j. w. buchanan, reviewing the second edition in "physiological zoology" in 1943, described it as "an imposing extension of his earlier attempt to formulate a geometry of growth and form" and "beautifully written", but warned that "the reading will not be easy" and that "a vast store of literature has here been assembled and assimilated". buchanan summarizes the book, and notes that chapter 17 "seems to the reviewer to contain the essence of the long and more or less leisurely thesis... the chapter is devoted to comparison of related forms, largely by the method of co-ordinates. fundamental differences in these forms are thus revealed", and buchanan concludes that the large "gaps" indicate that darwin's endless series of continuous variations is not substantiated. but he does have some criticisms: thompson should have referenced the effects of hormones on growth; and the relation of molecular configuration and form; genetics is barely mentioned, and experimental embryology and regeneration [despite thompson's analysis of the latter] are overlooked. the mathematics used consists of statistics and geometry, while thermodynamics is "largely absent".