General embryological information service - HPS Repository

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view is strongly epigenetic in character and accords only limited importance
to the genetic information present in the chromosomes. This reviewer, not
being an expert on human developmental anatomy, can only repeat what he said
on previous occasions: let every reader judge the value of these views for
himself.
The book is produced with great care and is illustrated with micrographs,
drawings and diagrams of outstanding quality. It is quite typical that the
only literature cited consists of three books by the first and one by the
second author (as well as some of Blechschmidt ' s publications in German cited
in footnotes)
28.
Y.NOTAKE and S.SUZUKI, eds. 1977. BIOLOGICAL AND CLINICAL ASPECTS OF THE
FETUS
Thieme, Stuttgart; Igaku Shoin, Tokyo. VIII, 263 pp., 207 figs., 50 tabs.,
author and subject indexes. DM 148.00
This book will be mainly of significance to members of the medical profession,
but some chapters will be of interest to mammalian and human embryologists.
All but one of the 17 contributors are Japanese researchers
working either in Japan or elsewhere; they are all engaged in both basic and
clinical research. The eight chapters are reviews intermingled with sometimes
considerable amounts of original material, some of which was not published
previously.
Two chapters are of particular interest to our readers. One is on the
biology of mammalian embryos in pre-implantation stages (S.Suzuki et ai^.,
16 pp.). The other is an extensive survey (Tanimura, 57 pp.) of findings on
both normal and abnormal embryonic and early fetal human development based
on the Nishimura Collection at Kyoto University (Human Embryo Center) . (This
collection consists of material from legal abortions in Japan, and contains
some 35,000 embryos, some 4,000 early fetuses, and over 2,000 sectioned
specimens.) Other chapters deal with fetal growth and the intra-uterine environment,
the placenta, and the feto-maternal hormonal milieu. Two chapters
are of exclusively clinical interest (sonar and amniocentesis)
All chapters have extensive reference lists. In the text it is not always
made perfectly clear which data are original and which are not. The English
is often clumsy and should have been edited. The book is well produced and
profusely illustrated. The photographs are of very good quality and most of
them are original.
29,
M.I.SHERMAN, ed . 1977. CONCEPTS IN MAMMALIAN EMBRYOGENESIS
MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., etc. Cell Monograph Series No.l. XXVI, 404 pp.,
40 figs., 11 tabs., subject index. E 17.50
Contents: 1. The biology of embryogenesis , 2. The molecular biology of
the preimplantation embryo, 3. Genetics of early mammalian embryogenesis,
4. T-Complex mutations and their effects, 5. Cell surface properties of
early mammalian embryos, 6. Tumor virus expression during mammalian embryogenesis,
7. Teratocarcinoma cells and normal mouse embryogenesis
As the editor says in his Introduction, "the purpose of this monograph
is to provide the reader with a thorough overview of a few selected topics
on manmialian embryogenesis that are of current interest and interrelate
well with each other". The result is a resounding success. All chapters
are lengthy, critical, well-written and well -organised reviews by both
established and younger experts, most of them British or American. The
chapters are well integrated by cross-referencing and all authors use the
.
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