Monographs 



5. 



H.-J.KRETSCHMANN and P.WINGERT. 1971. COMPUTERANWENDUNGEN BEI 

 WACHSTUMSPROBLEMEN IN BIOLOGIE UND MEDIZIN, Einfuhrung in die 

 Theorie und exemplarische Darstellung der Praxis besonders an 

 den Ergebnissen der Entwicklung des Zentralnervensystems . 

 Springer, Berlin, etc. X,26l pp., 124 figs., 22 tabs., subject 

 index. DM 38.00, $ 11.00 (paper) 



This book can only be properly reviewed by a specialist. Nev- 

 ertheless, it seems important enough to be briefly characterized. 

 It will be of particular interest to neuro-embryologists and 

 anatomists, and to those interested in quantitative developmen- 

 tal biology generally. 



To obtain mathematically correct growth curves, as against the 

 usual free-hand ones, so much calculation is required that a 

 computer is indispensable. The authors have used the facilities 

 of the "Deutsches Rechenzentrura" in Darmstadt, and have devel- 

 oped several new computer programmes for the solution of growth 

 problems. These programmes are available on loan from the above 

 centre . 



After two introductory chapters the authors deal extensively 

 with the theoretical basis of growth analysis; this part of the 

 book Is highly mathematical in character. They then discuss the 

 nature and use of the specific programmes mentioned above. The 

 next chapter, which occupies almost -half of the book, shows the 

 application of these programmes to a large body of mostly orig- 

 inal research data; most of these relate to the growth of the 

 brain and its subdivisions in the mouse (with supplementary data 

 on man) . However, the brain is considered primarily as a suitable 

 model to illustrate the use of computer programmes for growth 

 problems generally, A brief final chapter critically discusses 

 the allometry concept. 



Symposium reports 



6. 



M.N. RUNNER, ed. 1970. CHANGING SYNTHESES IN DEVELOPMENT 

 Academic Press, New York, etc. Developm. Biol., Suppl.4. XIV, 

 272 pp., 129 figs., 15 tabs., author and subject indexes. 

 $ 13.50, £ 6.30 



The 29th Symposium of the Society for Developmental Biology 

 was held at Albany, N.Y., in June 1970. The title of the Sympo- 

 sium volume only covers part of the rather heterogeneous collec- 

 tion of reviews, and fails to bring out the other main theme: 

 that of tissue interaction and morphogenesis. 



The nine contributions are grouped in three sections. The 

 first of these, entitled Changing syntheses, contains a thought- 

 provoking paper by Flickinger on the role of gene redundancy and 

 cell division in embryonic determination in amphibians, a paper 

 by Shepard et al. on energy metabolism in early mammalian em- 

 bryos, and a paper by Starr on the control of differentiation in 

 Volvox. The latter paper hardly deals with changing syntheses, 

 but describes studies on the developmental genetics and sex dif- 

 ferentiation of this interesting simple organism. 



The second section contains two papers on the development of 

 hormone sensitivity in mammalian cells and tissues. The third 

 section is entitled The role of collagen, and contains a paper 

 by Urist on bone morphogenesis and its substratum, a paper by 

 Dische on collagen in the vertebrate eye, its chemistry and de- 

 velopmental significance, and a paper by Bernfield and Wessells 



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