Books: Sugar-Coated Science

HUNGER FIGHTERS—Paul de Kruif*—Harcourt Brace ($3.50).

In the monotonous scientific pursuits of Microbe Hunters Paul de Kruif found sensationalism enough to titivate a large public—he demonstrated fascination in the perverse antics of microbes, drama in the stolid heroism of hunters. More of the same, Hunger Fighters is a trustworthy though ebullient account of certain other men of science, unappreciated breeders of sturdy grain, students of cattle diseases, discoverers of fashionable vitamins. If the author coyly attributes an exasperated scientist with a few cusswords, or jazzes his pages with other self-conscious slang, it is but in his honest endeavor to educate a sugar-coated public. He makes the best of the highspots: In stamping out the virulent hoof-and-mouth disease one inconspicuous scientist had millions of cattle killed and buried, to the funeral dirge of their owners’ vituperations. In the hilly North, where burial space was scarce, he drove sick cattle into the valley and blasted the mountainsides to fill in a natural grave. Warned that the curse had spread to wild deer, and assured that shooting a few would scatter the rest, he directed silencers to be used on the guns. Hunters deprived of their prey stormed in wrath, bereaved cattlemen still grumbled, but the disease was stamped out.

*Pronounce Krife.