Annual Review of Physiology

Abstract

IT is the declared editorial policy of the “Annual Review of Physiology” that a review should not only survey the recent contributions to the field but also “appraise them critcally and evaluate with discrimination the present status of the subject”. Of the twenty-five reviews which comprise Vol. 8, 1946, many fall short oif this ideal. The reviews of energy metabolism, respiration, physiollgy of the sk8n, digestive system, liver and bile, blood coagulation, blood cytology, heart, reproduction, are, for the most part, uncritical compilations of publisched data. The reviewers of applied physiloogy, aviation medicine and the physiology of heat and cold have been considerably hampered by the contiuing ban on the publication of much war-time reaserch; but a considerable amount of new work on the effects of climatic extemes and anoxia is covered. Nerve and synaptic transmission by G. H. Bishop, the somatic functions of the central nervous system by A. E. Walker and the visceral functions of the nervous system by K. Hare can all be commended as critical and stimulating reviews. Hare's article is particu-(larly valuable in developing the modern view that there is no functional antagonism between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. Developmental physiology by L. I?. Flexner records further rapid growth in this new field, and it is interesting to note that the in vitro fertilization of human ova has been reported.

Annual Review of Physiology

Edited by James Murrary Luck Victor E. Hall. Vol. 8. Pp. viii + 658. (Stanford University P.O., Calif.: Annual Reviews, Inc.; London: H. K. Lewis and Co. Ltd., 1946.). 5 dollars.