Elements of Zoology

Abstract

VERY high authorities have lately come to the conclusion— and the character of this book and of others like it lately published in Edinburgh confirm that conclusion— that it is not desirable to teach the elements of zoology at all. You cannot in a volume of 600 pages, illustrated with 150 woodcuts, really give an adequate account of the animal kingdom. Nothing less extensive than “Cuvier's Regne Animal,”or “Bronn's Thierreich” can deal with the subject. The very essence of Zoology lies in a wide survey of forms which cannot possibly be illustrated in a cheap book. A museum, dissecting rooms, microscopes, special monographs, are necessary for the study of Zoology, and it is useless to give a hurried account of the larger groups into which animals are divisible as an introduction to it. We do not want such elements of Zoology taught in schools and junior classes—elements of which the teacher himself has probably no real knowledge from the study of nature—elements which it is clear that Mr. Wilson has put together from his notes of Prof. Airman's course, and from Prof. Huxley's publications—but which he knows but little of from his own observation of nature. What can be taught in place of such elements of Zoology is the ground-work of Biology; and this teaching designed to give a correct appreciation of the phenomena of life-not an exhaustive survey of all the forms and peculiarities of animal life— is a much more practicable thing for educational purposes and extra-university classes. Special types of both animal and vegetable life are taken, which the teacher has himself studied, and which he can place in quantity in the hands of his pupils for like study. Real scientific training is thus promoted, and books which shall help this form of teaching are needed. On the other hand, books like Mr. Wilson's do a great deal of harm. They put zoology altogether out of the category of natural sciences, making it a subject of hearsay, and when written by men who are not themselves actively working zoologists, are simply mechanical epitomes or analyses of other men's work. Moreover, Mr. Wilson does not appear to possess qualifications for writing such an epitome, for he is not acquainted with French and German work.

Elements of Zoology.

By A. Wilson. (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black.)