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A PRACTICAL TEXT-BOOK COR-

RELATING BOTANY, ZOOLOGY,

AND HUMAN

PHYSIOLOGY

BY

GEORGE WILLIAM HUNTER, A.M.

HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY, DE WITT CLINTON HIGH SCHOOL,
NEW YORK

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THE PURPOSE AND PLAN OF THIS BOOK

THE aim of this book is to correlate the allied subjects of botany, zoölogy, and human physiology in a general course of biology for the first year of the high school. The foundation principles upon which this correlation is made are that the life processes of plants and of animals are similar, and in many respects, identical; that the properties and activities of protoplasm are the same whether in the cell of a plant or of an animal; and that the human body is a delicate machine built out of that same mysterious living matter, protoplasm. With such a foundation correlation is not only possible, but natural.

The following pages are the results of my experience with large classes of young students in the first year of the high school. The average age of such pupils is about fourteen years. To such pupils the life activities of plants and animals have an appealing interest; simple experiments in plant physiology are performed with never failing zest. Laboratory and field work, so far as they relate to adaptations to functions, are readily comprehended.

For young students laboratory questions should be simple and few; they should apply to structures easily found, and deal with externals only. Minute directions are necessary in order to insure the successful working out of the given problem. The form of the laboratory questions must, after all, be left to the individual teacher. The paragraphs on laboratory work which follow are suggestions. For formal directions in botany and zoology according to the note and question method, the reader is referred to Hunter and Valentine, Laboratory Manual of Biology, Henry Holt and Company. For laboratory exercises in human anatomy and physiology, Eddy, Experi

mental Physiology and Anatomy, American Book Company, will be found useful.

The following chapters contain such material as has been found by most teachers of first-year biology to be sufficient for a wellrounded course in the first year of the high school. In selecting material, the syllabuses for elementary botany, zoology, and human physiology given by the New York State Education Department have been followed. It would not be wise to attempt all of the work outlined in this book. Work should be attempted only with such materials as are easily obtainable in a given locality. It is thought that each successive chapter, although related to that immediately preceding it, is yet distinctive enough to allow of the omission of a chapter or chapters without in any way interfering with the continuity of the work.

Two styles of type have been used. The larger type contains material which is believed to be of first importance, the smaller type the less important topics. Suggestions for laboratory exercises are set in the smaller sized type without leading.

The order of the chapters follows the order in which the topics are likely to be taken up when work is begun in the fall of the year. The introductory experiments in physics and chemistry may be omitted until the study of the seed and seedling, thus utilizing the early fall days for the work on the flower, insect pollination, and the fruit. The subject of protoplasm and the cell, necessarily somewhat vague to the pupil, must be taken up with the flower in order that the process of fertilization may be understood. The study of the root, stem, and leaf follow in order, emphasis being placed throughout on the function rather than structure. The chapter on plant ecology is so placed simply for convenience; the work may well come in connection with the physiological work already referred to. Some portion of the work outlined on the cryptogams is not recommended to such schools as have no laboratory equipment, the use of the compound microscope being essential to such laboratory

exercises. If work is attempted without the microscope, the mosses and ferns present the best points for attack; much work of an economic nature may also be done with the yeasts, molds, and bacteria. If the laboratory equipment permits, several days should be spent in the laboratory study of mucor and spirogyra, the latter being used to teach the concept of the cell.

In the second half year the so-called evolutionary order may be followed with the animal types studied. It is desirable, however, to take up the study of the frog in the early spring during the breeding season, thus leaving the study of insects until June, when insect life is more abundant. Human physiology may be begun with the study of the frog and continued for the rest of the term, certain lessons each week being devoted to this subject. The topics of foods, digestion, assimilation, blood making, and circulation may well be taken up in connection with the laboratory work outlined on the frog; breathing, oxidations in the body, muscular activity, and excretion come well with the treatment of the insects.

For general use every school ought to have at least one compound microscope for demonstration purposes. For low power demonstration work a portable microscope such as is manufactured by the Bausch and Lomb Optical Company is useful. A small stock of simple reagents, glassware, and other apparatus, as noted from time to time in the following pages, are also necessary parts of the school equipment. Excellent results may be obtained with little or no apparatus except that made by the pupils and teacher working together. Let no one feel that the work outlined in this book needs expensive apparatus.

Acknowledgments are due to Miss A. P. Hazen of the Wadleigh High School for many suggestions and for her careful reading of the entire manuscript. The manuscript has also been read in part by Miss M. D. Womack of the Wadleigh High School, H. G. Barber, C. F. Morse, and R. W. Sharpe of the De Witt Clinton High School, and Mr. C. W. Beebe, Curator of Birds, New York Zoological Park.

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