Review : Vile bodies

Lavishly illustrated, Plague, Pox and Pestilence, looks like a coffee-table
book. Edited by Kenneth F. Kiple, its thesis is that the contemporary world has
been shaped by disease and its eradication, which the writers enthusiastically
prove by considering every major affliction and its origin throughout history.
Well done and magnificently illustrated, it is nevertheless too ghoulish to take
in anything but small doses. Published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £25,
ISBN 0297822543.