METHOD OF STUDYING MATERIAL. 209 



but such study will review and clinch and bind to- 

 gether what he has learned about function. The 

 long, conical, tough main root suggests its function, 

 to hold fast. The thickened, upper part is fitted 

 for its work as a storehouse, until the storehouse is no 

 longer needed. The fibrous branches have a work, to 

 absorb water and food from the soil. It is more than a 

 fleshy, conical tap-root, as the botanist would describe it ; 

 it is a holdfast, a storehouse, an absorbent. Moreover, 

 this same root may in the next step become a type of 

 roots which have similar functions, and thus become a 

 means of still further unifying the student's ideas. 



The relation between the study of habit and of struc- 

 ture and many of the principles and ideas discussed in 

 this chapter have been applied and illustrated in the 

 outline for the study of the rabbit in Chapter II. 



The study of habits and function is largely a process 

 of analysis. If we stop with the study of the habits 

 of the canary-bird, we have little idea of the bird as a 

 structural whole or unit. The study of adaptation to 

 function or of structure is largely a process of synthe- 

 sis, of bringing together and reducing to unity what 

 has been separated in the previous step. 



If the study of structure is to be a means of review- 

 ing and clinching function, and is to lead the child to 

 think, we must constantly ask "why" and u how." 

 What is the use of this ? Why is this so ? It is not 

 enough to say that the grasshopper has very large hind 

 legs. Why ? It has a groove on each side of the ab- 

 domen. Why ? To aid in breathing. How ? But the 



