356 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1215 



contraction is indeed one of the fnjidamental 

 properties of living beings, you have selected in 

 the muscle-nerve preparation a highly special- 

 ized mechanism which may have nothing es- 

 sentially to do vs'ith contraction as it occurs 

 in more undifferentiated protoplasm ; the fact 

 that this same professor presents, in connec- 

 tion with the muscle-nerve preparation, the 

 theories of construction of cross-striated mus- 

 cle fibers is enough to cause one to pause in 

 stating that he is dealing with a case of " fun- 

 damentals." As for the nerve, we have again 

 a highly specialized organ for the transmission 

 of impulses, which bears many difierentiations, 

 totally unlike what exists in the lower forms 

 where transmission of stimuli proceeds. For 

 the medical student, for whom these coiu'ses 

 are designed, nothing could be better and the 

 success which this man obtains with his 

 methods in inculcating the knowledge which 

 should be a part of all medical training is in- 

 dicative of the fact that he is on the right 

 track. 



However, for the biological student, the 

 course is inadequate. There is a wealth of 

 material which can be presented in actual 

 laboratory work concerning the fundamentals 

 of protoplasm in general and of irritability 

 and contractility in particular. What is needed 

 is the simple recognition, born of actual ex- 

 perience, that such possibilities exist. They 

 are appreciated in various quarters and the 

 writer has found them recognized in even a 

 medical school within the limits of the city of 

 Boston, where they are not alone appreciated, 

 but actually incorporated into the medical 

 curriculum, in a small way, to be sure, but 

 nevertheless therein. 



It is not within the purport of an article 

 of this kind to attempt to outline the presenta- 

 tion of general, or biological physiology. It 

 may be sufficient to say, however, that were 

 the catholicity of view of the average botanist 

 equally well developed in the students of 

 zoology, there would be no demand, as seems 

 actually to exist, for an outline of a course in 

 general or, specifically, zoological physiology. 

 It is not biologists in the strict sense of the 

 word who need the education, but zoologists. 



The difticulty centering about this one group 

 of scientists demands elucidation; why is it 

 that the average student of zoology is less 

 familiar with function than the student of 

 botany ? 



The answer to this question must not be 

 that the departments of botany, as we have 

 said before, present functional studies, while 

 the departments of zoology do not; that is not 

 a reason. The adequate reason lies in the 

 point of view. For the plant student, there is 

 no line of demarcation between form and func- 

 tion. The structure of the leaf is taken as a 

 matter of course in terms of transpiration 

 and of photosynthesis; one is not complete 

 without the other. In elementary botany, 

 these functional considerations are presented. 

 What course of elementary zoology, even of 

 the college grades, teaches the student the 

 rudiments of the most important of all the 

 properties of organisms, namely, oxidation 1 

 The minutiae of the nervous system of the 

 Cray fish are followed, yet the simple fact 

 which we have just mentioned must be dele- 

 gated to another department for presentation, 

 that is, to the physiologist. 



Morphology has been adhered to in a large 

 manner on account of its supposed superior 

 pedagogical value. Here are things succinct 

 and things one may feel and handle. 



From the tangible to the intangible in the 

 perfect method. For reasons such as these, 

 morphological aspects have held the center 

 of the stage. Additional reasons have been 

 of historical nature. The science of biology 

 is still concerned with the method of evolu- 

 tion ; witness the " fashion " of genetics, so 

 all-absorbing that the subject dominates the 

 cementing society of biological societies — the 

 naturalists, together with an organ, one of the 

 first of its kind in this country, namely, The 

 American Naturalist. Now genetics can ap- 

 ply and do apply, as has been shown abun- 

 dantly, to fimction but, for class presentation, 

 form is much easier. Following the enimcia- 

 tion of the so-called Darwinian Theory, cam« 

 a long line of verifiers and exemplifiers, who 

 piled up the mass of data which has been 

 systematized into our modern conception of 



