Review : The egg and I

Clara Pinto-Correia is brilliantly illuminating on “preformation”, the
historical idea that gametes contain future generations ad infinitum in The
Ovary of Eve. By asking, “which came first, the sperm or the egg?” she reveals
the religious, cultural and social complexity of this beautiful scientific
notion, which occupied the minds of natural philosophers for over a century.
Published by University of Chicago Press, £23.95/$29.95, ISBN
0226669521.