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This work was done under a contract, recommended by the Committee on Medical Research, between the United States Office of Scientific Research and Development and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. It represents a large scale investigation in the field of environmental physiology from 1942 to 1945 and was conducted by a group of physiologists known as the Rochester Desert Union. It was done under the leadership of E. F. Adolph and a group of his associates. A greater part of their studies were made at the camp at Blythe, Calif., which is in the heart of the desert of southern California in the lower Colorado Basin.
Studies were made on soldiers, who volunteered for the tests. Men made long hikes in the blazing sun in temperatures ranging from 100 to 120, and were weighed every hour to estimate the sweat loss; the amount of water they