1006 The American Naturalist. [ December, 
\ 
the lower forms and proceeding upward in the scale of life ; 
(5) That the methods employed should aim to develop the 
faculties of the student as well as to add to his store of knowl- 
edge—should be educative as well as instructive; and (6) 
That the laboratory work should be supplemented to as great 
an extent as possible by field excursions and outside reading. 
It is scarcely necessary at this time to emphasize the impor- 
tance of the laboratory method of studying biology. It is the 
only possible way ; and if it cannot be adopted the boys had 
better be turned out in the woods to study nature first hand 
there. They will thus gain more useful knowledge and ex- 
perience than they possibly could from the old-fashion text- 
book of zoology in which the student was introduced through 
a dead language to a much deader world. The equipment of 
a biological laboratory need not be very expensive. The 
essential furniture will consist of low simply-constructed 
tables with accompanying chairs, shelf-room and window- 
space. Each student should be provided with a compound 
microscope which can be purchased for $17 .00, and a few sim- 
ple accessories. Glass jars of some form—nests of beakers of 
larger sizes are excellent—should be provided for aquaria, 
and some simple reagents and dissecting dishes are necessary. 
The logical method of commencing the study of zoology 
unquestionably is to study the lowest forms first and proceed 
in natural sequence to the higher ones. The student thus 
acquires a philosophie view of the animal kingdom and of the 
method of its development. He studies first the cellin the 
manifold modifications which it assumes in the one-celled 
animals; then he sees cells remaining connected superficially 
to form the simplest metazoa, and finally studies their myriad 
combinations in the higher animals, He proceeds from the 
simple to the complex—studies the materials of construction 
before studying the completed structure. The chief objection 
that has been raised to this method is that the student is re- 
quired to begin the subject with high powers of the microscope 
—an instrument with which he may not be familiar—and 
that by means of it he is suddenly introduced to new and 
Strange forms of life. "This objection has been urged with 
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