[1] The book is a collection of articles that constitute a "study ... of controversial and often little-known happenings in science and technology, with an emphasis on the wayward activities of those who dabble in fringe science.

"[2] The material is organized in three sections, "Our Ingenious Forebears," "Beasts of Now and Then," and "Scientists, Mad and Otherwise."

The first debunks extravagant occult and pseudoscientific claims regarding ancient civilizations while highlighting these cultures' actual accomplishments.

The third explores the distinction between science and pseudoscience as illustrated in the lives of a number of scientists holding extreme views.

"The Landlocked Indian Ocean" (from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Jun.

"The Need to Know" (original title: "Pure Science") (from The Book of Knowledge Annual, 1959) "Acknowledgments" Joel W. Hedgpeth, noting that the book's "assemblage of articles" includes "all sorts of more-or-less scientific subjects," feels de Camp "writes about these matters in ... good-humored spirit, but with a ... substantial factual basis."

While highlighting the essays on sea serpents, the extinction of the megafauna, the "strange story of the okapi," and the Cope-Marsh feud, Hedgpeth states "[h]is most entertaining piece is about the use of elephants in warfare, which is aptly titled 'The Temperamental Tank.