Preface 



This book is concerned with a discussion of the basic facts, concepts, 

 and problems of cellular biology. The authors have provided a general 

 picture of the field, the details of which may be filled in by reference to 

 the many fine sources available. In our opinion a beginning course in 

 cytology should be so designed as to encourage the student to make use 

 of reference materials necessary to gain the requisite knowledge of his 

 subject. This can be accomplished best, in the authors' experience, by 

 providing a suitable map so that exploration may be carried out logically 

 and without the student becoming hopelessly lost in a welter of detail. 

 The basic purpose of writing this book has been to provide such a map. 

 Another purpose the authors have had in mind is to provide the specialist 

 in other biological and biologically related disciplines with a useful sur- 

 vey of the field of cytology. Finally, the book was so designed that com- 

 ponent parts or even whole chapters may be selected by the teacher of 

 general biology at either the secondary or college level as sources of 

 essential information concerning cells. 



As the authors are concerned primarily with presenting the student 

 with a workable interpretation of the essentials of cytology, many of the 

 references as to information sources have been confined purposely to 

 articles, symposia, or supplemental volumes of journals in which a par- 

 ticular concept or technique is found reviewed in detail. The authors, 

 however, have also made reference wherever possible in the text to orig- 

 inal works in order that the student may appreciate the contributions of 

 the past in the estabhshment of the basic concepts which form the 

 foundations of modern cytology. Reference sources are placed at the 

 end of each chapter in a bibliography which includes those sources re- 



