Morphogenesis and the Field Concept

Abstract

THE discussion on morphogenesis which was held in Section D (Zoology) during the Blackpool meeting of the British Association was concerned mainly with the use of the field concept in experimental embryology. The central problem of the causal analysis of development is to account for the production of organs, that is to say, of masses of tissue which are integrated into units. Such integration can only be dealt with in terms of something which extends throughout the whole volume of the mass, and such extended entities are now usually referred to as ‘fields'.