General embryological information service - HPS Repository

64 pictures are phase contrast photographs of living ova. The later stages
were incubated in follicular fluid, or in serum to which pieces of tubal mucosa
had been added. The atlas is divided into 5 sections, dealing respectively with
growth, maturation, nutrition, fertilization and early development.lt is preceded
by a short historical introduction by H. Speert, and concluded by an appendix
containing some information on the techniques used, a bibliography of earlier
publications of the author, and a curriculum vitae. Concise texts in German,
French and English accompany the plates, forming a more or less continuous
story. The reproduction and printing of the plates are very good.
It is a pity that the technique used for making each picture could not have been separately
indicated. Also one would have wished for more technical detail about the phase contrast
procedure used, particularly as regards illumination.
"THE BIOLOGY OF STENTOR"
1961
by V. Tartar Pergamon Press
(International Series of Oxford, London, New York, Paris
Monographs on Pure and Applied Price: 75 s.
Biology, Zoology Division, Vol. 5)
413 pp., 99 figs., 1 coloured pi.
This monograph is devoted entirely to one genus, the ciliate protozoan
Stentor. So much information about this genus has accumulated in the course
of more than a hundred years, that a compilation into one volume is fully
justified. In the bibliography of this book there are more than 200 titles dealing
with the genus Stentor alone.
The author of the book has been engaged in experimental work on these
organisms for a period of twenty years. Stentor is better suited for microsurgical
manipulations than any other unicellular organism, and with this book
the author hopes to provide the basis for much more experimental work.
Much of the experimental work compiled in this book deals with morphogenesis
in its widest sense, and is therefore of direct interest to embryologists.
The book includes a useful chapter on experimental techniques. A final
chapter presents some theoretical considerations concerning, among other
things, the interactions between nucleus, endoplasm and ectoplasm, and more
particularly the autonomous pattern present in the latter.
The book is richly illustrated with simple but clear line drawings. The
bibliography is divided into a part dealing with Stentor, and a general part.
There are author and subject indexes. The printing of the book is very good.
"NEW APPROACHES IN CELL BIOLOGY"
1960
Editor: P. M. B. Walker Academic Press
216 pp., 58 figs., 3 tabs. London and New York
This book contains the papers delivered at a symposium which formed part
of the fifteenth International Congress of Zoology, held in London in 1958.
At least six of the fourteen papers are of direct interest to embryologists.
Among these are papers by Moore (nuclear transfer of embryonic cells),
Waddington (ultramicroscopic structure of developing systems), and Clayton
(labelled antibodies and differentiation).
The papers generally range from about ten to about twenty pages. Some of
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