Study Of Man’s Reaction To Extremes Of Climate

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28490, 21 January 1958, Page 13

Study Of Man’s Reaction To Extremes Of Climate

[From DENIS WEDERELL, “The Press” Correspondent with the U.S. Antarctic expedition.]

MCMURDO SOUND, Jan. 18.

Hormones may be more important than muscles in choosing men for rigorous duties in the future. Studies by physiologists on the battle fronts, in the jungles and now in the Antarctic show that bodily responses to extremes of heat, cold and stress are more important than mere physical strength. Dr. William Siri, a University of California physiologist, said here today that ultimately it would be possible to preselect a man for extremes of climate and equip him with drugs to enable him to withstand his environment. “Physiological responses often determine the emotional outlook,” he said. Dr. Siri is one of a team of physiologists sent to the Antarctic by Britain’s Wellcome Foundation and the United States Office of Naval Research to study the reaction of men to one of the toughest environments in the world. They took samples .of blood and urine from men before they arrived in the Antarctic and are now comparing these with samples that are being taken from the same men after several months here —either in relatively comfortable huts at bases such as this or after several months in the field sledging or with tractor trains.

Tests made of Sir Edmund Hillary’s men showed only one was not dehydrated. He was Jim Bates, the wiry young mechanic

who chose to eat pemmican instead of bacon and eggs, Hillary’s speciality on the trail. Loss Of Weight While Mr Bates lost no weight after about three months in the field Sir Edmund Hillary during the same period dropped from around 2001bs to 1651b5. Other members of the five-man trail party similarly lost weight. “There is some evidence that under continued stress there is a reduction of gamma globulin in the blood and a tendency to develop upper respiratory infections.” said Dr. Siri. “Some of the field teams show a marked reduction. “After four days’ heavy fighting in Korea a group of men returned to the rear suffering from stress and apprehension, and cold and emotionally exhausted. Previously they would have been given a hot meal, a good night’s rest and sent up to the front again, but physiological tests showed that if they had they would have been ‘clay pigeons.’ “Tests showed a serious slowing up of adrenal gland activity such as could lead to collapse under further similar stress. “One man’s glands with all the discipline- in the world are not going to pump any more hormones into the blood stream than another’s,” said Dr. Siri. He instanced the collapse of Evans, the biggest and strongest man m Scott’s Pole party during the mankilling trek back down the Beardmore Glacier. Dr. Siri implied that today’s knowledge which might well have saved Evans’s life will some day be used to select space travel crews. This summer the physiologists are studying the reactions of men of the Seabee units, the support group and the men of five separate field parties—Hillary’s. Fuchs’s, and those of Dr. Albert Crary’s Ross Ice Shelf traverse, Byrd traverse and the two seismologists who are flying out to Victoria Plateau for a week in the field at a time. “Physiologists themselves are their own guinea pigs and what is true of them is true of all,” said Dr. Siri. “The big, muscular man is not always the toughest—we are still searching for a lead to the type of man best fitted to a life such as this.”