PREFACE ix 



is back of the Project Method. The senior author has always been 

 conscious that such teaching of General Zoology as he has done 

 effectively has been largely influenced by a sense of the " human- 

 istic " aspects of the subject. The broader aspects of this 

 " Humanism ■' of science have been discussed in a popular volume.^ 

 Zoology is full of human interest — not merely bread-and-butter 

 interest, but interest that may be dignified by the term "human- 

 istic." This is better developed individually by the teacher than 

 formally in a textbook, since its effect upon the student depends 

 so much upon the conviction of the teacher. On the other hand, 

 the approach to Zoology through a study of vertebrate structure 

 and physiology, as in the present work, recognizes the desirabihty 

 of introducing the subject by means of the facts most famiUar and 

 interesting to the student. These are to be found in the body of a 

 familiar animal and in the student's own body. To begin with the 

 frog is to begin with man, since all vertebrates are so much akin in 

 structure and function. The purpose of the first half dozen chap- 

 ters is to review the knowledge of human anatomy and physiology 

 that should be part of the training of every high-school graduate, 

 although such is not the case. With this accomplished, and, one 

 hopes, with interest aroused by the human problems involved, 

 the facts and principles of animal Ufe are presented in the formal 

 manner that is current in most textbooks. The " project " in the 

 first part of the work is to teach the student something of the 

 principles of Zoology as illustrated in his own type of animal 

 body; and the " project " in subsequent chapters is to teach him 

 how other animal bodies may be compared with his own and to 

 impart some of the many interesting facts about animals. If 

 many of these facts do not interest him, the authors believe he 

 is hopeless. In the final chapters on Development, Genetics, and 

 Evolution, there is a return to more human problems. Here 

 again, the attempt is made to state the facts and principles as 

 clearly and fully as space permits, in the conviction that the origin 

 of the individual and of the race, and the mode of inheritance are of 

 such compelling interest that the teacher's energy should be 

 directed toward clear presentation of facts and problems, rather 

 than toward overworked schemes for stimulating intellectual 

 laggards. This smacks of a take-it-or-leave-it doctrine in teach- 



• Curtis, W. C, "Science and Human Affairs." 



