PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 4 1 



Thus whilst that very common butterfly, the small 

 tortoise-shell, is seen in the very early days of the year, 

 other Lepidoptera as a rule do not hibernate, and I think 

 it ])robable that no moths survive the winter. 



Where then do those animals which are capable of 

 enduring an extreme degree of cold derive the resistant 

 power ; what is the secret of the fortress which defies 

 in some instances the rigour of a temperature of which 

 none of us can have had any experience and probably 

 never shall ? 



When animalculae — I use the term generically — are 

 frozen in a containing vessel of water they are not 

 destroyed. This is a fact which may easily be verified 

 by anyone in a very simple manner. Each of the little 

 organisms will live for a time in a tiny uncongealed space. 

 A minute ])ortion of film of the surrounding fluid, by 

 reason of the temperature of the body enclosed, is kept 

 in an uncongelated condition. It is true that these 

 creatures are called cold-blooded, as also others, which, 

 really are not truly and absolutely so. If you want to 

 make an experiment, which though not agreeable, may be 

 instructive, I have read on good authority that if you 

 were to make a pile of worms, leeches, snails and slugs 

 round a thermometer you would find the mercury rise 

 above the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere, 

 and therefore (if this be true) these animals have some 

 power of resisting the influence of a cold temperature, 

 owing to their internal heat — without which they would 

 inevitably perish. In the so-called cold-blooded vertebrata 

 the heat of the body almost entirely depends on the 

 temperature of the environment. It is so with fishes, 

 (with some few exceptions) in which the blood contains a 

 larger proportion of red globules or discs. For in birds, 

 reptiles, and fishes the blood particles curiously diff"er 

 from those of mammalia. The proportion of red blood 

 particles in the whole mass of the blood varies greatly in 



