Arctic Nights

Many scientists accept the theory that sunlight influences conception and hence that Eskimos are sterile during the long Arctic nights. In last week's Science, Zoologist Wayne L. Whitaker of the University of Michigan rose to defend Eskimo potency. Analysis of all the births in West Greenland between the years 1901 and 1930 shows that more conceptions occurred in April, the first month of spring, and December, the Eskimos' visiting season, than in any other months. His conclusions: 1) whatever sexual debility may have been observed by early explorers is probably due to famine during the lone, cruel winter, rather than lack of light: 2) "it seems unwise to consider the possibility of the existence of definitely limited seasons of reproduction in other human groups . . . [since] much of the published material available is based on inadequate data."

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