Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Sleep is a vulnerable state.
Speaker 1: While we slumber. Any number of things can happen. We
Speaker 1: might not hear the pop of a pipe as it
Speaker 1: fills the basement with water, or the subtle steps of
Speaker 1: a burglar hunting for whatever is within reach. Some of
Speaker 1: us might even raid the fridge in a half conscious state,
Speaker 1: hunting for a snack that will satisfy our midnight cravings.
Speaker 1: And then there's Ansel. He was a man with a
Speaker 1: complicated relationship with sleep. In the late nineteenth century, Ansel
Speaker 1: worked as a carpenter and an evangelical preacher in Rhode Island.
Speaker 1: He had a wife and two adult daughters with families
Speaker 1: of their own. He was well known around town too,
Speaker 1: but not for his woodworking skills or even his sermons. No,
Speaker 1: Ansel was prone to certain episodes ones where he would
Speaker 1: briefly forget who or where he was. It was a
Speaker 1: form of temporary amnesia known as dissociative fugue or sleepwalking. Now,
Speaker 1: some at the time might have called it somnambulism, which
Speaker 1: was a scary word. Those who suffered often fell downstairs
Speaker 1: or hurt themselves due to their semi consciousness, but ansel
Speaker 1: usually came back to himself after a short time. That
Speaker 1: is until one day in March of eighteen eighty seven,
Speaker 1: when locals noticed the preacher had disappeared. Meanwhile, two d
Speaker 1: fifty miles away, the small town of Norristown, Pennsylvania, was
Speaker 1: trying to solve a mystery of their own. It seemed
Speaker 1: that an older gentleman named A. J. Brown had been
Speaker 1: running a stationary and confectioner shop, and he was a
Speaker 1: bit confused. He'd taken to showing up on his landlord's
Speaker 1: door asking him questions like who am I and how
Speaker 1: did I get here? It just so happened that Mr.
Speaker 1: Brown had woken up in the middle of ringing a
Speaker 1: customer in his store, and he couldn't remember how he
Speaker 1: got there. In fact, his situation was so unusual and
Speaker 1: frightening to him that he called a local doctor for help,
Speaker 1: a man by the name of Louis Reid, and soon
Speaker 1: enough they got to work looking for answers. The story Mr.
Speaker 1: Brown told him was a wild one. It was the
Speaker 1: story of a man who had gone into a FuG
Speaker 1: state and traveled south from Rhode Island into Pennsylvania, where
Speaker 1: he ran his own store for two months as a
Speaker 1: completely different person. Dr Reid then asked him about the
Speaker 1: last thing he remembered before he woke up. It had
Speaker 1: been January eighteenth, and he had taken a horse and
Speaker 1: carriage to a bank in Providence. He was on his
Speaker 1: way to visit his son. He remembered the ride to
Speaker 1: the bank, withdrawing the money, and even the street signs
Speaker 1: he passed on the way, but after a brief it
Speaker 1: with a nephew, it was all blank. The next thing
Speaker 1: Ansel knew two months had gone by and he'd become
Speaker 1: the owner of a new business. Ansel's amnesia was obviously
Speaker 1: worse than he'd known, so his nephew was called to
Speaker 1: collect him, and not long after returning home, he was
Speaker 1: able to learn more about his condition. Because it just
Speaker 1: so happened that William James, often called the father of
Speaker 1: American psychology, was teaching at Harvard University. He heard about
Speaker 1: Ansel's incidents and traveled from Massachusetts to Rhode Island to
Speaker 1: study him. Using hypnosis, Dr James was able to draw
Speaker 1: out either Ansel or Mr Brown from the poor man's consciousness,
Speaker 1: and neither personality had any recollection of what the other
Speaker 1: had done. It was as if Ansel had a whole
Speaker 1: other person living a completely separate life right inside his mind.
Speaker 1: But there's something else. Ansel's story was so interesting that
Speaker 1: other people started to take notice outside of academic circles.
Speaker 1: One of those people was an author with an idea
Speaker 1: for a character suffering from amnesia, a character who, upon
Speaker 1: waking on board a fishing boat with no memory of
Speaker 1: what happened to him, would end up traveling the world
Speaker 1: to learn who he really was. Oh and if I
Speaker 1: told you that Ansel's last name was Born, you might
Speaker 1: be able to guess the name of the writer. But
Speaker 1: if your memory has failed you, you're not alone. The
Speaker 1: writer was none other than Robert Ludlam, author of The
Speaker 1: Born Identity. William Buckland wanted to do it all. One
Speaker 1: look at his life and it's clear that he had
Speaker 1: a dream to be the most interesting person in the world.
