E@ct of Heating and Cooling the Legs ORZ Hand mzd Fomwm Blood Flow ia the Eskimo’

I T HAS 'BEEN FOUND plethysmographically in an earlier series of experiments car-ried out at an ambient temperature of zo°C that the Eskimos have a greater hand and forearm blood flow over a wide range of water-bath temperatures than do white men living in a temperate climate (I, 2). This indicates a greater dissipation of heat from the hands of the Eskimo under these circumstances, as well as perhaps an abil-ity to maintain under adverse local temperature conditions a circulation which can maintain hand function at a higher level. In this present study we have made ob-servations on the variations in hand and forearm blood flow which occur in the Eskimo when a distant part of the body is either cooled or warmed. Subcutaneous, muscle and rectal temperatures have also been determined and all the data have been compared with those obtained in a control group. METHOD The Eskimos were healthy males between 18 and 40 yr. of age who lived on Southampton Island, Northwest Territories, and maintained themselves by hunt-ing and trapping. They were thus subjects who were used to considerable exposure to the cold and had demonstrated their ability to live and work in the cold. The studies on this group were made in July and August 1950. The control group was made up of male medical students and they were studied during September an