Taboo and Genetics | Page 9

and hence how it will influence the
growth or, when grown, the stable structure of other organs and cells. They are called
endocrine glands or organs, and their chemical contributions to the blood are known as
hormones.
Sometimes those which do nothing but furnish these secretions are spoken of as "ductless
glands," from their structure. The hormones (endocrine or internal secretions) do not
come from the ductless glands alone--but the liver and other glands contribute hormones
to the blood stream, in addition to their other functions. Some authorities think that
"every cell in the body is an organ of internal secretion",[2] and that thus each influences
all the others. The sex glands are especially important as endocrine organs; in fact the
somatic cells are organized around the germ cells, as pointed out above. Hence the sex
glands may be considered as the keys or central factors in the two chemical systems, the
male and the female type.
These various hormones or chemical controllers in the blood interact in a nicely balanced
chemical system. Taken as a whole this is often called the "secretory balance" or "internal
secretory balance." This balance is literally the key to the sex differences we see, because
it lies back of them; i.e., there are two general types of secretory balance, one for males
and one for females. Not only are the secretions from the male and the female sex glands
themselves quite unlike, but the whole chemical system, balance or "complex" involved
is different. Because of this dual basis for metabolism or body chemistry, centering in the
sex glands, no organ or cell in a male body can be exactly like the corresponding one in a
female body.
In highly organized forms like the mammals (including man), sex is linked up with all the
internal secretions, and hence is of the whole body.[3] As Bell [2, p.5] states it: "We must
focus at one and the same time the two essential processes of life--the individual
metabolism and the reproductive metabolism. They are interdependent. Indeed, the
individual metabolism is the reproductive metabolism."
Here, then, is the reason men have larger, differently formed bodies than women--why
they have heavier bones, tend to grow beards, and so on. The sex glands are only part of
what we may call a well-organized chemical laboratory, delivering various products to
the blood, but always in the same general proportions for a given sex. The ingredients
which come from the sex glands are also qualitatively different, as has been repeatedly
proved by injections and otherwise.
Each of these sex types, male and female, varies somewhat within itself, as is true of
everything living. The two are not so far apart but that they may overlap occasionally in
some details. For instance, some women are larger than are some men--have lower
pitched voices, etc. The whole bodily metabolism, resting as it does upon a chemical
complex, is obviously more like the male average in some women than it is in others, and
vice versa. But the average physical make-up which we find associated with the male and
female sex glands, respectively, is distinctive in each case, and a vast majority of
individuals of each sex conform nearly enough to the average so that classification
presents no difficulty.

The extreme as well as the average body types existing in the presence of the respective
types of sex-glands are different. For example, we find an occasional hen with male spurs,
comb or wattles, though she is a normal female in every other respect, and lays eggs.[4]
But we never find a functional female (which lays eggs) with all the typical
characteristics of the male body. Body variation can go only so far in the presence of
each type of primary sexuality (i.e., sex-glands).
The bodily peculiarities of each sex, as distinguished from the sex-glands or gonads
themselves, are known as secondary sex characters. To put our statement in the
paragraph above in another form, the primary and secondary sex do not always
correspond in all details. We shall find as we proceed that our original tentative definition
of sex as the ability to produce in the one case sperm, in the other eggs, is sometimes
difficult to apply. What shall we say of a sterile individual, which produces neither? The
problem is especially embarrassing when the primary and secondary sex do not
correspond, as is sometimes the case.
Even in a fully grown animal, to remove or exchange the sex glands (by surgery)
modifies the bodily type. One of the most familiar cases of removal is the gelding or
desexed horse. His appearance and disposition are different from the stallion, especially if
the operation takes place while he is very young. The reason he resembles a normal male
in many respects is simply that sexuality in