126 Journal of the jMitciiell Society [3Iarch 



the attitude of the appeal to nature for facts, upon which accurate 

 thinking is based, as well as that liberation of the spirit which comes 

 from reflection upon their broader meaning. 



From the standpoint of the student there are two considerations 

 of importance. First, which method will give him the best scientific 

 training in Biology while providing a single view of the entire field 

 of living things, granted that he may find time for no further work 

 in Biology? Second, which method would be preferable in case he 

 decides to go further or finally become a specialist? These complex 

 questions are, in a measure, bound up with the nature of the curricu- 

 lum for, after all, a college exists largely for the purpose of sampling 

 the stock knowledges which have come down to us with our social in- 

 heritance. Biology purports to give an interpretation of the living 

 world. This is a large order, so the student rightfully expects a clear 

 panorama and a guide thereto. In our judgment this is best sup- 

 plied by a course in General Biology whether he elects to go farther 

 or not. 



The study of plants and animals together in their agreements and 

 contrasts seems to us especially desirable. In our daily lives we deal 

 with complex situations which have little in common beside the fact 

 of their complexity. We learn more about these situations by con- 

 trasting them, the learning process, in life, progressing with the ability 

 to drop out unessential factors. For this the training offered by work 

 in General Biology may afford some practice. Moreover, biologically, 

 the essential characters of organisms as plants, on the one hand, or as 

 animals, on the other, are best brought out by comparison and con- 

 trast. As, in a course in General Biology, this is done on material 

 common to the several biological fields, it seems to us that a course 

 of this character forms the best possible introduction for either the 

 future botanist or zoologist. 



But w^e are not usually teaching for the benefit of the future s]ie- 

 cialist. Our task, mainly, is to feed the prospective citizen with fcod 

 meet for his symmetrical development. For him, especially, do we 

 see in the well-organized course in General Biology the best possible 

 introduction to a balanced view of the facts of life as it not only 

 epitomizes living nature but also the nature of things throughout time 

 out of which man was evolved. Here we do not find plants by them- 

 selves nor animal life apart but rather that symbiotic relationship for 

 the appreciation of which, in one balanced view, General Biology 

 should stand. 



