188 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1128 



New York Commission made a partial study 

 of this topic on human beings with, the as- 

 sistance of Mr. H. L. Higgins, then of the 

 Carnegie Nutrition Laboratory. The tests 

 employed included such subjects as total 

 metabolism or total heat production, the 

 metabolism of carbohydrate, and the 

 metabolism of protein. The results were 

 almost wholly negative. They can not, 

 however, be regarded as conclusive. As 

 regards lesser specific changes in meta- 

 bolic processes, too, little can be said at 

 present. But the facts that external cold 

 increases metabolism, that profound meta- 

 bolic changes occur in the fevers of infec- 

 tion and that there is some evidence that in 

 hyperthermy produced in other ways than 

 by infections metabolism is altered, lead us 

 to suspect that it may be changed, not only 

 totally but in specific details, with even 

 moderate changes in the surrounding atmo- 

 sphere. It is difficult to believe that a 

 relationship that is so amply demonstrated 

 for the physical phenomena of the body 

 does not involve also its chemical perform- 

 ances. 



A further topic that is inviting is the 

 possible relationship between atmospheric 

 conditions and bacterial infections. Most 

 of the experimental observations that have 

 here been made relate especially to the ac- 

 tion of temperature on the course of infec- 

 tions, and it has generally been found that 

 high external temperature with accom- 

 panying pronounced increase of bodily 

 temperature checks the progress of infec- 

 tions that are already existing. Somewhat 

 lower temperatures (30°-35° C, 86°-95° 

 F.) on the other hand, seem to favor the 

 multiplication of the bacteria and the ad- 

 vance of the disease. In the experiments of 

 "Winslow, Miller and Noble, 9 of the New 

 York Commission, in which rabbits were 



o Winslow, Miller and Noble, Proe. Soc. Exp. 

 Biol, and Med., XIII., 93, 1916. 



confined in air of from 29° to 32° C. (84.2° 

 -89.6° F.) there was, in the first three 

 weeks, a distinct decrease in the formation 

 of hemolysins when the animals were com- 

 pared with control animals kept at lower 

 room temperatures. Similar but less stri- 

 king results were obtained in the formation 

 of agglutinins. 10 It thus appears that ex- 

 ternal temperatures up to about 30° C. 

 (86° F.) are unfavorable to the develop- 

 ment of immune bodies in the blood. Miller 

 and Noble, 11 of the New York Commission, 

 found, furthermore, that respiratory infec- 

 tions of rabbits with Bacillus bovisepticum 

 (snuffles) is favored by the chilling of such 

 animals after they have been accustomed to 

 heat, and some of their results suggest that 

 a change from a low to a high external tem- 

 perature also predisposes to similar infec- 

 tion. Although Chodounsky 12 obtained only 

 negative results, the weight of the recent 

 experimental evidence favors the view that 

 exposure of the body to cold is favorable to 

 the incidence of acute respiratory disease, 

 and it appears not improbable that the pri- 

 mary seat of this deleterious influence is in 

 the mucous membrane of the upper air 

 passages. 



No review of recent progress in our 

 knowledge of the relation of man to the 

 atmosphere would be complete if it failed 

 to take note of the striking observations of 

 Mr. Ellsworth Huntington, which are set 

 forth in his engaging book on ' ' Civilization 

 and Climate." 13 Mr. Huntington made a 

 careful study of the output of industrial 

 workers in various factories in the state of 



io Winslow, Miller and Noble, Proc. Soc. Exp. 

 Biol, and Med., XIII., 1916. 



ii Miller and Noble, "The Effects of Exposure 

 to Cold Upon Experimental Infection of the Res- 

 piratory Tract. ' ' Not yet published. 



is Chodounsky, ' ' Erkaltung und Erkaltungs- 

 krankheiten, " Wien, 1907. 



13 Huntington, ' ' Civilization and Climate, ' ' New 

 Haven, 1915. 



