was held in Helsinki in October 1965; it had more than 70 participants, the 

 majority of whom came from Finland and other Scandinavian and Western 

 European countries. The central theme of the Symposium was the dynamic 

 balance between cell loss and cell production in the adult (mainly mammalian) 

 organism, and the mechanisms which maintain it. 



The book is opened by a lengthy systematic theoretical introduction by 

 R. J. Goss ("The strategy of growth"). The other 29 contributions are of 

 mixed character; some are more or less extensive reviews (e.g. that by 

 W. S. Bullough and E. B. Laurence on epigenetic mitotic control and the role 

 of chalone), others are shorter or longer research reports, or are almost purely 

 theoretical in nature (e.g. that by L. G. Lajtha on proliferation kinetics of 

 steady state cell populations) . 



The papers are grouped into eight sections, two on general aspects, one on 

 haematopoiesis, one on lymphoid cells, one on liver regeneration, one on 

 miscellaneous aspects, and one on aspects in malignancy. The last section, 

 entitled "General discussion", contains some reflections on growth by a plant 

 physiologist (P. Larsen), and a brief list of methodological remarks on the 

 measurement of growth (O. H. Iversen). 



The discussions held at the Symposium are not recorded, but each section is 

 concluded by a discussion summary edited by the chairman of the section. In 

 his concluding remarks to the Symposium P. Weiss focuses attention on un- 

 solved problems that came up during the meetings. 



The book is well produced and well illustrated. It is concluded by author 

 and subject indexes. 



64 PLANT TISSUE CULTURE AND 



PLANT MORPHOGENESIS 

 1968 

 By R. G. Butenko Israel Program for Scientific Translations 



291 pp., 104 figs. Jerusalem 



Price: $ 12.75; (U.K.) 90s. 



This is a translation of a book published in Russian in 1964. It is con- 

 sequently partly out-dated, so that its main interest for readers in the West 

 may be that it provides a key to otherwise inaccessible literature published 

 in Eastern Europe. The introduction contains a useful listing of work in the 

 field of plant tissue culture being carried out by research groups in various 

 countries, among them China and five Eastern European countries. 



The author has been an active investigator in this field since 1957, as 

 one of the first in Russia; he works at the K. A. Timiryazev Institute of 

 Plant Physiology, Acad, of Sci. of the U.S.S.R. The book is in two parts, 

 the first of which deals with methods and techniques (3 chapters); part two 

 discusses growth, metabolism, and morphogenesis in cultured plant tissues, 

 cell suspensions, and free cells (4 chapters). 



The book is well translated, but it contains many printing errors, and 

 several authors cited in the text are omitted from the bibliography. The book 

 is produced in offset print and is illustrated mainly with photographs, which 

 arc unfortunately poorly reproduced. The bibliography is divided into a 

 Russian section (11 pages, with translated titles) and a non-Russian one 

 (43 pages). The book is concluded by an author index. Considering its 

 limited topicality its price is excessive. 



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