From a review of an earlier volume: 'Both the experimental and the human aspects of teratology are presented in this comprehensive text by a stellar group of internationally recognized scientists and clinicians....A valuable resource for those concerned with experimental teratology and risk assessment and those requiring general information about the causes of birth defects. The treatment of these issues is sophisticated, succinct, and logical.'-American Scientist

''A valuable resource for those concerned with experimental teratology and risk assessment and those requiring general information about the causes of birth defects. The treatment of these issues is sophisticated, succinct, and logical.'' --- American Scientist, from a review of a previous volume The current volume covers intergenerational factors in pregnancy outcome, the thresholds for developmental toxicants, and four other subjects.

Each new volume of this publication brings the privilege of expressing some of my thoughts on subjects of interest to its readers. In the past year or so public concern about environmental and societal dangers has largely turned to those of cosmic proportion-Chernobyl, the thinning ozone layer, AIDS, and the like-and thankfully our subject matter has been allowed a respite. Even the miniepidemic of craniofacial and other malformations caused by the retinoid antiacne drug Accutane made no headlines. Incidentally, this might have been a tragedy of far greater proportions had it not been nipped in the bud by the historical ground work that quickly permitted it to be recognized as due to an environ mental teratogen-the sort of fact the public and authorities inadequately appreciate. But there is a warning connected with this abeyance of media focus on teratological matters. Disquiet over cosmic imbalances will sub side as they are corrected or horrendous projections fail to materialize, and even cures for dread infectious diseases, or Puritan revolution in terdicting such plagues, will be forthcoming, and these things will occur long before congenital malformations are no more. And as the year-in and year-out recurrence of over 100,000 an nual births of seriously malformed infants in the United States alone continues to force itself on the public consciousness, we can expect a heightened demand that "a cure" be found, because "if we can land a man on the moon, if we can prevent polio, why can't we . . ."

Why Efforts to Expand the Meaning of "Teratogen" Are Unacceptable Disagreement about nomenclature in teratology is not new. Dissent even about the very fabric of the discipline-what congenital malformations consist of-has often been voiced. Time, instead of resolving such diffi culties, has sometimes worsened them. For example, in the past it was agreed that congenital malforma tions are abnormalities of structure present at birth, but differences of opinion concerning where the line between normal and abnormal was to be drawn prevailed. It was obvious that, in order to discover the causes of congenital malformations and cast strategies for their prevention, it would be necessary to have knowledge of the baseline of their frequency, and that this required uniformity of definition of terms. Since malfor mations of primary social concern are those having grave outcomes (and are, paradoxically, also the commonest ones), it is logical that such condi tions were the first consideration of investigators and were the defects whose frequency was considered to comprise the required baseline.

This book is an an up-to-date survey and summary of present knowledge and future expectations regarding the environmental causes of congenital malformations in human beings, beginning with the earliest discoveries of the 20th century up to the latest ideas and problems at its end, presents views and comments on the progress made over the century in understanding human prenatal maldevelopment.

Teratoserendipity (D. Smithells). In Utero Exposure to Carbamazepine: Effects on the Fetus (E. Robert, B. Kallen). Mild Errors of Morphogenesis: One of the Most Controversial Subjects in Dysmorphology (P. Merlob). Marjorie Maxine Nelson, 19091962: An Appreciation (I.W. Monie). Teratogen Information Services: A Novel Opportunity in Clinical Teratology (G. Koren, A. Pastuszak). Recurrent (Habitual) Abortions: Incidence, Etiology and Possible Prevention (A. Ornoy, R. Abir). Prenatal Growth and Postnatal Development (J.A. Low). Walter Landauer: The Man and His Work (H. Clark, L.J. Pierro). Index.