April 22, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



655 



work has had to go. We must forever give 

 over the attempt to illustrate the whole 

 gamut of evolutionary changes in a series 

 of types. But we may retain enough of 

 anatomy to be comparative, enough to il- 

 lustrate kinship clearly, enough to illustrate 

 differentiation, homology, analogy, etc. 

 And may we have this with a maximum of 

 fact and a minimum of terminology! Let 

 us give preference to external anatomy and 

 the study of whole micro-organisms, over 

 internal anatomy and microtome sections. 

 Other things being equal, let us give prefer- 

 ence to the sort of work that the inter- 

 ested student may continue after he has 

 left the laboratory behind. 



7. Lastly, there should be included the 

 more general conceptions that have grown 

 out of the consideration of biological facts 

 and phenomena and that have taken their 

 places in the world of thought. I mean 

 that there should be considered evolution, 

 with practical studies in the survival of the 

 fittest; the biogenetic law, with practical 

 detailed study of some illustration of the 

 correspondence between ontogeny and 

 phylogeny, etc. These should be introduced 

 because they can not in justice be with- 

 held rather than because the majority go 

 no further. I woiild have them introduced, 

 also, because some, who 'are accustomed to 

 get their basis for thinking by more round- 

 about methods, are still maintaining that 

 biology is a purely observational subject. 

 These all but universal principles the world 

 owes chiefly to biology, and may rightly ex- 

 pect that teachers of biology will faithfully 

 teach them and not withhold the indica- 

 tions of their wide applicability. 



Let it be understood that these seven 

 phases of the subject are not offered as a 

 program ; far from it. They are not topics 

 for study, but matters to be emphasized 

 in connection with any or all of the special 

 topics to which they relate. I submit that 

 among them is nothing that will not com- 



mend itself both for present value and for 

 value as a basis for further progress in 

 biology. I do not believe that any one is 

 well equipped for intelligent participation 

 in modern life if ignorant of these things. 

 Without knowledge of them he will not 

 know how to manage his own garden, his 

 own table, his own appetites, his own emo- 

 tions or his own thinking. It is, perhaps, 

 true that there are those in circles of cul- 

 ture ready to apologize for the mispronun- 

 ciation of a Latin phrase, or for the admis- 

 sion of not .having read 'Ivanhoe' or even 

 ' Treasure Island, ' who would think nothing 

 of it if one should call a whale a fish, or try 

 to kill squashbugs by spraying them with 

 Paris green, or ask what beetles turn into. 

 Indeed, our leading newspapers still publish 

 several times a year the circumstantial de- 

 tails of the case of one who, while drinking 

 at a spring, swallowed tadpoles, and later 

 coughed up frogs. But these things will 

 not always be. On the other side of the 

 matter, I would say for my own part that, 

 so far as knowledge goes, it is some little 

 real and first-hand knowledge of just these 

 seven aspects of biology that I should like 

 to have the high-school graduate equipped 

 with when he presents himself for further 

 work in college. It will have become suffi- 

 ciently evident, in my opinion, that if 

 the course that is best for life is not best 

 for college entrance, it is so much the worse 

 for the entrance requirement. 



Even the few general topics I have 

 named I would not at present require to be 

 taught anywhere. I would merely recom- 

 mend them. For while the science is so 

 new, the field of possible studies so vast 

 and the preparation of teachers so diverse, 

 there is great danger that too much definite- 

 ness in a set program may curb initiative 

 and curtail spontaneity. I would let the 

 teachers of the present generation of pio- 

 neers do what they can do best to teach 

 the rising generation to see and think, to 



