sexual isolating mechanisms, and cytology of the 10species and subspecies of this group. A final chapteroII coImiparisons and coinelusions relates the Drosophilastudies to those on other organisimis and to the broadfield of evolution.The publishers are to be commended for and com-

pliiniented on the excellent reproduction of the manyfigures, and the almost total abseince of typographicalerrors. This book will serve as a necessary handbookfor research students, a mine of miiaterial for the writ-ers of texts and other treatises, and a fascinating andauthoritative exposition of the Drosophila story forall those interested in animal evolution.

WARREN P. SPE-NCERDepartment of Biology, College of Wooster

The Tropical Rain Forest: An Ecological Study.P. W. Richards. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press,1952. 450 pp. Illus. $12.50.This comprehensive and scholarly study of the trop-

ical raiin forest has so great a variety of data that thisreview can do little more than whet the appetite ofthe botanist, plant ecologist, forester, geographer,tropical agriculturalist, and others. So far as this re-viewer is aware, this volume is the first miiajor con-tribution dealing with the botany and plant ecology ofthe rainy tropical forest since Schimnper's Planit Ge-ography (1898, 1903, 1935).

The rainy tropics are demanding increasing atten-tion over much of the world. Our general ignorainee ofthese areas has been colossal and inexcusable. Eventhe average educated person does not realize that thisnonseasonal tropieal rain forest comprises about halfthe world's forest area. Nor does he know that manhas been so destructive of this forest that, unless healters his ways very soon, he may destroy it withiina lifetime. Most people believe that the tropical rainforest remains in its pristine condition and that asyet man has scarcely made a dent in it.A few high spots that should prove interesting to

anyone with intellectual curiosity about the wet tropicsand their flora are:

1. There is no pure stand: if the traveler notices aparticular species of tsree and wishes to find more like it,he may often turn his eves in vain in every direction.

2. The forest is often two- and three-storied.3. It is not difficult to peiletrate the forest except on

riverbanks or clearings. (A photograph is used to showthis.) It is the slippery clay soil and the abundance offallen logs and branches which make progress in theforest slow and laborious, rather than the thickness ofthe vegetation.

4. The structure of the forest on a riverbank is alwaysdifferent from that in the interior.

5. When trees are being felled, a large tree is often sostrongly bound to its neighbors by lianas that even whencut at the base it will not fall.

6. The common idea that a thick layer of litter ischaracteristic of the rainy tropical forest is completelyfallacious.

7. The tropical rain forest is not important as asource of timber despite the fact that it is the only

source of suchIwoo(Is as greeiiheart anid several kinds ofmahogany. This results from the fact that the greaterpart of the world demand for timber is for coniferoussoftwoods, which are usually absent in the tropical low-land.

8. In all probability the great "open" savannas ofthe world (e.g., the llanos of northern South Amierica)represent biotic climaxes that are usually due to fire oredaphic climaxes caused by soil conditions unfavorableto trees. It is doubtful whether aniy tropical grasslandis a true climatic climax.

This reviewer strongly recomienids the book to allthose with a scientific or econioic initer'est in the rainytropics. There are somne omllissioIns, to be sure; pr'ob-ably the most serious was the author's decision to skipover man's economic relation to the tropical rain for-est. (He did nlot live up to his decision altogether,however.)The author adiits shorteomiiings, admits eveni that

the science of ecology is not yet ripe for a rigid the-oretical framework. Although criticizing the broadgeneralizations of Sehimuper, he states that, in the pres-ent state of our kniowledge, it is iinpossible to put intheir place any clear or definite conclusions.

The Tropical Rain Forest contains many photo-raphs, which are not only clearly reproduced but telltheir story well. There are also several good maps, alarge niumiiber of drawings, charts, and tables. Thereare an excellent bibliography in miiany languages, anindex to plant namiies, and a general index.

C. LANGDON WHITEDepart inent of Geography, Stanford University

Theoretische Biologie: Stoffwechsel, Wachstum,Vol. II. 2nd ed. Ludwig von Bertalanffy. Bern: A.Franeke, 1951. 418 pp. 43.50 Sw. fr.; bound 47.50Sw. fr.Biologists generally will welcomne this new edition

of the volumie on physiology and growth in von Ber-talanify's well-known treatise. Like the first edition,this one covers a truly prodigious amount of miiaterial.It can be coinpared only with such works as Needham'sBiochemistry anid Morphogenesis, or D'Arey Thomp-son's On Growth and Form.

The section on physiology, which constitutes thefirst two thirds of the book, is heavily, and quite prop-erly, biochemical in emphasis-although there are longchapters on physical and physico-chemical aspects ofliving things. The text has been brought up to date bythe inclusion of new results in many different areas.The Cori entymes, phosphorylation, and the Krebseyele are discussed, as is the work of Caspersson andBrachet on nucleic acids, of Darlington, Wright, andothers on plasmagenes, of Pauling on antibody forma-tion, of Horowitz, Beadle, and others on gene-con-trolled biochenlical syntheses in Neurospora, of numer-ous investigators on the mechanism of photosynthesis,and the clinical importance of ACTH-the list couldbe extended indefinitely.As is inevitable in a single volumtie covering suchl a

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