It has become almost trite to comment on the happy and fertile marriage between genetics and biochemistry in the study of man and his diseases. The Ciba Symposium was one of the several useful surveys of the active field of biochemical genetics in man with which we have been favored in the last two years. (Others include Harry Harris' Human Biochemical Genetics, and The Metabolic Basis of Inherited Disease, edited by Stanbury, Wyngaarden, and Fredrickson.)
The Ciba Symposium brought together a group of workers in biochemical genetics, in Naples in May, 1959. The invited papers and full discussions are presented. The following sampling will indicate the content of the published proceedings of the conference.
Kalckar discussed hereditary galactosemia. Kalow discussed the genetic differences in serum pseudochinesterase which have pertinence with reference to the effects of suxamethonium used as a muscle relaxant in anesthesia. Childs and Zinkham discussed the defect(s) in