An Introduction to Experimental Embryology

Abstract

MR. DE BEER has written an excellent little book. It is the first attempt in English to survey the field of experimental embryology since the publication of the late J. W. Jenkinson's “Lectures” in 1917, and in the interval much new work has been done. The author does not attempt to include an account of all this work; on the other hand, he has purposely selected from an extensive literature descriptions of those experiments which have a common bearing in elucidating the more essential problems. The consideration of the development and determination of the sexual characters has been deliberately excluded on the ground that this subject has been dealt with recently in works by Goldschmidt and Crew. This is perhaps to be regretted, since some of the best examples of the successful application of the experimental method might have been drawn from recent investigations in this branch of study, and many of them without encroaching on the subject matter of either of the two books referred to. It was inevitable, however, in a work of this size, that the author should select his material, and as it is, he has succeeded in covering a wide field. At the end of the volume is a tabulated list of the experiments cited, with due references to the authors and to the literature.

An Introduction to Experimental Embryology.

By G. R. de Beer. Pp. iv + 148. (Oxford: Clarendon Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1926.) 7s. 6d. net.