The Comparative Ethology of Vertebrate Breathing

Abstract

THE COMPARATIVE ETHOLOGY OF VERTEBRATE BREATHING 1. BREATHING IN NEWTS, WITH A GENERAL SURVEY by H. SPURWAY and J. B. S. HALDANE (Department of Biometry, University College, London) (Rec. 15-11-1953) INTRODUCTION Animal ethology is mainly the study of complex coordinated muscular movements culminating in consummatory acts useful for the preservation of the species 1). Among these processes are breathing, drinking, eating, and reproduction, often in that order of priority. Ethologists have studied them in the opposite order of priority. We shall confine ourselves to vertebrates, and define breathing as the passage, under neuromuscular control, of air or another gas to