Experimental Embryology

Abstract

UNTIL quite recently, experimental methods in zoology were restricted to comparatively isolated fields of research and there seemed little prospect of their application to problems of general interest. For half a century the concepts of phylogenetic morphology not only maintained their own intrinsic interest but also were the source of peculiarly sound and fruitful work. To-day, however, the situation is more uncertain. There seems to be a tendency to regard morphology as a science the days of which are over, and to regard experiment as a more vigorous and hopeful source of zoological discovery. Almost at the opening of his career, a zoologist is faced with alternative points of view: Is it more fruitful to look upon organisms as a series of evolutionary and morphological units, or as dynamic systems the changes of which are themselves clues to their origin and behaviour?

Experimental Embryology.

By Prof. T. H. Morgan. Pp. xi + 766. (New York: Columbia University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1927.) 37s. 6d. net.