The Biological Action of Radiation

Abstract

TO write a comprehensive work upon the “Biological Effects of Radiation” has now become an impossible task for any single person, and we are, therefore, especially grateful to Prof. Duggar and his collaborators for the preparation of the two volumes before us. These volumes contain forty-three essays on various aspects of the question, and give about four thousand references to original papers; while their scope ranges from pure physics and chemistry to the chromosomal aberrations which may be produced by irradiation. Two subjects are, however, specifically excluded, namely, practical considerations relating to plant production, and those special applications of rays which are concerned with radiotherapy. It is as obviously impossible for one person to write an adequate review of such a work as this, as it is for him to compile it; and all that can be attempted is to give a general idea of the vast field that has been covered.

Biological Effects of Radiation:

Mechanism and Measurement of Radiation, Applications in Biology, Photochemical Reactions, Effects of Radiant Energy on Organisms and Organic Products. (Prepared under the auspices of the Committee on Radiation, Division of Biology and Agriculture, National Research Council, Washington.) Edited by Prof. Benjamin M. Duggar, with the co-operation of Janet Howell Clark, Kenneth S. Cole, Farrington Daniels, Gioacchino Failla, Charles Packard, Henry W. Popp. Vol. 1. Pp. x + 676. Vol. 2. Pp. vii + 677–1343. (New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1936.) 70s.