>> I find the second-guessing of the probable IQ of well-known
>> historical geniuses particularly amusing.  Observing a man's
>> life and his works in their entirety, and judging his intelligence
>> thereby, is quite a different thing than trying to judge someone
>> based on a test spanning a couple hours at a particular instant
>> in their lives...

That sounds 'backwards' to me.
ie it sounds (to me with my IQ :-) ) like you are suggesting a 2 hour 
test is a better way of testing IQ.
But, I would have suspected that "Observing a man's life and his works 
in their entirety, and judging his intelligence thereby" would be a 
reasonably profitable exercise compared with using a 2 hour test. For 
instance, with Newton we get the calculus, Principa Mathematica, 
gravitation and more ("The tyger is known by its stripes') plus 
Alchemy and other. The latter two account for about 1/3 each of 
Newton's output. We don't hear much about it today. We also get his 
general behaviour towrds others, religious persuasions, various 
occupations (head of the Royal Mint, Fellow of the Royal Society, ...) 
to get an idea of where and how he fitted into society. Overall it 
seems that one could fit him quite well into a continuum of high 
ranking IQ-peers with fine adjustments for whatever "cultural" factors 
one deemed important.

> Yeah I agree.  Personally I am similarly amused by attempts to 
> diagnose
> people from the past with certain mental or emotional disorders.

I agree that that is harder - but given enough data an expert should 
have as good a chance as say a vet does now of getting their diagnosis 
right :-). Few would doubt that Vincent van Gogh had problems, or that 
experts are liable to be able to identify what they are with 
reasonable accuracy. Would you doubt that King Saul of David / Goliath 
/ Jonathon fame almost certainly had a debree of "bipolar disorder".



        RM 

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