The author is a psychologist who has observed glandular therapy by physicians and checked the results by mental tests and careful observation by herself and teachers who did not know the time or extent of therapy. The first chapter deals with mental capacity, largely as determined by mental tests, and discusses the relationship of inefficiency to glandular disturbances.
The greater part of the book describes patients—normal and subnormal—with thyroid, parathyroid, calcium and pituitary dysfunction. Mental sluggishness and obscure mental difficulties, with a low metabolic rate, indicate hypothyroidism. Lack of concentration, irritability, restlessness, tapping the feet, tearing the clothes, twitching and jerking and tantrums are symptoms of calcium deficiency. This condition is corrected by calcium therapy, although sometimes this must be supplemented by parathyroid therapy. "Recent studies have shown that a very large proportion of children and adolescents with behavior problems are cases that at least have a concomitant pituitary disturbance."