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300 occurred as an incidental feature of the operation of vacuum pumps of the liquid-ring type. The increasing number of reports of illness of this type suggests that it may have gone unrecognised in the past. In the factory described by Pickering et al.,5 substitution of steam humidification effected a cure. In the factory described here the water remains contaminated, although the air effluent no longer reaches the workers. Although the prevention of such illnesses will depend largely on improvements in engineering, clinicians should remain alert to the possibility of extrinsic allergic alveolitis in almost any working or domestic environ-

droplets

ment. We are most grateful to Dr John Lacey (Rothamsted Experimental Station), Dr P. K. C. Austwick (Zoological Society of London), and Dr Leslie Milne (Central Microbiological Laboratories, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh), who all helped with the microbiological part of the investigation; to Dr Joan Longbottom, who undertook the Immunological studies; and to Dr T. Reid for the complement studies. Sister Barbara Healley, industrial nursing sister at the factory, who arranged and helped with many of the studies on the affected workers, was closely involved with the investigation at every stage. The management of Wiggins Teape Stationery Ltd. provided every assistance, as well as financial support, and the workers gave their cheerful cooperation. We also acknowledge with gratitude the skilled technical assistance of David McKenzie, Fiona MacAulay, and Joyce Leys (Aberdeen), and Julie Mitchell and Richard Armitage (Brompton), and secretarial help from Mrs B. Calder.

Requests for reprints should be addressed to K.N.V.P., Department of Medicine, University of Aberdeen, Foresterhill, Aberdeen AB9 2ZD. REFERENCES 1.

Hodges,

G. R., Fink,

J. N., Schlueter,

D. P. Ann. intern. Med.

1974, 80,

501. 2.

Banaszak,

E. F.,

Thiede, W. H., Fink, J. N. New Engl. J. Med. 1970, 283,

271.

3. Fink, J. N., Banaszak, E. F., Thiede, W. H. Ann. intern. Med. 1971, 74, 80. Miller, M. M., Patterson, R., Fink, J. N., Roberts, M. Clin. Allergy, 1976,

4

6, 451.

Pickering, C. A. C., Moore, W. K. S., Lacey, J., Holford-Strevens, V. C., Pepys, J. ibid. 109. 6. Committee on Rating of Mental and physical Impairment, J. Am. med. Ass. 5.

1965, 194, 919. 7. Cotes, J. E. Lung Function; p. 381, Oxford, 1975. 8. Diament, M. L., Palmer, K. N. V. Thorax, 1969, 24, 126.

Occasional Book GO TO THE ANT BED has been more popular or more used than in these Isles of the 70s. What better place to read of the busy sleepy creatures portrayed by Professor Busvine.’ It was not ever thus, for "lousiness prevents laziness": never

"See nature, kindlý prudent, ordain Her gentle stimulants to harmless pain Lest man, the slave of rest, should waste away In torpid slumber life’s important day."

Cowan’s 19th century translation of some lines by Quintus Serenus Samonicus is one of many pearls fished from the remoter pools of literature by the author. This literary celebration of private fulfilment provides a delightful example of biological belles-lettres; the scholarship is impressive, even daunting. Read for example his history of the bed bug. The juxtaposition of scientific facts or theories with amusing anecdotes or historical vignettes induces painless education of the reader. The author’s admiration of the objects of his study is evident; insects appeared on earth several hundred million years before man, and it seems more than possible that they 1.

Insects, Hygiene and History. By J. R. BUSVINI, London School of Hygiene and

Tropical Medicine. London:

Athlone. 1976. Pp.

262. £6.95.

will be here long after we have starved, bombed, or polluted ourselves into extinction. The enormous variety and pervasiveness of insect life are compared with the "flash in the pan" brilliance of human intelligence, to our disadvantage. The sheer numbers of insect life overwhelm us-not only of individuals but of species which total a staggering 750 000. One medium-size swarm of desert locusts will consist of some thousand million insects, and they may consume 3000 tons of food daily. The individual insect organism is equally impressive. Alaptus magnanimus measures only 0.21 mm in length, yet these tiny parasitic wasps (of smaller bulk than a human ovum) possess "compound eyes, a nice nervous system, three pairs of jaws and three pairs of legs, veined wings, striped muscles and the rest" (Julian Huxley). A sense of wonder at the evolutionary achievements of the insect world is soon followed by a feeling of unease and menace. Maeterlinck expressed this eloquently: "Insects do not belong to our world. Other animals, even plants, in of their silent life and the great secrets they sustain, do not seem total strangers to us. They are surprising, marvellous often, but they do not upset our ideas from top to bottom. The insect alone gives the sense of not belonging to the behaviour, the morals or the psychology

spite

of our world. One feels that monstrous, more energetic, nal than our own."

they have come from another planet, more ruthless, more atrocious, more mfer-

more

And yet what a wonderful compendium of anecdotes ProfesBusvine has compiled about these nightmares of creation. Some droll, others disgusting, yet others lighting up obscure little corners of our shared history from the time of the Pharaohs to the second world war. The range is extended beyond the strict zoological limits to include human ectoparasites. The discovery of the scabies mite-an event repeated by ingenious doctors throughout the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, and as frequently disregarded or disbelieved-is described in detail. A leading sceptic, Professor Lugol, offered a prize of 500 francs to anyone who could unquestionably demonstrate the scabies mite. This challenge had been provoked by a pupil of Alibert, one Jeanne Chrysanthe Gales who had claimed to isolate the mite from the vesicles of scabetic patients. Suspicion sor

of Gales’ performance grew, however, especially when it was noticed that the illustrations in his thesis were clear portrayals of the ordinary cheese mite. Francois Vincent Raspail announced that he would publicly repeat Gales’ performance on Sept. 3, 1829, and to everyone’s surprise, appeared to demonstrate mites in serum from scabetic vesicles. At the last moment he showed how he had faked the whole proceedings by introducing on his fingers mites from a piece of old cheese in his pocket. Thus were the acarians confounded and the antiacarians triumphantly vindicated. One is irresistibly reminded of Uri Geller and his would-be debunkers. The author should engage another proof-reader for future editions; the number of mis-spellings and minor errors is excessive. And what does "egregarious" mean? The table on p. 11 has its units horribly mixed up; the milligramme is neither a unit of area nor of volume; nor is 40 000 mm2 the surface area of the average adult. Professor Busvine’s scholarship is so wide that I suspect his condescending treatment of "a Mr A. R. Wallace" on p. 90 is accidental; the same A. R. Wallace read a paper, On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type, before the Linnaean Society the same day as a Mr C. R. Darwin read a curiously similar paper drawing the same momentous conclusion (July 1, 1858). Professor Busvine might have noted that the D’Isracli cited on p. 98 was Isaac, father of the great Benjamin. Poor Edward Wotton is spelled three different ways and was neither a fellow nor president of the "Royal College of Practitioners". These are but spots on the sun-but could not this tale of myths and marvels have ended more memorably? The last line is: "and brought up to date by a 1972 PAHO/WHO Seminar". of Dermatology, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4LP

Department

J. S. COMAISH