40 GENERAL BIOLOGY 



to see that ancient Greek is not only valuable, but extremely essential ; 

 for, practically every name that plants and animals possess comes from 

 the Greek, and unless the meaning of the word itself is known, the entire 

 subject-matter becomes pure memory work. 



The reason each student must draw a picture of what he sees in his 

 laboratory experiment, is to force him to observe so well and so accu- 

 rately that he can make a drawing of a structure so accurate, that another 

 may in turn recognize the object from the drawing. Drawing a picture 

 of what he sees also forces the student to keep the subject in mind for 

 a greater period of time than would otherwise be the case, and gives him 

 a definite graphic mental picture of what he has seen. 



A knowledge of English makes it possible for the student to present 

 a word-picture of the same matter that the drawing presents. A de- 

 scription is, therefore, demanded of the student in addition to the draw- 

 ings, thus again causing him to call to mind all that he has seen and 

 noted. This not only means that the repetition thus forced upon him 

 will cause him to remember the subject-matter the better, but it means 

 that he learns to do that particular thing upon which much of his future 

 reputation as a professional man depends, namely, to prove to others in 

 good clear and telling language what he knows. 



The mere gathering of facts is of no more value than the mere 

 gathering of bricks. The important thing in science is to be able to 

 coordinate the facts that one finds, and to read into these facts their real 

 meanings. Meanings, however, require the use of the intellect, and the 

 laws which govern the intellect are embodied in that branch of study 

 called philosophy. The most important -philosophic studies for the 

 scientific student are logic, psychology, and ethics. 



Every valid conclusion which anyone may form must be built up 

 logically. Logic is merely the grammar of reason. In fact, every diag- 

 nosis that a medical man makes, must be built entirely upon logic if it is 

 to be worth anything, or to stand the test of truth. 



The study of the way in which the mind works is called psychology, 

 and no man can intelligently study, nor clearly understand, any of the 

 abnormal workings of the human mind, unless he first knows the nor- 

 mal. He can know little about mental or nervous diseases unless he 

 knows the way in which the mind works when it is not diseased. In 

 his study of neurology the medical student follows the various nerve- 

 tracts of brain and spinal cord, but he cannot understand the real mean- 

 ing of these nerve-tracts unless he knows his psychology. He will 

 become a follower of fads and fancies while he misses the underlying 

 truths and facts that the real scientific man should have. 



From the philosophical realm we obtain the validity of our ethics. 

 Ethics is the science of conduct. We know that holding an air-breathing 

 animal under water will drown it. And just as death to the animal fol- 

 lows such an act, so, too, many of our acts bring a definite punishment 



