Abstract
REPRODUCTION is a branch of biology in which the methods of the naturalist and the anatomist have contributed considerably to an understanding of basic physiological processes. The comparative study of breeding seasons has given valuable clues to environmental and other factors which condition their variation. Differences in the characteristics of the œstrous cycle, and in the manner of ovulation, have directed attention to mechanisms that underlie the overt anatomical and behavioural changes in the reproductive rhythm. In its turn, anatomical and embryological study has provided useful indications for the experimental elucidation of such problems as the differential sensitivity of tissues to hormone stimulation. To-day, however, the broad zoological basis of the subject sometimes tends to become obscured by the more rapidly growing biochemical and physiological literature, and there is a danger lest a declining interest in systematic zoological study robs endocrinology of some potential points of advance.
Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction
By Prof. S. A. Asdell. Pp. xiii + 437 + 12 plates. (Ithaca, N.Y.: Comstock Publishing Co., Inc.; London: Constable and Co., Ltd., 1946.) 5 dollars; 27s. 6d. net.
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ZUCKERMAN, S. Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction. Nature 159, 520 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/159520a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/159520a0