BIOLOGY 



The scheme of classification of the Biological 

 Sciences which I have adopted for this occasion 

 makes no attempt at completeness of detail. In 

 drawing it up I have been guided primarily by 

 what appears to me to be the logical course of study 

 which a student should pursue in an ideal curri- 

 culum. It will be seen at once that the customary 

 distinction into Zoology and Botany as primary 

 divisions finds no place in the schedule, for the 

 object of such a curriculum would be to produce 

 neither botanists nor zoologists but, what is far 

 more important, biologists. The distinction be- 

 tween Zoology and Botany would cut across our 

 entire classification, and most of the subdivisions 

 proposed could be treated, though greatly to their 

 detriment, exclusively from the botanical or from 

 the zoological standpoint. Specialisation on the 

 botanical or zoological side, like specialisation in 

 human anatomy and physiology, or in any other 

 of the numerous departments, should come at a 

 later stage. It is not pretended, however, that the 

 scheme as it stands would be suitable for an actual 

 curriculum in any existing university. It is meant 

 rather to give a bird's-eye view, and to indicate the 

 nature and scope of the subject-matter that would 

 have to be dealt with in an institute or depart- 

 ment devoted to the study of biological science, in 

 order that the subject might be developed as an 

 organic whole rather than as a series of lop-sided 



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