stages. The second appendix is an excellent photographic atlas of the chick embryo in 

 relation to the shell, yolk, albumen, and membranes at intervals of one day. 



The book is well produced and profusely illustrated. It has a number of good 

 photographic plates apart from those in appendix 2. The bibliography comprises 

 ca. 1 .000 titles, is up to date until late 1973, and contains many titles in languages other 

 than Engfish. 



114. 



G. K. ROUSSEV. 1974. PROGRAMME OF EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT DIRECTED 

 BY ONTOGENINES (in Bulgarian) 



Publ. House Naouka i Izkoustvo, Sofia. 298 pp., 21 figs., 18 pis., 20 tabs. English sum- 

 mary (12 pp.) 



The author of this book has worked with aqueous extracts of early amphibian 

 embryos since 1954. He claims to have isolated no less than 247 different "ontogenines" 

 from embryos ranging from the fertilized egg to the tailbud stage. Their effects can be 

 tested by simply introducing them into the culture solution of other embryos. There are 

 four classes of effect: general inhibiting, general promoting, stage-specific inhibiting, and 

 stage-specific promoting. 



During development the ontogenines appear and disappear during specific periods of 

 the order of minutes to hours. Preliminary biochemical analysis suggests that low-molecu- 

 lar ontogenines may be peptides or nucleotidylpeptidates, and some of the high-molecular 

 ones DNP-RNP-glycoprotein complexes. Ontogenines seem to have effects on translation 

 and transcription and even on the structure of DNA. Their activity seems to require 

 binding to specific cell fractions and they can pass between cells. 



There is much more in this book than can be related here. Although it is difficult to 

 judge the quality of the work from the English summary, the approach certainly is a 

 novel one and a translation of the book would seem to be justified. (Up to now the 

 author has only occasionally published in the West.) 



Sytnposium reports 



115. 



W. J. BURDETTE, ed. 1974. INVERTEBRATE ENDOCRINOLOGY AND HORMONAL 



HETEROPHYLLY 



Springer, Berlin, etc. XV1II,437 pp., 91 figs., 83 tabs., combined index to subjects, 

 species, and contributors. DM 55.70, $ 21.50 



Although nowhere stated, this book is apparently based on a symposium held some 

 time during 1971. Many of the papers are therefore out of date. We mainly review it here 

 because it contains a series of brief reviews on insect endocrinology that may be of some 

 use to those working on morphogenetic hormones. 



Most of the reviews in question are to be found in the section Hormonal control of 

 metamorphosis in part I of the book. There is an interesting introduction by Wiggles- 

 worth, and papers by Judy, Kobayashi, Karlson, Sekeris, Thomson, and Burdette (the 

 latter containing original results on the action of viruses on polytene chromosomes). The 

 other sections of part I deal with hormone assays and with biosynthesis and degradation 

 of insect hormones. Part II contains three papers by Japanese workers on ecdysones. Part 

 III deals with hormones and protein synthesis in mammals (and is strangely out of place), 

 while part IV discusses Hormonal heterophylly - an ill-considered word for the action of 

 hormones from one phylum (arthropods) on the tissues of another (vertebrates). 



233 



