EDITORIAL NOTES. 



The writer has been convinced for some time that purely laboratory methods 

 have been carried to an extreme in many institutions in biological instruction ; 

 the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction from purely didactic in- 

 struction. Systematic biology is, after all, the highest expression of zoology or 

 botany, and to completely ignore such must result in an imperfect and faulty 

 training. A minute knowledge of a few types of the animal or plant kingdom is 

 not zoology or botany, but morphology, and morphology cannot replace zoology 

 or botany. Furthermore, many teachers lose sight of the fact that all students are 

 not seeking to become specialists, and require altogether too much time spent in 

 the study of methods. A recent text-book by Professor Kingsley * seems to the 

 writer to be a praiseworthy advance in the teaching of its department of biology. 

 The author recognizes what is emphatically true, that laboratory observation 

 and facts are not science. It is utterly impossible for the pupil to learn all that 

 he should of animal life from personal observation; he must and he should de- 

 pend upon didactic instruction for a very large share of necessary knowledge. 

 This text-book, which treats of the vertebrates only, is in two parts, one dealing 

 with embryology and development, the other with classification, both of which are 

 generally neglected for pure morphology, and both of which are of as great or 

 greater importance. The classificatory part deals, as it should, with the whole ver- 

 tebrate kingdom and not with that smaller portion which happens to be in exist- 

 ence at the present time. The plan of the work is excellent; its faults are 

 chiefly those of too great haste. As the author truly states, the labyrinth of 

 material is such that errors are unavoidable, especially when any new line of 

 treatment is attempted. The work would, however, have been improved had it 

 been subjected to more thorough revision in the classificatory part. Neverthe- 

 less, the work is to be commended. s. w. w. 



It is becoming a serious question in medical education where to limit instruc- 

 tion. A score of years ago the student could cover the whole field fairly well in 

 three years, but specialization has increased so rapidly that the student is now 

 fairly swamped with the material that he is expected to acquire in the four years 

 of his course. This is true in every branch of medical education ; even in anat- 

 omy, where it would be supposed the increase of knowledge has not been so ex- 

 tensive. Excellent works have been published on anatomy in late years, but 

 they are rapidly losing the nature of text-books and assuming that of manuals — 

 they are splendid works for the shelf of the physician or surgeon, but are alto- 

 gether too prolix and full for the student's needs. Between such manuals and 

 the compends there has been no middle ground. In the " Text-book of Anatomy 

 by American authors, "| recently published, a work that may be justly called a 

 text-book has appeared. A number of useful features have been added to the 



* Text-book of Vertebrate Zoology, by J. S. Kingsley, professor of zoology in Tuft's College. 

 New York : Henry Holt & Co., 1899. 



t A Text-book of Anatomy by American Authors, edited by Frederic Henry Gerrish, M. D., 

 illustrated with 950 engravings in black and colors. Lea Bros. & Co., 1899. 



[187]-K.U.Qr.-A viii 4-Oct. '99. 



