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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



oratory student and that of the field 

 student occupied with, let us say, the 

 breeding habits of any one of the many 

 species of birds wliich can be studied 

 only in nature! The field student, in 

 the midst of a complex of phenomena 

 which he has not set up, and cannot 

 control in any degree, is under the ne- 

 cessity of being ready all the time to 

 catch whatever particular clement in 

 the complex may turn up at any in- 

 stant. Readiness and quickness and 

 sensitiveness are observational (lualities 

 of primary importance for liini while 

 they are of little iiupoi'taiicc to the lali- 

 oratory student. 



Nor is the defect! vciu'ss in laboratory 

 training as compared with (ield train- 

 ing restricted to the sensory side of the 

 knowledge-getting process. Students 

 trained exclusively in the lal)oratory 

 face nature in the open not only with 

 ears and eyes iinpracticed and (hilleil. 

 but with minds and imaginations simi- 

 larly impaired. 



But the lopsided result from the ex- 

 clusively laboratory method comes also 

 from the sole reliance on what is known 

 as the "type method"' in botanical, zoo- 

 logical, and physiological instruction. 

 Elementary instruction in zoology too 

 often encourages the conception that 

 the animal types studied in the labora- 

 tory, namely, amoeba, paramoecium, 

 hydra, starfish, earthworm, crayfish, 

 shark, frog, pigeon, and rabbit — tradi- 

 tions in laboratory instruction— are 

 fundamental, and that all else is more 

 or less incidental and of secondary im- 

 portance; as though the foundation of 

 a mansion were so solid and durable 

 and important as to nuike a superstruc- 

 ture unnecessary. The actual animal 

 world consists of individual living ani- 

 mals first, foremost, and always; and 

 any scheme of instruction which does 

 not take due cognizance of this fact 

 leads inevitably to conceptions of that 

 world which are narrow, distorted, and 

 predominantly false. . . . 



Using the building figure, the point 



to be decided is : given a small amount 

 of money to be expended on a dwelling, 

 which would be better, to spend it on 

 a good basement even though there 

 should be no funds for erecting the 

 superstructure; or to build as much 

 of a house as possible with the money 

 available, although both foundation 

 and superstructure must be small and 

 cheap? p]ducation in the biological 

 sciences has been largely a process of 

 digging cellars, walling them in 

 strongly, and then living in them. 



'V\\(' biology which we have been call- 

 ing fouiuhitional l)ut which more truly 

 would be called basement or cellar 

 biology, has served the ends of sanita- 

 tion, medicine, agriculture, and other 

 ])liysical interests well, and to this ex- 

 tent has been very useful and noble. 

 But as superstructural biology, as biol- 

 ogy for the liberal education of our 

 young people, for the enlargement of 

 their outlook upon life, particularly 

 upon human life, it has achieved only a 

 disnuilly small measure of the success 

 possible to it. But there is a way out, 

 as I see it, from our unfortunate condi- 

 tion; and institutions of the type of 

 this one,^ it appears to me, are likely to 

 ])lay a large part in the renovation of 

 this province of natural knowledge. 



Let me call your attention to an al- 

 most unbelievable thing which has hap- 

 pened during what may well be called 

 biology's period of laboratory incar- 

 ceration. A large number of biologists 

 have actually held the view, apparently 

 with sincerity, that nothing of primary 

 importance about organic nature can be 

 learned except in the laboratory and by 

 experimentation. The old anthropo- 

 centrism which conceived everything 

 outside of man to have been created for 

 his especial benefit, has been replaced 

 by a new anthropocentrism according 

 to which man would subject all nature 

 to his control. . . . What makes this 

 particularly amazing has been the fail- 



1 Museum of the California Academy of Sciences, 

 San Francisco, California. 



