and Laboratory Methods. 2101 



GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



RAYMOND PEARL, University of Michigan. 



Books and Papers for Review should be Sent to Raymond Pearl, Zoological Laboratory, 

 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 



Brinckley, W. J. Physiology by the Labora- The underlying general plan of this 



tory Method for Secondary Schools. Chi- ^qqJ^ jg ^.q present, professedly tO the 

 cago (Ainsworth & Co.), 1902, pp. xv and 



536. Price, Si. 25. secondar)' school student, the essential 



facts and principles of human physi- 

 olog>- by means of the laboratory method of teaching, in which the student him- 

 self performs experiments and draws conclusions therefrom. The discussion of 

 each subject in the text is prefaced by directions for a considerable number of 

 experiments and other operations designed to illustrate that particular subject. 

 While this general plan has much to commend it, the practical working out of it 

 in this book is in detail faulty. The directions given for the laboratory work 

 are very comprehensive, and involve a large number of experiments, but many 

 of them are of very doubtful value. The general criticism which must be made 

 against the laboratory directions is that they give the impression of not having 

 been critically " tried out " in the laboratory and adapted to a specific course to 

 be given to students of a specific grade. In other words, directions for experi- 

 ments are given frequently, which would be, theoretically, very fine things in a 

 laborator}- course, but which it would be almost or quite impossible to put into 

 advantageous practice in the average secondary school, because of lack of time 

 in the first instance, and for the further reason of lack of technical skill on the 

 part of the students. Thus, on the second page of the book the student is directed 

 to " remove a small portion of the skin from the leg or soles of the rabbit. 

 . . . . Harden the specimen by placing it in a 2 per cent, solution of 

 chromic acid for a week. Then transfer to 60 per cent, and then 80 per cent, 

 alcohol. Make a vertical section, and stain in picro-carmine, mount section in 

 glycerine, and observe," etc., etc. A further example of the generally uncritical 

 character of the laboratory directions is noted in the fact that occasionally, 

 fortunately not frequently, an experiment which comes dangerously near to 

 absurdity is introduced. For example, on page 1, the student is directed as 

 follows : " Place some sand and some wheat grains in a box where they will be 

 free from moisture and sunlight. Put some grains of sand and some grains of 

 wheat in soil which you have placed in a box of convenient size, and put it in a 

 warm place where they will have plenty of sunlight. Keep them well wateied. 

 Examine them every day, and note any changes that take place." And again, 

 further along in the book (pp. 334, 335), the student is asked to determine how 

 many miles of tube all the sweat glands in the body would make if they were 

 placed in line, end to end ? Assuredly this is not physiology. The general 

 character of the experiments in the last two-thirds of the book is, on the whole, 

 good, and by a judicious selection of really significant and practical experiments 



