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Show 964 MR. W. A. FORBES ON THE INCUBATION [Nov. 29, case more than half the eggs hatched out, it may be that the failure of our animal to do the same was due to the lack of heat. There is also in our case none of that steady fall in temperature, from the commencement to the close of incubation, observed by Valenciennes. In his case, at the commencement of incubation the female had a temperature of 41°*5 C. (106°*7 F.) between the folds (the highest observed at all), falling at the end to 28° C. (82°*4 F.). In our case, the maximum temperature was very nearly obtained on three different occasions. The second set of observations, those made here in 1862, are hardly complete enough to allow of much comparison ; but throughout that series the differences between the sexes are greater, though the absolute temperatures are considerably lower * than the average ones I obtained. Renewed observations will be required to satisfactorily settle the amount of the increase of temperature-a fact of which there can now, I think, be no doubt-which is produced in these reptiles by the process of incubation. The average difference of 3° F. which I have obtained is, it may be observed, very nearly identical with that which occurs in thecase of the temperature of fever-patients as compared with the normal. And as the increase of heat in an incubating bird is essentially of the same nature as that produced by an inflammation of a tissue, and such is also presumably the case in an incubating reptile, the nearness of the results thus arrived at is, in itself, an argument in favour of the correctness of m y observations. TABLE I. Record of Observations on the Temperature of the incubating (Female) and non-incubating (Male) Pythons. Date. June 14... c3 O C •r-t 0 6 75*0 4a CO a u a 2 53 o 77-2 © so C3 O i - i © I o o 82*5 CD •-3 O © 3 m 0 84*8 2 5 © is 3 C©3 0 86*9 86-7 87*6 n3 • - i -4-t a o "3 a P>H 0 Cf* •n ^ © ES 1 a © PTH o 89*5 88*5 88-9 88*7 Eemarks. 1 Except in the case of one reading of 96° F., taken on the female, which was on tbat day 20° F. warmer than the male. This observation, however, is, I think, open to doubt. |