Sex Differentiation and Development

The latest memoir of the Society for Endocrinology presents the papers and discussions of a 1958 symposium on selected aspects of comparative and human sex morphology. It is gratifying that discussions of bacteria and invertebrate forms are included. Several authors examine the important question of genetic and hormonal controls of sex differentiation. The possibility of regulating the sex ratio at conception is considered, and so are the origin and grafting of ovarian germ cells and endocrine tissue, nuclear chromatin, failure of normal sexual differentiation, secondary manifestations of sexuality and other important topics. As is not unusual in a rapidly developing field, terminology occasionally presents a problem. (A separate conference essaying to standardize confused terms in the field of reproduction could be really valuable-conference organizers please take note!) Discussions of the papers, bibliographies, and an adequate index are included. Printing and binding are good. Naturally no single symposium can include reviews of all aspects of such a broad topic. The papers which were presented, however, are authoritative, clear, and useful. THOMAS R. FORBES