112

placebo-controlled study in 870 patients with intestinal hel- minthiasis. Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Me- dicine and Hwiene. 77.707-711.

WHO (1990). WHO Model Prescribing Information. Drugs Used in Parasitic Diseases. Geneva: World Health Organization.

WHO (1987).?%evention and Control of Intestinal Parasitic Infec- tions. Geneva: World Health Organization, Technical Report Series, no. 749.

Received 22 February 1993; revised 5 April 1993; accepted for publication 7 April 1993

TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AND HYGIENE (1994) 88, BOOK REVIEWS, 112

1 Book Reviews I 1 ,

Environmental Health Engineering in the Tropics: An Introductory Text (2nd edition). S. Cairncross & R. Feachem. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 1993. xii+306pp. Price E19.95. ISBN O-471-93885-8.

Human influence on the environment has been radical and frequently destructive. The diseases acquired by hu- mans are invariably a result of this influence; thus it is hardly surprising that environmental engineering is often as significant in disease prevention as medical practice. It is regrettable that this significance is not always appreci- ated by non-medical professionals. This second edition of Cairncross and Feachem’s book, published 10 years after the first, incorporates lessons learnt from the Inter- national Drinking Water and Sanitation Decade, and stresses the importance of the availability of knowledge and expertise to enable governments and individuals in developing countries to make affordable improvements. It covers not only the fundamentally important subjects of pollution, water supply and waste disposal, so ably discussed in the first edition, but also concentrates on the effects of engineering on the health environment, such as the dammin by insects w Ei

of rivers and the transmission of diseases ch is encouraged by poor building and de-

sign. An awareness of these effects by engineers and architects can have a considerable beneficial effect on the transmission of disease to humans.

This is a comprehensive and very readable book, well illustrated and presented, and it should be studied and acted upon by all those who are involved in the alteration of the human environment.

N. R. H. Burgess Department of Medical Entomology Royal Army Medical College Millbank, London, SWIP 4RJ, UK

A Colour Atlas of Medical Entomology. N. R. H. Bur- gess & G. 0. Cowan. London: Chapman & Hall, 1993. viii+ 144 pp. Price &55.00. ISBN 0-412-32340-O.

After neglect of photogenic arthropods for decades, this is the second colour atlas of medical entomology to be published in the last 6 months. Clearly there was a niche and in the best evolutionary tradition there was more than one solution; but there is also competition in biology and one is forced to make comparisons-how- ever odious one considers them. It is most unlikely that this book will be able to compete with Wallace Peters’ much more comprehensive ‘Colour Atlas of Arthropods in Clinical Medicine’.

The real problem lies in presenting what is probably a reasonable set of lecture notes for public health students as a colour atlas. There is simply not the breadth of coverage to hold with a title like ‘Medical Entomology’- most tropical shots seem to be confined to Belize, Nepal and Sudan with the rare occurrence of Hong-Kong. However, there are some interesting shots; for example, the Nenalese beehive standing in small water-filled Dots as a breeding site of the yellow-fever mosquito Aedei ae- gypti is a change from the usual vases on gravestones. Unfortunately, the photographs of many insects and arachnids are simply not up to modern standards and there are too many frames of line drawings or paintings for a colour atlas. Reproduction varies greatly.

After a brief introduction to arthropods and their medical significance there follow 15 chapters focused on taxonomic

B roups, mosquitoes, sandflies, etc., culminat-

ing in the ma1 chapter on the control of medically signi- &ant arthropods. The latter is, however, mainly based on hygiene pests rather than mainstream vectors of dis- ease. Even accepting that it is not possible to produce perfection in any book this is peppered with errors; for example, the ‘Simulium’ wing is in fact that of Culicoides, the mucocutaneous leishmaniasis illustrated is simple cu- taneous disease and its vector is not confirmed as Lutzo- myia intermedius [sic], Phlebotomus argentipes is infamous as the vector of antbroponotic visceral disease in India not zoonotic disease of the Middle East. the cron of most bloodsucking flies does not have spines and grind food but is a store for sugar meals, chitin is not a waxy sub- stance but a carbohydrate polymer (it is the cuticle that contains wax), the subordinal name Athericera (of Dip- tera) has not been used for decades.

Based on the style and level of the text, the presumed audience for this book would be environmental health of- ficers and public health workers rather than serious stu- dents of tropical medicine or medical entomology. Given that, the price may very well put the book out of the audience’s reach, especially as Peter’s atlas offers better value for money.

Richard Lane

Stedman’s/ICTV Virus Word. C. H. Calisher & C. M. Fauquet. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1992. xxvi+271 pp. Price not stated. ISBN o-683-07956-5.

‘Over 5500 alphabetized entries of virus names.. .‘.

SEAMIC Health Statistics 1991. Southeast Asian Medical Information Center. Tokyo: International Medical Foundation of Japan, 1993. 214 pp. Price not stated. ISBN 4-930783-66-4.

Health Management and Free-ranging Mammals, Parts 1 and 2. Paris: Office International des Euizooties. 1992 (part 1) and 1993 (part 2). Revue Scientifibue OIE; 11 (4), 993-1211 and 12 (l), l-294. Price FF 185 (US$ 34) and FF 200 (US$ 40) respectively. ISBN 92-9044- 321-9 & 92-9044-322-7.

Biotechnology Applied to the Diagnosis of Animal Diseases. Paris: Office International des Epizooties, 1993. Revue Scientifique OIE, 12 (2), 319-672. Price FF 2000 (US$ 40). ISBN 92-9044-323-5. [All obtainable from OIE, 12 Rue de Prony, 75017 Paris, France.]

Some papers in English, some in French.

Annual Renort of the Director 1992. Washinaton. DC: Pan Ame&an Health Organization, 1993. xi1+193 pp. Price not stated. ISBN 92-75-17256-O. [Obtainable from PAHO, 525 Twenty-third Street NW, LWashington, DC 20037, USA.]

Normas Sanitarias Para Viajeros a Paises Tropicales. J. L. B. Ainsa. Barcelona: Novoprint SA, 1993. 271 pp. Price not stated. ISBN 84-7929-732-8.