The Collaborative International Dictionary
Comparative \Com*par"a*tive\, a. [L. comparativus: cf. F. comparatif.]
Of or pertaining to comparison. ``The comparative faculty.''
--Glanvill.Proceeding from, or by the method of, comparison; as, the comparative sciences; the comparative anatomy.
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Estimated by comparison; relative; not positive or absolute, as compared with another thing or state.
The recurrence of comparative warmth and cold.
--Whewell.The bubble, by reason of its comparative levity to the fluid that incloses it, would necessarily ascend to the top.
--Bentley. -
(Gram.) Expressing a degree greater or less than the positive degree of the quality denoted by an adjective or adverb. The comparative degree is formed from the positive by the use of -er, more, or less; as, brighter, more bright, or less bright.
Comparative sciences, those which are based on a comprehensive comparison of the range of objects or facts in any branch or department, and which aim to study out and treat of the fundamental laws or systems of relation pervading them; as, comparative anatomy, comparative physiology, comparative philology.
Wikipedia
Comparative physiology is a subdiscipline of physiology that studies and exploits the diversity of functional characteristics of various kinds of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary physiology and environmental physiology. Many universities offer undergraduate courses that cover comparative aspects of animal physiology. According to Clifford Ladd Prosser, "Comparative Physiology is not so much a defined discipline as a viewpoint, a philosophy."
Usage examples of "comparative physiology".
The EMH found a case file written by a Denobulan doctor named Phlox, something of an expert in Terran-Vulcan comparative physiology, that led to a cure for the—.
My knowledge of comparative physiology is confined to a book or two, but it seems to me that Carver's suggestions as to the reason of the rapid death of the Martians is so probable as to be regarded almost as a proven conclusion.