Osmotic and Ionic Regulation in Animals

preparation. Moreover, the strangeness of modern algebra is likely to wear off rapidly in the years ahead. Some of the contents of the first chapter, which is on set theory, are already included in the curriculum of grade schools, the earliest introduction often being made at the kindergarten level. For this and other reasons biologists should take the book seriously. This book is an excellent reference for workers in invertebrate ionic and osmotic regulation, and an excellent introduction on vertebrates and the biophysical bases of ionic and osmotic regulation in general. The authors are well qualified to write a book such as this since their own research covers a wide spectrum. They have done particularly well with the invertebrates in synthesizing an immense literature on osmotic and ionic regulation. They illustrate the historical development of concepts by well chosen examples from many diverse animal types. They show that the technological revolution in the use of radioisotopes and microchemical analysis has led to the evolution of the views of ionic and osmotic regulation through a steady state concept of a balance between excretion, secretion, evaporation, and ingestion to a homeostatic concept involving hormonal and nervous control of specific transport systems. This book is invaluable for its most thorough coverage of regulation by invertebrates for, unlike the case of vertebrates, the data are relatively new and are not available in summary form, much less as critically reviewed by the authors of this book. More could have been done with the conceptual basis of osmotic and ionic control had this chapter followed the introductory chapter on bio-physical concepts so that, as with biophysical concepts, the concepts of control could have been integrated into the discussions of data in subsequent chapters. I recommend reading Chapters 1, 8, and 9 first, which enables the reader to integrate the conceptual material with the data discussed, the value of which is seen in the authors' critical application by biophysical approaches to the data. For example, they frequently point out the danger of invoking mechanisms of ion movement when membrane potentials are unknown. Omitted entirely is a discussion of cell membrane structure in general and of cells of excretory organs in particular. (An unfortunate choice of terms is made in using "cell wall" to distinguish the bounding cell membrane from intracellular membranes). Much is known from permeability and EM studies and the outlines of this knowledge seem to …