72 LECTURES 



might be properly taught in all our public schools; 

 similarly it should be entered into the scheme of edu- 

 cation of every private school, college and university 

 throughout the land; a very complete course in biology 

 most assuredly should form a part of the curriculum of 

 every authorized medical college in America; and finally, 

 it should reach the people through public lectures, public 

 museums, zoological gardens, and public libraries and 

 laboratories. 



At the outstart, it may be said, in general terms, that 

 the means to be employed in teaching biology 

 consist in the handling and proper examina- 

 tion of biological material. To this end we employ 

 dissections of existing organisms; histological researches 

 with the microscopes and other instruments of precision; 

 next, the making of drawings and sketches of the objects 

 we have observed and studied; then, physiological 

 studies, wherein will come vivisections, various con- 

 trivances to exhibit the fundamental principles of the 

 science; and the application of the abiological sciences of 

 chemistry and physics. We employ all manner of illus- 

 trative specimens; as biological material in alcohol, 

 models of all descriptions, the skins of animals preserved 

 in the various ways, diagrams of all kinds both of 

 natural size and enlarged colored or uncolorea, also 

 palseontological material, together with full series of 

 geological and physical charts exhibiting the distribution 

 of plants and animals both in space and in time. The 

 literature of biology is to be freely used, and a very im- 

 portant part of the instruction depends upon lectures, 

 the museums, collections of animals and plants, and the 

 zoological gardens. 



As to the general methods to be adopted in biological 

 study, Mr. Huxley presents us with some excellent advice 

 when he says: "Since biology is a physical science, the 

 methods of studying it must needs be analogous to that 

 which is followed in the other physical sciences. It has 

 now long been recognized that, if a man wishes to be a 

 chemist it is not only necessary that he should read 

 chemical books and attend chemical lectures, but that 

 he should actually perform the fundamental experiments 

 in the laboratory for himse.f, and thus learn exactly what 

 the words which he finds in his books and hears from his 

 teachers mean." 



"If he does not do so, he may read till the crack of 

 doom, but he will never know much about chemistry. 

 That is what every chemist will tell you, and the physi- 



