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On Fertile Ground: A natural history of human reproduction by Peter Thorpe
Ellison, Harvard University Press, 拢19.50, ISBN 0674004639

PETER ELLISON grips your attention from his opening contrast between a
difficult birth in the central Africa that ended in the death of the baby and a
successful delivery in the US that mobilised up-to-date medical facilities.

He isn鈥檛 sensationalist. Fascination comes from following the progress from
conception to maturity in minute detail. From the first invasion of an egg cell
by the sperm, the processes relate to human evolution鈥攖he defeat of the
female鈥檚 immune system, for example. A fertilised egg is a foreign body and
ought to be attacked. It isn鈥檛. Armour, camouflage and artful dodging are all
there.

Later stages of life, such as the steady growth of childhood and the sudden
burst of adolescence, bring Ellison to a wider range, including ecology and
anthropology.

There is a particularly interesting section on body fat鈥攚hy we have it
and how it is used as emergency food rations. He also explores why we don鈥檛 have
much hair, except, he says, a 鈥渞ather bizarre skullcap鈥�. And, of course, there鈥檚
much about sex.

Now and then you might need a dictionary, but On Fertile Ground is
enjoyable and Ellison has an individual voice.