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285  Forward to Biology of Animal Parasitism
      by William Trager
      March 1986

     William Trager has been an avid student of parasites for over 50
years at the Rockefeller University.  Around the turn of this century,
parasitology enjoyed a certain vogue, inspired by colonial
responsibilities of the technically advanced countries, and by the
exciting etiological and therapeutic discoveries of Ross, Manson,
Ehrlich, and others.  For some decades, the Western Hemisphere's
interest in animal parasites has been eclipsed by concern for bacteria
and viruses as agents of transmissible disease.  Only very recently,
initiatives like the Tropical Disease Research programs of WHO-World
Bank-UNDP, and the great Neglected Disease network of the Rockefeller
and MacArthur Foundations have begun to compensate for the neglect
of these problems by United States federal health research agencies.
Throughout that period, however, the Rockefeller Institute (later 
University) has given high priority to the challenges of parasitism, 
corresponding during a formidable period with Dr. Trager's own career.

     The present work then, is a distillation of the insight collected
by our principal doyen of parasite biology, informed but by no means
confined to his own research.  It is addressed to the reader of broad
biological interest and training, not to the specialist.  The 
disarmingly unpretentious style makes the work readily accessible to 
college undergraduates or even to gifted high school students; but do  
not be deceived thereby, as it has an enormous range of factual
information and theoretical insight, familiar to few, but potentially
important to most biologists.  This was a shrewd and well-contrived
choice, and I am sure the book will add much to the current
momentum of interest in the field. 

     Trager's work is organized by themes of biological interest, not
by the taxonomy of the parasites or of the disease syndromes of the
hosts; but these are not neglected where pertinent.  As the title
implies it concerns the biology of parasitism, not just a survey
of parasites.  The writing is therefore in the tradition of Theobald
Smith, McFarlane Burnet, and Rene Dubos whose writings have been so
important in bringing bacteria and viruses, and their parasitic
behavior, into the mainstream framework of evolutionary biology.
Like these forerunners, Trager focuses on the developmental,
biochemical, and genetic adaptations by which the parasite exploits
its special ecological niche, and by which the host seeks to retain
its own Malthusian fitness in the face of that challenge.  
Extraordinarily, he is able to unite a half-century of experience
with the latest findings and perspectives of molecular biology, which
is, of course, bringing this field of study into a revolutionary new
phase.

     What impressed me, and what will enrich a generation of new
molecular parasitology entrants seeking key research problems, is
the range of fabulous stories in this book.  It is a veritable
Arabian Nights of narrative, not of the human imagination, but of
Nature's, in the exposition of phenomena of adaptation and
specificity.  On every page, the author exhibits his profound
awareness of the conundrums they pose for physico-chemical and
developmental-genetic principles still to be elaborated -- to explain
specificity for hosts and organs, tropisms, response to host rhythms,
and endocrinology; the morphogenetic cycling of
vegetative/reproductive phases, and the questions these raise for the
differential control of gene expression.  Nothing in the biology
of the parasitic relationship escapes notice, be it the nutritional
requirements of the parasite, the molecular genetics of the
kinetoplasts, the mechanisms of pathogenesis, the host defenses, or
the rationale and means of chemotherapy.  Amusing and challenging
are the reports of ways in which parasites alter host behavior
and even growth towards the ends of the parasite.

     I am tempted to borrow his examples; but that would be
transparent and redundant plagiarism -- the reader has but to turn
to random pages, or scan the logically organized Contents.  The work
is also enriched by a systematic set of life cycle diagrams,
indispensable for an overview of parasite natural history.  For
writing so easily digested, it is also fully documented in the 
bibliography following each chapter.  It should be said that parasite
here is meant to embrace animal parasites of other animal species,
though the principles will be of great pertinence to parasitism
by fungi, bacteria, and even viruses.

     Many young scientists will, I hope, read this work: There are
enough research challenges to keep them all fully occupied in an
area which is as rich with human needs as it is with challenges to
biological imagination.  Others will find great stimulation and
enjoyment, and a small lament that we do not have multiple lifetimes
to enjoy and observe what the next decades of research will bring
to the field, which Trager sings of so eloquently.
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