University of Virginia Library

Primarily for Undergraduates.

Course 1B: General Biology.—This course is intended to serve (as
far as the work of a single course may) as an introduction to all of the
biological sciences, including those fundamental to the profession of
Medicine. Its pursuit is intended to make the student familiar with the
laboratory method of study, and at the same time to impart to him some
direct knowledge of the most readily discernible facts of structure and
laws of function in living things, as seen in a series of representative
plants and animals. In it he is made acquainted with the use of the microscope,
with the simpler and more frequently used processes of biological
technic, and with the principles of physiological experimentation; and with
these aids is taught to observe, to record the results of his observations,
and to draw conclusions therefrom. Through it he is led to discern the
fundamental activities and the corresponding essentials of organization
characteristic of all living beings, as distinguished from inanimate objects;
as well as the important differences which distinguish plants from animals.
By it he is thus prepared for the intelligent (and in some measure for the
independent) study of either of the great divisions of the organic world;
for the consideration of the important economic relations of living organisms,
both plant and animal; or for the detailed and specific study of the
structure and functions of the human body.

This course is offered yearly; it, or an accepted equivalent course
successfully pursued elsewhere, is required for admission to the Department
of Medicine, or to the pursuit of the courses which follow. The
work of the course consists of three lectures and three laboratory exercises
a week.