BOOK Review

by Sheila (30-B-2) FPE

ABNORMAL SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT, A Genetic and Endocrine Approach to Differential Diagnosis, by Daniel D. Federman, M.D.; W. B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia & London; 197 pp + 8 index; I11. by S.J. Rosenthal; $8.75 (1967).

While this book was writ- ten primarily for physicians, the author has done such a splendid job of defining and illustrating the indispensible technical terms that any technically trained person can get the vital parts of his message with only a moderate amount of dictionary work. The message is definitely NOT concerned with transvestism (we are mentioned only on page 196), but it is of great in- terest to see all the things we are not. Many of the abnormalities described here have been seriously considered in the past to explain TV, and only re- luctantly put aside.

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The author opens with a few pages on how normal sexual differentiation takes place a fine, clear description of the process by which the rudimentary parts shape up into their male or female configura- tion, (At last, I understand where the male's "vag- ina" is.) Then a good section on the four chief tools of the researcher and diagonstician of sex. These are:

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