(1) Biology is based on physics and chemistry, the laws of which are an indispensable groundwork for the investigation and explanation of the phenomena of life. In recent years, a great variety of chemical methods have been newly devised and applied to problems in biology. These technical advances have led to quantitative studies of the constitution of living matters and events underlying biological process. (2) It is reasonable that current textbooks of biology for the students of senior high school are written in chemical terms, reflecting the present state of biological science. (3) On the contrary, it is rather curious that biology is prescribed in the "Course of Study" published by the Ministry of Education as the first step of senior high school sciences, preceding physics and chemistry. Biology is quite different from botany and zoology taught in japanese high school in old days appending the title of "natural history". It has long ceased to be the learning of descriptive informations. Biology in our days is a most scientific science to be taught scientifically. (4) It is sure that chemical training is given also in the course of junior high school. But, its scope is very narrow, and its degree very low. In fact, organic chemistry is almost excluded. The present author gathered chemical terms which appear in several samples of text for high school biology, and noticed that the great majority of them are not learned in junior course. Thus, the entering students of senior high school have not yet been ready to study biology. To teach chemistry in advance of biology is a matter of imperative necessity. (5) It is most earnestly to be hoped that biology will gain its rightful place in the curriculum of high school science.
