April 21, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



419 



have it before they will be graduated or be- 

 cause some professor has said they must have 

 it before they may take his course. Since I 

 insist upon the privilege of saying that my 

 own students shall have botany or zoology and 

 physiology before they take genetics, I can not 

 well quarrel with a colleague who makes sim- 

 ilar requirements of my course as a pre- 

 requisite for his. 



Perhaps we would all agree that an ele- 

 mentary knowledge of genetics is of value to 

 all agricultural students. But so are courses 

 in many other subjects. If a student were 

 required to have even an elementary knowledge 

 of every thing that is good for him there would 

 be little time left for advanced or specialized 

 courses in any subject. It does seem advisable, 

 however, that as a rule students specializing 

 in any phase of biology should have a course 

 in genetics, though I doubt the advisability of 

 making it a flsed requirement for all. If any 

 group of students should be required to have 

 genetics, it should be those who will later be 

 engaged in the production of better plants and 

 animals and then only in the sense of making 

 it the basis for courses dealing with the appli- 

 cation of genetic principles to plant and animal 

 improvement. I am not at all in sympathy 

 with making genetics a requii-ement for gradu- 

 ation of all students in the agricultural college 

 any more than with making plant or animal 

 breeding such a requirement. 



RELATION TO COURSES IN TECHNICAL 

 DEPARTMENTS 



Notwithstanding my conviction that the 

 genetics instructor will get better results on 

 the whole if his course is not required, from 

 the standpoint of instruction in the technical 

 departments of plant and animal industry as 

 well as from the standpoint of educational and 

 administrative policy, it would seem unportant 

 that at least an elementary knowledge of 

 genetics should be made prerequisite to courses 

 in plant and animal breeding if the latter are 

 to be more than a presentation of empirical 

 rules and methods or a consideration of super- 

 stitious practices and beliefs. If the genetics 

 course is made prequisite to such courses the 

 instructor of the latter will have a definite 



basis upon which to work and will not be 

 forced to spend his time in a consideration of 

 genetic principles as an introduction to the 

 main part of his course — a tiresome review for 

 those of his students who have previously taken 

 the course in genetics and an inadequate con- 

 sideration of genetics for those who have not. 

 Time will thus be saved for both instructor and 

 student and better work will be done. 



I offer no apologies for the materials of the 

 genetics instructor. Nevertheless, in an agri- 

 cultural college at least one always encounters 

 a few students of an intensely practical mind, 

 to whom I have already referred, who seem 

 to have little interest in matters not of imme- 

 diate economic importance or application. Such 

 students one of my colleagues has described as 

 "those who desire information without knowl- 

 edge." If left to their own inclinations and 

 desires they are apt to fill up their schedule 

 with what may be termed "informational" 

 courses to the exclusion of courses that require 

 real mental work. It is sometimes possible to 

 command a greater interest on the part of such 

 students by giving careful thought to the 

 choice of illustrative material, by pointing out 

 from time to time some applications of genetic 

 principles in plant and animal improvement 

 and by referring such students to literature 

 illustrating the very practical use of genetic 

 knowledge in the interpretation of phenomena 

 with which they are quite familiar. 



SCOPE AND CONTENTS 



In my judgment, the elementarj' course in 

 genetics should constitute a survey of the entire 

 field of heredity. It should be organized and 

 presented in such a manner as to acquaint the 

 student not only with a knowledge of the 

 principles and facts of heredity but of how the 

 science of genetics has been and is being devel- 

 oped, and give him an elementary knowledge 

 of the modes of genetic research. Genetics 

 offers an excellent opportunity for the teacher 

 to present his subject from the research point 

 of view and to demonstrate how human knowl- 

 edge is advanced. I am inclined to thinli agri- 

 cultural students in general get too little of this 

 type of instruction. 



Perhaps I can best illustrate the scope and 



