110 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. A'OL. XLIX. No. 1257 



would, it seems to me, defeat many of the 

 most important objects of our college work. 



There may well be differences of opinion 

 as to the sequence and proportion of the 

 different phases of zoology to be contained in 

 the introductory course. I grant too that some 

 latitude may be allowed for the preferences 

 and training of the individual instructor but, 

 conceding this, it seems to me that there are 

 certain fundamentals that shoiild be provided 

 for at some period or in some form in any 

 course that claims to give the student the 

 basis either for further work in zoology or for 

 the general problems of life or their applica- 

 tions in agriculture, medicine or commerce. 



Morphology must certainly stand as one, 

 if not the first, of these fundamental points, 

 not only because it forms the essential basis 

 for all taxonomic, biologic, faunistic or other 

 work but because it is par excellence the part 

 of zoology which once learned is a permanent 

 foundation for the shifting structiu-es of bio- 

 logic interpretation. Whatever speculations 

 may follow as to significance, function, origin, 

 etc., the organs and their parts remain a 

 basic fact practically unchanged from genera- 

 tion to generation and the fijial resort in all 

 controversy in biological interpretation. 



Just how much laboratory dissection or 

 anatomic demonstration is absolutely nec- 

 essary may be open to debate but as to its 

 essential character I think we must all agree. 

 Next and closely associated with morphology 

 I place physiology, because the activities of 

 animals are certainly of vital consequence in 

 all developments of biological knowledge. 

 Moreover, it is only on the basis of their 

 functions that animal structures can be prop- 

 erly understood. I sometimes feel that it is 

 regrettable that physiology and anatomy 

 should have been so widely separated in more 

 advanced courses, although this is in some 

 degree an inevitable result of specialization. 

 But certainly for elementary courses such 

 separation is indefensible. 



The extent and character of the physiolog- 

 ical element, however, is subject to wide va- 

 riation with different instructors and a proper 

 balance may be hard to determine. From the 



nature of the case it is impossible to carry 

 this phase into the many debatable fields of 

 physiologic interpretation and I believe the 

 best results will be secured by centering at- 

 tention on those functions most easily asso- 

 ciated with the structures studied. The well- 

 established facts of digestion, circulation, res- 

 piration, excretion, nervous activities and re- 

 production can best be presented in con- 

 nection with the study of the organs involved 

 and if these are taken up in a comparative 

 series of the major groups of animals, the na- 

 ture of these fundamental activities should be 

 firmly fixed in the mind of the student. Ee- 

 production especially, with the associated phe- 

 nomena of growth, metamorphosis, inheritance, 

 etc., can most profitably come in as parts of a 

 progressive system leading from lower to 

 higher forms not only to show the gradual 

 evolution of the system but as a most natural 

 and desirable introduction for the presenta- 

 tion of sexual hygiene so vitally important for 

 the happiness of the individual and to the 

 perpetuity and progress of the race. 



Ecology for the introductory course should 

 be given large attention, but rather as a 

 means of fitxing the significance of structure 

 and activity than as a separate field of study. 

 So too the economic relationships may be 

 profitably treated as associated with function 

 and ecology. 



The main facts of geographical distribution 

 may have been suggested in the discussion of 

 various animals, but discussion of migration 

 and adaptation can hardly be omitted in a 

 summary of biologic factors and with the 

 foundation of a comparative study of the 

 great groups of animals with indication of 

 their historical development, the basic prin- 

 ciples of the evolution of animals may be 

 undertaken. 



The amount of time accorded to classifica- 

 tion is again, a matter of great difference of 

 opinion and practise. With the more special 

 problems of taxonomy it is certainly unwise 

 to deal in a class of general students. Puzzling 

 and intricate problems of taxonomy should be 

 presented to technical students in later courses 

 and in much greater detail than would be 



