The 29 papers are arranged In six sections as follows: I. The 

 oocyte and the egg (6 papers); II. Intrinsic and extrinsic 'in- 

 fluences on the metabolism of preimplantation embryos (8)- III. 

 Placental and fetal physiology (5); IV. Immunology (3); v! Dif- 

 ferentiation of tissues (4); VI. Teratology (3). Sections I and 

 II are the most comprehensive ones and provide a good overview 

 of the present state of our knowledge in these well-delimited 

 fields. In the less well-defined areas of the other sections 

 coverage is of course much less complete, but the choice of top- 

 ics is equally interesting. Two contributions in section V deal 

 partly or entirely with research on amphibians (they discuss 

 chemical factors in morphogenesis, and hemoglobins). 



The book is produced in offset print and is well illustrated. 



PLACENTA AND FETAL MEMBRANES (see also 10,22,24,66,68,72) 

 Dissertations 



25. 



A.OJALA. 1971. STUDIES ON BILIRUBIN IN AMNIOTIC FLUID with spe- 

 cial reference to liver function tests 



M.D. thesis, Oulu. Acta Obstet .Gynecol .Scand. , Vol. 50 nr.2, 

 suppl.lO. 72 pp., 17 figs., 26 tabs. 



Spectrophotometry, chloroform extraction, paper and thin layer 

 chromatography of amniotic fluid bilirubin in normal fetuses and 

 in various disorders of pregnancy; parallel studies on maternal 

 and cord blood; extensive literature discussion; 197 references. 



TERATOGENESIS (see also 11,18,24,40,78) 

 Symposium reports 



26. 



H.TUCHMANN-DUPLESSIS, ed . 1971. MALFORMATIONS CONGENITALES DES 



MAMMIFERES 



Masson, Paris. VII, 355 pp., Il4 figs., 6l tabs., subject index. 



Fr. 110 



Contributors: Beck, Berger, Brent, Clavert, Davies, Degenhardt, 

 De Meyer, De Plaen, Edwards, Fave, Franz, Gerard, Giroud, Klei- 

 nebrecht, Kletzkin, Korner, Larsson, Lloyd, Milaire, Nowak, 

 Panigel, Robkin, Shepard, Tanimura, Thibault, Thiersch, 

 Williams, Wilson, Em. Wolff, Et. Wolff 



This book embodies the proceedings of a two-day symposium or- 

 ganized by the Pfizer Research Laboratories at Amboise, France 

 in May, 1970. It contains 19 research papers with their atten- 

 dant discussions, a brief plenary discussion, and six pages of 

 concluding remarks by the editor. The papers and discussions are 

 partly in French, partly in English. 



The papers discuss a variety of topics falling into two cate- 

 gories: teratogenic mechanisms, and the teratogenetic screening 

 of pharmaca. Apart from the usual laboratory mammals, primates 

 were also employed in two studies (Panigel, Wilson). A broad 

 range of teratogenic agents are discussed, including antibodies 

 (Brent) . 



The book is well printed and well illustrated, but one wonders 

 whether it could not have been produced at smaller cost, e.g. by 

 renouncing the use of heavy, glossy paper. 



21 



