6 FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 



Other divisions of zoology are evolution, which seeks to explain the 

 origin and modification of the different species, and genetics, which deals 

 with the laws that underlie inheritance. 



It is evident from what has been said that the divisions of the subject 

 cross one another. Anatomy, taxonomy, geographical distribution, 

 ecology, and all of the other fields mentioned as differing in the point 

 of approach or method will, for example, deal more or less with birds. 

 Ornithology, on the other hand, may be considered from a morphological, 

 physiological, taxonomic, distributional, or ecological aspect. The 

 same is true of any other group of animals. 



In addition to the fields which have been mentioned, a long list of 

 practical applications might be added which would greatly increase 

 the list of the divisions of zoology. Among such applications are animal 

 husbandry, which deals with the cultivation of the domesticated higher 

 animals, apiculture, with that of bees, and aquiculture, with that of fish 

 and other aquatic forms; medicine, which is concerned with disease and 

 the methods used in its treatment; and hygiene, which presents the 

 principles involved in the maintenance of health. All of these involve the 

 study of animal life and should really be included in zoology in its widest 

 extent. 



9. Scope of General Zoology. — Within the scope of a beginning course 

 in zoology, it is impossible to discuss more than the most general principles 

 of the subject and the broader phenomena of animal life. None of the 

 fields enumerated above can be more than barely introduced to the 

 student; their further cultivation must be left for special courses. 



10. Animal Biology. — To many persons the word zoology is associated 

 with the structure and classification of animals, while the word biology 

 conveys the implication of life and activity. This is an unwarranted 

 connotation; but because in this text the emphasis is on the latter aspect 

 of the subject rather than on the former, it has been entitled "Animal 

 Biology." Properly speaking, the term biology is applied to the combined 

 sciences of botany and zoology. 



