An entertaining yet authoritative exploration of colourful scientific theories once thought to have been true, but which have since been disproved. Discover why Queen Victoria guzzled a tincture of opium on her physician's advice; how reluctance to accept the idea of germ theory led to murder; and why Catholic explorers concocted the myth that South American tribes indulged in cannibalism. This fascinating guide features ideas that now seem more crazy than credible, from the human body being made up of only four humours – black and yellow bile, blood and phlegm – to the discovery of the so-called 'missing link' in the evolutionary chain. When the Earth Was Flat tells the intriguing stories behind those scientific theories we once believed to be true, and shows how the way we view the world, and the way we think the world works, has changed completely throughout history.