April 29, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



673 



than it would have been a few years ago, and 

 altogether the book is a valuable contribution 

 to the science of education. A useful bibliog- 

 raphy is appended. 



Edgar James Swift 

 Washington Univebsity, 

 St. Louis, Mo. 



NOTES ON THE TEACHING OF ZOOLOGY 

 AND PLANS FOR ITS IMPROVEMENT 

 Few Elect Zoology. — Although for some 

 time the writer has been under the impression 

 that a good many more students elect botany 

 than zoology, both in the high schools and 

 academies and in the college; yet in glancing 

 over our (Kansas) " High School Manual '" I 

 was somewhat surprised to find that almost 

 eight times as many high school pupils were 

 last year enrolled in botany as in zoology — to 

 be exact, 2,669 in botany and 346 in zoology. 

 Another table in this manual reveals the fact 

 that while 177 of the accredited high schools 

 claim to be equipped for botany, but 33 claim 

 any equipment for zoology, and the latter is 

 usually estimated at a lesser value. I can 

 quote figures from one other state only. In 

 Minnesota,^ starting with a ratio of 4 to 1 in 

 1894, zoology has steadily gained till last year 

 it stood 9 to 7 in favor of botany. The fact 

 that neither St. Louis, Mo., nor Tacoma, 

 Wash., offers any zoology in its high schools 

 leads me to suspect that similar dispropor- 

 tion exists in other states, at least in the 

 middle and far west. 



We teachers of zoology can not avoid ask- 

 ing. Why is this so? It is surely not because 

 animals with their free movements and their 

 intelligence are less interesting than plants. 

 Where is the child or grown-up (aside from 

 the specialist) who will not leave the prettiest 

 bed of flowers to watch the cage of playful 

 monkeys ? The moving object, particularly the 

 automatically moving one, attracts all of us. 

 Nor can it be that the school authorities regard 

 zoology as less practical than botany. To know 

 the ravaging insect is just as important as to 

 recognize the medicinal plant. To name the 

 ' Bulletin, of the University of Kansas, 1908. 

 ' Fifteenth Annual Report of the Inspector of 

 the State High Schools. State of Minnesota, 1908. 



brilliant song bird properly is just as desirable 

 as to classify the fragrant flower. 



According to my thinking, at least three 

 causes can be cited which operate to bring 

 about such a disproportion between the sub- 

 jects. 



The first one is the lack of properly pre- 

 pared teachers. Few of the instructors in the 

 high schools are prepared to teach either of 

 the two sciences. When called upon to teach 

 one, a majority will choose botany instead of 

 zoology. They probably had a course in ele- 

 mentary botany and not in zoology. Besides, 

 plants are simpler and they feel that they can 

 manage a course concerning them better than 

 the more complex and larger group of animals. 



A second and probably a more potent cause 

 is the fact that many of our children are 

 taught by their parents from early childhood 

 to avoid and fear the animals — the creepy 

 worms, the biting spiders and the dreadful 

 mice. In " nature study " in the grade schools 

 (taught by women) this view of the animals 

 is farther inculcated. As a result, when the 

 young people get into the high school and are 

 to select a biological science they naturally 

 choose botany. 



The third cause is a greater one, at least a 

 more real one. It is the difficulty of securing 

 plenty of good material for the course in zo- 

 ology. While the botanist has aU his impor- 

 tant phyla represented in almost any inland 

 region, the zoologist has three important phyla 

 practically limited to salt water. This neces- 

 sitates the securing of a good deal of material 

 from the seashore. And of the material that 

 is in the vicinity it is so much easier for the 

 botanist to secure what he wants — to pick the 

 flower on the bank of the brook than to catch 

 the cray-fish in the dirty water. The flower 

 will surely be found on the first " tramp," 

 provided it is made at the right time and to 

 the right place. To secure the cray-fish, in 

 addition to choosing the right season and the 

 proper locality, the necessary seine or other 

 paraphernalia to catch the desired specimen 

 must be taken along. Sometimes it means the 

 employment of help to handle the apparatus. 

 To secure some species requires a different set 

 of tools, and they are even harder to get than 



