EIGHTH LECTURE. 



THE SELECTION OF PLANT TYPES FOR THE 

 GENERAL BIOLOGY COURSE. 



JAMES ELLIS HUMPHREY. 



IT was Professor Huxley who first gave expression to the 

 fact that the study of animals and plants is " one discipline," 

 and embodied his conviction in a laboratory course in general 

 biology. In the United States such courses have been as 

 widely adopted as in Great Britain, chiefly through the influ- 

 ence of the Johns Hopkins University, whose biological teach- 

 ing was largely organized by Huxley's disciple and collaborator 

 in the preparation of the first published handbook of such a 

 course, Prof. Newell Martin. The flood of handbooks, more or 

 less closely following this original model, which has appeared 

 in fifteen years bears sufficient testimony to the popularity of 

 the main plan of instruction. It seems to-day an axiomatic 

 proposition that the zoologist should know something of plant 

 life and that the botanist should not be a stranger to animals. 

 And there can be no doubt that a well-directed study of funda- 

 mental types of both kingdoms, relatively early in the course, 

 affords at least one of the best means of preparation for subse- 

 quent specialization in either of the departments of pure biol- 

 ogy or for the study of medicine, which can be intelligently 

 taught only as applied biology. I believe, then, that the under- 

 lying idea of the general biology course is sound. But it must 

 be well carried out to be really serviceable. Undoubtedly, the 

 sympathetic cooperation of a botanist and a zoologist would 

 lead to the best results; but far better than the independent and 

 uncoordinated work of two persons would be that of a single 



