157 

 Review of recently published textbooks on Embryology 



We will open this new chapter of the G.E.I.S., as we feel the desirability 

 of an annual survey of the recently published text books. We could suffice 

 by giving only a list of titles, but we feel that a serious review of contents 

 and practicability will be of much greater value. 



We therefore ask every author of embryological text books to send us 

 one presentation copy. We will bind ourselves to review it in 

 the next issue of the General Embryological Information Service. The text 

 book will be added to the Central Embryological Library, to which it will 

 form a valuable acquisition. 



The fact that the G.E.I.S. is read by almost all embryologists over the 

 whole world may justify sufficiently the form of organisation we 

 choose for this chapter. 



Review of textbooks. 



J. BOEKE. Leerboek der ontwikkelingsgeschiedenis van den mensch (en 

 de hoogere gewervelde dieren). N.V. A. Oosthoek's Uitgevers-Maatschappij, 

 Utrecht, 1949. 676 pag., 413 fig. / 37,50. 



With the appearance of this , .textbook of embryology of man and the 

 higher vertebrates", by the well-known Utrecht histologist and embryologist, 

 Prof. }. Boeke, a great work has been completed. Up till now, no textbook 

 of embryology in dutch language existed. As the author indicates in his 

 preface, the book is destined for biology students wishing to get acquainted 

 with the development in various groups of the Vertebrates, for medical 

 students, who, in their study of the structure of the adult human body, highly 

 need a detailed knowledge of the development of this structure, and for the 

 medical practitioner, who finds himself often placed, in his profession, before 

 questions which can only be answered by embryology. Therefore, besides a 

 detailed description of normal development in man and the higher Vertebrates, 

 the most common types of congenital malformations are shortly discussed. 

 Furthermore, the physiology of the placenta and of the embryo are treated 

 in some detail. 



It is a special feature of the book that the results of experimental embryology 

 are extensively taken into account. For the difficulties, arising from the 

 combination of descriptive and experimental data in one text, a solution has 

 been found by a treatment of the most fundamental problems of experimental 

 embryology in one of the first chapters; more detailed information on special 

 developmental processes is given in later chapters in combination with the 

 descriptive data. 



It is to be expected in a text of this size to find some error or omission of 

 data. It is also not surprising that at many places, especially in the parts 

 devoted to experimental embryology, the most recent publications have not 

 been mentioned. But this cannot diminish our admiration for the way in 

 which the author has carried out the task that he had set himself. 



The book is richly illustrated; the illustrations are, in general, very good. 

 There is a list of literature of 8 pages and an index of 12 pages. 



CHR. P. RAVEN. 



