Alterations in these glands of "internal secretion" may therefore produce an arrest of development—and, in mild cases, forms of infantilism. But the gland which in this connection is of first importance is the thyroid.
Now there is one form of arrest of the trophic rhythm of growth which may be due to hereditary causes effecting the formative glands (myxedematous infantilism), or to exceptional causes occurring in the individual himself in the course of formation, either at the moment of conception, or at some later moment, as may happen even during the period of infancy (dystrophic infantilism of various origin).
In all these cases, however, according to Hertoghe, the exceptional causes, deleterious to growth, would first of all exercise their influence upon the glands of internal secretion and especially upon the thyroid.
In order to make clear, in connection with such complex pathological problems, the cases which are important from the point of view of pedagogy and the school, let us divide them into:
Myxedematous infantilism, due to congenital insufficiency of the thyroid gland from hereditary causes, and
Dystrophic infantilism, associated with various causes deleterious to individual development—and acting secondarily upon the glands of internal secretion (syphilis, tuberculosis, alcoholism, malaria, pellagra, etc.).
Myxedematous infantilism is characterised by short stature, by excessive development of the adipose system, and by arrest of mental development (including speech). Such infantiles very frequently have a special morphology of the face, that suggests the mongol type, and characteristic malformations of the hands (little fingers atrophied). When treated with extracts of the thyroid glands of animals, they improve notably; they become thinner, they gain in stature, their mentality develops to the extent of permitting them to study and to work. Certain mongoloids treated by De Sanctis in the Asylum-School at Rome were improved to the point of being able to attend the high-school and therefore were restored to their family and to society as useful individuals—all of which are facts that are of singular importance to us as educators! Medical care working hand in hand with pedagogy may save from parasitism individual human beings who otherwise would be lost. We ought to be convinced from such evidence of the necessity of special schools for deficients, wholly separated from the elementary schools, and where medical care combined with a specially adapted pedagogic treatment may transform the school into a true "home of health and education." The plan of a "school with a prolonged schedule of hours," including two meals and a medical office, as was conceived and organised by Prof. Sante de Sanctis in Rome, has been proved to answer admirably to this social need; because without wholly removing the children from their families, and therefore without exposing them to the disadvantages of a boarding school, it provides them with all the assistance necessary to their special needs.
Dystrophic Infantilism.—Given a case of infantilism, discoverable by the teacher through the general measurements of the body and psychic examination, it is interesting to investigate the deleterious causes.
It may be the result of poisoning, as for example from alcohol. Alcohol has such a direct influence upon the arrest of development that in England jockeys are produced by making the lads drink a great deal of alcohol. Children who drink alcohol do not grow in stature, and similarly the embryo grows in a less degree when the mother indulges in alcohol during pregnancy; some Swiss women deliberately resort to this means, in order that a smaller child may lessen the pain of childbirth. But alcohol not only diminishes the stature, but destroys the harmony of the different parts; that is, in the development of the body it arrests both the volumetric and the morphological growth. Furthermore, alcohol produces in children an arrest of mental development. An acquaintance with this principle of hygiene should be looked upon by the teacher less as a piece of special knowledge than as a social duty. From the point of view of the educator, the fight against alcoholism should have no assignable limits! It would be vain for him to perfect his didactic methods in order to educate a child that drank wine or other still worse alcoholic liquors. It would be better if the efforts which he meant to dedicate to such educative work could be all turned to a propaganda directed toward the parents of such children, or toward the children themselves, to induce them to abstain from so pernicious a habit!
We may also consider in the category of poisonings certain chronic maladies which act upon the organism with special toxic (poisonous) effects. In the foremost rank of such maladies belongs