A new lab course, Biology 191, will be given for the second time this fall. Taught by Wald and Robert C. C. St. George, it stresses biochemical lab techniques especially useful for those who plan to do post-graduate research.

Tutors in the Department are well-liked with Novelli and Scott especially praised for interest in their students.

Biochemical Sciences is such an obvious major for pre-meds that they swamp the department making it highly competitive for anyone else. Those who can brave this, however, are assured of a solid grounding in their field.

Biology

Number of Concentrators: 261.

1951 Commencement Honors: cum, 14; magna, 12; summa, 1.

Biology is one of the fields in which the phenomenon named the pre-med abounds. The prospective concentrator must beware of top competition, grinds, and the men with the four-day old beards.

But the pride and joy of the department is the group that is sincerely interested in research in Biology, and there are plenty of such men according to Edward S. Castle '25 Department head.

The field as such presents one of the finer sets of lecturers in the College. Well-known biologists such as William H. Weston, Alfred S. Romer, Kenneth V. Thimann, Frederick L. Hisaw, and George Wald handle many of the classes. Unfortunately, the resignation of Professor Wyman and the departure of Professor Spiess will take two good men out of the department. With Wyman's departure, Biology 182 and 184 will be removed from the lists of offered courses.

Honors

Honors requirements in Biology are relatively easy with no thesis examinations. All the grades are put into a little machine, stirred with a lot of instructor opinion, diluted with a bit of common sense on the part of the faculty, and dealt out with all the pomp and circumstance that great works have earned in other departments. But be not fooled by these standards. No man is considered for honors unless he has at least a B average in the seven-and-one-half courses in Bio and related fields that he has taken.

The present set up for the honors candidates is currently being evaluated. Some faculty men feel that with no tutorial theses, or generals, the field might not provide adequate goals for its students.

Concentration

Regularly there are six courses required for concentration. Labs come as heavy as can be conceived, but there are also a few courses that have no lab at all. Tops in the heavy lab department as a course is Romer's Comparative Anatomy, Bio 122, but most of the students who spent their fall days cooped up with their cat and dogfish thought it was worth while. Histology is another heavy course in which the light of day is rarely seen.

In the lowest level in the field is surveyish Bio 1, prerequisite to concentration. The number of lecturers in this course completely astounds the class, and many students are completely bewildered by some of their rapid here-today-gone-tomorrow tactics.