Volume 1
The book of nature study / edited by J. Bretland Farmer ; assisted by a staff of specialists.
- Date:
- [1908?]-1909
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: The book of nature study / edited by J. Bretland Farmer ; assisted by a staff of specialists. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![To illustrate growth without marked change, it is useful to have a series showing different stages, e.g. of a common shell or of the adolescent shore-crab.] Another characteristic of living creatures of all sorts and sizes is their power of effective response. The barrel of gunpowder responds to a spark, but it responds self-destructively. The living creature’s response is usually self-preservative or, in any case, in the direction of self-preservation. It may not be always successful in its answer, especially when it gets into unwonted conditions, but it is characteristically effective. It may be killed by a flash of lightning—to that no answer is possible, but in the ordinary course of its life it is always giving answers which make for continuance or betterment. Moreover, it does not merely react to outside stimulus, it acts. It does things in a sense which cannot be said of a lifeless object. [Throw a piece of potassium on a basin of water, and show it rushing about, fizzing and flaring until it goes out. Contrast this with the movements of a whirligig beetle (Gyrinus natator), which does not “ go out” for a long time. Its activity is rich in effective responses. Show the effective responses in some plants, e.g. the tendril coiling round a support, or the stigma of Mimulus closing on the pollen.] Without going further into the subject, we may sum up by saying that living creatures have the power of growing, of cyclical development, and of giving effective responses. But these characteristics may be brought together under the general idea that living creatures are like ourselves in having, each according to its measure, a persistent unified activity, which, in its higher reaches at least, is worthy of being called behaviour. So we come back to what the young child would most naturally say : that living things differ from not-living things in being like ourselves. [Illustrate with reference to the behaviour of common animals, and show that the same sort of thing is seen, within limits, in plants, e.g. in their movements. It need hardly be said that there should be no mention in class work of such technical phrases as “ cyclical development ” and “ effective response,” and that the three characteristics should be suggested merely by questioning the pupils after showing significant contrasts, such as the growing](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28081924_0001_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
