252 T. E Queensland Naturalist. Vol. 1 
— such as the honey bee— and wild ones, such as the May 
fly- 
5. This suggests the remark that the best results, to 
teacher and pupil alike, will accrue from considering few 
living objects, and considering them thoroughly, and so the 
most suitable books — whenever books are needed — will be 
those dealing with but few of these unless only when the 
student, whether teacher or pupil, be advanced so as to profit 
by ampler wealth in this respect. 
6. At the same time it is as well to commence with the 
simpler forms of life before passing on to the more complex, 
although the opposite course is usually followed. The 
unicellular organism exhioits many of the functions of that, 
the most elaborate in structure, and for a while the student 
may be conveniently taught to regard it as the unit of life. 
So also animals exhibiting a more generalized form of structure 
should be studied before ones of more special types. Thus, 
for instance, the cockroach or grasshopper should be studied 
before the honey bee. 
7. The correct expression of ideas by speech by writing 
or pictorially by delineation so important in education is 
of especial value in the student of biology. He should thus 
be always encouraged to make systematic notes, illustrating 
as far as possible the facts that have come under his obser- 
vation, or what he sees in the course of his work. This is 
far more important that committing to writing what he is 
told, and immediately it is told, a procedure commonly 
styled " taking notes.” 
8. The appliances for the study of Biology in its 
elementary stages need be of the simplest nature, and generally 
may be self-contrived. As a rule, however, the teacher at 
once deems it essential to acquire an expensive and elaborate 
microscope, which is commonly in good order because little 
used. Swammerdam, the naturalist just referred to, and 
whose exact work and important discoveries have been the 
envy of all subsequent investigators to whom they have 
become known, employed simple magnifying glasses, scissors, 
knives, and needles, principally of his own contrivance ; 
and dealing with insects, his work also involved the use of 
a few ordinary and special breeding cages. At the same time, 
it is well to inform the pupil of the existence and nature of 
this important instrument of research and of the further 
revelations beyond those that he has already observed that 
may be expected to be yielded by its use. These remarks 
have been suggested by the requirements of elementary 
zoology, but the same is true as regards botany, not excepting 
its physiological branch. The ground covered in the domain 
of biology when treating any living object, animal, or plant 
will be decided by the teacher according to the age and 
