Precocious Puberty and Tumors of the Hypothalamus

Though numerous endocrine disturbances occur with disease or tumors of the brain, none has a more intriguing interest or presents so challenging a problem with respect to its cause than precocious puberty. There is at present a widely believed theory that it is caused in some way by tumors of, or in the region of, the pineal body. This association was first pointed out by Gutzeit, 1 but his case, viewed now, curiously does not appear to be a genuine instance of precocious puberty. The clinical and diagnostic features of pinealism were described by Frankl-Hochwart, 2 who wrote: When one finds in a very young person (boy) along with the general symptoms of tumor, as well as the local signs of a lesion of the corpora quadrigemina, abnormal body growth, unusual growth of hair, adiposity, somnolence, premature genital and sexual development and, finally, intellectual maturity, one must think of a