FOREWORD TO TEACHERS 9 



" Such an abuse of the laboratory idea is all wrong and should be avoided. 

 The ideal laboratory ought to be a retreat for rainy days ; a substitute 

 for out of doors ; a clearing house of ideas brought in from the outside. 

 Any course in biology which can be confined within four walls, even if 

 these walls be of a modern, well-equipped laboratory, is in some measure 

 a failure. Living things, to be appreciated and correctly interpreted, 

 must be seen and studied in the open where they will be encountered 

 throughout life. The place where an animal or plant is found is just as 

 important a characteristic as its shape or function. Impossible field excur 

 sions with large classes within school hours, which only bring confusion to 

 inflexible school programs, are not necessary to accomplish this result. 

 Properly administered, it is without doubt one of our most efficient de 

 vices for developing biological ideas, but the laboratory should be kept in 

 its proper relation to the other means at our disposal and never be allowed 

 to degenerate either into a place for vacuous drawing exercises or a bio 

 logical morgue where dead remains are viewed." Dr. II. E. Walter. 



For the sake of the pupil the number of technical and scientific 

 terms has been reduced to a minimum. The language has been 

 made as simple as possible and the problems made to hinge upon 

 material already known, by hearsay at least, to the pupil. So far 

 as consistent with a well-rounded course in the essentials of bio 

 logical science, the interests of the children have been kept in the 

 foreground. In a recent questionnaire sent out by the author and 

 answered by over three thousand children studying biology in the 

 secondary schools of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, 

 and New York by far the greatest number gave as the most 

 interesting topics those relating to the care and functions of the 

 human body and the control and betterment of the environment. 

 As would be expected, boys have different biological interests from 

 girls, and children in rural schools wish to study different topics 

 from those in congested districts in large communities. The time 

 has come when we must frankly recognize these interests and 

 adapt the content of our courses in biology to interpret the 

 immediate world of the pupil. 



With this end in view the following pages have been written. 

 This book shows boys and girls living in an urban community 

 how they may best live within their own environment and how 

 they may cooperate with the civic authorities for the betterment 

 of their environment. A logical course is built up around the 



