22 



This little book was written for the use of undergraduates in zoology and 

 medicine. The intention of the book has been to emphasize living embryos and 

 the processes occurring in them, rather than the static sequences of morpho- 

 logical structure which are traditionally the subject of embryological teaching. 

 Also, the author has tried to counteract the traditional bias towards vertebrate 

 development by devoting relatively more attention to invertebrates than was 

 hitherto usual in elementary textbooks. 



The book is extremely concise and many of the illustrations are highly 

 schematical. This means that the book can only be used in combination with 

 a practical course, and that the lecturer will have to enlarge upon and supple- 

 ment the subject matter. 



After a generalized treatment of the gametes, fertilization and early develop- 

 ment (including a section on fate maps), there follow short sections on the 

 nematodes, the polychaets, the molluscs, the arthropods, the enchinoderms, and 

 the tunicates. The vertebrates are represented by the guppy, the chick, the rabbit 

 (and other mammals), and finally the human. Then follows a treatment of the 

 development of the organ systems on a more or less comparative basis. Finally, 

 there are sections on cell differentiation, metamorphosis, and embryos and 

 evolution. 



Data from experimental embryology and developmental physiology have 

 been interspersed throughout the text. Most of this information necessarily 

 remains sketchy in a book of this size. 



Some forty photographic illustrations have been brought together on eight 

 plates in the middle of the book. A number of these have illustrative value, but 

 others seem superfluous. 



The book gives no references. There is a good index and a brief appendix 

 on sources of embryonic material and embryological methods. 



In the reviewer's opinion the book would have been more valuable if less strict size limitations 

 had been imposed on the author, and if more care had been devoted to the selection and prepara- 

 tion of the figures. Some of the sections on invertebrate phyla are too short to be of much use 

 to the beginner, while a number of the present schematical figures can hardly be said to provide 

 him with the mental images needed to understand the "living embryo". 



9. VERTEBRATE EMBRYOLOGY 



a laboratory manual 

 7th edition, 1964 

 by R. M. Eakin Univ. of Calif. Press 



242 pp., 58 figs. Berkeley and Los Angeles 



(paper-bound) Price: $ 2.75 



This laboratory manual was first published in 1947, and was since reprinted 

 at intervals of one or a few years, and adopted by an increasing number of 

 institutions. It might be superfluous to review it here, were it not that in this 

 edition a new section has been added, dealing with the frog larva, which serves 

 to make the manual useful to a still wider circle of teachers. At present the 

 manual contains five major sections, viz. I. Gametogenesis and the estrous 

 cycle (in the rat); II. Early development (in the starfish Patiria, the polychaete 

 Mercierella, the mussel Mytilus, and the amphibia); III. Development in the 



