720 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 623. 



of interest in the subject among educators. 

 Unlike most of this number, the present book 

 purports to be adapted to either secondary 

 school, normal school or college grade. In 

 one respect this is a point worthy of consid- 

 eration, in that it seems to recognize the cor- 

 rect pedagogical principle of the essentially 

 similar aims and methods of the elementary 

 course, whetiier in school or in college. On 

 the other hand, it involves the difficult problem 

 of furnishing a course of instruction, suited 

 in character and extent to students of the 

 varying capacity and training of the second 

 or third year of the high school and the cor- 

 responding second or third year of the normal 

 school or college, the periods in which such 

 course is likely to have its place. The task is 

 not, perhaps, impossible, but confessedly diffi- 

 cult; and to the reviewer's thought the present 

 book ha^ not clearly solved the problem. 



For the average school course the book in- 

 cludes too much, and too difficult work; while 

 for the college course it seems to fall as far 

 short. For the normal school, and this is 

 probably the grade of work more directly 

 aimed at by the author, the book would seem 

 to be well suited. 



In method of arrangement the book follows 

 rather closely the well-known ' Lehrbuch der 

 Zoologie ' of Hertwig, best known to American 

 teachers of zoology through Kingsley's trans- 

 lation under the title ' Manual of Zoology.' 

 That is, there are two parts to the book. (I.) 

 General Principles; (II.) Special Zoology. 

 Under the first part is a series of chapters 

 dealing with protoplasm, the cell, the tissues, 

 physiology, adaptation, etc. Under the second 

 part is taken up a review of the entire animal 

 kingdom, from protozoa to mammals. That 

 there are elements of value in this method of 

 presentation will not be questioned. That 

 they are of the fundamental and supreme 

 importance assumed by their authors is not 

 so clear. To the writer the method has always 

 seemed open to serious objections. For ex- 

 ample, to begin such a course with the study 

 of the morphology and physiology of proto- 

 plasm, followed by an attempt to clear up the 

 intricacies of cell morphology, including the 

 details of cleavage, chromosomes, centrosomes. 



spiremes, with prophase, metaphase, etc. (cf. 

 pp. 22-35), reverses one of the fundamental 

 canons of sound pedagogy, long since pointed 

 out by Huxley, and now generally recognized 

 by most teachers of zoology. 



A similar criticism holds with reference to 

 the chapters devoted to tissues, promorphol- 

 ogy, and adaptations. To formulate these 

 points in advance, outline the problems of 

 evolution, etc., and rally about them the vari- 

 ous data involved in their solution, is again 

 to reverse the inductive order, presenting first 

 that which ought to form the climax and con- 

 clusion of the course, thus depriving the stu- 

 dent of the privilege of coordinating the facts 

 as they develop. The chapters on general 

 animal functions and something of tissues 

 are, perhaps, very appropriate, though it has 

 always been the method of the reviewer to 

 develop these points as they arise in the prog- 

 ress of the course. And to devote fully one 

 third of the entire book to such a preliminary 

 study seems altogether disproportionate. In- 

 deed, this course seems to include something 

 of two ideals, namely, biology as distinguished 

 from zoology, or in other words including two 

 courses under a single caption. 



In another respect the book is open to some 

 criticism. The author postulates for the ele- 

 mentary course in zoology a four-fold purpose, 

 viz., * (1) laboratory work, chiefly physiolog- 

 ical, and in the larger problems of morphology 

 rather than in minute dissection; (2) to field 

 observation on physiology, life histories, the 

 simpler problems of distribution and life rela- 

 tions; (3) to the body of the descriptive text, 

 and (4) to classes of questions demanding 

 reference to classical zoological authorities.' 

 To each of these phases he would give an 

 equal apportionment of time. It may be 

 doubted whether for elementary pupils this 

 would not prove impracticable, especially 

 reference to such ' classical authorities ' as 

 Darwin, Wallace, Davenport's ' Experimental 

 Morphology,' Lloyd Morgan's ' Animal Life,' 

 Elmer's ' Evolution,' etc. 



Of actual errors in statement of facts or 

 principles there seem to be relatively few. In 

 speaking of the larval life of echinoderms the 

 author refers to them as ' free-swimming — 



