51 



This last sentence fully prepares one for the preponderance of 

 zoological emphasis which characterizes the book. Out of a 

 total of nine chapters, five have to do exclusively with animal 

 forms, and only two exclusively with plant forms. The other 

 two (Chapters I and IX) deal with general biological matters, 

 but out of the 25 pages of Chapter I only one and one quarter 

 pages refer to plants, and out of 35 pages of Chapter IX, only 

 seven refer to plants, and that only in illustration of Mendelism. 

 Of a total of 133 pages of text, only 34 treat of plant life. The 

 reason assigned (p. 109) for taking up the study of a fern is to 

 facilitate tracing the food of animals, and (p. VI) the sources of 

 animal energy. To the reviewer these reasons do not seem 

 cogent. Could not the desired end be attained by a concise 

 statement of not more than one or two paragraphs. 



To a botanist the situation suggests the following queries: 

 Why should a zoologist interject into a text-book on zoology a 

 chapter on the fern? Why has no botanist ever felt moved to 

 intercalate into a text-book of botany a chapter on the earth- 

 worm? We leave the answers to these questions to the "biolo- 

 gists," whose ways have always been past finding out to the 

 botanists. 



The preceding statements are intended, nor primarily as a 

 criticism of the book under review, but as a protest, which ap- 

 parently needs to be continually raised, against the persistent 

 tendency in some quarters to identify "biology" with the study 

 of only one of the great sub-kingdoms of living things. The 

 reviewer believes in introductory courses in general biology, 

 provided the biology is really general ; but he believes it is unfair 

 to botany, wholly misleading to the beginning student of biology, 

 and certainly no source of strength to zoology (though we appre- 

 ciate the compliment of the opposite implication) to interrupt 

 an otherwise logical course in zoology by sidestepping for a few 

 days to consider the life history of the fern. 



The following points will catch the eye of botanical readers: 



On page 36, after noting the secretion of ferments by the 

 salivary glands, stomach, and pancreas of animals, and that 

 "these ferments of the digestive tract act independently of the 



