Essentials of Human Embryology.

Abstract

In their preface of this new textbook the authors state that they "felt the need for a book that imparts the essentials without taxing the students much".A worthy aim, particularly when the subject is the complex and rapidly expanding science of embryology!A tremendous amount of material has been packed into the 192 pages of text.After an intro- ductory chapter which is largely devoted to a historical review, there are fairly detailed chapters on gametogenesis and early embryonic development, the placenta and fetal membranes, basic developmental processes, teratogenesis and twinning, fetal growth and the 'milestones of embryonic development'.Following these, there are chapters on the normal and abnormal development of individual organs.Next there are three appendices.The first is a glossary, defining some 77 terms and explaining their etymology.The second contains short biographical notes on celebrated embryologists (all, strangely, belonging to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries).The final appendix entitled 'Development at a Glance' consists of 16 pages of lists and highly condensed descriptions of developmental events.Although the product of three authors, the text is surprisingly uniform in style: throughout the emphasis is on the communication of factual information with the minimum of space devoted to explanation or discussion.There are some astonishing omissions.For example, I found no mention of the menstrual cycle, the corpus luteum, sex chromosomes, pituitary gonadotrophins, prostaglandins, the development of lung alveoli, haemopoiesis, parafollicular cells of the thyroid gland or skull fontanelles.The illustrations are mainly simple line diagrams; most are extensively labelled.Overall, this book resembles the old-fashioned examination crammer.I feel that the average undergraduate would find it difficult reading.