are not, therefore, qualities lacking in the common
reservoir of humanity, but rather the unimpeded release and direction
of powers latent in all of us. This process of course is not necessarily
conscious.

This view is substantiated by the opposite problem of feeble-mindedness.
Recent researches throw a new light on this problem and the contrasting
one of human genius. Mental defect and feeble-mindedness are conceived
essentially as retardation, arrest of development, differing in degree
so that the victim is either an idiot, an imbecile, feeble-minded or
a moron, according to the relative period at which mental development
ceases.

Scientific research into the functioning of the ductless glands and
their secretions throws a new light on this problem. Not long ago these
glands were a complete enigma, owing to the fact that they are not
provided with excretory ducts. It has just recently been shown that
these organs, such as the thyroid, the pituitary, the suprarenal,
the parathyroid and the reproductive glands, exercise an all-powerful
influence upon the course of individual development or deficiency. Gley,
to whom we owe much of our knowledge of glandular action, has asserted
that "the genesis and exercise of the higher faculties of men are
conditioned by the purely chemical action of the product of these
secretions. Let psychologists consider these facts."

These internal secretions or endocrines pass directly into the blood
stream, and exercise a dominating power over health and personality.
Deficiency in the thyroid secretion, especially during the years
of infancy and early childhood, creates disorders of nutrition and
inactivity of the nervous system. The particular form of idiocy known as
cretinism is the result of this deficiency, which produces an arrest
of the development of the brain cells. The other glands and their
secretions likewise exercise the most profound influence upon
development, growth and assimilation. Most of these glands are of
very small size, none of them larger than a walnut, and some--the
parathyroids--almost microscopic. Nevertheless, they are essential to
the proper maintenance of life in the body, and no less organically
related to mental and psychic development as well.

The reproductive glands, it should not be forgotten, belong to this
group, and besides their ordinary products, the germ and sperm cells
(ova and spermatozoa) form HORMONES which circulate in the blood and
effect