The Glands Regulating Personality: A Study of the Glands of Internal Secretion in Relation to the Types of Human NatureBerman, Louis
History
The Glands Regulating Personality: A Study of the Glands of Internal Secretion in Relation to the Types of Human Nature
Berman, Louis
Endocrinology; Personality
The findings after death confirm the view of him as an unstable
pituitocentric who succumbed to pituitary insufficiency toward the
latter half of his life. We possess the account of the postmortem by
Dr. Henry, who performed it. "The whole surface of the body was deeply
covered with fat. Over the sternum, where generally the bone is very
superficial, the fat was upwards of an inch deep, and an inch and a
half or two inches on the abdomen. There was scarcely any hair on the
body, and that of the head was thin, fine and silky. The whole genital
system (very small) seemed to exhibit a physical cause for the absence
of sexual desire, and the chastity which had been stated to have
characterized the deceased (during his stay at St. Helena). The skin
was noticed to be very white and delicate as were the hands and arms.
Indeed the whole body was slender and effeminate. The pubis much
resembled the Mons Veneris in women. The muscles of the chest were
small, the shoulders were narrow and the hips wide." In other words,
the typical feminization of the body which accompanies pituitary
insufficiency was found. He died of a cancer of the stomach. But
before his death there were noted the mental transformations that
succeed deficiency of his central endocrine. Apathy, indolence,
fatigability, and frilosity were what impressed his associates at St.
Helena. The deterioration of his mentality was also exemplified in his
literary diversions, the "Siege of Troy" and the "Essay on Suicide."
The puerility of these productions, as well as of his conduct, a
sulking before his captors, and the decline of his physical energy,
once a bottomless well, all point to the same conclusion.
The rise and fall of Napoleon followed the rise and fall of his
pituitary gland. No better illustration exists of the fundamental
determination of a personality and its career by an endocrine,
aside from other factors of education, environment, accident and
opportunity. Without the sort of endocrine equipment he was born with,
however, none of the other factors would have found the material to
work upon. Born, say, with more of a posterior pituitary than he had,
which would have rendered him more sensitive to the sufferings of his
fellow-creatures, if nothing else, and the forces of the Revolution
probably would have swamped him from the very first moment of his
emergence at Toulon, when the whiff of grape-shot, symptom of an
inexorable, merciless intellect and will, started him upon the road
that led to the Napoleonic Era. Destiny is always ironic. For the
deficiency of the internal secretions which made him eligible for
glory was responsible as well as for his downfall.
EPILEPSY AND MIGRAINE IN GENIUS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account