Probably at few other biomedical crossroads do so many life science paths, boulevards, lanes, and concourses meet as do in the study of congenital malformations. Well-traveled and well-paved though these avenues may be up to the place of intersecting, where they converge there is an uncharted stretch whose topography yields no apparent clue for the next leg of the journey. The route(s) whose entrance into this web might also be its exit defy recognition; and may well still be entirely off the map.
Exemplifying this series of metaphors is the symposium whose proceedings are reviewed here. Taking place in London in January of this year, as in previous "teratology conferences" (held in Cincinnati in 1956, Washington, D. C. in 1957, and Portland, Ore. in 1959), it brought together investigators from many otherwise littlerelated fields who for a few days strove to inform and learn from each other. Representatives of anatomy,