The Lawrence Jacobsen Library
Books Received (Primate-Science/PrimateLit)

Cetacean Societies: Field Studies of Dolphins and Whales

BEAST OF THE EARTH: ANIMALS, HUMANS AND DISEASE

By E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. and Robert H. Yolken, M.D.

Rutgers University Press


FROM THE PUBLISHER


In Beasts of the Earth: Animals, Humans, and Disease (Rutgers University 
Press), E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., and Robert H. Yolken, M.D., trace the ways 
that human-animal contact has evolved over time, beginning with the 
domestication of farm animals 10,000 years ago. They reveal that the 
transfer of deadly microbes from animals to humans is neither new nor an 
easily avoided problem, and urge that a better understanding of past 
diseases may help lessen the severity of some future illnesses. They also 
warn that given the increasingly crowded planet, it is not a question of if, 
but when and how often animal-transmitted diseases will pose serious 
challenges to human health.


Torrey and Yolken examine the shared living quarters, overlapping 
ecosystems, and experimental surgical practices that continue to open new 
avenues for the transmission of infectious agents. They also study the 
changes in human behavior such as increased air travel, automated food 
processing, and threats of bioterrorism that transport harmful microbes 
further distances and to larger populations quickly. Well-written and 
thoroughly researched, Beasts of the Earth is the first book to 
systematically examine the animal origins of human infectious diseases.


ABOUT THE AUTHORS


E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., is associate director for laboratory research at the 
Stanley Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and a professor of 
psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. He has 
authored or coauthored eighteen books, including The Invisible Plague: The 
Rise of Mental Illness from 1750 to the Present (Rutgers University Press, 
2001).


Robert H. Yolken, M.D., is the director of the Stanley Laboratory of 
Development Neurovirology and a professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins 
University Medical Center. A specialist in infectious diseases, he is the 
coeditor of the standard textbook, Manual of Clinical Microbiology and the 
author and coauthor of more than 250 scientific publications.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xi


The Smallest Passengers on Noah's Ark   1
Heirloom Infections: Microbes before the Advent of Humans 14
Humans as Hunters: Animal Origins of Bioterrorism 23
Humans as Farmers: Microbes Move into the Home 33
Humans as Villagers: Microbes in the Promised Land 48
Humans as Traders: Microbes Get Passports 56
Humans as Pet Keepers: Microbes Move into the Bedroom 68
Humans as Diners: Mad Cows and Sane Chickens    97
Microbes from the Modern Food Chain: Lessons from SARS, Influenza, and Bird Flu 112
The Coming Plagues: Lessons from AIDS, West Nile Virus, and Lyme Disease 124
A Four-footed View of History   139


Notes                145


Glossary                171


Appendix                173


Index                175


HOW TO ORDER:


Rutgers University Press

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Website: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu

Direct Link: 

http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/acatalog/__Beasts_of_the_Earth_2310.html



Hardcover: $23.95

ISBN 0-8135-3571-9