PREFACE. 



THE author's " Experimental and Descriptive Physiol- 

 ogy" has been adopted by a large number of schools and 

 colleges. But there are many schools in which, owing to 

 the youth of the pupils, the shortness of the time allotted to 

 the subject, or the meagerness of laboratory facilities, such 

 a rigorous course cannot be taken. For such schools this 

 simpler book is written. While it contains considerably 

 less experiment and dissection than the larger book, it is 

 still based upon experimental work. No teaching of physi- 

 ology is worthy of the name unless it rests upon experi- 

 ment, observation, and dissection. The ridiculous answers 

 of the pupil who has learned mere "book physiology" 

 furnish the standard jest of the educational journal. Try- 

 ing to teach physiology without experiment is not only in 

 opposition to modern views of pedagogy and psychology, 

 but it is equally at variance with the common sense of the 

 business man's view. Such teaching is a mere mummery 

 of words it teaches neither how to know nor to do. 



In fitting this work for the less mature mind, special 

 attention has been paid to conciseness and brevity of state- 

 ment and to clearness of exposition. Sentences and para- 



m 



