Excerpt from A Laboratory Manual for Elementary Zoology This laboratory manual was prepared for the class in elementary zoology in the University of Chicago, and has been used in this course for some time. In the three months' time allotted for the course, nearly all of the work given in sections I to XII, inclusive, is completed, with the exception of the muscular and skeletal systems of the frog. The remaining sections have been added for publication because they seem to the author to be essential for a complete course in general zoology. The directions have been written entirely from the material, although, of course, many textbooks have been consulted throughout. An attempt has been made, not merely to give explicit directions for the study of the material, but also to point out the relation of each section of the work to the general principles of biology and to make clear why each particular kind of material has been selected. The sections are given, naturally, in the order which the author thinks most logical, but they can be shifted at the will of the instructor. Our experience, extending over many years of trial of both methods, has shown that starting the course with the dissection of a complex animal is much more satisfactory than introducing the student at the start to the lower invertebrates, for the reason that the simplicity of the latter cannot be appreciated and understood except with reference to completely differentiated animals. Any vertebrate would serve the purpose, but the arthropods are in general unsuitable because they introduce the problem of heteronomous segmentation for which the beginner is not prepared. Many teachers will object that the instructions arc too detailed and that it is better pedagogy to compel the student to work out things by himself; but the large amount of ground which must be covered in a relatively short time and the impossibility of providing sufficient laboratory assistants for the large classes with which we have to deal necessitate detailed directions. The student pursuing the modern college curriculum simply docs not have time to carry out an original investigation on the anatomy of an animal; and unless he is provided with detailed directions, instructors and assistants are overburdened with the task of explaining to him what he is looking at, what to do next, etc. There is no reason why this extra work cannot be avoided by including these explanations in the manual. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.