



INTRODUCTION v^ lt . 



A * 

 * v^ 



THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 



Read: Calkins, Biology, pp. 1-5; or 



Sedgwick and Wilson; General Biology, pp. 6-8; or 

 Shull, Animal Biology, pp. 1-6; or 

 Woodruff, Foundations of Biology, pp. 1-5. 



GENERAL BIOLOGY is the science which deals with the most 

 general and fundamental characteristics of living things, 

 whether plants or animals. The study of plants alone is known as 

 Botany, of animals alone as Zoology. A thorough study of any 

 plant or animal includes a knowledge of its (i) Physiology, which 

 deals with its physics and chemistry, its functions and activities; 

 (2) Morphology, which deals with its structure, whether gross 

 (Anatomy), microscopic (Histology), or developmental (Em- 

 bryology) and also with its classification (Taxonomy) ; (3) Ecol- 

 ogy, which treats of its relations to its environment ; (4) Biogeny, 

 which deals with the origin of the individual plant or animal 

 (Ontogeny, Heredity, Development, Genetics, etc.) or with the 

 origin of races, species and larger groups of individuals (Phy- 

 logeny, Evolution). 



In studying any plant or animal it is desirable that it should be 

 considered from all of these aspects, but some organisms are 

 better suited than others for the study of one or another of these 

 subjects. Accordingly this course is divided unequally into three 

 parts, the first of which deals chiefly with the Physiology and 

 Morphology of the organisms studied, the second with their 

 Ecology and the third with Biogeny. 



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