SCIENTIFIC DRAWING IN BIOLOGY. 



Stephen R. Williams. 



Drawing is done with one of three purposes in mind: 



1. By the student as a record of his laboratory work. 



2. For teaching purposes on blackboard or chart. 



3. For reproduction in the illustration of scientific articles. 



AS A RECORD OF THE STUDENT'S WORK. 



Scientifically not free hand drawling. Free hand drawing is 

 intended to suggest to the observer, to cause his mind to supply 

 what is lacking in the representation. Scientific drawing is a 

 precise record of specific details. 



All agree that the mechanical reproduction of details of 

 structures studied is a highly valuable means of aiding the 

 powers of observation, the memory and therefore preserving 

 material w'ith w^hich to think. Reduced to the lowest terms a 

 laboratory drawing is a careful proportional outline of two 

 dimensions of the object studied. It is a graphic record of 

 mental impressions received through the eye. All the impor- 

 tant points should be fully labeled in a neat manner. It is then 

 not a question of artistic ability but of ability to measure and 

 to record the data. The alleged inability to draw of which the 

 teacher is often told is merely a confession of unwillingness to 

 be precise in measuring or recording or both. 



Boundaries of structures are what is desired, shadows, colors 

 or curvatures or other such phenomena are not needed. These 

 secondary details, if put in, conceal the accuracy or inaccuracy 

 of the student's measurements and therefore of his observations. 



A drawing should be to scale and in my opinion, larger than 

 natural size whenever the size of the object and of the drawing 

 paper permit. The beginner is likely to draw what he sees 

 through the microscope too small so that he is unable to put in 

 the details adequately. He should be warned along this line at 

 the first meeting. If the student draws a faint vertical line in 

 the region which is to be the chief axis of his drawing, he may 



205 



