Parasitology Today, vol. 7, no, 12, 1991 357

overwhelmingly associated with the various house-dust mites, kills two thousand people annually, puts five million people on medication and costs the National Health Service nearly £500 million a year. A major upsurge of scabies is causing much chaos in geriatric wards and nursing homes and the full impact of tick-borne Lyme disease has yet to be appreciated.

It is good, then, among the many fascinating but sometimes esoteric con-

tributions, to see a clear yet profound paper by van Bronswijk and Schober, taking acarologists to task for showing too little interest in the applied aspects of their discipline and calling on them to take up their rightful role as advisers and consultants.

The European Association of Acarol- ogists can be pleased with this volume, which will serve the subject well. The need now, for both the future of acar- ology and the well-being of us all, is for

clear and attractive texts aimed at both the beginner and the field worker. Otherwise the ticks and mites will re- main undeservedly ill-taught and neglected.

John W. Maunder Medical Entomology Centre at the

University of Cambridge Austin Building

New Museums Site Pembroke Street

Cambridge CB2 3DX, UK

Marine Fish Parasitology: An Outline

byJadwiga Grabda, VCH, 1991. DM 124.00 (xi + 306 pages) ISBN 3 527

26898 7

The late Professor Grabda was an eminent Polish marine fish parasit- ologist. This book was first published in 1981, and although the English version has been edited by Eugeniusz Grabda and supplemented with some recent references, sadly, the book has an old- fashioned feel throughout.

Part One provides a general intro- duction. In 12 sections, some of little more than a page in length, it covers forms of coexistence, the secondary environment, adaptations to the para- sitic mode of life, invasion pathways, effects in hosts, defensive responses to invasion, disturbances in the host-para- site equilibrium, ubiquity of parasites in nature, specificity, parasites as biological tags, phylogeny and the economic importance of fish parasites. The treat- ment within some of these sections is acceptable but each is considered as a separate entity resulting in a lack of cohesion of ecological and physiological factors which should link the topics. The dynamic, ecological approach seen in another translation of a marine fish parasitology book EM611er, H. and

Anders, K. (I 986) Diseases and Parasites of Marine Fishes] is lacking in this in- stance. In 'Forms of Coexistence' there is little emphasis that the symbioses are the results of evolution and natural selection. 'Parasitic Effects in Hosts' stresses the effects of parasites on indi- viduals, while host populations are ignored. 'Defensive Responses to Parasitic Invasion' is quite inadequate; a glance at a symposium volume cover- ing the topic [Hunt, T.C. and Margetts, A.R. (1987) Immunology and Disease Control Mechanisms of Fish] reveals the recent progress made in this area.

Part Two, the longest, is entitled 'Sys- tematic Descriptions'. It provides, in systematic order, short accounts of the biology of a selection of parasitic organ- isms found in marine fishes. There are many figures, mostly unlabelled, de- pending on their source. A few legends have errors (for instance, Fig. 84, where wh i te= ventriculus and stippled = intestine, and not, as given, the reverse). There are some useful photographs of parasites but the reproduction is some- times poor. This section, written 12-15 years ago, is also largely superseded by a more recent book [Sindermann, C.J. (1990) Principal Diseases of Marine Fish and Shellfish Vol. I: Diseases of Marine Fish, Academic Press].

In Part Three, 'Fish-Borne Anthropo- zoonoses', there is a short introduction and sections on cestodes (Diphyllobo-

thriidae), trematodes, nematodes, acanthocephalans and principles of pro- phylaxis for the prevention of human infection with fish parasites. There are errors in authors' names, and species which are now synonyms (for example, on page 236, Bauer should read Baer; D. minus is a synonym of D. dendriticum). Part Four, 'Parasitic Diseases of Fish in Maricultures', provides a brief account of species important in this context. Both parts require supplementation by inclusion of modern studies.

There are 23 pages of references, mostly pre- 1980. A number of import- ant Russian and Eastern European papers are quoted that are often ignored by Western scientists owing to language difficulties. It is irritating, but consistent with some Eastern European practice, to omit page numbers with the refer- ences. References to parasites in marine culture systems are given last. There are indexes of Latin names and subjects.

The publisher is to be congratulated for making translations of books avail- able to a world audience but should, in future, ensure that they are up4o-date. As it is, the value of this book is greatly reduced; it cannot be recommended as a first source of information.

James C. Chubb Department of Environmental and

Evolutionary Biology University of Liverpool

PO Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK

Pneumocyst i : ; car in i i

byJ. M. Hopkin, Oxford University Press, 1991. £25.00 (i + 140 pages) ISBN

0 1926165.44

Within the past decad,~, Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia has evolved from being an uncommon disease to the most frequent cause of death from infectious disease in North America. In this beautifully and clearly written short monograph, Julian Hopkin provides a distillation of what is known about the

basic biology, methods of diagnosis and treatment of this enigmatic organism. This is not merely a rehash of old data, as the author produces his own critical appraisal of data published up to 50 years ago and provides a personal synthesis by incorporating the latest information on the molecular biology of the organism, including data from his own group in Oxford, UK. Throughout the book, clear comparisons are made between the behaviour of the organism in the paediatric, adult oncology and AIDS populations.

