120 THE PLANT WORLD 



Book Review. 



Laboratory Manual in Elementary Biology. By Frederick De Forest 

 Heald. Binghamton, N. ¥., W. N. Clute k Co. 1902. 



With the advent of the so-called laboratory method of instruction 

 in biology, came a host of laboratory manuals. Indeed, so thick and 

 fast have they come, that it would appear that pretty nearly every labor- 

 atory instructor has felt called upon to write a book, setting forth his 

 individual methods of instruction. The result has been the production 

 of some few books that are decidedly good, with a considerable number 

 that are more or less decidedly poor. As the author of the little book 

 before us states in his preface, all these manuals may be roughly divided 

 into two classes, — those in which the student is simply required to verify 

 facts, and those in which the "question method" is carried to the extreme 

 In the first of these the power of independent observation, the essentials 

 of thorough instruction is left dormant, while in the latter method the 

 student is likely to be left in a haze of questions, none of which he can 

 answer. 



Professor Heald, believing that the means of successful teaching 

 lies between these extremes, has given us a book in which there is a 

 judicious combination of both. The student is confronted by numerous 

 questions regarding the material in hand, but he is also given some idea 

 of what he is looking for. In the hands of a competent instructor, 

 and without this no book known will be a success, this manual can hardly 

 fail to find an acceptable place. 



In this book the experiment is again tried of presenting the subject 

 without illustrations. In this respect there are two classes of manuals, 

 one more or less copiously illustrated and the other without any. It 

 would seem that there should be a middle ground in this also. It more 

 than ever emphasizes the necessity of a competant instructor. 



F. H. K. 



