STRUCTURAL AND SYSTEMATIC FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES BY JAMES ORTON, A.M., PH.D. LATE PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN VASSAR COLLEGE; CORRESPONDING MEMBER LYCEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK; AUTHOR OF "THE ANDES AND THE AMAZON, 29 ETC. REVISED EDITION "The education of a naturalist now consists chiefly in learning how to NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE UNIVERSITY Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Copyright, 1883, by HARPER & BROTHERS. PREFACE. THE distinctive character of this work consists in the treatment of the whole Animal Kingdom as a unit; in the comparative study of the development and variations. of organs and their functions, from the simplest to the most complex state; in withholding Systematic Zoology until the student has mastered those structural affinities upon which true classification is founded; and in being fitted for High Schools and Mixed Schools by its language and illustrations, yet going far enough to constitute a complete grammar of the science for the undergraduate course of any College. It is designed solely as a manual for instruction. It is not a work of reference, nor a treatise. So far as a book is encyclopedic, it is unfit for a text-book. This is prepared on the principle of "just enough, and no more." It aims to present clearly, and in a somewhat new form, the established facts and principles of Zoology. All theoretical and debatable points, and every fact or statement, however valuable, which is not absolutely necessary to a clear and adequate conception of the leading principles, are omitted. It is written in the light of the most recent phase of the science, but not in the interest of any particular theory. To have given an exhaustive survey of animal life would have been not only undesirable, but impossible. Even Cuvier's great work must be supple mented by museums, monographs, and microscopes. Natural History has outgrown the limits of a single book. Trial has proved the folly of giving the student so many things to learn that he has no time to understand, and the error of condemning the student to expend his strength upon the details of classification, which may change in the coming decade, instead of upon structure, which is permanent. Of course, specialists will miss many things, and find abundant room for criticism in what they regard as deficiencies; but the work should be judged by what it does contain, rather than by what it does not. What is claimed, in the language of inventors, is the selection and arrangement of essential principles and typical illustrations from the standpoint of the teacher. The synthetic method is employed, as being the most natural: to begin with complex Man, instead of the simplest forms, would give a false idea. Man is not a model, but a monstrosity, the most modified of Vertebrates. But these outlines must be filled up, on the part of the teacher, by lectures, and by the exhibition of specimens ; and, on the part of the student, by observation (noting, above all, the characteristic habits of animals), and by personal work with the knife and microscope. No text-book can take the place of nature, or supersede oral instruction from a competent teacher. Suggestions and corrections from naturalists and teachers will be thankfully received. In a work of this character, which is but a compound of the labors of all naturalists, it would be superfluous to make acknowledgments. The works referred to on page 397 have been specially consulted. REVISER'S NOTE. In revising the work of Professor Orton, the writer has not attempted to rewrite the book nor to introduce new ideas. His plan has been to insert such changes as the author would have been likely to make if he had lived to revise his book. On only two points has the reviser departed from this plan of altering only minor details. The chapter on Development has been largely rewritten, and the classification of the Invertebrates has been changed so as to separate the worms from the Arthropoda and the sponges from the Protozoa. from the Protozoa. In both these cases the change seemed imperatively demanded by the progress of Zoology in those directions. It is hoped that the alterations in the book will increase its accuracy and useful ness. EDW. A. BIRGE. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. |