Fundamentals Of Biology

FUNDAMENTALS OP BIOLOGY BY ARTHUR W. HAUPT, PH. D. Professor of Botany in the University of California at . Atiydcs THI KDITION EIGHTH I MPMKSBK McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC. NEW YORK AND LONDON 1940 COPYRIGHT, 1928, 1932, 1940, BY THE McGRAW-HiLL BOOK COMPANY, INC. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission of the publishers. PREFACE The present edition, like the two whicj have preceded it, aims to present the basic principles common tojill living things, with emphasis on those aspects of biology that seem to be of greatest value in contributing to a liberal education. Although the general plan of organization remains unchanged, the addition of new material has both broadened the scope of the book and rendered more thorough the treatment of many topics, particu larly those dealing with the animal side of biology. This book is intended to serve as a basis for an orientation course to give a broad perspective to the vast field of modern biology. Its objectives arc cultural rather than technical, in recognition of the fact that the great majority of students who elect the elementary course do not later specialize in biology. On the other hand, those who do will be provided with a com prehensive view of the science as a whole and with a foundation of knowledge upon which more advanced studies may be based. The book stresses the unity of life concept that, in response to the same natural laws, all plants and animals possess funda mental similarity in bodily organization and in vital processes. Elaborate descriptive details have been largely omitted, the emphasis throughout being placed onfundamental facts and principles. Over one-half of the book deals with the structure, functions, and classification of both plants and animals, while the remaining portion takes up in an elementary way the more general phases of heredity, adaptation, and evolution. After developing at the outset a number of important concepts and generalizations by a discussion of the cell and of unicellular organisms, four chapters are dbvoted to the plant kingdom. A survey is made of the lower plant groups, and then the seed plants are considered in greater detail, with emphasis on vegetative structure and reproduction. Next comes an account of vegetative functions and irritability. The succeeding seven chapters deal entirely with animals. First, the important invertebrate phyla are vi PREFACE presented in an ascending sequence, the hydra, earthworm, starfish, mussel, crayfish, and grasshopper serving as types for their respective groups. The ensuing discussion of vertebrates is based largely on the frog. Then follow chapters on animal tissues, metabolic, functions, coordination, and reproduction and development. The last part of the book includes three chapters on heredity, two on adaptation, and four on evolution. In the present edition, the subject . of coordination in animals has been expanded into a chapter separate from the one dealing with their nutritive functions, and in both chapters considerable new material relating directly to the human body has been introduced. Vitamins and hormones are dealt with more fully than heretofore, as well as animal tissues. The topic of immunity to disease, as related to man, has been added to a later chapter. Minor changes have been made throughout the entirebook, in many chapters on almost every page. An effort has been made, so far as possible, to develop each chapter as an independent unit. This feature gives the book greater flexibility in permitting the teacher to change the order of topics and to omit material freely without breaking the con tinuity of the whole. To achieve this result, a slight amount of repetition has been necessary, but it is felt that this is of no disadvantage to the student...