it may also be of much help to mature workers, because the subject presents inherent technical 

 difficulties. 



The book is in two parts, the first of which describes instruments, equipment, and materials, 

 including the maintenance and breeding of mice. (The book is tailored to the characteristics of 

 the Swiss albino line.) 



Part two then proceeds to describe a large variety of laboratory exercises (18 in all). Among 

 these are maturation of oocytes in vitro, recovery of ova, ovum culture, ovum transfer and 

 transplantation, fusion of ova, fertilization and implantation in vitro, and the preparation of 

 staged ova. Then follow six appendixes describing media and procedures. One of the appen- 

 dixes is a "normal table" of mouse development, which distinguishes 24 carefully defined and 

 illustrated stages. Up to the blastula stage (8) age is given in hours after estimated ovulation 

 time; from then on the successive stages are separated by periods of about one day. 



The book is illustrated with good line drawings and a few photographs. It is very attractively 

 produced, and contains a listing of useful reference sources and a selected bibliography of 

 over 100 titles. (A minor point that struck the reviewer as odd is the use of the word 

 "deciduoma" for uterine swelling; this word has the accepted meaning of a neoplasm arising 

 after birth from remnants of the decidua.) 



History, Biographies, etc. 



Monographs 



101 



KARL ERNST VON BAER 1792-1876, sein Leben und sein Werk, translated from the Russian 



by H. von Knorre. 1968. By B. E. RAIKOV 



J. A. Barth, Leipzig. Acta Historica Leopoldina No. 5. 516 pp., 20 figs. M. 68.— (paper) 



This book is the German translation of a book published in Russian in 1961. The author, 

 a well-known historian of biology, was 81 when the Russian edition appeared, and did not live 

 to see the German translation in print. The scholarly work is the first complete biography of 

 von Baer, one of the geniuses of the nineteenth century and the father of modern embryology. 



It is not possible to review the book extensively here. The reader is referred to the long, 

 laudatory review by V. Hamburger in Quarterly Review of Biology 45, no. 2, 1970. The book is 

 exceedingly well written and well translated. The translator has contributed, among other 

 things, a lengthy introduction, many annotations to the main text, a complete list of references 

 cited in the original, and an annotated index of names cited in the text. 



The book is well printed and has good illustrations, mostly portraits and facsimiles. It is a 

 pity that it could not be provided with a hard cover. The book contains an annotated 

 bibliography of von Baer's works, but no general index. 



362 



