1 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:09,360 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 3 00:00:12,880 --> 00:00:16,919 Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 4 00:00:17,079 --> 00:00:20,279 Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 5 00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:23,760 Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 6 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 7 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:40,599 Speaker 1: There are all kinds of medical practices out there, like dermatology, 8 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 1: orthopedic surgery, and dentistry. Whether you need a root canal 9 00:00:44,440 --> 00:00:47,640 Speaker 1: or a new kidney, there is someone trained to examine, diagnose, 10 00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:50,760 Speaker 1: and treat your condition. But some of the most debilitating 11 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:53,800 Speaker 1: types of problems aren't the ones that require anesthesia or 12 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:57,040 Speaker 1: invasive surgery. All it takes is one wrong move and 13 00:00:57,120 --> 00:01:00,120 Speaker 1: suddenly we can't sit up, turn our heads, or walk. 14 00:01:00,760 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 1: Those of us of a certain age have probably slept 15 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:06,000 Speaker 1: wrong or bent ourselves in a way that caused a 16 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:08,720 Speaker 1: twinge in our backs, and when we feel it, it's 17 00:01:08,760 --> 00:01:12,920 Speaker 1: some of the most excruciating pain imaginable. Daniel David Palmer 18 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:16,160 Speaker 1: thought so too. Born in Canada in eighteen forty five, 19 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:18,840 Speaker 1: Palmer moved to America with his family when he was 20 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:21,800 Speaker 1: twenty years old. Looking back, at might seem like that 21 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:24,319 Speaker 1: he didn't have much direction in life. He bounced from 22 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:28,000 Speaker 1: job to job for many years, like teaching school, beekeeping, 23 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:31,280 Speaker 1: and owning a grocery store. Or maybe he just had 24 00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:33,279 Speaker 1: a lot of interests and he was out there looking 25 00:01:33,319 --> 00:01:36,080 Speaker 1: for his true calling that whole time, while in eighteen 26 00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:39,840 Speaker 1: ninety five he found it. Palmer had been fascinated by 27 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:44,000 Speaker 1: spiritualism and alternative medicine for a very long time. He 28 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:48,200 Speaker 1: even practiced magnetic healing, which involved the placement of magnets 29 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:51,520 Speaker 1: along the body to improve one's health. Eventually, he began 30 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:54,760 Speaker 1: to theorize that curing diseases required more than some well 31 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:59,040 Speaker 1: placed magnets. He needed something bigger, like a complete readjustment 32 00:01:59,320 --> 00:02:02,920 Speaker 1: of the spine. This idea came to him almost by accident. 33 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:05,440 Speaker 1: He'd been in his office in Davenport, Iowa, when he 34 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:08,760 Speaker 1: ran into the janitor, a man named Harvey Lillard. Lillard 35 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:11,480 Speaker 1: had been hard of hearing for seventeen years. He told 36 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:14,720 Speaker 1: Palmer about how one day something popped in his spine 37 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:17,079 Speaker 1: and suddenly he couldn't hear as well as he used to. 38 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:20,560 Speaker 1: The two men continued talking, and that's when Palmer noticed 39 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:23,720 Speaker 1: something strange. On Lillard's back. It was a lump, and 40 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:26,600 Speaker 1: in Palmer's eyes, it was the reason his janitor was 41 00:02:26,680 --> 00:02:30,000 Speaker 1: nearly deaf. So he decided to test out the practice 42 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:34,000 Speaker 1: he'd been studying, called thoracic manipulation. Palmer worked on the 43 00:02:34,040 --> 00:02:37,840 Speaker 1: man's spine, twisting and cracking it in different directions. It 44 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:40,520 Speaker 1: took a few days, but pretty soon Lillard came back 45 00:02:40,560 --> 00:02:44,320 Speaker 1: to Palmer with an unbelievable claim his hearing had returned. 46 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:47,959 Speaker 1: This miracle of sorts was the reassurance that Palmer needed 47 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:50,440 Speaker 1: to continue his work, and it led to the creation 48 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:53,920 Speaker 1: of one of the most important discoveries in alternative medicine. 