^^\OAi 



CHAPTER 1 



ZOOLOGY AS A SCIENCE 



If values were placed on all the things 

 that go to make up the universe, the great- 

 est, undoubtedly, would be assigned to life 

 and living things, particularly the life that 

 resides in one special animal, man. It is dif- 

 ficult for us to interpret relative values in 

 any other way because we are men, and 

 nothing is more important to us than man 

 himself. Since man is but one of many living 

 things, tlie understanding of life itself be- 

 comes the pinnacle of all goals. No prob- 

 lems transcend this one, either in impor- 

 tance or in complexity. Life in all of its 

 diversity poses so many fascinating prob- 

 lems that the scientist, grasping at one after 

 the other, is only now beginning to see his 



way through this intricate maze of apparent 

 confusion. Viewing the great profusion and 

 variety of animal and plant life around him, 

 it is small wonder he has been slow in bring- 

 ing a semblance of order out of this chaos. 

 Little by little, bit by bit, he has been 

 able to assemble innumerable facts about 

 living things, until today these apparently 

 unrelated fragments of knowledge are be- 

 ginning to fall into an integrated picture of 

 the story of life on the earth. So far, great 

 gaps exist in this pictvire, but from a dis- 

 tance the basic pattern is discernible. It will 

 be a long time before the entire panorama 

 is completed, if it ever is, but in the mean- 

 time, it seems important that the over-all 



