>William McNeill clearly needs to be cast into a den staffed not with lions >but with ten historians of discursive practice. He badly needs to learn >that there are things worse than people who actually try to count noses...(posted 8757 days ago)Ah, but if they were only counting noses it might not be so bad. I think it is the measuring of noses to construct an index of GNP that provokes anxiety. You have to admit, "lending ficticious precision to error" is a wonderful line. Could be a great book title. KL