Digital Books

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https://hdl.handle.net/1912/2

This collection is an assortment of manuals and texts reproduced by the MBLWHOI Library with permission of the copyright owners.

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Browsing Digital Books by Subject "Embryology"
  • Book
    The development of the frog's egg : an introduction to experimental embryology
    (Macmillan Company, 1897) Morgan, Thomas Hunt
    From the Preface: The development of the frog's egg was first made known through the studies of Swammerdam, Spallanzani, Rusconi, and von Baer. Their work laid the basis for all later research. More recently the experiments of Pfluger and of Roux on this egg have turned the attention of embryologists to the study of development from an experimental standpoint. Owing to the ease with which the frog's egg can be obtained, and its tenacity of life in a confined space, as well as its suitability for experimental work, it is an admirable subject with which to begin the study of vertebrate development. In the following pages an attempt is made to bring together the most important results of studies of the development of the frog's egg. I have attempted to give a continuous account of the development, as far as that is possible, from the time when the egg is forming to the moment when the young tadpole issues from the jelly-membranes. Especial weight has been laid on the results of experimental work, in the belief that the evidence from this source is the most instructive for an interpretation of the development. The evidence from the study of the normal development has, however, not been neglected, and wherever it has been possible I have attempted to combine the results of experiment and of observation, with the hope of more fully elucidating the changes that take place. Occasionally departures have been made from the immediate subject in hand in order to consider the results of other work having a close bearing on the problem under discussion. I have done this in the hope of pointing out more definite conclusions than could be drawn from the evidence of the frog's egg alone.
  • Book
    The embryology of Crepidula : a contribution to the cell lineage and early development of some marine gasteropods
    (Ginn & Company, 1897) Conklin, Edwin Grant
    From the introduction: The purpose of the following work from its inception has been to make as careful a study as possible of the cleavage of the ovum, the formation of the germinal layers and definitive organs, and the axial relations of the ovum to the larval and adult axes. At the time when this work was begun, several years ago, scarcely any attempts had been made to trace the history of individual blastomeres through the entire development to the formation of definitive organs. The early stages of cleavage had received a great deal of attention, but the later stages had been largely neglected; and although the origin and homology of the germ layers was perhaps the most frequently discussed subject in embryology, yet the relation of these layers to the individual blastomeres of the cleaving ovum had been determined in comparatively few cases. Since that time a number of very valuable papers have appeared on this subject of “cell lineage,” as Wilson (‘92) has aptly termed it. The results of such work are no longer as novel as they were four or five years ago, and yet the general interest in the subject has greatly increased, and that, too, in spite of the fact that there is a growing school of biologists who believe that individual blastomeres have no necessary relation to future organs. The subject of germ layers is no longer so important as it was once considered; in fact, the theory of the homology of the germinal layers has met with so many difficulties of late that it is now generally maintained only in a greatly modified form. However, the fundamental idea which was prominent in germ-layer discussions is of vital interest to-day. In the whole history of the germ-layer theories I see an attempt to trace homologies back to their earliest beginnings. This problem is as important to-day as it ever was, and whether one find these earliest homologies in layers or regions or blastomeres or the unsegmented ovum itself, the quest is essentially the same.
  • Book
    Methods for obtaining and handling marine eggs and embryos
    (Marine Biological Laboratory, 1971) Costello, Donald P. ; Henley, Catherine
    From the Preface: The Introduction to the first edition of this book (1957) (see page viii) stated that the volume was admittedly incomplete, and that new methods for obtaining, handling and studying marine eggs and embryos would undoubtedly be forthcoming. This prediction has been abundantly borne out in the intervening 14 years, and a complete revision of the book is clearly called for. A major re-writing is now (June, 1971) in progress. However, steadily continuing sales have resulted in the first edition going out of print, and it seemed advisable to re-issue it, with certain minor changes, as a stopgap measure, pending the major re-writing in progress. In the interim, it is appropriate here to point out some of the newer sources of information now available, and to note a few of the advances which have been made since 1957.