Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Biology
The subject matter of general biology, as presented in current text books, is variously interpreted. In some it means an introduction to the essential structures and vital manifestations of animals and plants. In others it means the discussion of hypotheses and principles of biology. In others it becomes an encyclopoedia of the facts of physiology, hygiene and ecology. With the first method the course is based largely upon laboratory work and the principles are illustrated with specific types. The second and third methods are largely didactic and are illustrated by examples taken at random from the entire animal or plant kingdom.
We believe thoroughly in the type and laboratory method of instruction, and in choosing the types with such care that they serve as points of departure for various lines of development in subsequent course work. The present work is based upon the excellent course outlined in Sedgwick and Wilson's General Biology which occupies so prominent a place in the teaching of American biology, and my only excuse for offering another to the long list of text books is the need, which we have felt at Columbia, of a work along similar lines to cover a course of about thirty class exercises and as many laboratory periods.
The book is planned somewhat differently from that of Sedgwick and Wilson partly because of the enlarged scope, partly because of the excellent general introductory courses offered in up-to-date secondary schools. Emphasis is laid at the outset on cellular activities, especially on the importance of enzymes in metabolism and development, while animal differentiation for the performance of primary functions of protoplasm is the main theme of the entire course. In the development of this theme organisms of one cell, organisms of tissues, and organisms of organs are taken up in succession.
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