The text is divided into four parts. In

the first part, clinical reports, serological studies and post-mortem data are used to compare and contrast the apparent differences in presentation of disease: epidemic infantile interstitial plasma cell pneumonia seen in the institutionalized children in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s; sporadic disease in patients immunosuppressed following organ transplantation and those with treated malignant disease and P. carinii pneumonia occurring in AIDS. The apparent conflict is discussed here be- tween serological data, suggesting that a significant proportion of the population

358 Parasitology Today, vol. 7, no. 12, f99f

are exposed to P. carinii early in life, and Millard's study, using monoclonal anti- body examination of post-mortem lungs in immunocompetent and AIDS patients that failed to show P. carinii in patients dying from causes other than pneumonia. This theme is returned to in the second section of the book, which covers the biology of P. carinii. This section is the book's tour de force. The application of DNA manipulative tech- niques to the study of P. carinii has already begun to change much of our understanding of the life cycle of the organism and, indeed, much of the recently acquired data comes from Hopkin's group. Both Walzer and Hughes have previously shown that P. carinii can be transmitted from animal to animal, probably by air. Hopkin tantalizingly suggests that there may be a third free-living environmental stage to the life cycle of P. carinii. DNA ampli- fication techniques lend themselves readily to studies to confirm this hy- pothesis.

In the third part of the book the

clinical presentation of patients with P. carinii pneumonia is reviewed and the practical difficulties of establishing a diagnosis using noninvasive and invasive investigations is critically assessed. There is a clear account of the relative merits of the staining techniques used for the diagnosis of P. carinii from broncho- alveolar tavage and induced sputum, undoubtedly the best account I have seen. In this section there is also a useful management algorithm which may be used to streamline the diagnostic pro- cess. This algorithm is an example of the clarity of thought that has gone into the writing of the monograph.

The final section on treatment and prophylaxis of P. carinii pneumonia comprehensively presents what is known about the chemotherapy of this disease. Newer forms of treatment including inhaled pentamidine and the substituted naphthaquinolones are dis- cussed. Here again, as Hopkin points out, DNA technology will have a major role to play in the future. It has already been possible to clone the DNA se-

quence responsible for the enzyme thymidylate kinase, thus producing the opportunity to synthesize parasite- specific enzyme inhibitors.

The monograph is beautifully illus- trated throughout with clear colour figures of staining techniques and post- mortem sections. The collection of EM sections are of superb definition and the chest radiographs have reproduced well, clearly demonstrating the abnor- malities described in the legends. The reference lists at the end of each section are exhaustive and contain references up to mid-1990.

This text will certainly widen the knowledge of those already researching this organism or caring for patients with P. carinii pneumonia. It will also provide a unique database for microbiologists, oncologists, infectious disease, genito- urinary and chest physicians.

Rob Miller University College London The Middlesex Hospital Mortimer Street London W l N 8AA, UK

Bird-Parasite Interactions: Ecology, Evolution and

Behaviour

edited by J.E. Loye and M. Zuk, Oxford University Press, 199 I. £37.50 (xv + 406

pages) ISBN 0 19 857738 9

Three provocative studies, which appeared in the short period between 1978 and 1982, can be held primarily responsible for the uprush of interest in host-parasite interactions over the last decade. First, Anderson and May's 1'2 largely theoretical treatment of the regulation of host populations by para- sites put a clear question to empiricists: in principle, parasites can regulate their host populations, but do they do so in nature? The poverty of information then available, particularly and surpris- ingly for birds, was underlined in Price's stimulating Evolutionary Biology of Para- sites 3. (I've never before seen the two giants of ecology, Elton 4 and Lack s, blamed, in the same breath, for hinder- ing progress in their field! In his fore- word to the present book, Price holds them both responsible for attenuating interest in parasites.) Then came Hamilton and Zuk's influential Science paper 6, in which they proposed that parasites have a role in the evolution of elaborate vertebrate ornaments and courtship rituals.

It is testament to the influence of these three publications that Loye and

Zuk have now been able to put to- gether a substantial volume on parasites of birds alone, setting aside all the other excellent work on other groups, ranging through fishes, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. Why birds alone? Of course, people like to study birds, and they can be studied. More specifically, the recent parasite work is now catching up with the enormous quantity of long-term bird population data, and can be used in conjunction with it.

In Chapter I, Catherine Tort helpfully reviews current theory, identifies topics that are currently of special interest and gives a guided tour of the following twenty chapters. I can do no better than use her subtitles to identify the import- ant themes: the evolution of parasite pathogenicity (can anyone still believe that benignancy is the necessary evol- utionary endpoint?), interactions be- tween parasitism and other demo- graphic factors (where there are some data but relatively little theory), the different consequences of parasite effects on host fecundity and mortality, and the role of parasites in sexual selection (how to test the Hamilton- Zuk hypothesis). As for the parasites themselves, there is at least one chapter for parasitologists of all orders: on nest ectoparasites, protozoa, helminths and viruses.

On these topics, and with this diver- sity of parasites, Loye and Zuk have compiled a fascinating book. It leads to no consensus but that is because it

reports the results of a young discipline gathering momentum, expanding rather than consolidating The editors' principal mistake is, I think, to have asked authors to present original data. Books take longer to produce than journal articles; this one is based on a meeting held in 1988. They are also expensive (no free reprints) and often less widely available than the best journals. The scope is necessarily narrow and, with the above in mind, authors may have been inclined to narrow it further. 'With this volume a new paradigm is born', says Price in his foreword. This is a volume that will certainly be consulted by the aficion- ados but I guess that the paradigm would have been more firmly estab- lished by a comprehensive set of review articles with more lasting value to a broader audience.

References I Anderson, R,M. and May, R.M. ( 1978)J. Anita.

Ecol. 47, 219-247 2 May, R.M. and Anderson, R.M, ( 1978)j. Anim.

Ecol. 47, 248-267 3 Price, P,W. (t980) Evolutionary Biology of

Parasites, Princeton University Press 4 Elton, C, (I 927) Animal Ecology, Macmillan 5 Lack, D. (1954) The Natural Regulation of

Animal Numbers, Oxford University Press 6 Hamilton, W,D. and Zuk, M. (1982) Science

218, 384-387

Christopher Dye Department of Medical Parasitology London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Keppel Street London WCI E 7HT, UK