THERMOREGULATION AND BIOENERGETICS

What a beautiful book this is. It is expensive, but this quality of publication could never be cheap and the occasion, the centenary of Golgi's 'black reaction', is a proper occasion for celebration. The book is a record of a symposium held in Pavia and Milan in 1973 with additional invited papers. Perhaps this was not a good idea as the weakness of the book is that by attempting to cover the full field of integrative activities of neurones, it may have less appeal (on grounds of cost) to the specialist in neuroanatomy, who would otherwise treasure the first part. The Golgi commemoration chapters on the technical breakthrough which Golgi started with his silver nitrate staining of chromate-hardened brain tissue are excellent, and the later papers linking the method with ultramicroscopic methods are extremely interesting. The 61 papers are grouped under the following additional headings which indicate the scope of the book: geometry of the neurone (with interesting accounts of computer analysis of Golgi-impregnated neurones which can be manipulated to view the spatial distribution from any aspect); interneuronal organization; electronic neuronal couplings; chemical neuronal couplings; both types of couplings in sensory systems; perspectives of neurobiology; as an appendix some of Golgi's classical papers are translated, and some historical data provided. The book is not confined to the Golgi technique but includes the exciting new fluorescence methods for analysing the type of transmitter released by certain central neurones, and the freeze-etching method which promises to disclose the geometrical correlates of membrane and synaptic function. A short review can only indicate the general nature of the papers. Any reader requiring a broad survey of this lively area of neurobiology must read every paper with care. This is a book to return to again and again. the regulation of body temperature of small animals , and this book is an excellent record of his views on the metabolic mechanisms involved in thermoregulation, particularly in hybernation. The introductory chapters are devoted to a discussion of metabolic rate. Changes which occur in poikilo-thermia, hypothermia, and hybernation in the animal kingdom are then considered. Discussion in relation to man is limited, and is only included as an aspect of homeostasis as Professor Swan presents an overall picture of thermoregulation. The book is beautifully produced, and the author is to be congratulated upon the way in which he has included pertinent and sometimes amusing quotations, not only …