Biology students who want more detailed information than their text books offer can easily adopt this as a single volume reference source. The mystery of continuous life cannot be solved, only researched and described, and the authors accomplish this with unusual skill and order, beginning with descriptions of single celled organisms and ending with the complex structure that is man. They cover such topics as digestion, reproduction, respiration, exception and inheritance. Life cannot exist in a vacuum and its dependence on other life of environment is also delineated. Darwin's theories, Mendel's laws and the vital discoveries since as well as an overview of man's place in Nature are further areas of discussion. This is not a book for the average reader, nor is it meant to be devoured at one sitting. It is a well organized accurate account for the interested student.