Books: Inside Story

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UNINVITED GUESTS—David Causey— Knopf ($2).*

Willy-nilly every man, no matter how graceless his exterior, plays the polite host to bevies of little animals who pasture on his interior reaches. Unknowingly he takes most of them in with other foods. They, more knowing, accept no substitutes: while they have him they eat him, and him alone. Taken together, these constitute man's interior environment. But there are others who attack from the outside. Mosquitoes, crab-lice, bedbugs, fleas help to make life what it is. If hitherto you have found your acquaintances uninteresting, this entertaining account of their pests & parasites will help you to see more in them. And if you yourself happen to harbor some of the deadlier species, Dr. Causey's professional attitude will help you take your miseries philosophically and with calm.