Physiological Effects of Heat and Cold

Abstract

On July 10, 1945, a reportl was submitted to Allied authorities which made notorious history. In this extraordinary report on the Dachau concentration camp (i), those who have an interest in the social responsibilities of science may gain new insight into the type of rationalization of those who support such activities. The sub­ ject of investigation in these discreditable experiments was the physiology of cold exposure. A full review of the credible portions of the work is warranted by reason of their intrinsic interest and the relative inaccessibility of the report. The Dachau experiments were conducted by a certain S. Rascher, apparently a pharmacologist, under direct orders from Himmler, and with the collaboration of the medical division of the Luftwaffe. Their object was to determine the most effective meth­ od of resuscitation for sea or land exposure cases recovered with reduced body temperature and evidences of exposure shock. One section of the general plan provided for the exposure of nude prisoners to air temperatures of -6°C. for as long as· fourteen hours, a period sufficient to freeze peripheral tissue and to reduce rectal temperatures to 25°C. A more fully reported series provided for the experimental immersion in water at 2° to 12°C. of subjects either nude or dressed in standard flight equipment. In these procedures not less than 103 persons were used, few of whom appeared to have survived the complete experimental pro­ gram. In one table, seven deaths are specifically recorded. Because of the bearing of this record on absolute tolerance to extreme cold,