Abstract
THE new section of Abderhalden's invaluable “Handbuch der biologischen Arbeitsmethoden “contains a very useful resume of methods for the study of digestive secretions in the lower forms, an account of the technique of gonadectomy and transplantation of germinal tissue in insects, together with a rather longer review of experimental procedure in the study of pigmentary responses. This section, by Diirken, suffers, like the author's recent “Einfiihrung in die Experimentalzoologie” (1919), from a complete disregard of the large volume of experimental work on amphibian metamorphosis and the illuminating observations on colour response which have emerged from it during the past eight years; consequently it deals exclusively with methods for studying factors which induce pigmentary responses rather than the mechanism which co-ordinates them. Perhaps it is inevitable that such omissions should occur owing to the economic handicaps under which scientific workers are pursuing their labours in Central Europe at the present time. Still, it is difficult to believe that the author of the “Methoden zum Studium des Pigment-wechsels “had no opportunities of consulting the extremely important work of Spaeth, Redfield, Smith, Allen, Laurens, and Swingle, none of whom is mentioned in his survey, though there have been since 1918 few numbers of the Journal of Experimental Zoology which do not contain some contribution to the physiology of pigment response in amphibia, reptiles, or fishes.
Handbuch der biologischen Arbeitsmethoden.
Herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Emil Abderhalden. Abt. IX: Methoden zur Erforschung der Leistungen der tierischen Organismus. Teil 4, Heft 1: Methoden der Erforschung bestimmter Funktionen bei einzelnen Tierarten. Lieferung 76. Pp. 122. (Berlin und Wien: Urban und Schwarzenberg, 1922.) Grundzahl: 4.8 marks.
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[Book Reviews]. Nature 111, 530 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/111530a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/111530a0