II, 1965, p. 338), and there is thus good reason for making it available to 

 German-speaking students in their own language. Unfortunately, however, 

 the translation is far from ideal; although the translator is obviously a 

 biologist, he is apparently not a specialist in this particular field, so that 

 sometimes important shades of meaning are lost, and occasionally outright 

 mistakes are made. Similar mistakes have crept into several figure legends. 

 The original illlustrations are well reproduced. For some reason the original 

 reading lists at the end of each chapter were replaced by a general reading 

 list at the end of the book. This contains a number of German titles not 

 quoted originally; some of these are completely irrelevant to the subject of 

 the book. The alphabetical index is much shorter than the original one and 

 does not contain authors' names. 



10 EMBRYOLOGIE 



1968 

 By P. Guidoni Doin, Deren & Cie. 



488 pp., 477 figs. Paris 



(paper-bound) Price: F 75. — 



This book lacks a preface stating the author's aims in writing it. One gets 

 the impression that it is based on lectures. The book essentially deals with 

 the descriptive and comparative embryology of vertebrates and man. Its 

 organization is conventional, with a first part discussing embryogenesis, and 

 a second part dealing with organogenesis, arranged by organ systems. The 

 first part contains a brief and very superficial chapter on experimental 

 embryology and a very sketchy summary of congenital malformations, while 

 the second part is concluded by a summary of genetics, which completely 

 neglects the subject of developmental genetics. Another neglected subject is 

 the relationship between embryology and evolution. 



The book is illustrated with simple line drawings. Many of these are 

 schematized to the point of being completely unrealistic. They are the kind 

 of drawing used to illustrate a lecture, but most of them are inadequate for 

 a text-book. The book gives no literature and lacks a subject index. 



In conclusion, the book might have its uses in connection with specific 

 courses, but certainly cannot be recommended as a general text-book of 

 embryology. It is moreover much too expensive. 



1 1 ELEMENTI DI EMBRIOLOGIA DEI 



VERTEBRATI E DELL' UOMO 

 1968 

 By S. Leghissa Unione Tipografico-Editrice 



447 pp., 285 figs., 20 tbs.. 4 pis. Torinese 



Price: L 12.500 



As far as we are aware this seems to be the first original text-book of 

 vertebrate embryology in Italian and as such it will be welcomed by many 

 students and teachers of biology and medicine in Italy. The treatment is 

 almost exclusively descriptive and comparative; classical experimental data 

 are only mentioned cursorily in connection with primary induction and 

 twinning, while biochemical and genetical aspects are hardly mentioned at 

 all except in the brief historical introduction. 



The organization of the book is conventional; the first part deals with 

 reproduction and with general embryology from gametogenesis up to the 

 end of embryogenesis; part two discusses the morphogenesis and different- 



315 



