From John Griffith
Nobel prizewinners should think themselves lucky they get anything at all (Comment, 17 December).
Alfred Nobel’s original plan for the use of his fortune was for the construction of crematoria in major cities all over Europe, if the reputable French reference book Quid is to be believed. However, opposition to the idea from the Roman Catholic church was so strong that he had to devise another scheme.
It is also said that the reason that there has never been a prize for mathematics is that Nobel’s wife had had an affair with a mathematician.