Speaker 1: Born in England in four William found a home and education,
Speaker 1: but he wasn't content with merely being a teacher. He
Speaker 1: also named the non avian dinosaur Megalosaurus, and then in
Speaker 1: eighteen twenty three, while exploring a cave in South Wales,
Speaker 1: he came across a skeleton that he dubbed the Red
Speaker 1: Lady of poppy Land, known today as the oldest modern
Speaker 1: human found in the United Kingdom. William was also unique
Speaker 1: in his teaching style, as he was prone to shouting
Speaker 1: questions at his students while shoving a hyenas skull in
Speaker 1: front of them to throw them off. Obviously, William had
Speaker 1: a knack for standing out, but he felt there was
Speaker 1: more for him out there, another way to be the
Speaker 1: first to rise above his peers in a meaningful and
Speaker 1: lasting way, So he turned to one of his greatest
Speaker 1: passions food. It's probably safe to say that William was
Speaker 1: the only man around known for eating mice on toast.
Speaker 1: He often threw parties where he served panther and dolphin,
Speaker 1: among other unconventional meats to his guests, and his friends
Speaker 1: didn't seem to mind. In fact, they supported him in
Speaker 1: his ultimate goal to eat one of every animal on earth.
Speaker 1: He sampled cea slugs, crunched on kangaroo, and munched on mole,
Speaker 1: the last of which he claimed was one of the
Speaker 1: worst things that he had ever tasted. Well, that and
Speaker 1: the blue bottle fly. No animal was off limits, though,
Speaker 1: including hedgehog, ostrich and even crocodile. But William didn't just
Speaker 1: eat animals. He kept many of them as pets too. Sure.
Speaker 1: There were guinea pigs and frogs and ferrets, the usual
Speaker 1: fair that you might find in a child's bedroom or
Speaker 1: kindergarten class, but he also kept hawks, owls, and a
Speaker 1: pet hyena in his house. It seemed his eccentricities were
Speaker 1: not limited to the dinner table or the classroom, But
Speaker 1: eventually William's palette grew tired of even the most exotic
Speaker 1: creatures he could get his teeth on. On a trip
Speaker 1: to Italy in the early eighteen hundreds, he was touring
Speaker 1: a local cathedral and asked about the wet floor. It
Speaker 1: was slippery, but not from water. The priest told him
Speaker 1: about the blood spilled by saints that slashed beneath their feet. William,
Speaker 1: skeptical of the priest story, dropped to the floor and
Speaker 1: lapped up some of the fluid, only to realize that
Speaker 1: it hadn't been blood at all. It was bat yurine. However,
Speaker 1: perhaps the most egregious act William Buckland ever performed came
Speaker 1: during a visit to see British politician Lord Hardcourt. The
Speaker 1: Lord was in possession of a locket that held within
Speaker 1: it a small parcel of brown pummus, a stone by
Speaker 1: the looks of it. One evening, the Hardcourts held a
Speaker 1: dinner party for many important guests and put the piece
Speaker 1: on display for all to admire. And eventually, perhaps while
Speaker 1: they served assert and brandy, the locket was passed around
Speaker 1: the table for everyone to admire. Each dinner guest took
Speaker 1: turns opening it to gaze upon the hardened walnut size
Speaker 1: remnant of King Louis the fourteen mummified heart. But William,
Speaker 1: not one to let the attention drift away from himself,
Speaker 1: didn't merely want to look at the piece of heart, ever,
Speaker 1: the showman, He announced to the group, I have eaten
Speaker 1: many strange things, but I have never eaten the heart
Speaker 1: of a king before, and then popped the little nugget
Speaker 1: into his mouth. Believe it or not, the eccentric gourmand
Speaker 1: wasn't immediately ostracized from high society. No one knows how
Speaker 1: the hard courts handled their prized king's heart being devoured
Speaker 1: like a common peanut. But William Buckland eventually went on
Speaker 1: to great success in a claim as a scientist and
Speaker 1: an educator. Upon his death in eighteen fifty six, he
Speaker 1: was buried in Westminster Abbey, and his son Francis, continued
Speaker 1: his father's legacy by also eating as many different animals
Speaker 1: as possible. He also tried becoming a full fledged scientist
Speaker 1: just like his father, but decided a life spent traveling
Speaker 1: the world and writing about the animals he ate was
Speaker 1: much more fulfilling. William had been an academic, a man
Speaker 1: of letters who enjoyed teaching and discussing his field of
Speaker 1: study with his peers. His son, though it turns out
Speaker 1: he just didn't have the stomach for it. I hope
Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with How
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show. And
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the world
Speaker 1: of lore dot com, and until next time, stay curious.