Parasitic Animals

PARASITIC ANIMALS. By Geoffrey Lapage. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1951. xxi + 351 pp. $4.00. Parasitic animals is a consideration of parasitism as a way of life for animals. The major portion of the book covers three topics: types of life cycles, effects of this mode of life upon parasites, and effects of parasites upon their hosts. The parasites whose life cycles are discussed all have man or some domestic animal as definitive host. The chapters on the effects of parasitism upon parasites and hosts draw upon the entire animal kingdom for examples. This book is addressed to the general reader as well as to students and teachers of parasitology. For the general reader the introductory briefing on the zoological classification of parasites is accurate and concise, but in its conciseness may not provide sufficient background for full appreciation of the variety of specific examples in the body of the book. It might be a sufficient stimulus for the acquisition of more background. Teachers will find study of the ecological classification of parasites rewarding in its differences from the usual textbook treatment. The chapters on the effects of parasitism will offer in content little that is novel to these readers, although the manner of organization and presentation provides an admirable pedagogical model. Parasitic animals should find its most appreciative audience among students with some zoological education, although even for the layman this authoritative discussion will be readable and stimulating.