NATURE 



433 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1900. 



A NEW DEPARTURE IN THE TEACHING 

 OF ZOOLOGY. 



Introduction to Zoology : a Guide to the Study of 

 Animals, for the use of Secondary Schools. By C. B. 

 Davenport, Ph.D., and Gertrude C. Davenport, B.S. 

 Pp. xii + 412. (New York : The Macmillan Co. 

 London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1900.) 



THE senior author of this book is well known in 

 zoological circles for his two-volume work on 

 ■"Experimental Morphology" — one of the most novel and 

 ambitious of modern text-books ; and his wife, whose 

 aid he acknowledged in its preface, now appears as 

 joint author of the present equally ambitious production, 

 which has for its object nothing short of a revolution of 

 the methods of zoological teaching in vogue in the 

 secondary schools of the United States. The key to the 

 plan of the work and nature of its contents lies in the 

 prefatory pronouncement that the "vast majority of 

 secondary students are not to be zoologists, but rather 

 men of affairs," and that " what the ordinary citizen 

 needs" zoologically is (not a course in comparative 

 anatomy but) "an acquaintance with the commonest 

 animals" — a knowledge of "where else over the world 

 the common animals of his State are to be found, and of 

 how animals affect man," and that to know these matters 

 is for him " more important than to know the location of 

 the pedal ganglion of the snail." There can be little 

 doubt that in this resolve the authors are in agreement 

 with a large section of active teachers, but it must not be 

 forgotten that the didactic system of laboratory instruction 

 in vogue, against which they are in the long run entering 

 a protest, has in its development become modified beyond 

 the conceptions and intentions of its founders, and that 

 as originally planned it did not ignore non-anatomical 

 considerations to the extent their attitude implies. In 

 their forcible recognition of the later tendency towards 

 so doing, however, and their bold attempt to overcome 

 it, they have performed a useful task, but experience can 

 alone decide upon the wisdom of the remedy they 

 propose. 



Their book is of 336 pages, excluding appendices, and 

 is divided into twenty-one chapters. The first four 

 chapters deal with the Insecta, and then follow one each 

 devoted respectively to the Myriapoda and Spiders, two 

 each to Crustacea, Worms and Molluscs, one each to 

 the Echinodermata, Calenterata and the Protozoa, and 

 then a series on the Vertebrates taken in ascending 

 order, the whole closing with a novel chapter on the 

 frog's egg as a study in development. The plan adopted 

 in each chapter is much as follows : — Opening with a con- 

 cise statement of the systematic position and relationships 

 of an order or other great group of animals conveniently 

 selected (with a definition of its name usually in a foot- 

 note), there follows a very brief description of the habitus, 

 and if so be the food and other special topics of interest, 

 of one or more of its familiar species. There is then 

 given a short descriptive account of its more familiar 

 allies, and it may be of its development ; and the whole 

 NO. 161 O, VOL. 62] 



chapter is brought to a close by an appendix, in the 

 form of a key to the families of the order to which the 

 type chosen belongs, or to the orders of the class or 

 other great divisions of the group under consideration, 

 while in places an accompanying key to the identi- 

 fication of members of allied subfamilies may be added 

 or incorporated. The plainest and most concise terms 

 are adopted, and there is a tolerably free use of illustra- 

 tion, preference being given to photographs of entire 

 animals, often with their natural surroundings, in many 

 cases with marked success ; and it cannot be denied that 

 the authors have been desperately earnest in the task of 

 selection and compilation. The body of the work is 

 followed by three main appendices, of which the second 

 is a bibliographic list embodying a none too fortunate 

 selection of books of reference, the third a synopsis of 

 the " animal kingdom," and the first an outline of a course 

 of laboratory work upon the type-organisms selected as 

 titular for the main chapters. Novelty here is as great 

 as with the rest of the book, for in the " Exercises " pre- 

 scribed, after each type-organism has been referred to 

 its habitat, with brief directions for its capture and pre- 

 servation in the Jiving state where necessary or desir- 

 able, there follow instructions for drawing, and series of 

 questions, framed with a view of compelling the observer 

 to determine details for himself, and not of pointing out 

 the precise nature and limits of the observation he is 

 expected to make, as is customary with most laboratory- 

 treatises current. " Hints for observations on the living 

 animal" usually follow, as do "Topics for further study." 

 This very novel scheme is the outcome of experience 

 gained while aiding in the conduct of the zoological 

 affairs of the Harvard University, and as here delimited 

 it is prescribed " for use in schools that can give to the 

 subject five periods per week for half a year," at dis- 

 cretion and with modification determinable by local 

 needs. The book thus embraces a very ambitious pro- 

 gramme, and we question if the most hopeful aspect of 

 the undertaking is not simply the better encouragement 

 of field-work and of observation of nature in the open, 

 in respect to which our existing methods do perhaps 

 stand in need of reform. 



It appears to us. however, that too much has been 

 attempted within the limits of the book, that there is 

 danger in its too frequent brevity of statement, and that 

 it stands in need of a greater uniformity of treatment. 

 What, for example, is. to be gained by merely referring 

 to the Tunicata as " Chordata which are either attached 

 or form colonies, or both " (which is an erroneous state- 

 ment), and as a group of Invertebrates which "lie 

 nearest to the stem from which the Vertebrates arose," 

 when whole paragraphs are given to far less generally 

 important assemblages of forms ? What also the use of 

 defining the Stomatopoda as including " only Squilla," 

 and then Cumacea, Isopoda and Amphipoda as embracing 

 a number of forms .'' The inclusion of the Sponges in the 

 Coelenterata ; the old-fashioned classification of birds, with 

 the RatitiE referred to the order " Cursores"; the in- 

 clusion of the Bryozoa on one page among the Gephyrea 

 and Leeches ("Annelida"), and on another among the 

 " Scolecida" ! can only be cited as examples of classifi- 

 catory treatment sorely in need of revision ; while among 



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