Egg transfer was first performed in 1890, but for half a century it received scant attention. However, since 1950 the technique has become increasingly widely used - in the laboratory for fundamental studies and more recently in practice, both veterinary and medical, to boost reproductive potential of genetically superior cattle and to overcome sterility due to impaired rubal function in women. As a result, a considerable body of literature has accumulated, totaling well in excess of a thousand references. But till now there has not been a single comprehensive text devoted solely to this subject. The present work was designed to meet that need at a time when the field is fast expanding with new techniques and approaches constantly being evolved. One need only cite the tremendous rate of progress in human egg transfer in the last three years. The work embraces laboratory and farm animals and primates, including man, altogether representing a total of 16 species.

The origins of what have come to be known as the "Oxford" Conferences on modelling and the control of breathing can be traced back to a discussion between Dan Cunningham and Richard Hercynski at a conference dinner at the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1971. Each felt that they had benefited from the different perspectives from which the topic of ventilatory control was approached - predominantly physiological in the case of Dr Cunningham and predominantly mathematical in the case of Dr Hercynski. Their judgement at that time was that a conference on the control of breathing which allowed investigators with these different (but related) scientific perspectives to present and discuss their work, might prove fruitful. We would judge that this has amply been borne out, based upon the success of the series of conferences which resulted from that seminal dinner conversation. The first conference, entitled "Modelling of a Biological Control System: The Regulation of Breathing" was held in Oxford, UK, in 1978. Subsequent conferences were: "Modelling and the Control of Breathing" at Lake Arrowhead, California, in 1982; "Con cepts and Formulations in the Control of Breathing" in Solignac, France, in 1985; "Respi ratory Control: A Modeling Perspective" at Grand Lakes, Colorado, in 1988; and "Control of Breathing and Its Modelling Persepctive" at the Fuji Institute in Japan in 1991. The conferences, subsequent to the one in Oxford, have all resulted in well-received published proceedings.