sets the stage for the whole book while ch.lO serves as a brief summary. 



One obvious feature of the book is that it reviews a large body of older 

 and recent Japanese work that was either published in Japanese or not easily 

 accessible to most embryologists outside Japan. That the book is not a uni- 

 fied whole is due partly to the complex nature of the subject and partly to 

 the large number of authors, each of whom brings his own outlook and use of 

 terminology. Moreover several authors (particularly those of chs.2A and B) 

 concentrate largely on their own work. This sometimes leads to considerable 

 overlap among chapters, a drawback that is only partially alleviated by 

 cross-referencing and by the synthetic opening chapter. 



Nevertheless, all chapters are competently written, some are excellent, 

 and collectively they show that the organiser problem is still very much 

 alive, from the morphogenetic down to the molecular level. It is particular- 

 ly striking that studies now extend to stages long before and after gastru- 

 lation. That the molecular approach, particularly with respect to the cells 

 responding to induction, has only just started is evident from ch.9A, which 

 can do no more than hint at possible developments against the background of 

 present-day molecular biology. 



The book is well produced and illustrated with good line drawings and pho- 

 tomicrographs. The bibliography numbers close to 1,000 titles but is none- 

 theless incomplete in several areas, particularly as regards some of the re- 

 cent European work. The subject index is too short to be really useful. 



Symposium reports 



29. 



J.-C.BEETSCHEN, A.COLLENOT and J.SIGNORET, eds . 1977. PROGRES REGENTS EN 



BIOLOGIE DU DEVELOPPEMENT DES AMPHIBIENS 



Soc. Zool. de France, Paris. Mem. Soc. Zool. France vol.41. 234 pp., 34 



figs., 11 pis., 26 tabs. Ffr. 85.00 (paper) 



This symposium was held in September 1977 at Caen (France) in memory of 

 the late Professor L.Gallien. Many of the speakers were one-time pupils and 

 colleagues of Gallien's, or their present associates. One contributor came 

 from Holland and one from Egypt. The volume as a whole provides a represen- 

 tative cross section of work on amphibians going on in France. 



Of the 17 contributions all but two are in French, but all have extensive 

 English summaries. Some are reviews of recent work but most are research re- 

 ports. Among the subjects treated are sexual differentiation and primordial 

 germ cells, transplantation immunity, oocyte maturation, symmetrisation, 

 cell kinetics, determination in the neural plate, protein synthesis in hy- 

 brids, and limb regeneration. 



The volume is well printed and illustrated. It is concluded by a complete 

 list of Gallien's publications (1928-1976). 



30. 



L.SAXEN, S.NORDLING and J . WARTIOVAARA, eds. 1978. CONTROL OF DIFFERENTIATION 



Medical Biol., Helsinki. Med. Biol, vol.56, no. 6. 118 pp., 73 figs., 14 tabs. 



This Festschrift volume contains original contributions dedicated to Pro- 

 fessor Sulo Toivonen on the occasion of his 70th birthday by his friends and 

 colleagues and their associates. There are 20 short contributions from all 

 parts of the world (6 from Finland) . As in many such volumes the contents 

 are extremely varied. 



Most papers are research reports, but there are also half a dozen brief 

 reviews of recent and older work in various fields. About half of the papers 

 deal in one way or another with experimental and physiological embryology of 

 amphibians, the remainder with amniote material ranging from the chick blas- 

 toderm to murine and human tumour cells. 



The volume is well printed and illustrated. 



214 



