572 REVIEWS. 



laboratory Text-Book of Embryology. By Charles Sedgwick Minot. 2. ed. re- 

 vised. Pp. 402, 262 illustrations, chiefly original. Cloth. Price $3.50 net. 

 Philadelphia: P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 1910. 



As the name indicates, this book is not a laboratory guide for embry- 

 ology, but a text-book for the laboratory study of embryology. Its scope is 

 somewhat extensive and the material contained in it is for the most part 

 essentially of a text-book nature. It is divided into eight chapters as 

 follows: Chapter I, "General considerations," devotes thirty-one pages 

 to an introduction to embryology and its various fundamental aspects. 

 This chapter sets forth considerations which are to be borne in 'mind in 

 studying any phase of embryonic development and which no doubt are 

 meant to give the student a broader and more scientific point of view 

 before taking up the detailed study of embryology. Chapter II, "The 

 early development of mammals," after taking up first the histology of 

 the male and female sex cells and the maturation of the ovum, at once 

 enters into the study of the embryonic development of mammals, the 

 most difficult group we have in embryology. Chapter III, "The human 

 embryo," deals with the different stages of development of the human 

 embryo. Several good illustrations are given. Chapter IV takes up the 

 "Study of the segmentation of the ovum and of the blastodermic vesicles 

 in mammals." Chapter V devotes 45 pages to the "Special embryology 

 of the chick and its relation to development in the mammals." Chapter 

 VI, "Study of pig embryo" covers 120 pages and from the stand- 

 point of strict embryology is perhaps the most valuable section of the 

 book. The embryonic development of the pig is portrayed in a com- 

 prehensive and lucid manner and the many excellent drawings and recon- 

 structions in this chapter make it easily understood, and give an excellent 

 conception of the extent of development of the various' organs and tissues 

 and their relations to one another in the different stages ©f the embryonic 

 history of this animal. Many of these illustrations are so clear, that they 

 alone, with their explanatory descriptions, would give a pretty fair idea of 

 the embryology of the pig. Chapter VII, "Study of the uterus and the 

 fetal appendages of man," embraces a study of the histology of the uterus, 

 menstruation, the pregnant uterus, decidua, chorion, amnion, placenta, 

 etc. Several stages of some of these are taken up and illustrated. Chap- 

 ter VIII, "Methods," gives several valuable suggestions in regard to 

 preparing and measuring embryos and the preparation of sections of 

 embryos. 



The subject-matter is thoroughly reliable, excellent, and well correlated. 

 However, the arrangement probably deserves severe criticism. While 

 being an improvement over the former edition in that the study of the 

 embryo begins at the early stages and leads up to the later, instead of the 

 reverse, it still by no means conforms to the arrangement of subject- 

 matter, which, by embryologists, usually is considered chronological. 



