Although non-pathological research into the effects of the atmospheric environment on man has gained momentum in recent years, interest has chiefly centred on the relatively stressful climatic conditions encountered in the newly developing areas of the world.

It has been pointed out that man’s culture has far outpaced his biological evolution and that his biological fitness has become increasingly dependent upon his technological creations (Sargent 1964a). With rapid progress in the technology of microclimatic regulation and the future possibility of climatic control on a larger scale (Kahn and Wiener 1967), it would seem that more information is needed on the...

Since the organism of man is homeothermic, normally its functions are restricted to the narrow range of temperatures of approximately 97 to 100°F, or 36 to 38°C (Burton and Edholm 1955). This constancy of the internal environment is maintained by means of an equilibrium between metabolic heat production and its dissipation. Almost any particular state of the thermal balance can be represented by the equation introduced by Gagge (1936, p. 656):

M ± S − E ± R ± C = 0

where M is the metabolic rate, S is the storage rate within the body, E is the rate...

The study sample was chosen from the population of secondary schoolchildren in Southern England, as represented by the Reading area. This delineation of the population by age, occupation, and geographic region fulfills three basic requirements :

1. similarity of basal metabolic rates and physical fitness;

2. similarity in clothing, normal daily activities, and rates of heat production due to these;

3. similarity of weather and climatic experiences and the degree of acclimatization to prevalent thermal conditions.

There are also certain unique advantages in the choice of this particular section of the whole population. First, schoolchildren are naturally organized into homogeneous groups; second these...

The whole-hour Pauli Tests were completed by July 1967, and the final sample was divided by sex into 35 boys' and 23 girls' sessions. Of the 6 separate classes in this sample a session had been lost in each of three schools, in one due to excessive absence, and in the others due to obvious outside noise disturbances. Tests with another class had been terminated after only the second test session due to extremely sporadic attendance. Since a number of summer sessions were included in the preliminary analysis, it was considered necessary to reduce these indoor temperatures by a constant...