This highly interesting collection of historical articles started as a series of "e;space-fillers"e;, the journalist's device to mitigate the harshness of white space at the end of scientific papers.The author has expanded these short essays and included several additional articles and biographical reviews. He has also incorporated some longer, more discursive essays, which should be relevant to neurologists, physicians and those working in internal medicine and psychiatry. The reader attracted to medical and neurological history should find much of interest in these diverse topics.