Jenkins, John B.

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Swarthmore College Works Biology Faculty Works Biology 12-1-1979 Review Of "Case Studies In Genetics" By M. A. Tribe, I. Tallan, And M. R. Eraut John B. Jenkins Swarthmore College, jjenkin1@swarthmore.edu This work is brought to you for free and open access by . It has been accepted for inclusion in Biology Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact myworks@swarthmore.edu. Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-biology  Part of the Biology Commons, and the Genetics Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits you  Recommended Citation John B. Jenkins. (1979). "Review Of "Case Studies In Genetics" By M. A. Tribe, I. Tallan, And M. R. Eraut". Quarterly Review Of Biology. Volume 54, Issue 4. 451-452. DOI: 10.1086/411491 https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-biology/464   The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Quarterly Review of Biology.http://www.jstor.orgReview Author(s): John B. Jenkins Review by: John B. Jenkins Source:   The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Dec., 1979), pp. 451-452Published by:  The University of Chicago PressStable URL:  http://www.jstor.org/stable/2824474Accessed: 22-03-2016 20:21 UTCYour use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jspJSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.This content downloaded from 130.58.65.20 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 20:21:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 130.58.65.20 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 20:21:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 452 THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY [VOLUME 54 clearly in the former camp. It contains 229 questions, all of which deal with eukaryote cells. These questions are distributed around 10 case studies: Beadle and Tatum's Neurospora work; PTC tasting; phenyl- ketonuria; hemophilia; human blood groups; Stern's recombination work; sickle cell anemia; industrial melanism; polyploidy in wheat; and the genetics of IQ. If these topics seem familiar to you, it is because they are all found in every modern genetics book. One finds nothing unique in this book, either in the topics cov- ered or the questions asked. Two previous books in the series are assumed to lay the groundwork for this one. Book 3 (Dynamic Aspects of Cells) covered meiosis and mitosis; Book 9 (Protein Syn- thesis) discussed DNA as the genetic material and the "central dogma." Thus these three books form a core. But it is a hollow core. Missing are important genetic advances in prokaryote transmission genetics, devel- opmental genetics, and modern molecular genetics. It is a core that leads the student through hundreds of problems (many of them trivial) but does not give the student a well-articulated framework for organizing fundamental genetic principles. It is a core that, on its own, simply does not meet the needs of a modern genetics course. A well-written, up-to-date genetics textbook remains the most effective supplement in the classroom. These programmed texts are inadequate. JOHN B. JENKINS, Biology, Swarthmore College HUMAN GENETICS. A Selection of Insights. Benchmark Papers in Genetics, Volume 10. A Benchmark Books Series. Edited by William J. Schull and Ranajit Chakraborty; Series Editor: David L. Jameson. Dowden, Hutchinson & Ross, Stroudsburg (Pennsylvania); distributed by Aca- demic Press, New York. $30.00. xv + 361 p.; ill.; author citation and subject indexes. 1979. The making of volumes containing selected classic papers in the biological sciences has become almost an industry. Yet when the product is as well selected and introduced as this one, we must feel entirely grateful. The contents are divided into three parts: Formal Genetics of Man, 10 papers; Genes, Chromosomes, and Disease, 10 papers; and Man's Genetic Variabil- ity: Existence and Maintenance, 6 papers. The selec- tions are confined to the twentieth century, although the valuable Editors' Comments at the beginning pro- vide a deeper historical background. The papers within each group are not arranged chronologically, but follow a certain logical order of substance. Part One includes Garrod; Bateson and Saunders; Farabee; Epstein and Ottenberg; Landsteiner and Levine; Levit; Macklin; Morton and Chung; Ed- wards; and Haldane. Part Two includes Lejeune, Gautier, and Turpin; Carr, Weiss, and Green; Krooth and Weinberg; Seegmiller, Rosenbloom, and Kelly; Garrod; Pauling, Itano, Singer, and Wells; Cori and Cori; Levine, Burnham, Katzin, and Vogel; and Pen- rose. Part Three contains papers of Haldane; Ford; Haldane again; Hirschfeld and Hirschfeld; Allison; and Harris. So well known are these "classics" that indeed the mere naming of the authors is sufficient to indicate the particular papers to any worker in human genetics. Nevertheless, since the original sources are scattered in no less than 19 different journals or other sources, it is highly unlikely that most geneticists will have the papers readily available to them. The major value of the volume is, however, not the mere convenience provided, but rather the unusually illuminating comrnents by the editors before each part and in an epilogue. Perhaps everyone will ex- perience a sense of loss at the exclusion of some favorite "classic" of their own; but the editors make a very good case for their individual preferences and provide a good historical basis for evaluating the influence of the papers they have selected. BENTLEY GLASS, Editor MEDICAL GENETIC STUDIES OF THE AMISH: SELECTED PAPERS. Assembled, with Commentary, by Victor A. McKusick. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore (Maryland). $27.50. x + 525 p.; ill.; author index. 1978. This volume is a real treasure trove for anyone who is interested in human genetics, population genetics, medical genetics, or the social biology of a human religious isolate. The papers have all been published previously, but in scattered places. The present collec- tion must be a virtually complete current representa- tion. The editor, who of course is an author of many of these articles, since he pioneered in genetic studies of the Amish in Pennsylvania, has supplied a Preface and a brief commentary on each article. There is also a series of short biographical notes on each of the authors of articles in the collection. The papers fall into a number of categories; background, one; de- mography, one; population genetics, five, studies of previously known Mendelian disorders, eighteen; "new" Mendelian entities, eighteen; immunogenetic studies, four; chromosomal variations and aberra- tions, three; common disorders, five; epilogue; and appendix. McKusick himself is listed as an author of no less than twenty articles of the total, an indication of his outstanding place in this kind of human biol- ogy. BENTLEY GLASS, Editor ORIGINS OF INBRED MICE. Workshop held in Bethesda (Maryland) February 14-16, 1978. Edited by Herbert C. Morse III. Academic Press, New York. $36.00. xvi + 719 p.; ill.; index. 1978. "Guinea pig" will perhaps forever remain enshrined in the English language as a synonym of "experimental animal," but in the laboratory the guinea pig has long been supplanted by the mouse. The economic advan-This content downloaded from 130.58.65.20 on Tue, 22 Mar 2016 20:21:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Review Of  Case Studies In Genetics  By M. A. Tribe, I. Tallan, And M. R. Eraut

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Review Of Case Studies In Genetics By M. A. Tribe, I. Tallan, And M. R. Eraut

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