Experimental Embryology

In the 1940s Hamburger introduced a laboratory course in experimental embryology for graduate and advanced undergraduate students, in which they repeated many of the classic experiments in the field. Students learned to make their own glass and hair-loop tools for microsurgery [See Fig. 1 from Manual (p. 5)] and transplantation experiments without highly complex and expensive equipment. Based on exercises developed in conjunction with the MBL embryology course, Hamburger collected these materials into the highly useful A Manual of Experimental Embryology (University of Chicago Press, 1942; revised ed 1960), and supplemented by lectures that included the history of various methodologies. The book was divided into five sections, the first introducing students to the range of instruments and techniques, the second and third sections dealt with experiments on amphibians and chicks, respectively, while the final two sections dealt with regeneration (Section IV) and the “gradient theory” (Section V). An Appendix included representations of stage series for two species of frogs (Rana pipiens and Rana sylvatica) and for the salamander, Ambystoma maculatum (the latter based on unpublished drawings by Hamburger’s colleague, Ross G. Harrison). [Could include at least one of these series – each takes up about 3 pp]