28 NEOPLASTIC DEVELOPMENT 



1969 

 By L. Foulds Academic Press 



439 pp., 70 figs. London - New York 



Price: 110 s.; $ 16.50 



The author of this book has been active in cancer research for nearly four 

 decades and has thought deeply about cancer and its relationship to normal 

 development. To quote from his preface "the unifying principle used in this 

 book is the concept of neoplasia as a developmental process akin to normal 

 development in some respects but differing from it in important particulars 

 that are not yet well-defined. The emphasis is on the pathology of neoplasia 

 as an epigenetic process and not on the pathology of tumours as lumps". 

 The result is an extremely interesting book, well-balanced, rich in content, 

 and full of original thought, which should be of value to the specialist as 

 well as to the general and developmental biologist. 



The book is in three parts, entitled respectively "Historical introduction", 

 "General and experimental pathology of neoplastic development" (6 chap- 

 ters), and "Biological organization and developmental biology" (8 chapters). 

 Although part II contains much that is of interest to the embryologist, we 

 will focus our attention on part III. This is devoted to a consideration of the 

 extent to which current knowledge and ideas about biological organization 

 and development can provide a suitable terminological and conceptual 

 machinery for dealing with the facts and problems emerging from part II. 

 In fact, the current ideas in question are set forth so clearly that this part 

 could serve as an excellent introduction to this area in its own right. Recent 

 advances in molecular biology and in the application of cybernetics to the 

 problems of development are emphasized throughout. Examples are mainly j 

 drawn from unicellular organisms and vertebrates. The careful definition of | 

 some new terms and the critical re-evaluation of earlier concepts of other 

 authors are particularly welcome. This holds especially for the author's 

 attempt to clear up the terminological confusion with regard to the concept I 

 of differentiation, and for the emphasis he places on competence as the ' 

 necessary counterpart of induction. 



The author is apparently unaware of the recent work of Hadorn and his 

 group on transdetermination in insect imaginal discs cultured in vivo. 



The illustrations, mainly very good photographs, are almost entirely in 

 part II. The book has a 38-page bibliography and author and subject indexes, 

 of which the latter could have been more detailed. 



29 FERTILIZATION IN FISHES 



AND THE PROBLEM OF POLYSPERMY 

 1968 

 By A. S. Ginsburg Publishing House ,,Nauka" 



358 pp.. 68 figs., 38 tbs.. 16 pis. Moscow 



Contents: 1. The egg; 2. The spermatozoon; 3. Sperm-egg association; 4. The number of 

 spermatozoa penetrating the egg at fertilization, and the fate of supernumerary spermatozoa; 



5. The cortical reaction in physiologically monospermic eggs of fishes and other animals; 



6. The mechanism of the block to polyspermy. 



This book is written in Russian and is announced only briefly. It is very 

 comprehensive as far as the fishes are concerned, while examples from other 

 classes and phyla are adduced for comparative purposes wherever necessary. 

 The book has an English table of contents and a brief English summary. It 

 is well illustrated; most of the photographic illustrations are brought together 



324 



