6 August Krogh and Marie Krogh. 



ological work. It possesses however a small chemical laboratory in 

 which our gas analysis apparatus could be fitted up. The respiration 

 chamber itself was erected near the Station on a piece of compara- 

 tively level ground. It was a small hut 2 m X 1.8 m square and 

 1.85 m high in front. Inside it was fitted up like a real Eskimo hut. 

 The only furniture consisted of a broad couch of boards covered with 

 furs. It was painted in bright colours and gaily decorated everywhere 

 with cheap coloured pictures to keep the subjects in good spirits during 

 their confinement. The front was covered with a tent to protect it 

 and the gas sampling apparatus against rain. Behind the chamber 

 were two tents of which one was used as a laboratory, while the other 

 was to be occupied by our Eskimo assistant and interpreter and a 

 cook to prepare the food of the subjects so far in accordance with 

 their taste as the experimental conditions would allow. The chamber 

 was ventilated by means of a large gas meter acting as a pump and 

 driven by means of the water wheel partly shown on figure 2 which 

 proved to be an efficient and very constant motor. The Arctic Station 

 possessed a sort of water works consisting simply of a barrel put up 

 in a brook about 50 feet above the house. The w^er main from this 

 vessel was close at hand behind the respiration chamber and provided 

 water for the wheel. The whole of the camp had to be hedged in to 

 protect it against the Eskimo dogs which were lurking about every- 

 where and whose appetite is not limited to substances generally ad- 

 mitted as eatable. Our chief anxiety was that they might break into 

 the camp at night and eat the leather string connecting the water- 

 wheel with the meter, thereby stopping ventilation. To provide against 

 this contingency a special electric signal was put up which would 

 ring a bell as soon as the string was torn away from the meter. The 

 dogs never got inside the hedge but it was torn away once by a gust 

 of wind. 



As we had not had time to put the chamber together before we 

 left Copenhagen we found of course that it was faulty in certain re- 

 spects and several serious difficulties were encountered. By the re- 

 sourcefulness of Mr. Nygaard, the assistant at the Arctic Station, 

 all difficulties were overcome and in a fortnight the whole camp was 

 completed and the experiments could begin. 



Now arose the problem of getting suitable subjects. It was 

 arranged from the outset to experiment on two persons simultane- 

 ously because it was considered impossible to persuade any Eskimo 

 to be alone in the chamber. We offered high wages, but the Eskimos 

 were very unwilling to accept our offers, though the prospect of having 

 only to sit quietly in a hut for four days and getting all they would 

 eat should of itself be rather tempting to them. The difficulty was 

 that the whole affair could not avoid to appear in an extremely comi- 

 cal ligth to the natives. Anybody taking part in it would be sure to 



