influential books and a defense of L.Bolk's views on fetalisation. 



The book is very well produced, has extremely interesting illustrations, 

 and is concluded by an excellent glossary, 



100. 



M.de ISSEKUTZ WOLSKY and A.WOLSKY. 1976. THE MECHANISM OF EVOLUTION: A NEW 

 LOOK AT OLD IDEAS 



Karger, Basel, etc. Contrib. to Human Development, vol.4. VIII, 160 pp., 3 

 figs., 3 tabs. SFr./DM 44.00, ca. $ 17.00 (paper) 



Contents (abridged): I. Genes and mutations: the metamorphosis of 20th 

 century ideas, II. Natural selection: a 19th century proposition. III. 

 Behavior and evolution: a new road on old foundations 



This erudite book will be read with profit by all those interested in 

 theories of evolution. The reason why we briefly review it here is that the 

 authors are well-versed in developmental biology and that consequently their 

 way of thinking is rather akin to that of people like C.H.Waddington. In 

 other words, they constantly emphasise the necessity of thinking of orga- 

 nisms not as finished products but as highly integrated developing entities. 



The book is essentially a theoretical critique of neo-Darwinism (or the 

 "synthetic theory" of evolution) . It surveys and comments upon the trends of 

 thought which have emerged alongside the "synthetic theory", and which point 

 the way to a more widely based synthesis (while of course staying away from 

 classical Lamarckism) . 



Part I and II will be of most interest to our readers. In part I the au- 

 thors, after surveying modern ideas of molecular genetics, revive Gold- 

 schmidt's ideas on "systematic mutations" in the context of more recent evi- 

 dence. They also devote considerable space to Dalcq's concept of "ontomuta- 

 tions", but are careful to point out that there is no evidence for them as 

 yet. 



An important theme in part II is the limited role of natural selection and 

 the ensuing conviction that evolution is essentially an autogenic (as against 

 ectogenic) process. Interesting (though entirely theoretical) ideas are de- 

 veloped concerning the strategic role of the genes controlling the basic 

 features of embryogenesis : these culminate in the somewhat provocative 

 statement "ontogeny is the cause of phylogeny". 



Part III emphasises the integrative role of the nervous system and its im- 

 plications for the progressive emancipation of higher animals from their en- 

 vironment. 



Dissertations 

 101. 



L. A. B.ABBOTT. 1977. A BIOLOGICAL AND MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS OF WING MORPHO- 

 GENESIS IN DROSOPHILA 

 Ph.D. thesis, Univ. of Colorado. 127 pp., 17 figs., 10 tabs, (mimeographed) 



A reciprocating combination of biological and mathematical methods used 

 to address the question of the nature of compartment boundaries; interesting 

 introduction on function of hierarchial organisation and role of mathematics 

 in biology; clonal analysis of Lyra wings; clonal analysis of "normal" 

 wings, particularly small (four-cell) clones produced by late irradiation; 

 elements of a model for wing development; some conclusions: no requirement 

 for control of direction of cell division - compartment boundaries may be 

 no more than exaggerated clone boundaries. 



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