absolute constant, although its range of fluctuation is pretty well
fixed at birth. It varies from day to day, year to year, depending
upon the influences that have been brought to bear upon it. But it
determines the character of the three planes of sex: the endocrine,
the vegetative, and the psychic. The endocrine is concerned with the
fundamental chemistry of sex, the internal secretions, which determine
the chemical reactions that provide the free energy for the sex
process. Upon the vegetative plane occur those transformations,
tensions, and relaxations, in the viscera, which are controlled
in part by the endocrines and in part by the experiences of the
individual as registered in his subconscious. Upon the psychic,
conscious planes appear the echoes and reflections of the occurrences
upon the other two planes, as well as reactions arising in the brain
from the necessity of the organism reacting as a whole to isolated
episodes. Accompanying is a self-awareness of the organism as a unit.
The three planes are not like separate plates of glass one raised
above the other, the usual idea picture of planes. They are
nebulae, swirling into each other, influencing and being influenced
continually. The reactions among these three complexes of sex create
the milieu for the variations and aberrations of tendency, character
and conduct which stamp his unique quality upon the individual. Sex
morale is likewise so influenced. The fundamentals of sex ethics will,
in due time, be revised in accordance with these conceptions.
CHAPTER VIII
HOW THE GLANDS INFLUENCE THE MIND
It is impossible to review here in detail all the facts accumulated
concerning the influence of the internal secretions upon all the
processes of mind, intellectual and emotional. A volume would not
suffice for their adequate consideration. Reflexes, instincts,
habits, tendencies and emotions are involved in their machinery. The
development and normal functioning of the intellect, the pure reason
as Kant called it, are controlled by them. Brain, without them in
solution, without enough of them in that wonderful solution, the
blood, sleeps or remains dormant like the butterfly in the cocoon.
The cretin, who has not enough thyroid or no thyroid, is an imbecile
because of his deficiency. Supply him with thyroid from outside
sources, feed him animal thyroid, be it of the sheep, the pig, or the
goat, and behold a miracle! he is restored to the level of a
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