In order not to use too many technical terms we shall consider only four of the endocrine glands, the pituitary, the thyroid, the adrenals and the gonads.
=The Pituitary Gland= is a small body, the size of a pea, located in the Turkish saddle (sella turcica), at the base of the brain and closely behind the root of the nose. Some have called it a brain within the brain with a miniature skull of its own within the skull.
The pituitary regulates the rhythms of the body, from the bony growth of the skeleton to the rate of the heart and respiration, from the periods of sleep and waking time to the periods of menstruation.
If a part of the pituitary of a dog is removed, the animal becomes sleepy, fat, perverse in its sex cravings; puppies cease to grow when submitted to such an operation; autopsy of many human dwarfs has shown that their pituitary was undeveloped. People whose pituitary is insufficient in its action have a tendency to lose their hair, have a very dry skin, a dull mentality, sometimes suffer from epilepsy and crave sugar in large quantities. They are generally obese, the fat accumulating on the lower abdomen and the feet and ankles. Louis Berman in his excellent book on the endocrines "Glands regulating the Personality," presents as a perfect likeness of the "hypopituitary type" the Fat Boy of the Pickwick Papers whose emloyment with Mr. Wardle consisted in alternate sleeping and eating.
I will quote from Berman's book a description of the opposite type, the individual in whom the pituitary gland is too active.
"If the overaction begins in childhood or adolescence, that is, before puberty, there results a great elongation of the bones, so that a giant is the consequence.... If the overaction happens after puberty, when the long bones have set and can not grow longer, a peculiar, diffuse enlargement of the individual occurs, especially of his hands and feet and head. The nose, ears, lips and eyes get larger and coarser. All those people are rather big and tall to begin with, heavy jawed, burly, with overhanging eyebrows and an aggressive manner. Rabelais' most famous character, Gargantua, belongs to the group. We recruit more drum majors than prime ministers from among those people."