243 



the old materials of general biology about human hygiene in 

 order to give some sort of continuity to the whole. Just what 

 real connection the teachers may in practice succeed in giving 

 to such a course it is not the province of this paper to present; 

 but upon the face of the printed courses and texts it would appear 

 that the result has been to add to the old dual course a third 

 element already familiar in the schools as human physiology. 

 That there is actually more connection between the parts than 

 appears on the surface is doubtless true, but such connection is 

 dependent upon the personal equation of the teacher and exists 

 rather in spite of the formal organization of the materials than 

 in consequence of it. With respect to the texts, it is interesting 

 to note that the three parts may be so wholly independent that 

 they are issued without change, separately bound, for use in 

 those schools in which only one of the sciences is taught. The 

 old authors with their natural history have in many respects 

 come closer to a solution than we with our biology." 



The second shows that the unification of such courses has its 

 dif^culties and disadvantages. After showing that botany and 

 zoology are divergent rather than parallel sciences, the selection 

 of man as the unifying object is discussed, "The increasing in- 

 terest in the economic phases of the sciences has stimulated the 

 suggestion that the grouping of materials might be made about 

 man's interest and activity, relating everything to man's use 

 and regarding everything from the point of view of its utilization 

 by him. This certainly has the advantage over former courses 

 that a coherent classification is possible, and that the course can 

 be organized as a unit. It is open to doubt, however, whether 

 such a self-centered arrangement of the pupil's environment is 

 desirable either scientifically or pedagogically." 



Mr. Eikenberry thinks that there "is the further disability 

 that when a science is organized with reference to man's more or 

 less random utilization of its materials, such great gaps are left 

 in its structure that it becomes merely a collection of unrelated 

 fragments; it ceases to be a science. The most heterogeneous 

 things are often brought together by man for his purpose as when 

 a building is constructed of burnt clay, limestone, hair, pine 



