book will appeal most to the professional historian and philosopher of science. 



However, quite apart from such issues the bulk of the book will be of great value to 

 those embryologists who are interested in the origin of the ideas and concepts they are 

 using, and generally to all biologists who want to be conscious of the more philosophical 

 context of their often automatic or traditional ways of thinking. And it cannot be denied 

 that a concept such as morphogenetic field, though pronounced meaningless by some, is 

 still considered useful and even indispensable by many others. 



The part of the book to which I am referring consists of chapters 2-5. Ch.2 is a 

 thoughtful brief essay on the origins and elements of organicism. The other three chapters 

 lucidly review the intellectual development of three great men of the era in question: 

 Ross G. Harrison, Joseph Needham, and Paul Weiss. These make delightful reading for 

 anyone even remotely interested. 



The book is attractively produced but is disfigured by rather many printing errors. It 

 has no illustrations. The most recent references (e.g. Thom, Wolpert) do not include the 

 definitive published works of these authors. The long index conforms to scholarly stan- 

 dards. 



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