THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



MARCH. 1886. 



BIOLOGICAL TEACHING IN COLLEGES.* 



Br WILLIAM G. FAELOW, 



PROFESSOR OF CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANT, HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



THE general use of the word biology in this country dates from a 

 period scarcely more remote than ten or twelve years ago, and, 

 even at the present day, in spite of the fact that a good many of our 

 schools and colleges announce courses on the subject, and even the 

 newspapers occasionally discuss its popular aspects, the question is not 

 unfrequently asked by persons generally well informed. What is bi- 

 ology? The question is not easily answered, for, if we say that biolo- 

 gy is nothing but the essence of botany and zoology — which is the 

 fact — then the inquirer not unreasonably asks why we now hear so 

 much about biology, while we formerly heard only of botany and zo- 

 ology, and the inference is that biology is nothing but a fine-sounding 

 word newly coined to take the place of what used to be called natural 

 history. This is in a certain sense true, but biology means rather 

 natural history as it is, than natural history as it used to be, studied. 

 It is to natural history — I use the terms as adopted in this country, 

 without considering what their original application may have been — 

 it is to natural history what reform is in politics : as reform seeks to 

 elevate existing parties by forcing them to correct abuses and to in- 

 fuse new life by discussing questions of the day rather than past is- 

 sues, so, under the guise of biology, the attempt has been made to in- 

 fuse new life into natural history by substituting for the exclusively 

 descriptive study of plants and animals a broader science which shall 

 include also histology, physiology, and the history of development. 



* Read before the Society of Naturalists of the Eastern United States, 

 vnr.. xxviii. — 3Y 



