The purpose of this book is twofold: it is meant to serve both as a practical manual for the study of animal development and as a general introduction to the subject. Central to our enยญ deavour is the belief that developmental biology is best taught and learnt at the laboratory bench, with specimens which are either alive and can be seen to develop or with fresh material derived directly from the egg (as in birds) or mother (as in mammals). Once the dynamic nature of development is appreciยญ ated and the overall structure of the developing organism discerned the more conventional study of sections and whole mounts is more likely to become a delight rather than a diffiยญ cult, and often meaningless, chore. We have laid considerable stress on the early development of animal embryos and the ways in which they can be obtained from a relatively few, but reliable, sources. In addition, emphasis has been placed on fairly simple experiments which make use of the embryos and larvae chosen for the purpose of illustrating developยญ ment. Embryology ceased to be a descriptive science at the beginning of this century and any practical course, at whatยญ ever level, should attempt to reflect this change. It is true that the analysis of development, particularly the genesis of chorยญ date structure, owed much to the invention of the microtome
CONTENT
1 General Requirements -- Animals -- Legal considerations -- The laboratory -- Equipment -- Sources of information -- References -- 2 Echinoderms and Ascidians -- Echinoderms -- Ascidians -- References -- 3 Molluscs, Annelids and Nematodes -- Molluscs -- Annelids -- Nematodes -- References -- 4 Insects and Crustacea -- The Locust -- Calliphora -- Drosophila -- Crustacea -- References -- 5 Fish -- Goldfish -- Killifish -- Guppies -- Artificial fertilization -- Experimental Work on Fish Embryos -- References -- 6 Amphibia -- Xenopus -- Axolotls -- Experiments on Amphibian Embryos -- Experiments on amphibian larvae -- References -- 7 Birds -- Examination of the early chick blastoderm -- Culture of chick blastoderms -- Removal and culture of the blastoderm -- Preparation of chorio-allantoic grafts -- References -- 8 Mammals -- The oestrous cycle in the mouse -- Preparation of vaginal smears -- Examination of unfertilized ova from superovulated mice -- Reproductive system of the male mouse -- Examination of mouse embryos up to and including the blastocyst stage -- Arrangement of the foetal membranes in the rabbit and localization of immunoglobulin in the yolk sac splanchnopleur -- References
