The first chapters which deal with the normal development are very exten- 

 sive and give a large number of valuable data on the development of this 

 interesting group of fresh water fishes. Although these fish species are not 

 very common in other parts of the world, it is of great interest that a sort of 

 normal table of these species has been established. 



The second part of the book gives mainly practical data of importance for 

 fish breeding. 



The book is well organized and rather richly illustrated, the drawings being 

 however much better than the photographs, which are not very well reproduced. 

 This holds also for the plates, which do not show enough details. In addition 

 to illustrations of normal development, a large number of photographs of ab- 

 normal eggs have been given, the value of which is rather questionable, since 

 these are well known phenomena of atypical cleavage. 



There is a rather extensive list of literature, mainly of Russian authors. The 

 foreign literature is very fragmentary; even some important works on the devel- 

 opment of the sturgeons are lacking, while some older Russian works on the 

 development of this group have not been included. Nevertheless we should 

 like to call your attention to this summarizing work, based upon literature 

 studies and original observations of the authors. 



P. D. NIEUWKOOP 



"L'EMBRYOLOGIE DU COMPORTEMENT" 

 1953 



by A. Gesell, in collaboration ,,Bibliotheque Scientifique Internationale" 



with Cath. S. Amatruda Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 



301 pp. with 78 figs and 41 pis Price: 1344 fr. 



This book is the French translation of the original English version of 1945. 

 The book, which in its ten years' life has already gained a thorough authority, 

 is a vv^ork written for specialists in the field. While reviewing it for this Service, 

 one feels that it may be of more value to medical people than to general em- 

 bryologists. The greatest value of the book lies in the second part, which deals 

 with the foetal and normal infant, whereas for the prenatal stages unfortunat- 

 ely a certain lack of factual data is compensated by rather much philosophy, 

 speculation and romantic detail, although these are not at all uninteresting in 

 themselves. Moreover the first part contains perhaps too much elementary in- 

 formation for a book of this kind, which has certainly not been written for 

 students. On the other hand, more references to the original literature could 

 have been given in the text. 



The book is written in a personal and captivating style, which however 

 makes it difficult to read for a person who wants a quick orientation in the 

 field. Moreover speculations are usually given in the form of statements without 

 sufficient discussion of the factual basis. The monistic approach of the author 

 expresses itself, for instance, in speculations about the origin of thought and 

 genius, categories which, in the opinion of the reviewer, fall outside the scope 

 of the book. 



A final, clinically very important section of the book is formed by a photo- 

 graphic atlas of types of behaviour from foetal infancy to an age of several 

 years. It is a great pity that in this edition the photographs are poorly repro- 

 duced. This very much reduces the value of the book as a whole. 



J. FABER 



195 



