It is this latter form of the science--this science, which is also an
art--that we would advocate as essential for the equipment of women.
With this view let us examine it further.
And first, what is its proper starting-point? Its proper starting-point
is accurate instruction concerning the living things with which the
student is, or can easily be, brought into immediate practical contact.
And, again, in the study of these living things--plants and animals
alike--attention is directed first towards the organism in its totality
and in its activities--towards function rather than towards structure;
and also towards mode of life, relations with environment, and, where
possible, towards its use or danger to mankind. Structure will, no
doubt, early have to be introduced, but only in its larger details as
explanatory of function, for the sake of a better knowledge of the
animal or plant as a whole.
What are to be the types and examples of organisms studied?
This is an important question, and the writer would most strongly urge
that the principle of selection should be that of locality; that the
student should start with those plants and animals--both wild and
domestic--which are to be found within a given radius of the place where
she is living and working. The first things to know about are habit,
activity, inter-relation and use to human beings. In respect to these,
the presence of one organism will react upon others, and therefore no
plant or animal within the area should be lightly overlooked.