GENERAL DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY (see also 20,62) 



Treatises 



1. 



A.KUHN. 1971. LECTURES ON DEVELOPMENTAL PHYSIOLOGY, translated 



from the German by R. Milkman. 2nd expanded edit. 



Springer, Berlin, etc. XV, 535 pp., 620 figs., author, .subject, 



and systematic Indexes. DM 68.00, $ 21.20 



This Is the unchanged translation of the second edition of 

 Kiihn's "Vorlesungen" , which appeared In 1965 • Even though the 

 book Is by now somewhat outdated. It Is still In many ways 

 unique. To characterize It, we reprint a portion of the review 

 which appeared in Gen. Embryol. Inf. Serv., Suppl.ll, 1966: 

 It is a collection of lectures held during a long life of 

 teaching and bears the strong personal mark of the author, who 

 was trained in the classical German tradition of "Entwick- 

 lungsmechanik" . The value of the book lies in its extraordi- 

 narily broad scope, its "organismic" approach to the subject, 

 and its unifying theoretical framework. The book should not be 

 regarded as a textbook, but as a selection of examples from a 

 wide range of organisms, chosen to illustrate important causal 

 principles of development. It is especially important that so 

 much of the material discussed relates to plants and a variety 

 of unicellular organisms. 



As might be expected in a book of this kind, a number of lacu- 

 nae could be pointed out. However, the book contains much in- 

 formation and thought that has no general currency among ani- 

 mal embryologists , and is not often found in embryologlcal 

 texts . 



We may add that the numerous excellent illustrations, executed 

 in uniform style, are such a valuable feature of the book that 

 they alone could be a reason for wanting to possess It. 



We may be thankful to Dr. Milkman for undertaking the huge tasK 

 of translation. His text reads fluently enough in the straight- 

 forward parts, but in the more theoretical sections one often 

 feels uneasy, and if one has the original text for comparison 

 one discovers rather frequent oddities, some seemingly arbitrary 

 alterations, and even an occasional outright mistake. For those 

 who read German the original text remains to be preferred. 



The book is very well produced and reasonably priced. 



Textbooks 



2. 



Z.GRODZINSKI, Cz.JURA, H. KRZANUWSKA, H.SZARSKI. 1970. EMBRIOLO- 

 GIA (Embryology, a textbook for biology students) (in Polish) 

 Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe , Warszawa. 364 pp., 213 figs., 

 3 tabs. 



Comprehensive text, combining descriptive, classical experimen- 

 tal, and some chemical embryology; well illustrated. 



3. 



M.HAMBURGH. 1971. THEORIES OF DIFFERENTIATION 



Edward Arnold, London. A series of student texts in contemporary 



biology. X,171 pp., 75 figs., 2 tabs., subject index, i 3ou 



(cloth), £ 1.75 (paper) 



Contents: 1. Interaction of egg and sperm; 2. Penetration and 

 activation of the egg; 3. Theories of Induction; 4. Models of 

 tissue interaction; 5. Gene action and the fate of information- 



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