America is a society that encompasses and reflects the accomplish- ments of science. As civilized people, we can argue that to understand America is to und erstand the scientific genius of the men and women who built the foundations of modern science and technology. However, science is not merely a co11ection of the results of scientific research or inte11ectual wizardry. It is also a social phenomenon with real human beings with a11 their foibles. As George Sarton said, "The best way to explain American achievements is to focus the reader's attention upon a few of the leading scientists." That I have tried to do. While there are other valid approaches to the history of science, certainly the biographi- cal approach brings to ligh t the fact that science is not a mere congerie of facts and theories. It is a very human activity with biases, personal rivalries, censorship, and even thievery, as the case of Rosalind Franklin shows.

The phylogenetic relationships of anguinomorph lizards are reconsidered on the basis of the structure of the head musculature, of the skull, and of the atlas - axis complex. A basal dichotomy separates the Anguinomorpha into the Anguinoidea and Platynota. The most primitive Anguinoidea are gerrhonotiform lizards. They share common ancestry with a hypothetical common ancestor of the Anguinae and Diploglossinae. Anniella is most closely related to the Anguinae among the Anguinoidea. The relationships of XenosaulUs and ShinisaulUs are poorly determinable on the basis of present evidence. For reasons of parsimony, the two genera are included within the same family, the Xenosauridae, which is tentatively derived from the transitional field leading from the Gerrhono- tinae to the hypothetical ancestor of the Anguinae and Diploglossinae.

The first edition of this book, published in German, came into being as the result of lectures which the authors held over a period of several years since 1953 at the Universities of Helsinki and Zurich. The Introduction, which follows, provides information on what moti­ vated our presentation of an absolute, coordinate- and dimension-free infinitesimal calculus. Little previous knowledge is presumed of the reader. It can be recom­ mended to students familiar with the usual structure, based on co­ ordinates, of the elements of analytic geometry, differential and integral calculus and of the theory of differential equations. We are indebted to H. Keller, T. Klemola, T. Nieminen, Ph. Tondeur and K. 1. Virtanen, who read our presentation in our first manuscript, for important critical remarks. The present new English edition deviates at several points from the first edition (d. Introduction). Professor I. S. Louhivaara has from the beginning to the end taken part in the production of the new edition and has advanced our work by suggestions on both content and form. For his important support we wish to express our hearty thanks. We are indebted also to W. Greub and to H. Haahti for various valuable remarks. Our manuscript for this new edition has been translated into English by Doctor P. Emig. We express to him our gratitude for his careful interest and skillful attention during this work.

Do cartoons that should speak to the observer flexible endoscope becomes a snake, 'Nessie' swims in themselves without using words require a foreword? the disinfection basin, and Laokoon and sons fight against Do Volker Lange's characteristic drawings, seen at least an endoscope. Seen from Lange's perspective, concepts once by almost everyone involved with medicine, need such as the drawer phenomenon, an onychomycosis, description? and the appendix appear in unique, new light. Does this book render more than a reason to laugh, Lange's cartoons depict the grotesque, the mysterious, more than a moment of 'aha'-experience, more than a and the fantastic: patient and physician drowning in fleeting instant of self-recognition? Do these cartoons liquor during lumbal puncture, a patient actually convey more than ideas that may initially appear even coughing out his lungs, and a neurosurgeon, who finds absurd or bizarre? emptiness when changing his patient's dressings, these Volker Lange has proven in previously published are moments of enlightenment that free us from the bonds material that he knows how to disclose the perhaps of a strictly scientific medicine fixed upon reality. Lange's intentionally overlooked parts of the medical profession. book is a treasure chest of such surrealistic surprises. Here sideswipes against both physicians' vanity and the With a few exceptions, Lange reveals his ideas using weight of the medical industry unmask much more than graphic expression only.

Most amateur astronomers, because they live in or near cities, have to carry out their observing from relatively light-polluted sites. It is possible to reduce the effects of a poor location by the use of CCD imaging, but many observers prefer to look at astronomical objects rather than photograph them. Skill, observing techniques, and modern technology - such as image intensifiers - can now be used to astonishing effect to observe the night sky in real-time. Illustrating the book with images and some of his own superb drawings, Antony Cooke explains how to observe some of the most spectacular objects from less than perfect observing sites.