History of Genetics

It takes an unusual person to write a really good history of any branch of science. Professor A. H. Sturtevant, the author of A History of Genetics (Harper and Row, New York, 1965. 165 pp., $5.50), is indeed such a person . He has been an active and creative geneticist for more than half a century, and has known personally most of those who have worked significantly in modern genetics in the period from the rediscovery and confirmation of Gregor Mendel's work in 1900 to the end of the 50-year time span covered by his book.