Book - The Eggs of Mammals (1936)
The Eggs of Mammals
By Gregory Pincus
Assistant Professor of General Physiology Harvard University
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1936
Published, August, 1936
This Book Is Dedicated to W. E. Castle and W. J. Crazier
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The Origin of the Definitive Ova
- The Growth of the Ovum
- The Development and Atresia of Full-Grown Ova and the Problem of Ovarian Parthenogenesis
- Methods Employed in the Experimental Manipulation of Mammalian Ova
- The Tubal History of Unfertilized Eggs
- Fertilization and Cleavage
- The Activation of Unfertilized Eggs
- The Growth and Implantation of the Blastodermic Vesicle
- Summary and Recapitulation
- Bibliography
Preface
I should like to express my appreciation to Dr. J. B. Collip, Dr. H. Selye, Dr. D. L. Thomson, and Dr. W. J. Crozier for their kindness in reading the manuscript of this book before publication. Their comments have been taken advantage of in a manner for which I, not they, am responsible. I am indebted too to Dr. F. H. A. Marshall and Mr. John Hammond of Cambridge University for encouragement and interest which led to the undertaking of this monograph, and to my friend and collaborator Dr. E. V. Enzmann who actively assisted in a number of the investigations herein described. The National Research Council Committee for Problems of Sex and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation provided grants making possible most of my own work, and the preparation of the monograph itself is due in no small measure to their assistance. To the editors and publishers of the following journals I am indebted for permission to reprint the various tables and figures indicated in the text: the American Journal of Anatomy, the American Journal of Physiology, the Anatomical Record, Archives de Biologic, the Biological Bulletin, the Carnegie Institution of Washington Publications in Embryology, the Journal of Anatomy, the Journal of Experimental Biology, the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the Journal of Experimental Zoology, the Journal of Morphology, the Quarterly Review of Biology, and the Proceedings of the Royal Society.
I ask the understanding of the reader if this account of the development of mammalian eggs seems at times to deal in summary fashion with some of the voluminous literature on this subject. The investigative aspects are what interest and intrigue me. I emerge confessedly with the impression that at best a qualitative basis for future work has been estabhshed, and since I am possessed by the belief that accurate quantitative observatioDs afford the means for elucidating the nature of biological processes, I feel that this is a book of interrogation, not explanation. If it does indeed create curiosity its major objective will be attained.
Gregory Pincus
Cambridge, Mass. July, 1936.
