Summary Of The Wild Life Of Our Bodies

Rob Dunn is a biologist, writer, and a professor at North Carolina State University who enjoys telling medical stories in an effort to reveal the connection between species. Dunn provides information that others often neglect or do not acknowledge. His passion for nature and educating others started at a young age and has continued into adulthood. One of Dunn’s many books, The Wild Life of Our Bodies, focuses on the evolution of the human body throughout human history. He considers the human body’s relationship with other species to be vital to a healthy survival. While Dunn successfully argues the need for humans to interact with other species and effectively supports his theories with many different thought-provoking studies and a seven-part
novel, he fails to maintain the interest of the reader due to his absentminded thoughts, poor organization, and loosely-connected anecdotes. As a biologist, Dunn focuses on the relationship of humans and other species on the condition of the human body. For example, Dunn explains the influence of bacteria on the function of our intestinal walls and how without them, the human body would not be in prime condition. He explains that our human bodies function on the principle that other species attach to us. In the past several years, there has been a decrease in attachment between the human body and other species such as parasites, bacteria, or pathogens. Bacteria, such as intestinal worms, are what keeps the bowels healthy enough to digest food but we are now trying to rid them from the body (23). Dunn’s theory of this slow detachment is the major evolutional change of the human bodies’ condition. Cleansing ourselves from such species has appeared to aid the human body; however, Dunn reveals that this detachment from species has harmed the human body, making some people become ill. We are trying to rid ourselves of old diseases but find ourselves faced with new diseases, such as Crohn’s disease, that have a tendency to occur in countries focused around healthcare (18). Some of these illnesses never appeared to be a problem until recently when humans started to become concerned with germs and bacteria. For example, our foods in the past were homegrown, but now many are shipped to us, and our milk used to come from working hands rather than machines (233). Therefore, Dunn believes humans need to reattach to the species in nature to assist humans in a healthy, bacteria-filled life. They are the link that helps our existence on this earth (258). Dunn successfully argues the need for humans to interact with other species by showing the reader studies and examples of how these things have impacted many people’s lives. Dunn uses a seven-part book in order to convince the audience of the negative result of evolution. The separation in the story allows the writer to break from different ideas then draw a conclusion in the final part of the book. In Dunn’s book, he uses the parts to express the evolution and relationship of the human body and other species. He explores the interaction with other species, the detachment, consequences of detachment, and his theory of evolution through the use of multiple studies. For example, the last part of the book is named The Future of Human Nature and expresses how Dunn feels about the evolution along with what can be changed to improve the condition of the human body. Although this seven-part novel was effective in allowing minimal organization of the whole novel, the organization within each part is lacking sophistication. When reading chapters within his novel, he writes as if it he speaking out of brain without a filter or solid structure. Therefore, the structures of those thoughts are scrambled and scatterbrained. In chapter two, Dunn goes from talking about Ardi, a discovery of bones, to Crohn’s disease to the precedent involved pronghorn. This fast transition between thoughts creates a jumble of information for the reader. While Dunn claims there is in interconnection between Crohn’s and pronghorns, the connection is never really displayed or the importance of discussing Ardi in the introduction. Thus, Dunn was able to draw a conclusion but bounced around in doing so making it difficult for the reader to stay focused on the point being made. Throughout Dunn’s novel, he uses a variety of sources that are appropriate to verify his point about evolution.
One intriguing source was a study by Joel Weinstock who was a gastroenterologist examining the effects of wipeworms on the gastrointestinal tract. Due to his field and knowledge of gastroenterology, Weinstock is qualified to study inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn’s disease. In this study, he focused on the positive influence of whipworms on a person with Crohn’s by giving “a glass of Gatorade with whipworms suspended in it” to each patient (37). In the end, majority of patient’s condition improved while others declined or remained the same. This study was able to prove Dunn’s point that attachment to other species is vital for a happy and healthier life. Another creditable experiment was a study by James Arthur Reyniers who was a bacteriologist trying to make the first germ free animal. The study consists of giving birth to a guinea pig inside a giant metal ball so that the baby could live in a world without any germs. Reyniers believed if we could “kill the germs” then “we would be healthier and happier” (74). However, Dunn was able to refute Reyniers’ argument by expressing Reyniers’ failure of keeping bacteria out of the chambers killing the guinea pig. Therefore, due to Reyniers’ credentials in bacteriology, this study was appropriate to prove that we can live without bacteria as long as that is where we were birthed but it is too hard to exclude
yourself from bacteria and germs. Thus, a bacteria free world is impractical. Both of these sources benefit Dunn’s argument due to both being creditable, appropriate, and reliable studies based on larger populations. Though Dunn uses large population sources, he also uses anecdotes that take one single person study and relate it to the whole world.
When Dunn uses studies like these, he losses creditability on large source experiments like the studies above. For example, after explaining Weinstock’s study of whipworms’ effect on Crohn’s disease, Dunn explains a woman’s journey to obtain hookworms out of the country due to her belief in Weinstock’s study. A woman, Debora Wade, was tired of all the complications with Crohn’s disease and the fact that “the drugs she was taking for the Crohn’s were not working” (45). So she went to a Mexican clinic to get hookworm eggs like the ones in Weinstock’s experiment, but in the end, the hookworms only helped for a short period of time before all her symptoms and complications came back. This proved Dunn’s theory that treatments only works sometimes due to the different way people exclude themselves from germs and bacteria. In the other study of Reyniers’ experiment of a bacteria free animal, Dunn introduces the anecdote of the bubble boy. The bubble boy was a child who “had been transferred antiseptically into a chamber at birth because he lacked an immune system” (76). Dunn uses this one instance of the bubble boy to prove that the bubble boy died after reattachment to other germs and bacteria due to his lack of interaction with these species. Together these experiments are anecdotes that Dunn uses as resources to support his other large
population sources. Although anecdotes are not reliable due to they only being based on one person’s experience, Dunn is able to work them in with larger sources to make them appear very compelling and convincing to the reader. Even though Dunn’s uses anecdotes and a lack of structure within chapters, he is able to provide a convincing and persuasive argument on evolution. He is able to take these flaws and logically present them in a way that presents merit and a high-level sophisticated book. Dunn was one of many to pioneer the idea of the need of a strong relationship between humans and other species in order to benefit the health of humans. Therefore, with his seven-part novel and large-study sources, his rational is sound to the reader and to fellow scientists that might be compelled to see something from another point of view. The novel, The Wildlife of Our Bodies, is a worthy story to initiate discussion from another point of view and allows for the open-mindedness of research. Thus, this novel is recommended to those who want to further explore the determination of humans to reconnect with nature.