Metabolic and thermal studies were conducted at night at Pangnirtung, N.W.T., on a group of ten Eskimo hunters from Cumberland Sound, Baffin Island, and on three white controls, to compare their reactions to cold (5 ± 1 C) with that of other racial groups. Cumberland Sound Eskimos maintained a resting metabolism that was elevated, according to DuBois standards, during sleep on warm nights. This elevation was not found in hospitalized men who had been living for an average of 6 months in Edmonton, Alberta. During exposure to moderate cold, the Cumberland Sound Eskimos and white controls had an elevated metabolism, shivering, and a disturbed sleep. Peripheral temperatures were maintained at a higher level in Eskimos than in whites. Because of the absence of marked physiological differences between Eskimos and whites, it is concluded that the principal adaptation of these Eskimos to their climate is technological. Submitted on June 4, 1962

Performing muscular work in cold surroundings results in a greater energy requirement than that in a neutral environment at low levels of work, but is the same as that in a neutral environment at higher levels of work when rectal temperature is increased by the work. No higher heat production could be demonstrated in Eskimos than in Caucasians. It was found that rectal temperature increases during muscular work up to a certain level, this being almost constant over a wide range of environmental temperatures if the rate of work is constant. But when work rate becomes sufficiently low, the heat production is too small to compensate for the increased heat loss in the cold, so that the rectal temperature falls. A quicker onset of the rewarming of the previously cooled skin of the hands was found in Eskimos than in Caucasians as a result of exercise in the cold. This suggests a different vasomotor control of the blood supply to the skin. Submitted on August 6, 1962