65. 



L.V.POLEZHAEV. 1972. LOSS AND RESTORATION OF REGENERATIVE 

 CAPACITY IN TISSUES AND ORGANS OF ANIMALS, translated from the 

 Russian by Y.Halperln 

 Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass. X,385 pp., 123 figs. $ 10.- 



This is the translation of a book first published in Russian 

 in 1968. The author is head of the Laboratory of Experimental 

 Morphology, Institute of Developmental Biology, Academy of 

 Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. As B.M.Carlson points out in his 

 preface to the translation, Soviet regeneration research under- 

 went a pronounced shift in the late 1940s from basic work on 

 amphibians to more practically oriented problems in mammals. The 

 book in particular summarizes the work of the author and his as- 

 sociates during the post-war years, which is much less known in 

 the West than his earlier work. 



The book is written in the verbose and somewhat involved style 

 typical of Russian writers of an older generation. Moreover, 

 there is a rather strong preoccupation with theoretical issues 

 which may seem to be of only academic interest to many. However, 

 the organization of the book is such that the highly interesting 

 factual results of this group are not too difficult to unearth. 

 Although it may sound surprising, they will probably appeal most 

 to members of the medical, dental, and veterinary professions, 

 and might well open up entirely new ways of surgical treatment 

 in the not too distant future. 



The first part of the book lays the theoretical foundation 

 (eight brief chapters, 79 pp.). The second part (six chapters, 

 188 pp.) then deals with experiments on the loss and the resto- 

 ration by various means of regenerative capacity in the follow- 

 ing systems: extremities of amphibians, lizards, and young rats; 

 bones of the cranial vault; dental tissues; myocardium; cerebral 

 cortex; X-irradiated axolotl limbs. In the last part (five brief 

 chapters, 36 pp.) the insight gained is applied to some other 

 areas: restoration of damage to internal organs, functional res- 

 toration, and relationships between regenerative capacity, immu- 

 nity, and tumor formation. 



The translation is very competent. The book is well printed in 

 offset print, well illustrated, and remarkably cheap. The 77- 

 page classified bibliography is separated into Russian and non- 

 Russian titles (proportion ca. 2:1). All Russian titles are 

 transliterated as well as translated. There are no indexes. 



66. 



L.V.POLEZHAEV. 1972. ORGAN REGENERATION IN ANIMALS; recovery of 



organ regeneration ability in animals 



Thomas, Springfield. X,190 pp., 108 figs., subject index. $ 14.- 



It is unfortunate for the publisher of this book that an excel- 

 lent English translation of Polezhaev's 1968 book on the same 

 subject has just appeared (see review no. 65). The present book 

 is a considerably shortened version of the earlier work, espe- 

 cially written for American readers. It restricts itself almost 

 entirely to factual results. Although the book contains some 

 work more recent than 1968, it compares unfavourably with the 

 translation in almost every respect (even the price). 



The English is clumsy - the author is not to blame, of course, 

 but why has nobody suggested a linguistic check by an expert? 

 Almost no care seems to have been devoted to the preparation of 

 the graphs and figures. The former are unbelievably amateurish 

 in execution. The latter have bad captions, are not properly la- 

 belled, and the component pictures are often transposed or ro- 



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