302 APPENDIX. 



SUGGESTIONS TO THE TEACHER. 



Some knowledge of the difficulties encountered by one who \vould 

 attempt a well-balanced elementary courso in zoology, in some of our 

 secondary schools at the present time, prompts this final word to the 

 teacher. 



I would recommend the teacher, first of all, to note the amount of 

 work outlined in the foregoing pages, and to consider whether it may 

 all be done in the time at the disposal of his class. Having often 

 found that a particular animal, when wanted alive for study, is not to 

 be had, I have mentioned several types to which each outline may be 

 applied, and have perhaps added more outlines in brief than so ele- 

 mentary a course requires ; yet I trust the advantage of this will be 

 apparent when selections are to be made. For a short course it might 

 be more profitable to study only the part relating to insects or the part 

 relating to vertebrates, rather than to attempt to " go through " the 

 book. 



I would suggest that the teacher arrange his work so as to have 

 an hour of freedom from teaching preceding the hour for zoology, 

 which may be spent in preparing for the recitation. The hour will be 

 anything but vacant if devoted to the preparation for the hour to 

 follow it. 



I would suggest that the teacher spend the first hour of the session 

 in familiarizing his pupils with the microscope, with its parts and 

 their use. I would give them each a slide with some object of simple 

 outlines mounted on it, and instruct them in moving the object into 

 the field, in finding it with low and with high powers, and I would 

 require an outline drawing of it. 



Then I would proceed at once to the study of amoeba, paramecium, 

 sponge, and hydra, passing over this part as rapidly as proved consis- 

 tent with the mastering of the fundamental ideas of zoology which 

 these types are well adapted to introduce. For this part of the study, 

 I would provide all the material, and present it as demonstrations, 

 requiring of the pupils only that they study it and make drawings 

 showing all they are able to make out, naming the parts and explain- 

 ing their action ; and that they make note of the habits and habitat 

 of these animals. 



Then I would begin, as early as possible in the term (all the mate- 

 rial of this book is arranged with reference to beginning the course 

 in early autumn), the study of insects. And for the remainder of the 



