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Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31380, 27 May 1967, Page 4

HOW MAN DISCOVERED HIS BODY, by Sarah R. Reidman (Abelard-Schuman, 218 pp. plug an index), is an accurate and up-to-date account of the history of physiology, directed at Secondary and upper Primary school pupils. The data is simply yet vividly presented, and is built around the discoveries of great men —the American army doctor Beaumont who observed the stomach’s workings through a permanent hole in an accident victim’s abdomen; Sanetorius the Italian professor who spent a good part of his life sitting on huge scales studying food intake and the energy cycle; Pavlov with his dogs, and many often. A surprising omission from this galaxy is the geneticist, Mendel, but much of his findings are included in the chapter on Heredity, which deals with Crick and Watson’s recent revolutionary work on the interlocking spirals of the genetic chemical D.N.A. The text is well illustrated with photographs and black and white drawings by Frances Wells.