The Breath of a Bird i8i 



is the ease in all the warm-blooded creatures above it, 

 the heart is nearer the under side of the body — the breast 

 — than near the back. And herein lies an important 

 difference between the two great divisions of the Ani- 

 mal Kingdom, vertebrates and invertebrates, — the former 

 always having the heart near the breast, while in the back- 

 boneless organisms it is near the back. 



The heart of a fish is fairl}- concentrated and muscu- 

 lar, but the blood which passes through it is but an im- 

 pure and sluggish stream. In reptiles both pure and 

 impure blood is found in the heart, but they mingle, and 

 thus half destroy the purifying action of the lungs. This 

 explains why these animals are cold-blooded, and also 

 accounts for their usual lethargic disposition and low 

 mental plane of life. 



In crocodiles we find a significant condition. There 

 are four chambers in the heart, as in mammals and in 

 birds, but this avails nothing; for, leading from the heart 

 are two arteries instead of one, and where these cross 

 each other there is a tiny aperture — a small opening in 

 the partition which allows the impure blood to leak into 

 the stream of pure, red blood, and so a crocodile is only 

 a crocodile, although evolution has lifted his heart al- 

 most to a level wath birds and the w^arm-blooded ani- 

 mals. If this tiny hole could become closed, and the 

 two streams of blood be kept separate, the eyes of the 

 crocodile would brighten, his activity increase many fold, 

 and in fact his entire plane of life would be changed. 



I have thus briefly reviewed the heart in the lower 

 vertebrates in order to give a more vivid idea of this organ 



