"Newton was a decidedly odd figure…Once he inserted a bodkin-a long needle of the sort used for sewing leather- into his eye socket and rubbed it around 'betwixt my eye and the bone as near to backside of my eye as I could' just to see what would happen…another occasion, he stared at the sun for as long as he could bear, to determine what effect it would have upon his vision"
I find this to be rather insane. I was under the impression that he (being as smart as he is) would have at least a little bit of common sense. Who shoves a needle in their eye just to see what would happen. It's not a "saw" movie. I figured to be smart and to revolutionize math and science you would have to do work on things that don't involve mutilation of your own body. Then staring into the sun, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it hurts your eyes, let alone what would happen to your eyes if you stared at the sun all day. Why not just combine the two acts and take a red hot piece of iron and jam it into your eye? This guy is completely off his nut.
