A FIELD GUIDE TO GERMS by...
A FIELD GUIDE TO GERMS by Wayne Biddle (Anchor Books: $12.95, 196 pp., illustrated). Biddle’s concise, irreverent overview of human pathology is “offered in the spirit of first aid, as a bulwark against phobia, and as a reminder that medicine is a social activity.”
He describes the microbes that produce an array of human illnesses, from adenovirus (first discovered in the adenoids) to Zika fever, a mild disease of Asia and Africa. Drawing on biology, epidemiology, medicine, history and humor, Biddle provides a lively introductory text for readers who skipped biology in high school.
