10 LAB OR A TOR Y G UIDE IN PH YSIOL OGY. 



from the object all of its essential features. Diagrammatic 

 anatomical figures are sometimes useful in a laboratory 

 manual, but true anatomical figures are worse than use- 

 less they bar the student's independent progress. If his 

 laboratory manual contains illustrations of all apparatus 

 and tissues, and of such experiments as admit of graphic 

 records, the student makes similar drawings in his notes, 

 either unwillingly or dependently frequently both. The 

 laboratory work is thus robbed of much of the benefit it is 

 intended to give the student. Independence and origi- 

 nality are completely defeated or aborted, except in the 

 case of the rare student. 



If the laboratory manual contains graphic records of 

 experiments, much of the time of the demonstrator will be 

 consumed in explaining to the students individually why 

 the same physiological functions observed with slightly 

 different apparatus and under slightly different circum- 

 stances, may yield tracings which differ in minor detail 

 from those in the book. The energies of both demonstra- 

 tor and students will thus be partially diverted from their 

 legitimate channel. 



If there are no tracings in the text, students will natur- 

 ally, by comparison of their tracings, discover the essential 

 and the nonessential features and will seek the cause of 

 the essential features of their tracings. After the student 

 has made these independent discoveries he is in a position 

 to gain the maximum profit from the comparison of his 

 own tracings with those which others have taken, and 

 from any explanations which the demonstrator may choose 

 to add. 



It is evident then, that, from a pedagogical stand- 

 point, the laboratory guide should be sparsely illustrated. 

 On the other hand, the student's notes should be profusely 

 illustrated. 



