College Zoology

Book excerpt: Excerpt from College Zoology: This book is intended to serve as a text for beginning students in universities and colleges, or for students who have already taken a course in general biology and wish to gain a more comprehensive view of the animal kingdom. It differs from many of the college textbooks of zoology now on the market in several important respects: (1) the animals and their organs are not only described, but their functions are pointed out; (2) the animals described are in most cases native species; and (3) the relations of the animals to man are emphasized. Besides serving as a textbook, it is believed that this book will be of interest to the general reader, since it, gives a bird's-eye view of the entire animal kingdom as we know it at the present time. Within the past decade there has been a tendency for teachers of zoology to pay less attention to morphology and more to physiology. As a prominent morphologist recently said, "Morphology ... is no longer in favor ... and among a section of the zoological world has almost fallen into disgrace" (Bourne). The study of the form and structure of animals is, however, of fundamental importance, and is absolutely necessary before physiological processes can be fully understood; but a course which is built up on the "old-fashioned morphological lines" is no longer adequate for the presentation of zoological principles. In writing this book the author has attempted, not only to describe the most important structural features of the various types of animals, but also to point out the vital phenomena as expressed in the functions of the organs.