munication. < rhe title is therefore somewhat misleading.) The presentation is up to date 

 and correel except for a lew minor errors. It is a pity that mesoderm induction in the 

 amphibian blastula is not mentioned at least briefly. 



The illustrations are simple but good and there is a list of 155 references cited in the 

 text. 1 here are rather main printing errors and inaccuracies. 



The German edition is well turned out and the translation is competent. The subtitle is 

 an improvement. A reading list of German books has been added. 



Monographs 



61. 



A.C.GIESE. 1973. BLEPHARISMA, the biology of a light-sensitive protozoan 



Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford. XII.366 pp., 205 figs., 27 tabs., combined author and 



subject index. $ 17.50, £8.75 



This valuable monograph for the first time collects the large and widely scattered 

 literature on Blephahsma. The author has worked with this organism for more than 

 40 years. It is a large, slow-moving ciliate provided with well-differentiated feeding 

 organelles, which make it a favourite object for morphogenetic studies, comparable to , 

 Stentor. This review will concentrate on the parts of the book dealing with structural and 

 morphogenetic aspects. 



Chapters 1 and 2 (38 pp.) were for the most part contributed by S. Suzuki and deal 

 with general morphology and nuclear behaviour. Ch. 3, contributed by R. A. Jenkins 

 (15 pp.) deals with fine structure and is followed by a collection of 39 electron 

 micrographs. Ch. 8 is again a contribution by S. Suzuki (43 pp.) and discusses morpho- 

 genesis in binary fission and regeneration, mainly on the basis of the published results of 

 this contributor. Ch. 9, entitled The molecular biology of regeneration (32 pp.) is essen- 

 tially a summary of the work of the author and his associates covering a time-span of 

 about 20 years. Finally, ch. 10 (19 pp.) deals with encystment and excystment. Other 

 chapters contain much information, e.g. on culture methods, that will be indispensable 

 for those starting work on this organism. 



The book is beautifully produced and very well illustrated; the electron micrographs 

 are of good quality. The book is concluded by a useful glossary. 



62. 



H.HARRIS. 1974. NUCLEUS AND CYTOPLASM. 3rd edit. 



Clarendon Press - Oxford Univ. Press, London. XIV, 186 pp., 17 figs., 18 pis., author and 



subject indexes. £ 4.20 (cloth), £ 1.90 (paper) 



Although this new edition of a successful book has been more extensively revised than 

 the second edition ( 1970), the basic arrangement of the chapters has remained unaltered 

 and the book is of the same size. 



One is inclined to regret that the author did not extend his chapter on differentiation 

 with a section on the important and topical subject of the cell cycle and its role in 

 differentiation. This is particularly felt in the last pages where he speaks about transdeter- 

 mination and cellular metaplasia, subjects which would definitely require such an exten- 

 sion to be discussed meaningfully. 



The author's account of the first beginnings of cell fusion work, which was recently 

 challenged rightly by Ephrussi, has not been corrected. 



Some new plates have been added. The total amount of literature cited has again 

 increased by almost 50%. The more than two-fold price increase in four years' time is 

 alarming. 



192 



