In 1791, Franz Joseph Gall published his theory that the brain consists of sections, founding the totally unscientific 'science' of phrenology or bump-reading.
In 1819, Pierre-Louis Dulong and Alexis-Therese Petit published their fraudulent 'Dulong and Petit's Law' which was only unmasked as a fraud in 1985.
The Piltdown Man was a fraud, created from a human skull and an ape jaw, cleverly worked to make them seem to belong together. The fraud would never work today.
In 1953, Kenneth Oakley reported that the Piltdown skull was a fake, providing clear scientific evidence and pointing to a number of glaring discrepancies.
In 1902, anarchist Peter Kropotkin found evolution unpalatable, and argued, in his 'Mutual Aid', that animals do not struggle for existence, but cooperate.
Around 1838, it is likely that the US Exploring Expedition searched for Symmes' Hole in Antarctic waters. It had certainly been proposed that they do so.
Symmes' Hole was a supposed entry point to access a supposedly hollow planet Earth. Symmes was an American who campaigned hard to have the hole found.
It matters very little if enquiries are driven by speculation and fervent wishes, so long as the results are not tainted by the beliefs of the experimenter.
In the 1980s, Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe claimed that Archaeopteryx was a fraud. This has not been supported by any evidence since that time.
Even though there was no evidence for the Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe claims about Archaeopteryx, the claims are repeated by creation science supporters.
This file is http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/scifun/splatstruth.htm, first created on February 16, 2008. Last recorded revision (well I get lazy and forget sometimes!) was on February 16, 2008.