The last decade has seen remarkable advances in human ge netics. Once the correct chromosome number of the human genome was ascertained, a wide variety of diseases was rec ognized as due to numerical chromosome anomalies. There followed the discovery that spontaneous abortions are the result of chromosome errors, and specific band patterns of chromosomes allowed identification of minute lesions. The techniques of cell hybridization now allow specific gene assign ment to chromosomes and even to distinct loci on their arms. All this was possible because of the ease with which metaphase chromosomes can be obtained and manipulated. The much older technique of analysis of meiotic chromosomes has taken a back seat in this exciting era. Being much less readily accessi ble, spermatogonial analysis is much less frequently under taken and is less successful. Even more difficult for study is the female meiotic process. Not only is meiosis extraordinar ily long, spanning from before birth to ovulation, the tech niques for its study and the patience required for detailed inquiry have been significant obstacles. At the same time, the suspicion that female meiotic analysis should not only be rewarding but that it may be mandatory has been with us ever since it was recognized that a positive correlation exists between chromosomal nondisjunction and maternal age. Before the intricacies of chromosomal behavior that are re sponsible for nondisjunction are understood, however, it is necessary that we comprehend the normalcy of the process.

Periodically in the evolution of an important branch of clinical medicine there develops a critical need for a textbook which combines with the clinical aspects of disease syndromes an in-depth review of the sciences basic to the disorders discussed, as well as a carefully selected but com prehensive review of pertinent literature. LABHART'S Clinical Endo crinology revised and translated into English provides for this need in the field of endocrinology in an exemplary manner. Prof. LABHART has selected his individual authors with great care, and they in turn have provided authoritative monographs. An interesting, useful and informative introduction to each chapter is provided by a tabulation of the dates of important or significant contributions to the field. The chapter subdivisions present in great detail a wide variety of subjects such as embryology, anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, indi vidual hormones and their analogues, biosynthesis, metabolism and regulation of hormone release as well as a full discussion of the clinico pathological correlations. The bibliography is unusually extensive and will provide an important source book for all investigators and students in the field.

Examines 2 different and often opposing worlds of in vitro fertilization: the public's political, legal and ethical concerns surrounding the technique, and the personal, pragmatic world of the individual patients who come to the centers seeding a cure for infertility. This book provides a objective analysis which answers many perplexing questions.