Due to various difficulties which do not exist to that extent
elsewhere, the physiological observations on the Eskimo are neither
as numerous or extended as would be desirable; yet there are some
data of value. They extend to the pulse, respiration, temperature,
and dynamometric tests of hand pressure. They were made mainly on St.
Lawrence and Nunivak Islands, by Moore, Collins, and Stewart. They
quite agree, especially after elimination of some records that are
clearly erroneous or abnormal. The tests should be extended with even
more rigid precautions in future work among the Eskimo.
The results are given below. They were all made in the summer season
and on healthy subjects, yet there were numerous indications of
temporary disorders, pathological or functional. Even after a careful
elimination of the obvious cases of such disorders not a few minor
irregularities have doubtless remained, so that the data can not be
taken for more than fairly close approximations to the normal.
The data show remarkably low pulse, respiration rate and temperature
close to those of whites, with a submedium hand pressure. (For
comparative data see "Old Americans.") The low pulse is also
characteristic in the Indian, as I have repeatedly pointed out before
(see especially my "Physiological and Medical Observations among the
Indians," etc., Bull. 34, Bur. Amer. Ethn., Washington, 1908).
The dynamometric tests agree also better with those on the Indians
than with those on whites; they are valid only as to the hands, and
they embody not only the strength of the muscles but also that of the
conscious impulse behind them. The age factor, of importance, does not
here enter materially into the case.