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A list of ignominous "scientific" adventures, which turned out to be rather
"pseudo-science".  The book was not very happily received by people who
believed in these areas - as HG writes in the preface (p.xi):

    The first edition of this book prompted many curious letter from irate
    readers. The most violent letters came from Reichians, furious because
    the book considered orgonomy alongside such (to them) outlandish cults as
    dianetics. Dianeticians, of course, felt the same about orgonomy. I heard
    from homeopaths who were insulted to find themselves in company with such
    frauds as osteopathy and chiropractic, and one chiropractor in Kentucky
    “pitied” me because I had turned my spine on God’s greatest gift to
    suffering humanity. Several admirers of Dr. Bates favored me with letters
    so badly typed that I suspect the writers were in urgent need of strong
    spectacles. Oddly enough, most of these correspondents objected to one
    chapter only, thinking all the others excellent.

This was Gardner's second book, first publ 1952.  This is a revised 1957
edition.  The opening chapter establishes the nature of the pseudo-scientist;
the remaining chapters outline a number well-researched, specific cases.

CONTENTS: CHAPTERS [w]
 1. In the Name of Science: the modern era has seen a great spread in cranks
    practicing pseudo-science.   Five common traits of pseudo-scientists.
	a. considers himself a genius.
	b. regards other researchers as stupid.  "To me the truth is
	   precious... I should rather be right and stand alone than to run
	   with the multitude and be wrong... [These views] have already won
	   for me the scorn and contempt of my fellowmen.
	c. believes himself unjustly persecuted - feels there is a campaign
	   against his ideas, likening himself to Bruno, Galileo or Pasteur.
	d. His attacks are directed against the most respected scientists; in
	   Newton's time, it was Newton, later Einstein bore the brunt.
	e. He uses new jargon / neologisms.
 2. Flat and Hollow: the Flat Earth theory of Wilbur Glenn Voliva; the Hollow
    Earth theories of John Cleves Symmes, Jr. and Cyrus Reed Teed.
 3. Monsters of Doom: Immanuel Velikovsky’s Worlds in Collision; William
    Whiston’s A New Theory of the Earth; Ignatius Donnelly’s Ragnarok; Hans
    Hörbiger’s Welteislehre and Hörbiger’s disciple Hans Schindler Bellamy.
 4. The Forteans: Charles Fort, Tiffany Thayer and the Fortean Society; also
    criticism of subsequent movements such as the Great Books Program.
 5. Flying Saucers: Kenneth Arnold, the Mantell UFO Incident, Raymond Palmer,
    Richard Shaver, Donald Keyhoe, Frank Scully, Gerald Heard and the
    Unidentified flying object movement.
 6. Zig-Zag-and-Swirl: Alfred Lawson and his “Lawsonomy”.
 7. Down with Einstein!: Joseph Battell, Thomas H. Graydon, George Francis
    Gillette, Jeremiah J. Callahan and others.
 8. Sir Isaac Babson: Roger Babson and the Gravity Research Foundation.
 9. Dowsing Rods and Doodlebugs: Solcol W. Tromp and radiesthesia; Kenneth
    Roberts, Henry Gross and their dowsing.
10. Under the Microscope: Andrew Crosse, Henry Charlton Bastian, Charles
    Wentworth Littlefield and others who observed spontaneous generation of
    living forms.
11. Geology versus Genesis: Philip Henry Gosse and his Omphalos; George
    McCready Price and The New Geology; Mortimer Adler’s writings on
    evolution; Hilaire Belloc’s debate with H. G. Wells.
12. Lysenkoism: Lamarck and Lamarckism; Lysenko and Lysenkoism.
13. Apologists for Hate: Hans F. K. Günther and “nordicism”; Charles Carroll,
    Madison Grant, Lothrop Stoddard, and “scientific racism”.
14. Atlantis and Lemuria: Ignatius Donnelly (again), Lewis Spence and
    Atlantis; Madame Blavatsky, James Churchward and Lemuria.
15. The Great Pyramid: John Taylor, Charles Piazzi Smyth, Charles Taze
    Russell and others with their theories about the Great Pyramid of Giza.
16. Medical Cults: Samuel Hahnemann, The Organon of the Healing Art, and
    homeopathy; naturopathy, with iridiagnosis, zone therapy and Alexander
    technique; Andrew Taylor Still and osteopathy; Daniel D. Palmer and
    chiropractic.
17. Medical Quacks: Elisha Perkins; Albert Abrams and his defender Upton
    Sinclair; Ruth Drown; Dinshah Pestanji Framji Ghadiali; color therapy;
    Gurdjieff; Aleister Crowley; Edgar Cayce.
18. Food Faddists: Horace Fletcher and Fletcherism; William Howard Hay and
    the Dr. Hay diet; vegetarianism (“We need not be concerned here with the
    ethical arguments ...”); Jerome Irving Rodale and organic farming; Rudolf
    Steiner, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, anthroposophy and biodynamic agriculture;
    Gayelord Hauser; Nutrilite; Dudley J. LeBlanc and Hadacol.
19. Throw Away Your Glasses!: William Horatio Bates, the Bates method, Aldous
    Huxley, The Art of Seeing.
20. Eccentric Sexual Theories: Arabella Kenealy; Bernarr Macfadden; John
    R. Brinkley; Frank Harris; John Humphrey Noyes and the Oneida Community;
    Alice Bunker Stockham and “karezza”.
21. Orgonomy: Wilhelm Reich and “orgone”.
22. Dianetics: L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental
    Health. (The term Scientology had only just been introduced when
    Gardner’s book was published.)
23. General Semantics, Etc.: Alfred Korzybski, Samuel I. Hayakawa and
    “general semantics”; Jacob L. Moreno and “psychodrama”
24. From Bumps to Handwriting: Francis Joseph Gall and phrenology;
    physiognomy; palmistry; graphology.
25. ESP and PK: Joseph Banks Rhine, extra-sensory perception and
    psychokinesis; Nandor Fodor; Upton Sinclair (again) and Mental Radio; Max
    Freedom Long.
26. Bridey Murphy and Other Matters: Morey Bernstein and Bridey Murphy; a
    final plea for orthodoxy and responsibility in publishing.