that we should give primary emphasis to subject material that had 

 not been discussed in detail at previous symposia. 



The Comparative Physiology of Vertebrate Temperature Regu- 

 lation seemed to admirably meet these criteria. Here was a sub- 

 ject where the work covered practically the whole range of zoologi- 

 cal sciences. Here, also, was a subject where the quite similar 

 work by investigators in one scientific discipline often went unrecog- 

 nized by investigators in another closely related scientific discipline. 

 For example, those of us who study the biochemistry of cold accli- 

 matization in small laboratory mammals may be unfamiliar with 

 biochemical studies on fish or other vertebrate heterotherms; those 

 of us who study the temperature regulation of cats and dogs may 

 not be cognizant of temperature regulation studies on domestic ani- 

 mals such as the cow; and those of us who are concerned with the 

 natural temperature adaptations of arctic animals may not relate 

 our information to studies that have been conducted on desert 

 animals. 



Our first concern, therefore, in organizing this symposium was 

 to bring togetherrepresentativesof the various scientific disciplines 

 who are interested in vertebrate temperature regulation. Beyond 

 this, we had two other desires in organizing this symposium. One 

 of these was to obtain participants who could discuss vertebrate 

 temperature regulation from the evolutionary standpoint. Our other 

 desire was to obtain participants who could interrelate temperature 

 adaptations to other forms of environmental adaptation. I feel that 

 we have been at least partially successful in achieving both of these 

 desires. And in this regard I would like to express my gratitude to 

 Dr. Laurence Irving, Dr. J. Sanford Hart and Dr. C. Ladd Prosser 

 for their valuable suggestions regarding possible participants and 

 subject material. 



Vlll 



