514 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1301 



sidering only the lower organisms, in study- 

 ing plants and animals together, but when it 

 comes to the higher forms there is a distinct 

 disadvantage in attempting to mix the two in 

 one elementary course. For example, " what 

 advantage is there in studying a fern by the 

 side of a lobster, or an earthworm by the 

 side of a moss, or a monkey with an oak 

 tree — unless, indeed, you are going to con- 

 sider problems of the athletics of the monkey 

 in relation to the tree?" 



There is no more justification for com- 

 bining botany and zoology into one elemen- 

 tary course than there is for giving a com- 

 bined elementary course in physics and chem- 

 istry. We may equally well have a general 

 Greek-and-Latin course for elementary stu- 

 dents which will introduce them at once to 

 philology. The general biology course be- 

 longs in the same class with the general 

 science course, which is universally conceded 

 to be of too superficial value to merit a place 

 in the curriculum of any institution above 

 the grade of high school. It is but a step 

 removed from the natural science course 

 which figured in so many college curricula 

 of a past generation. 



3. An elementary course in general biology 

 lays too much stress on abstract principles and 

 too little on concrete facts. 



" Sound and thorough knowledge is only to 

 be obtained in the laboratory," writes Huxley. 

 A firm basis of fundamental facts is absolutely 

 prerequisite to a clear comprehension of 

 underlying principles. This is just as true in 

 the biological sciences as it is in chemistry or 

 physics or mathematics. The student must 

 actually work with plants as. plants and with 

 animals as animals and become thoroughly fa- 

 miliar with their structure, physiology and 

 reproduction before he can appreciate broad 

 generalizations. Make general biology, if 

 anything, an advanced course in evolution or 

 biological principles, to follow specific courses 

 in botany and zoology: a summation, rather 

 than an introduotion. Teach the student to 

 generalize on many particulars, not on a few. 

 Train him first to be precise in his methods 

 and accurate in his conclusions. Develop his 

 powers of observation. In an elementary 



course in general biology the student is apt to 

 become so enamoured of the grand general 

 underlying principles that he has little use for 

 details, with the result that he becomes loose 

 and slipshod in his methods and utterly in- 

 capable of accurate, independent work. Let 

 the student learn to be analytic before he at- 

 tempts synthesis. 



, 4. An elementary course in general hiology, 

 as ordinarily presented, tends to give the stu- 

 dent the impression that he has something he 

 does not possess. 



Dealing in one short course, as too often it 

 pretends to do, with all the large problems of 

 life, general biology commonly aims to accom- 

 plish the impossible. Covering, as it seems to, 

 the whole realm both of plant and animal life 

 — morphology and physiology, evolution, cy- 

 tology and genetics, not to mention bacteriol- 

 ogy and hygiene — it leads the student to think 

 he has a comprehensive knowledge of it all, 

 when in fact he has only a superficial smatter- 

 ing of anything. Touching as it must only the 

 iiigh lights, it tends to muddle the student's 

 mind and to leave him with little more than 

 an uncoordinated jumble of facts. 



5. For students who plan to take further 

 fvorlc in either botany or zoology, an introduc- 

 tory course in general biology is especially 

 disadvantageous. 



It is primarily essential that such students, 

 at the outset, should lay a firm foundation of 

 fact upon which to base subsequent studies; 

 that they should develop their powers of ob- 

 servation; that they should learn to work and 

 think independently, to draw careful and accu- 

 rate conclusions. It is disadvantageous that 

 the introductory course should encroach upon 

 the work of more advanced courses, for " when 

 the student begins these more advanced 

 courses he loses the advantage of entering en- 

 tirely novel fields." And it is further disad- 

 vantageous, as so commonly is the case, that a 

 student going on in botany should receive his 

 introductory training in this phase of biology 

 at the hands of a zoologist (and vice versa). 



6. In an institution having two distinct de- 

 partments, a department of botany and a de- 

 partment of zoology, it is disadvantageous that 



