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Warm-Blooded Animals

the name given to mammalia and aves or birds, in contradistinction to fishes, amphibians, and reptilia, as lower vertebrata, and to all invertebrate animals. In the latter, the blood is only a degree or two warmer than the medium in which they live, while in mammals and birds the blood greatly exceeds the outer temperature in heat. heat. The average mammalian temperature varies from 99° F. to 100° F., as in man and his nearest allies, to 103° F. in the whales. In birds, the lowest temperature is about 104° F., which are the warmest-blooded animals, and may range to 110° or 112° F. This would represent an excessive fever heat in man. In hibernating animals the temperature falls considerably, as the tissue waste is reduced to its minimum.

The production of heat depends on the union of oxygen in the blood with carbon and hydrogen in the tissues; aclarge supply of oxygen, and producing tive habits, as in birds, demanding a heat accordingly. nek), a German theologian; born in