91É«ÇéƬ

Ute Deichmann, in Biologists Under Hitler (Harvard
University Press,
£24.95, ISBN 0 674 07404 1), discounts the idea that biological sciences
in the Third Reich were starved, thus accounting for their poor performance in
the postwar years. She finds that, on the contrary, they were well supported.
The reasons for decline include dismissal of biologists on racial grounds, but
the main one was isolation from the international to-and-fro. A German author
and American publisher ensure that no stone is left unturned.