Observations on the Blood of Workmen Exposed to High Temperatures.

The morbidity arising from exposure of workmen to excessively high environmental temperatures is an old problem, extended and accentuated by the development of modern industry. Economic and humanitarian motives have combined, in recent years, to stimulate investigation of the various clinical entities grouped under the general term " heat sickness." Of the many contributions on this problem, those of Hall and Wakefield (1), Bock and Dill (2), Talbott and Michelsen (3), Heilman and Montgomery (4), and Talbott (5) are particularly enlightening. The last author supplies an extensive bibliography. Both clinical and laboratory studies point to derangement of salt, sugar, and water metabolism as possible factors in the production of heat sickness. The present study amplifies the observations of Heilman and Montgomery (4) on the blood of steel workers. The blood findings of a control group were compared with those of patients exhibiting symptoms due to heat. Some technical modifications and additional observations necessitated an entirely new control series. The work occupied the summer months of 1936 and 1937.