To present a coherent and meaningful survey of scientific research endeavour in an area that has expanded as fast as physiology and biochemistry of reproduction in the male is no mean task these days. No less prodigious than the growth of knowledge of male reproductive function has been the rate at which the outpouring of publications on this subject has continued since the appearance of 'The Biochemistry of Semen and of the Male Reproductive Tract' in 1964. Since cyclopaedic treatment of this vast literature did not appeal to us, we have made no attempt either to rehash the material...

Physiology and biochemistry of male reproductive function and semen became the main area of my research in 1944, after my attention was finally diverted frorp. animal cells in general, to mammalian spermatozoa specifically Ever since, the interest has remained largely focussed on reproductive probletns in mammals, the work continuing mostly at the University of Cambridge, where I was privileged to hold also the Marshall Walton Professorship in Physiology of Reproduction. This work led to the publication of three books, The Biochemistry of Semen (Methuen 1954), The Biochemistry of Semen and of...