Buckman, Robert. Human wildlife; the life that lives on us.

Johns Hopkins Univ. Press. 203p. illus. index. c2002. 0-8018-7407-6. $21.95. SA*

Writing in an informal, sometimes "clever" style, Buckman tells readers more than they may want to know about the life forms they unwittingly harbor on their persons. He explains that some are harmless to the host (skin bacteria), some mutually beneficial (normal intestinal bacteria), and some parasitic (ranging from the relatively innocuous roundworm ascaris to the deadly ebola virus). Buckman patiently introduces the reader to a host of types of life forms that hitch a ride on Planet Human, and cheerfully describes fleas, lice, bacteria, viruses, worms of a variety of shapes and lengths, chiggers, mosquitoes, and so forth. He tells what they do and how they do it. Human life, he says, could not exist without some of them, and introducing some can have a therapeutic effect (e.g., greenbottle fly larvae clean wounds). But some are extremely dangerous and Buckman does not hesitate to tell how they operate. He tells how humans come in contact with their intimate wildlife in homes and in the wild. He gives some disturbing everyday facts, as when he shows how many bacteria lurk on the common kitchen sponge and cutting board. The chapter on feces makes the reader squirm. He says that a batch of freshly processed laundry is teeming with bacteria; now, what is the reader to do with that bit of information? Not fold the clothes? An interesting section tells about research that connects bacteria or viruses to diseases formerly believed to have other causes. (Could a type of chlamydia be linked to heart disease?) The illustrations are mostly excellent as the author makes use of photographs taken with powerful magnifying instruments. Photographs of persons are usually muddy, reproduced from snapshots, but that is not a great enough flaw to discredit the book.

After reading this volume, this reviewer admits to feeling itchy and imagining fellow humans as islands teeming with strange creatures, but again that is not a reason not to buy it. The author makes what could be complex textbook material comprehensible to the ordinary reader; superb popular science. Edna M, Boardman, Bismark, ND