First published in 1931, the books in this set form Needham's mammoth three-volume work on the subject of physico-chemical embryology.

Volume 1: Prolegomena; Part I. The Theory of Chemical Embryology; Part II. The Origins of Chemical Embryology: 1. Embryology in antiquity; 2. Embryology from Galen to the Renaissance; 3. Embryology in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; Part III. General Chemical Embryology: 1. The unfertilised egg as a physico-chemical system; 2. On increase in size and weight; 3. On increase in complexity and organisation. Volume 2: Part III. General Chemical Embryology (continued): 4. The respiration and heat-production of the embryo; 5. Biophysical phenomena in ontogenesis; 6. General metabolism of the embryo; 7. The energetics and energy-sources of embryonic development; 8. Carbohydrate metabolism; 9. Protein metabolism; 10. The metabolism of nucleins and nitrogenous extractives; 11. Fat metabolism; 12. The metabolism of lipoids, sterols, cycloses, phosphorus and sulphur. Volume 3: Part III. General Chemical Embryology (continued): 13. Inorganic metabolism; 14. Enzymes in ontogenesis; 15. Hormones in ontogenesis; 16. Vitamins in ontogenesis; 17. Pigments in ontogenesis; 18. Resistance and susceptibility in embryonic life; 19. Serology and immunology in embryonic life; 20. Biochemistry of the placenta; 21. Biochemistry of the placental barrier; 22. Biochemistry of the amniotic and allantoic liquids; 23. Blood and tissue chemistry of the embryo; 24. Hatching and birth; Epilegomena; Part IV. Appendices: 1. Normal tables of magnitudes in embryonic growth; 2. A chemical account of the maturation of the egg-cell; 3. The chemical changes during the metamorphosis of insects Dorothy Needham; 4. The development of the plant embryo from a physico-chemical viewpoint Muriel Robinson; Part V: Bibliography and author-index; Subject-index; Index animalium.