The Genetics of the Mouse

Abstract

THE study of inheritance must always be more laborious than most other forms of biological investigation which concern themselves with only one phase of an animal's whole life-history. It is therefore not surprising that there are only very few animals, and not many more plants, about the genetics of which we know enough to feel confident of having even a crude picture of their commoner modes of variation. Among these animals the mouse holds a very important place. The rapidity of its breeding, the comparative ease of maintaining colonies, and the large number of variations bred by 'the fancy', have made it perhaps the favourite mammal for geneticists. It shares, with Drosophila and maize, the distinction of having a 'hot news' journal (Mouse Genetic News) devoted to the technicalities of its genetics and circulated semi-privately to scientific murophils. A new monograph summarizing the enormous literature which supports the mouse's standing in the world of geneticists will therefore be welcomed, both by specialists, who will find it a convenient summary of their field, and by non-murine geneticists, who want a guide through the tangles of the subject. Both these groups will find Dr. Griine-berg's treatise, with its classified list of 1,141 references, entirely satisfactory for their needs.

The Genetics of the Mouse

By Dr. Hans Grüneberg. Pp. xii + 412 + 14 plates. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1943.) 30s. net.