PREFACE
This series of volumes aims to present to biologists and other interested scientific readers a series of reviews that will be comprehensive in
scope and provide perspective in viewing the growth of the biological
sciences. The first two volumes, under the able editorship of George S.
Avery, Jr., touched on teaching problems in present-day biology. Principles common to all biology were examined in areas such as those
dealing with the nature of genes and of gene action, the effects of
radiation on biological systems, and the fine structure of protoplasm.
New developments of methodology—tracer methods, histochemical
methods, and methods of breeding disease-resistant vegetables—were
described. Broad aspects of growth and development, as seen in plant
morphogenesis, plant growth hormones, the physiology of plant reproduction, vertebrate development, and the control of hormones over sex
differentiation in animals, were prominently considered. Other reviews
had to do with the bearing of nutritional factors on reproduction and
of environmental factors on the vitamin content of plants; with ecological studies of populations and biological oceanography; and with virus
tumors. In succeeding volumes it is hoped that an even broader scope
may be encompassed, even greater perspective afforded.
At the present time, in historical treatments of biology, there is a
curious gap between the chronological point at which historians almost
universally conclude their accounts, at about the opening of the present
century, and the point at which a young student of the field finds himself at the beginning of his specialized work. The concepts now current
and the methodology now applied are often separated by a chasm of
no little breadth and depth from the "classical" concepts and methods
of biology at the turn of the century. Somehow this chasm must be
bridged, if our student is to perceive his whereabouts and to handle
his conceptual armamentarium with skill. To bridge the chasm at
numerous points will be the undertaking of a series of articles, to
appear in successive volumes, each in one major experimental branch
of biology. The first of these is the opening review in the present volume,
an article by Jane Oppenheimer, which ably traces the growth and
transformation of significant embryological concepts in the twentieth
century.
Another signal need for the general student is the analysis of trends
in various fields of biology currently undergoing strong modifications
This series of volumes aims to present to biologists and other interested scientific readers a series of reviews that will be comprehensive in
scope and provide perspective in viewing the growth of the biological
sciences. The first two volumes, under the able editorship of George S.
Avery, Jr., touched on teaching problems in present-day biology. Principles common to all biology were examined in areas such as those
dealing with the nature of genes and of gene action, the effects of
radiation on biological systems, and the fine structure of protoplasm.
New developments of methodology—tracer methods, histochemical
methods, and methods of breeding disease-resistant vegetables—were
described. Broad aspects of growth and development, as seen in plant
morphogenesis, plant growth hormones, the physiology of plant reproduction, vertebrate development, and the control of hormones over sex
differentiation in animals, were prominently considered. Other reviews
had to do with the bearing of nutritional factors on reproduction and
of environmental factors on the vitamin content of plants; with ecological studies of populations and biological oceanography; and with virus
tumors. In succeeding volumes it is hoped that an even broader scope
may be encompassed, even greater perspective afforded.
At the present time, in historical treatments of biology, there is a
curious gap between the chronological point at which historians almost
universally conclude their accounts, at about the opening of the present
century, and the point at which a young student of the field finds himself at the beginning of his specialized work. The concepts now current
and the methodology now applied are often separated by a chasm of
no little breadth and depth from the "classical" concepts and methods
of biology at the turn of the century. Somehow this chasm must be
bridged, if our student is to perceive his whereabouts and to handle
his conceptual armamentarium with skill. To bridge the chasm at
numerous points will be the undertaking of a series of articles, to
appear in successive volumes, each in one major experimental branch
of biology. The first of these is the opening review in the present volume,
an article by Jane Oppenheimer, which ably traces the growth and
transformation of significant embryological concepts in the twentieth
century.
Another signal need for the general student is the analysis of trends
in various fields of biology currently undergoing strong modifications