432 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 978 



STUDENTS IN INTKODUCTORY COURSE GROUPED 

 ACCORDING TO THEIR OFFICIAL CLASSES 



Per cent, of 

 class who take 

 the biology 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 



Number of Colleges 

 Freshmen 0323573132 10 



Sophomores 00113424 11 76 

 Juniors 001121215 15 11 



Seniors 000000132 12 21 



Freshmen and 



Sophomores 46 10 65020213 

 Juniors and 

 Seniors 21110138 10 66 



It is perfectly clear that so far as these col- 

 leges are concerned the great majority, i. e., 

 30 to 100 per cent., of the classes in intro- 

 ductory biology are freshmen and sophomores, 

 and that to 30 per cent, are from the junior 

 and senior classes. The presumption, of 

 course, is that the course is adapted to the 

 needs of the lower class men and not to ad- 

 vanced or university students. 



DATA CONCERNING THE SUBJECT MATTER OP 

 THE COURSE 



1. The nature of the introductory course in 

 the different colleges is given in the following 

 tables. 



Invertebrate zoology in 3 colleges. 

 Vertebrate zoology in college. 

 Zoology (vertebrate and invertebrate) in 



23 colleges. 

 Animal and plant (biology) in 16 colleges. 

 Botany in 2 colleges. 



In a few colleges the student is permitted to 

 choose between a year's course either in zool- 

 ogy or in botany. 



2. The character of the course is to some 

 extent? indicated by the kind and number of 

 " types " used. The returns show that the 

 one type course, somewhat like Huxley's cray- 

 fish, is not used in any college; the few type 

 course, like the Sedgwick and Wilson biology, 

 is used in 11 colleges; the many type course, 

 like the Parker and Haswell zoology, is used 

 in 28 colleges. A distinct modification of the 

 last kind of course consists in greatly empha- 



sizing one, usually a vertebrate organism, and 

 studying other types in less detail, and fewer 

 in number. Seven colleges adopted this kind 

 of course. 



The following table gives an idea of the 

 number of types used in different colleges. 



ZOOLOGY COURSE 

 Number of Types Number of Colleges 



15 2 



14 1 



13 



12 5 



n 5 



10 9 



9 5 



8 5 



7 2 



6 4 



5 1 



Total 23 colleges 



PLANT AND ANIMAL COURSE 



Number of Number of Number of Total Number 



Animal Types Plant Types Colleges of Types 



10 4 1 14 



8 4 1] 



9 3 11 12 

 7 5 ij 



7 4 2 11 



7 3 l"! 



6 ' 4 ll 10 



5 5 sj 



8 11] 



5 4 ij. 9 



3 6 11 



3 4 1 7 



2 4 1 6 



Total 16 colleges 



These tables clearly show the preponderance 

 of the zoologist and of zoological types, even 

 in so-called biology courses. They also indi- 

 cate the significant departure from the study 

 of a representative type from each phylum, in 

 the direction of limiting the number except in 

 courses mistakenly designed to prepare stu- 

 dents for medicine. 



In the following table the zoologie types 

 are grouped according to their frequency: 



