bkrgen] DISCUSSIONS: ECONOMIC BIOLOGY 1 09 



there is much to be said in favor of making the work largely 

 hygienic. Organic structure and many life-processes can best be 

 learned from the examination of plants and the lower animals, 

 but human hygiene is a special subject and of immense import- 

 ance to the race. But our knowledge of the world is bound to be 

 wretchedly imperfect if Ave study only such animals and plants 

 as are of economic value. Think of the perspective of the pupil 

 instructed in the life habits and the modes of destroying scale- 

 insects, bacteria and blue mold but with no knowledge of the 

 intelligence of the higher insects and no conception of the struc- 

 ture and functions of the higher plants. 



Let those of us who care for the teaching of biology of every 

 sort not be unduly modest. Why must our subject be cut down 

 to that which is merely economic any more than the other 

 sciences are? How many physiography teachers would be 

 satisfied to deal mainly with the possibilities of the adjoining 

 country for better graded and better ballasted roads and the 

 opportunities for draining or irrigation? How many physics 

 teachers would limit their instruction for the most part to such 

 subjects as the simplest cases of applied mechanics, house- 

 warming, electric bell-hanging and kindred topics? What 

 secondary school classes in chemistry are drilled mainly on the 

 principles of manufacture of chemical fertilizers, soap-making, 

 economical combustion of fuel and so on ? 



To conduct our botany teaching today mainly Vvith a view to 

 the economic importance of plants is to take a long step back- 

 ward toward the attitude of the old herbalists, who studied and 

 described plants mainly with a view to their use in medicine. 

 Better than any mere knowledge of what we can get out of plants 

 and how we can keep injurious species from preying upon our 

 fields, our gardens or r>urseb-es is the conception of the plant 

 world as the nutritive basis of all animal life, the embodiment of 

 the simpler life-processes and the decorative garment of the 

 earth itself. No judicious teacher of the subject will fail to avail 

 himself of such common sources of plant material as the nearest 

 market stall and the weed-covered vacant lot afford, but he will 

 not stop there. He will find in a well marked plant formation (or 

 if need be in a good photograph of one) just as legitimate ma- 

 terial for his classes as is afforded by a moldy banana. 



Cambridge, Mass. J. Y. Bergex. 



