No abstract

weight of wheat) and cod liver oil (compare Sherman, '37). The animals were kept in a room of fairly constant temperature (about 24" to 28'C.). Post-mortem examinations showed that no obvious abnormalities were present. Living conditions in the colony were favorable and had remained relatively constant for many generations.

No abstract

Sweating of human volunteers immersed to the neck in hot water declined markedly after reaching a peak in the 1st hr of exposure. This decline always occurred in fresh water regardless of level of thermal stress. Sweating in the 3rd hr of exposure was about the same whether the water was hot in the 1st 2 hr (sweat glands active) or cool (sweat glands inactive). Thus “fatigue” was not responsible for the decline. It is suggested that observations of decline of sweating in warm-humid air environments, attributed to “sweat gland fatigue,” in reality may have been owing to soaking of the skin with sweat. The mechanism of suppression appears more complex than blockage of the sweat ducts by swelling of the corneum. Rather, there is an association between the amount of decline and conditions favoring diffusion of water to deeper strata of the skin. For example, adding salt to the water reduced the decline; no decline occurred in 15% NaCl. Submitted on March 6, 1961

No abstract

Four men, ages 44—60, repeated daily work experiments in the heat by which they had demonstrated on themselves rapid acclimatization to work in a hot climate 21 years earlier. The work, heat stress, and duration of exposure were those originally found to cause marked hyperpyrexia and circulatory strain in unacclimatized men (mean age 31 years) on the 1st day in the heat. Under these conditions, the subjects sweated at 1.3— 1.5 kg/hr. Tolerance of the men on the 1st day of exposure was no less than when they were younger. Body temperatures and heart rates of the older men were lowered in successive days of exposure and the work was judged progressively easier. Final values of body temperature reached after 5—7 days of exposure were about the same as observed originally after the same number of exposures. Thus, these older men exhibited about the same degree of strain during work in the heat as they did 21 years earlier and acclimatized about as well. aging; hyperthermia Submitted on October 1, 1964

1. Twenty-one patients with pernicious anemia were maintained on synthetic folic acid (pteroylglutamic acid) therapy alone for periods ranging from eight to seventeen months. Satisfactory blood levels were maintained in all cases receiving daily oral doses of 1.25 to 15.0 mg. Severe hematologic relapse occurred within six months in a case treated with monthly injections of 30 mg. 2. Synthetic folic acid in oral doses of 15 mg. daily induced satisfactory hematopoietic responses in 3 patients with pernicious anemia in severe relapse, but only slight hematopoietic response in a fourth patient with mild pernicious anemia but severe subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord. 3. Ten patients showed a significant improvement in blood values for a few months after substitution of folic acid for liver extract. With one exception these subsided after six or more months to pre-folic acid levels comparable with those previously maintained with liver extract alone. 4. These observations suggest that a combination of orally administered folic acid and parenterally injected liver extract may maintain a better hematologic status than either substance alone. 5. A previously untreated patient with severe subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord failed to show improvement in neural disease during twentyeight days of folic acid therapy. 6. Eleven patients developed, or showed progression of, subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord during folic acid treatment. Neurologic disease developed in most of these patients when the peripheral blood was normal. 7. One patient showed an extremely explosive onset and rapid progression of neural disease. The progression of the disease was rapid in 3 other cases. 8. The institution of liver extract therapy in adddition to folic acid in 5 patients who developed subacute combined degeneration during folic acid maintenance therapy failed to prevent progression of the disease in 4 cases, and only partially arrested the disease in the fifth, in which improvement occurred more rapidly when folic acid was discontinued. 9. Subacute combined degeneration occurred with greater frequency in patients on large daily doses of folic acid than it did in patients with small or intermittent doses. 10. The possibility is discussed that folic acid in large daily doses may actually precipitate or aggravate neurologic disease. 11. It is suggested that folic acid may interfere with the metabolism of 1(+) glutamic acid in the central nervous system and possibly disturb the formation or function of acetylcholine.

Acclimatization to heat, repeatedly demonstrated in male subjects, has not been reported in females. This paper presents quantitative evidence for heat acclimatization in women. Nine women participated (five at University of Pittsburgh and four at University of Illinois, Urbana) in daily 2-hr walks in the heat for 2–3 weeks. By the usual criteria (reduced pulse rate, reduced rectal temperature rise, lower skin temperature, ability to complete the assigned task, and subjective comfort) all subjects became acclimatized to heat. Submitted on September 4, 1962