SOME CONSIDERATIONS IN DEFENSE OF THE GENERAL 



BIOLOGY COURSE 



By J. P. GiVLER 



In the teaching of elementary courses in the biological sciences in 

 America two main policies have been developed during the past half 

 century. In one, the beginning student is introduced to plant biology 

 or animal biology through the medium of a course in Botany or Zo- 

 ology as a distinct entity. The other method, originating with Huxley, 

 is to organize into a single elementary course forms from both plant 

 and animal ' ' kingdoms ' ' to show their essential agreements or to bring 

 out their contrasts. 



The history of the two policies is well known. The separate course 

 system had its origin in systematic Botany and Zoology since Linnaeus 

 and before his time, through Cuvier and others in Europe and into 

 America principally through the elder Agassiz and Asa Gray at Har- 

 vard. The animus of the General Biology Course, on the other hand, 

 came up from Greek thought, with the viewpoint of the naturalist, 

 out of which the selection theory gained expression through Darwin 

 and Wallace. 



Parallel with this naturalistic expression developed the general- 

 izations based upon the discover}^ of the meaning of the cell and of 

 protoplasm which generalizations have become incorporated with the 

 Doctrine of Organic Evolution. 



About sixty years ago Huxley seized the essential features of this 

 cell-protoplasm-evolution complex and, with rare educational genius, 

 framed it in clear outline for the beginner and layman. In this he 

 doubtless secured assistance from Foster and Dyer and inspiration 

 from Darwin. 



Each of these systems of elementary instruction has its peculiar 

 virtues. That involving separate courses has the advantage of a more 

 restricted field and, further, clings mainly to fact through the dis- 

 ciplines of morphology and taxonomy, while the General Biology 

 Course is animated mainly by ideas and principles from the spirit of 

 the generalizations which gave it birth. 



As is commonly known the teaching of General Biology entered 

 this country with H, Newell Martin, the physiologist, an early student 

 of Huxley's, and radiated out from Johns Hopkins into a great many 

 institutions in the East and West. During the forty-odd years which 



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