LABORATORY SUGGESTIONS 535 



can be best for all, but the following tables may be suggestive as to the order of 

 treatment, time to be devoted to various types, and the like. "Practical" is 

 meant to include field work, laboratory work, demonstrations, and themes worked 

 out in the library. A whole year's work is supposed to embrace not less than 

 three class-room periods and two double laboratory periods a week for about 

 thirty-six weeks. The author has purposely placed at the disposal of the teacher in 

 this textbook about twice as much work as can be done well in the allotted time. 

 The purpose of this is that each teacher may have the privilege of electing material 

 most suited to the special circumstances, and yet have before him an ideal of 

 what a thorough elementary course should cover. 



For a course covering one-half year and given in the spring term the order 

 would be about that of I and the time about as in III. In a course of one-half 

 year the bulk of the matter in fine print should be omitted, or used in just such 

 measure as time will permit. The marine forms, which the majority of schools 

 will have to study from preserved materials, and the general part of the text 

 (Chapters I to VIII) should be studied in the winter months when the local animals 

 are least active. In connection with the review in Chapter XXIX, Chapters I 

 to VIII should be reread by the student. Such a review will be especially helpful 

 after the student has a larger body of zoological details at his command. Chap- 

 ters XXV to XXVIII will strengthen the general impressions gained in the 

 earlier parts. 



4. The Laboratory and its Equipment. — (o) The laboratory or work room 

 should be well lighted, and supplied with flat- topped tables; the plainer, the 

 better. These should be 29 to 30 inches in height. If possible each student 

 should have a drawer where he may keep his instruments and records. Sinks 

 with running water are of course very desirable. Slop-jars of earthenware should 

 be provided for refuse dissections, and the like. 



(6) There should also be another room in which living animals may be kept. 

 Very often a part of the basement with south exposure may be utilized for this 

 purpose. The temperature should not fall to the freezing point, nor rise unduly 

 when the furnace is heated. In such a room as this many animals may be kept 

 much beyond the period when they disappear outside. Fruit jars, tumblers, 

 shallow glass or crockery dishes, and, best of all, battery-jars of various sizes should 

 be accumulated here. With a little ingenuity aquarium vessels of good size, with 

 glass sides, may be made by means of good quality of pine boxes, putty, and panes 

 of glass. A square may be taken from the middle of two opposite sides of such a 

 box and the window inserted in such a way as to give good illumination of the 

 interior. Running water is even more of a necessity here than in the laboratory. 

 A few bell jars, wire gauze cages for insects, boxes of various kinds for other 

 animals complete the list of the most essential features of a good working vivarium . 

 It is always desirable to have some green water-plants in the vessels of water con- 

 taining aquatic animals, e.g., bladder-wort, watercress, duck weed, and spirogyra. 



Each student should have access to a good compound microscope. It is 

 possible for two students to work together with one instrument, but such a plan 

 is never very satisfactory. At the outset the teacher should give careful instruc- 

 tions' to the student in the use and care of the compound microscope. The 

 laboratory should also supply dissecting pans of heavy tin, six or eight by twelve 

 inches, with flaring sides, and one and one-half inches deep. Pour into these a 

 small amount of melted paraffin mixed with lampblack. This forms an excellent 



