ENDOCRINE ASPECTS OF ADOLESCENCE

ADOLESCENCE—the hyphen between puberty and maturity—presents a phase of life not too well understood. Events so conspicuous as the rapid growth of childhood, the onset of menstruation at puberty and pregnancy in maturity are lacking. Independence develops, and the normal adolescent graduates from the care and supervision of the pediatrician. Ordinarily, the adolescent is not seen by a physician unless some disease or abnormality occurs; hence, the hiatus in our knowledge of normal adolescence.

Life is a changing process, varying from one person to another and from time to time in the same person. Furthermore, the human body is so readily adaptable to circumstances that it may be exceedingly difficult to predict with any degree of accuracy the response to outside influences. Yet similarity of repeated clinical observation permits an expression of opinion while one is awaiting more specific data. It is now generally understood that the structure and