RACIAL, TYPES KEITH. 447 
Associated with the interstitial glands, at least in point of develop- 
ment, are the suprarenal bodies or glands. Our knowledge that these 
two comparatively small structures, no larger than the segments into 
which a moderately sized orange can be separated, are connected with 
pigmentation of the skin dates back to 185-i, when Dr. Thomas Addi- 
son, a physician to Guy's Hospital, London, observed that gTadual 
destruction of these bodies by disease led to a darkening or pigmenta- 
tion of the patient's skin, besides giving rise to other more severe 
changes and symptoms. Now, it is 150 years since John Hunter came 
to the conclusion, on the evidence then at his disposal, that the orig- 
inal color of man's skin was black, and all the knowledge that we 
have gathered since his time supports the inference he drew. From 
the fact that pigment begins to collect in and thus darken the skin 
when the suprarenal bodies become the seat of a destructive disease 
we infer that they have to do with the clearing away of pigment and 
that we Europeans owe the fairness of our skins to some particular 
virtue resident in the suprarenal bodies. That their function is com- 
plex and multiple the researches of Sir E. A. Sharpey Schafer, of 
T. E. Elliott, and of W. B. Cannon have made very evident. Fifteen 
years ago Bulloch and Sequeira established the fact that when a 
suprarenal body becomes the site of a peculiar form of malignant 
overgrowth in childhood the body of the boy or girl undergoes cer- 
tain extraordinary growth changes. The sexual organs become 
rapidly mature, and through the framework of childhood burst all 
the features of sexual maturity — the full chest, muscularity of limbs, 
bass voice, bearded face, and hairy body — a miniature Hercules — a 
miracle of transformation in body and brain. Corresponding changes 
occur in young girls — almost infants in years — with a tendency to 
assume features which characterize the male. Prof. Glynn (Quart. 
Journ. of Med., vol. v, p. 157, 1912) has recently collected the details to 
such cases and systematized our knowledge of these strange derange- 
ments of growth. There can be no doubt that the suprarenal bodies 
constitute an important part of the mechanism which regulates the de- 
velopment and growth of the human body and helps in determining 
the racial characters of mankind. "We know that certain races come 
more quickly to sexual maturity than others and that races vary in 
development of hair and of pigment, and it is therefore reasonable to 
expect a satisfactory explanation of these characters when we have 
come by a more complete knowledge of the suprarenal mechanism. 
During the last few years the totally unexpected discovery has been 
sprung upon us that disease of the minute pineal gland of the brain 
may give rise to a train of symptoms very similar to those which fol- 
low tumor formation of the cortext of the suprarenal bodies. In 
some instances the sudden sexual prematurity which occurs in child- 
hood is apparently the immediate result of a tumorlike affection of 
