There is a premature development of 

 the genitals, which, particularly in regard to the volume of 

 the penis, gives the appearance of an adult. The degree of 

 development of the body and of the skeleton corresponds to 

 that of an age five, ten, or twelve years more advanced. There 

 is a premature ossification of the bones. The intelligence 

 almost always corresponds to the age. In these cases one 

 observes very frequently that there are symptoms of cerebral 

 tumour and destruction of the corpora quadrigemina. The 

 condition always becomes developed before the eighth year, 

 and very frequently before the third, and is commoner in boys 

 than in girls. The hereditary factor has no special influence 

 on the causation. The pathogenesis seems to depend in most 

 cases on a destructive lesion or growth of the pineal body. 



In considering the results of clinical observation, it must be 

 remembered that less than a hundred cases of tumours of the 

 pineal gland have been recorded. In these cases two groups 

 of symptoms have been described the nervous and the 

 metabolic. In adults only the nervous symptoms occur. In 

 children, however, we get the metabolic disturbances, pre- 

 sumably due to an alteration in the secretory activity of the 

 gland, and these are most marked in young males. They 



