A Bedside Nature: Genius and Eccentricity in Science 1869-1953

Those of us who love pouring through ancient journals- especially British journals, with their exceedingly polite and ultimately trivial harsplitting over pointless detail have a treasure in this book. The editor has taken and annotated gems from nearly 100 years of publication of this eminant journal, including some very amusing and ultimately pointless debates between a number of eminant Victorians. There are some useful inquiries as well; Francis Galton, having his portrait painted for the umpteenth time, begins a study of the number of brushstrokes used my the artist, and eventually concludes that the number of strokes in a given portrait seems to be consistent between artists and independant of style. Various writers suggest mneumonics for memorizing the significant digits of pi- in various langauges, and various meters.On the more serious side, there is much discussion of the treatment of war wounds at the time of the Great War, quite a lot of debate about Prof! . Einstein, and some of Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman's first published writings in England- regarding the physics of musical instruments.If this sort of thing interests you (and it absolutely captivates me) you should rush to buy this book lest as soon as possible lest it fall out of print.