Why is a Chameleon like a Mermaid?
In April 1691, a reader wrote in to a new periodical, The Athenian Mercury, with a pressing question: "Whether, since Mermen and Mermaids have more of the humane shape than other Fishes, they may be thought to have more Reason." I can honestly say this question had never occurred to me before reading the Mercury, the world's first question-and-answer periodical. (The editors didn't really answer the question of reason, but gave...