INTRODUCTION 



"The foundation of a General Embryo logical Information Service was an 

 experiment on a large scale. Success or failure depended not on the 

 activity of one institute alone, but on the general interest, goodwill 

 and active co-operation of all embryologists the world over." With these 

 words Dr.P.D.Nieuwkoop started the Introduction to the first issue of 

 this periodical in 1949. Now, more than 30 years later, this international 

 activity of the Hubrecht Laboratory is coming to an end. As we have already 

 written to the institute correspondents the present issue is the last one 

 to appear. The main reason for our decision to stop pioblication is the 

 steady decline in the number of subscriptions. An additional reason is 

 that it has become increasingly difficult for the Hubrecht Laboratory to 

 invest the necessary manpower in the periodical (the cost of personnel 

 was never calculated in the subscription price) . 



A number of subscribers have written to us, expressing their regret or 

 offering suggestions on how publication might still be continued. We are 

 thankful for these reactions but no feasible solution has presented it- 

 self to us. 



The first issue listed 690 names, the last volume some 3.400. The number 

 of co-operating institutes rose from 245 (in 28 countries) to more than 

 1.200 (in 50 countries). Since 1949 more than 1.500 book reviews and book 

 notices were published, most of which were written bij Dr.J.Faber. 



It is perhaps natural that in these days of improved communication and 

 exchange of information there is less need for a publication of this kind 

 than there was just after the second world war. We are glad to know that 

 the publication served a useful function for the international community 

 of developmental biologists, and we know we are saying this also on 

 behalf of Prof .Nieuwkoop. We express our sincere thanks to all those 

 numerous scientists who over the years enabled us to maintain the service 

 by regularly submitting data on their current research. We thank our com- 

 petent secretaries for their conscientious work, particularly Lidy Ekelaar, 

 who served the periodical for the last 15 years. Finally we want to say 

 that we as editors have always performed our various tasks with pleasure. 



J.Faber 

 B.Z.Salome 



