A RUM AFFAIR - How botany's 'Piltdown Man' was unmasked

London: Allen Lane - Penguin Press, 1999. Set in Postscript Monotype Sabon. Cover illustration: Andrew Bridge. Professor J. W. Heslop Harrison aroused suspicion of scientific fraud in the 1940s after numerous 'discoveries' of new plant species on Rum Island in the Hebrides. A young Cambridge man infiltrated one of the professor's expeditions and the report was damning, accusing the professor of sytematic and persistent faking of his results. The report was buried in a Cambridge library for nearly fifty years and the professor continued his career. The author unearthed the report and used it as a starting point in unravelling a story that has been called 'the Piltdown Man of botany'. He uses the Rum Island affair to explore the roots of scientific fraud in general and the pressures that can drive an emineent scientist to believe that faking the data is sometimes justified. Contents: 1). 'A curious episode'. 2). Fields of inquiry. 3). The professor and the don. 4). Rumours. 5). The plan. 6). The forbidden island. 7). 'Quoth the raven...' 8). 'Is such a thing done?' 9). The aftermath. 10). Seeds of doubt. 11). 'A total muddlehead'. 12). The matter subsides. 13). A turn-up for the book. Epilogue: Two minor mysteries. With appendix, notes and index. 11 black and white photographic plates. IX + 223 + (1) pag.. 1st edition. Hard bound with dustjacket. Fine copy.. 22cmx14,5cm.