The childhood of animals
"In December and January of 1911-1912 I delivered the Christmas Course of Lectures, "adapted to a Juvenile Auditory," at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, and took as my subject " The Childhood of Animals." The six lectures were not written; they shaped themselves as the course proceeded, partly in relation to the set of lantern-slides, specimens and living animals that I was able to bring, and partly in accordance with the advice of my kind and experienced friend Sir James Dewar. This book is not a printed version of the lectures, although it tells the same story in a different fashion. A lecture must be as direct and as little cumbered with detail as may be; the leaves of a book can be turned backwards and forwards, and its lines skipped or re-read. I have therefore been able to include many details that I had to omit when I was speaking, and to cover my canvas in a different way. In particular, I am no longer trying to address a juvenile auditory; I have attempted to avoid the use of terms familiar only to students of zoology, and to refrain from anatomical detail, but at the same time to refrain from the irritating habit of assuming that my readers have no knowledge, no dictionaries and no other books. My object has been to bring together observations old and new that seemed to throw a light on the nature of the period in the life-history of animals between birth and maturity, rather than to write a formal treatise on the subject. I have not found it possible, nor have I tried to keep strictly within the logical confines of the title. Where the subject seemed to lead, there I have followed cheerfully, remembering that I am not preparing readers for an examination where no marks will be assigned to extraneous matter"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)
eBook, English, [1912?]
F.A. Stokes Co., New York, [1912?]