Human Performance Physiology and Environmental Medicine at Terrestrial Extremes. Kent B. Pandolf, Michael N. Sawka and Richard R. Gonzalez, editors. Benchmark Press, Indianapolis, 1988. 637 pages, charts, tables. $40.00.

In 1986, the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, of which this remarkable text is a summary. Sixteen comprehensive chapters describe human responses to heat, cold, high altitude, exercise and sleep (including circadian rhythm and altitude effects). The text is extensively documented and is an authoritative compendium of all that is known about these subjects to date. Practical applications are not stressed, but can easily be extrapolated from much of the data presented. This is an important addition to any library of environmental and exercise physiology.

Charles S. Houston, M.D.