Pediatric Gynecology

is devoted to factors which might have a deleterious effect upon apparently normal spermatozoa, with chapters on spermigration in the female secretions, special technics in spermatozoal study, the longevity of spermatozoa in vivo, the effect of temperature on the survival of spermatozoa in vitro, and abnormalities in the female which inhibit impregnation. There is a discussion of artificial insemination, including selection of a donor, the technic of artificial insemination, medicolegal aspects, and proof of fertilization. The several contraceptive technics are reviewed and given an evaluation. Certain factors contributing to azoospermia, oligospermia and necrospermia are reviewed, and a few therapeutic measures are discussed. The book is concluded with a discussion of "theoretical" factors in fertility and sterility and in the control of sex, with a final chapter entitled "Looking forward: Some unknown factors in the evaluation of spermatozoa." In many ways this is an unsatisfactory book, doubtless due to its reflecting the highly inexact and unsatisfactory state of information on this important subject. Some aspects are given a treatment which seems extremely uncritical; but this sort of treatment is, in this instance, perhaps more effective in emphasizing the inadequacies of present information than would be a criticism labelled as such. CHARLES W. HOOKER.