e
chiropractors, and who are the subjects of the faith and miracle
cures, like those of Lourdes. That is because their particular
disease, or what appears to them to be their very own disease--and
they certainly cherish their ailments--is but an expression of, a
compensation for, indeed a consolation for, the underlying feelings of
insufficiency or inferiority. Were there no moral code, were there
no social system, nor the consequent inculcated conscience to be
responsible to, there would be no such disguising symptom as
the disease which preoccupies the consciousness. The feeling of
insufficiency would be there, and would be recognized as in itself
the disease. To the physiologist and the psychologist, the feeling of
insufficiency is the disease, no matter how spectacular the overlaying
phenomena--a cripple on crutches or a man blind and speechless. Shell
shock is now acknowledged to belong to this group.

Now one of the outstanding effects of disease of the adrenal glands is
the feelings of muscular and mental inefficiency. And as a matter
of fact, a good number of observations conspire for the idea that a
certain number of neurasthenics are suffering from insufficiency of
the adrenal gland. The chronic state of the acute phenomenon, known as
the nervous breakdown, really represents in them a breakdown of the
reserves of the adrenals, and an elimination of their factor
of safety. In the light of that conception, the great American
disease--dementia americana--is seen to be adrenal disease--and the
American life to be the adrenal life, often making too great demands
upon that life, and so breaking down with it.

ADRENAL EXCESS

The converse of adrenal insufficiency, that of adrenal excess, also
exists. In certain types of the middle-aged, a high blood pressure,
accompanied by a great capacity for work, has been shown to be
associated with hypertrophy of the cortex. In women, there is a
degree of masculinity, as the adrenal in women makes for masculinity,
neutralising more or less the specifically feminine influences of
the internal secretions of the ovary. Such women possess a vigor and
energy above the normal, and command responsible positions in society,
not only among their own sex, but also among men. They are the ones
who, in the present overturn of the traditional sex relationships,
will become the professional politicians, bankers, captains of
industry, and directors of affairs in general.

THE GONADS

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