viii PREFACE 



Recent discussion of methods of teaching General Zoology has 

 largely centered upon the relative merits of these two systems, 

 and has been influenced by certain extreme departures in the 

 attempt to teach principles. Another influence that is being 

 felt is the " Project Method " which has been developed in many 

 high school textbooks. While much is claimed for the Project 

 Method, it seems to be the opinion of most college teachers that 

 the product of the high schools in which this method flourishes 

 is not such as to inspire full confidence in it, whatever may be the 

 current educational theory of the learning process. It may be 

 that the Project Method is the method of the future; but it has 

 not yet arrived in the colleges, and the writers of the present volume 

 have yet to be convinced that good teachers are not principally 

 " born " and relatively Httle " made," when it comes to instruc- 

 tion of a serious intellectual content. Good teachers arouse the 

 interest of their students, and to be a good teacher one cannot be 

 forever thinking how it is done, else " the letter killeth." When 

 all is said, intellectual work is for the intellectually competent; and, 

 whatever may be the present population of our colleges, one ques- 

 tions whether the Prbject Method does not tickle the incompetent 

 into temporary activity more often than it stimulates the compe- 

 tent to the work necessary in sustained intellectual effort. 



This leads one to consider how a textbook of college Zoology 

 should be written; whether it should give the student what he 

 thinks he wants to know and can obtain in a way that takes little 

 effort; or give him what he must know in order to understand some- 

 thing of the subject. The authors inchne to the beUef that college and 

 university instruction must have a certain regard for the existing 

 organization of subject-matter, for example, for Zoology as con- 

 ceived by zoologists. As to phraseology, they have attempted to 

 write clearly, but not with undue simplification of vocabulary or 

 expression. It is part of a college training to learn how to read 

 and understand writing that is understandable by educated adults. 

 The only way to learn this is to read such writing. It is better for 

 a student to find places in a textbook a bit difficult than to find it 

 all easy. Whether the authors have succeeded in their attempt 

 to write on a level above primary English, without using a style 

 that is hopelessly beyond those for whom it has been intended, 

 others must say. They profess only the intention. 



To a certain extent they have been influenced by the idea that 



