10 



ANIMAL TEMPERATURE. 



Tulle showing the Eolation between the Temperature and the Chemical Changes of the Molecules of 

 the Solids and Fluids of Warm and Cold-Blooded Animals. 



Those tables show that, although the union of the oxygen of the atmosphere 

 with the elements of the solids and fluids of cold-blooded animals is so slow that 

 their temperature changes with that of the surrounding medium, still they generate 

 within themselves a certain amount of heat. This is proved by the fact, that, the 

 interior of their bodies in the region of the heart and liver generally has a temper- 

 ature a fraction of a degree higher than that of the parts nearer the surface. 



The fact that the temperature of their bodies is often several degrees below that 

 of the surrounding medium is readily explained by a reference to our investigations 

 upon the effects of thirst and starvation upon the solids and fluids. The loss of 

 weight is due, in a greater degree, to the evaporation of the water of the solids and 

 fluids than to the metamorphosis and final elimination of the organic elements in 

 the maintenance of animal temperature. The amount of solid matters consumed 

 in the maintenance of the temperature of cold-blooded animals is not always suffi- 

 cient to supply the heat abstracted by evaporation. 



Losses in the Weights of Animals during different periods of Thirst and Starvation. 



