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book reviews Toronto and Edinburgh. Everyone wanted including even little diamonds; of the rates of New in paperback Osler, even before his Principles and Practice fall of aerosol particles and their scattering of of Medicine (1892) made him the public light in the atmosphere; of redder sunsets on Made to Measure: New Materials for embodiment of humane, scientific medi- smoggy days; of the aeolian transport of the 21st Century cine. Not a particularly effective public ferruginous dust from the Sahara across the by Philip Ball speaker, he was nevertheless much in Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean; of lead dust Princeton University Press, $17.95, £11.50 demand, and occasionally moved his along roadsides and how it affects traffic “Many books on new materials have more audience to tears. He was at his best at the policemen and children in areas where auto- hyperbole than substance; this is not one of bedside, however, both as a teacher and as a mobile fuels are (or were) leaded; of pollen them. Ball writes of his materials with doctor. He inspired confidence in his and mites’ eggs and allergies; of asbestosis enthusiasm, but tempered realism. He recognizes patients and simply inspired his students. leading to lung cancer; of domestic dust, and that most (but far from all) new materials will be There is nonetheless the nagging question how static charges cause it to settle sideways passing wonders.” A. Lindsay Greer, Nature 392, of why Osler’s reputation did not simply on walls over radiators. Alas, I found almost 561–562 (1998) quietly fade away, as his students and col- nothing along these lines. leagues followed him to their graves. Bliss’s Amato writes well; he is a littérateur, an The Age of Spiritual Machines: When last chapter describes, even if it does not elegant stylist and, presumably, a good histo- Computers Exceed Human entirely explain, the posthumous Osler. It rian. I learnt about the craze for gold dust, Intelligence may be something as vague as ‘character’, or it and of rural tragedies in the American dust by Ray Kurzweil may be related to his very ordinariness, or his bowl during the 1930s. Sprinkled unobtru- Penguin, $14.95 irrepressible sense of fun. Maybe it is because, sively through the text are hundreds of little “Kurzweil’s account focuses mostly on the like him, we all really enjoy the company of numbers, so small that they don’t interrupt intelligence of machines and the way humans children more than that of their stuffy one’s flow of reading; they refer to original will interface with them via direct neural parents. Whatever it is, the Osler phenom- sources quoted in 40 pages near the end of connections to our brains. The writing is always enon is still alive and well, even if Sir William the book, as is perhaps proper for historical lively and the arguments are well presented and is not the only saint to be have attracted theses. (Maybe we scientists could copy this amplified by numerous boxed cut-outs, tables acolytes for less than saintly motives. I system.) and graphs showing the ever-accelerating pace of W. F. Bynum is at the Wellcome Institute for the Clearly, though, Amato is no scientist. computing technology ...[Recommended] to any History of Medicine, 183 Euston Road, London What little science we find here is not of the reader who wants a mind-expanding account of NW1 2BE, UK. highest order. “A grain of musk perfumes a the rise of the age of intelligent machines.” John room for years, and a single grain of indigo L. Casti, Nature 397, 663–664 (1999) colors a ton of water,” he writes. “Antbread is a barely visible part of a tiny seed that ants Mapping the Mind drag to their nests and which, if uneaten, by Rita Carter Seeing the world in springs up into plants. ... In grain elevators Seven Dials, £14.99 … a single spark from any source (even the “Information there is aplenty, nugget after a mote of dust tiny amount of electricity given off by the nugget of it to stimulate and tease the most jaded Dust: A History of the Small and human body) can trigger an immense explo- palate.” Jeffrey Gray, Nature 399, 652 (1999) the Invisible sion.” And so on. Amato has spread his net by Joseph A. Amato widely. His concept of dust seems to embrace Instead, Bliss succumbs to the Osler University of California Press: 2000. 288 pp. not only the fluff that I surreptitiously sweep magic, and offers us an immaculately $22.50, £13.95 under rugs but also sawdust, powdered researched and finely written account of this Ralph Lewin herbs, flour, gunpowder, dirt, mud, germs of most famous of all modern doctors. It goes all sorts, worms, lice, and even halitosis! His beyond Cushing’s ‘life and letters’ approach, According to some religions, the human race topics include a scattershot on cancer, Dolly but Bliss reinforces rather than displaces the was created from a handful of dust. Accord- the ewe, Nazism, plumbing, poverty, transis- received image of Saint William. He sticks ing to others, perhaps more plausible, that’s tors, Vincent van Gogh … but wait! Under- close to the rich manuscript sources and how we’ll all end up. So the subject of dust neath all these dusty matters there is, in fact, avoids psychologizing. We follow Osler should be of some interest to all of us, even if yet another interesting and informative his- through his career, from his childhood as the we are not cleaners, librarians, vacuum- tory of art, culture — yes, even science — in son of an Anglican parson in backwoods cleaner sellers or members of Alfred Doo- Western Europe during the past millennium. Ontario to education in Toronto and Mon- little’s fraternity of dustmen in the film My I am reminded of a game we played in our treal, where he graduated in medicine from Fair Lady. school debating society. We put into a hat McGill. Bliss remarks, almost in passing, that I was glad to have this book sent to me to many bits of paper bearing different words as Osler was never comfortable with any lan- review, since dust has accompanied me topics, such as God, Macbeth, underpants, guage but English, despite his education in throughout my life. As a child in London I UFOs, dust, and so on. Then one of us drew predominantly francophone Montreal, and used to watch golden motes of cotton dust out a couple at random, was allowed two his active participation in numerous inter- spinning slowly as they fell through all-too- minutes to consider them, and then three national medical congresses at a time when infrequent sunbeams. I survived many dusty minutes to give a short talk somehow inte- French and German were more common weeks in San José, Costa Rica, when Volcan grating the two selected topics. Amato, if he languages of scientific currency. Irazu erupted. Every time the wind blew in ever played it, would have excelled. A rich brother helped Osler spend a cou- the wrong direction, it shed so much ash I’m sure many lay readers will find ple of postgraduate years in Europe, which over the city that lawns became grey, and this book entertaining. The University of was the making of him. From then on, it dust-covered coffee plants died for lack of California Press must have thought so, too. I seemed almost effortless: chairs at McGill, adequate photosynthesis. Ralph Lewin is at the Scripps Institution of the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hop- I expected to find plenty of scientific Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, kins and Oxford, with offers of serious information on abundances, sizes, velocities 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California nibbles elsewhere, including Harvard, and compositions of interstellar particles, 92093-0202, USA. © 2000 Macmillan Magazines Ltd 250 NATURE | VOL 403 | 20 JANUARY 2000 | www.nature.com.

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