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Although published in 1986, this book was only recently sent to us for review; as the most recent compendium of cellular issues concerning the retina, it deserves the attention of the ophthalmic community. Despite obvious limitations imposed by passage of time, the book will be valuable to cell biologists. Seven well-written chapters consider neurotransmitters and neuromodulators, vision psychophysics, the retinal pigment epithelium, extracellular matrix molecules, endothelial cells and neovascularization, genetic mosaics as tools for the study of the retina, and the retina as a regenerating organ. Most of the chapters indicate important directions for new research on questions that remain unsolved.
Herrup and Silver describe the use of genetic mosaics to localize the primary site of gene action in mutations affecting the eye. A major emphasis of the chapter is that "juxtaposition of mutant and normal cells reveals cellular potentials that are neither intuitively obvious nor easily addressed in other