e Freudians have popularized as the libido, and how
subtly they act upon the coming and duration of adolescence and
maturity, as well as sexual precocity and peversions, we shall
consider in a later chapter. But it is enough now to remember that
these interstitial glands are the primary dictators of the genital
sense and flair of the individual. In any attempt at measurement of
men and women, the quality and quantity of the internal secretion
of the interstitial cells must be respected as a fundamental
consideration. The womanly woman and the manly man, those ideals of
the Victorians, which crumbled before the attack of the Ibsenites,
Strindbergians and Shavians in the nineties, but which must be
recognized as quite valid biologically, are the masterpieces of these
interstitial cells when in their perfection. They are such solely
because of the right concentration in the blood of the substances
manufactured not only by these cells, but by all the glands of
internal secretion. For it cannot be repeated and emphasized too often
that the interstitial cells of the sex glands are most sensitive to
all kinds of other influences, and, in particular, the other internal
secretory organs. They may indeed be watched as an index scale or
barometer of the general tone of the whole internal secretion system.
Sex variations offer a variety of clues to variations, disturbances,
predominances and abnormalities in all the components of the ductless
gland association.

To take a single instance, the development of the long bones is
dependent upon the handling of food lime by the body. Eunuchs and
eunuchoids, that is, individuals with insufficient internal secretion
of the interstitial cells, have longer bones and more fragile bones
than the normal. Vice versa, those with an excess of the secretion
have shorter and thicker bones. The earlier the onset of menstruation,
which means puberty, the shorter the extremities, as the action of the
internal secretion of the ovaries closes the story of the growth of
the long bones.

The ovaries are a most important factor in the regulation of the power
of the organism to keep lime in the bones. If they over-secrete in an
excess which cannot be taken care of by the other glands of internal
secretion, the body loses lime, a softening and curving of the bones
occurs, and the most horrible deformities and tortures for the
sufferer. Taking out the ovaries has cured some of the afflicted.
Administration