49 00:02:54,280 --> 00:02:57,080 Speaker 1: And that's the official story at least. But there is another, 50 00:02:57,200 --> 00:02:59,480 Speaker 1: and it's not nearly as heartwarming. In fact, it's a 51 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:03,760 Speaker 1: bit so here's take two. It all started when Palmer 52 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:07,639 Speaker 1: consulted a man named Jim Atkinson, also from Davenport, Iowa. 53 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:10,639 Speaker 1: Atkinson was a physician and taught Palmer all about the 54 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:13,919 Speaker 1: different thoracic manipulation techniques that he had learned. In fact, 55 00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:16,760 Speaker 1: they weren't even Atkinson's methods in the first place. In 56 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:19,720 Speaker 1: a textbook published by Palmer in nineteen ten, he wrote 57 00:03:20,280 --> 00:03:23,920 Speaker 1: doctor Atkinson has frequently informed me that the replacing of 58 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:27,200 Speaker 1: displaced vertebrae for the relief of human ills has been 59 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:30,200 Speaker 1: known and practiced by the ancient Egyptians for at least 60 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:34,480 Speaker 1: three thousand years. Unfortunately, the concepts that have been proposed 61 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:37,640 Speaker 1: by Atkinson hadn't caught on. According to him, they were 62 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:40,480 Speaker 1: ahead of the time, or, as Palmer wrote in his book, 63 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:44,160 Speaker 1: the intellectuality of that time was not ready for this advancement. 64 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:47,160 Speaker 1: But how could that be, after all, these techniques were 65 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:51,080 Speaker 1: already thousands of years old. Maybe these Iowans just couldn't 66 00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:53,400 Speaker 1: handle the idea that a few twists and turns could 67 00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:56,160 Speaker 1: cure what ailed them, Or maybe there was something about 68 00:03:56,200 --> 00:03:59,440 Speaker 1: doctor Atkinson that rubbed them the wrong way. Whatever the case, 69 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:02,400 Speaker 1: it was a long time before people understood the ideas 70 00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:05,760 Speaker 1: being presented, and it took Palmer to show them. But 71 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:08,520 Speaker 1: it was a funny thing about Atkinson and Palmer. The 72 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:12,120 Speaker 1: two men actually never met, and they didn't exchange letters 73 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:15,120 Speaker 1: or chat over the phone either. Their paths had never 74 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:20,120 Speaker 1: crossed because doctor Atkinson had died fifty years earlier. Palmer, ever, 75 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:23,680 Speaker 1: the devoted spiritualist, had spoken to him through a seance 76 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:28,599 Speaker 1: or other similar event. In other words, Daniel David Palmer, 77 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:32,440 Speaker 1: the founder of chiropractic medicine, had been introduced to it 78 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:49,920 Speaker 1: by a ghost. There are some parts of history that 79 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:53,080 Speaker 1: form the very foundation of our understanding of the world. 80 00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:55,560 Speaker 1: Many of our beliefs are cemented in what we know 81 00:04:55,640 --> 00:04:58,640 Speaker 1: about the past. Sometimes, though, the bridge between past and 82 00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:02,000 Speaker 1: present isn't as that's wrong as we might think. In 83 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:05,000 Speaker 1: early two thousand and six, a woman named Dun Barya 84 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:08,120 Speaker 1: made her way down the bustling streets of Mumbai. She 85 00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:11,200 Speaker 1: journeyed toward the lush green forest on the city's outskirts. 86 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:14,679 Speaker 1: Once under the cover of the canopies, the noise faded, 87 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:17,760 Speaker 1: but the change in scenery didn't give done the sense 88 00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:20,800 Speaker 1: of peace that she had come for. Still, she continued 89 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:23,400 Speaker 1: down the path and hoped for a good sign. Finally, 90 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:26,520 Speaker 1: she approached her destination, a clearing in the woods with 91 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 1: a stone tower at its center. It was an isolated, 92 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:33,120 Speaker 1: sacred space. Dun hoped to find the answers there. She 93 00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:36,719 Speaker 1: hoped to find closure. Once at the base of the tower, 94 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: she said a prayer, but even this didn't settle her unease. 95 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:42,880 Speaker 1: There were a few men there as well, not many 96 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:45,080 Speaker 1: people were allowed to enter the area, but it was 97 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:47,480 Speaker 1: the men's job to be there, and she knew that 98 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:49,560 Speaker 1: they might have the answers that she was looking for. 99 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:52,599 Speaker 1: So she asked them, is my mother gone? And the 100 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:55,159 Speaker 1: men laughed no, they said, your mother will be here 101 00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:58,440 Speaker 1: for years to come. Done stood in horror. She thought 102 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:03,520 Speaker 1: to herself, could it be? Are the rumors true? Panicton confused, 103 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:06,240 Speaker 1: she returned home and devised a plan. She needed to 104 00:06:06,279 --> 00:06:09,120 Speaker 1: know the truth, so she hired a photographer to sneak 105 00:06:09,160 --> 00:06:11,479 Speaker 1: back into the clearing in the woods, but this time 106 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:14,680 Speaker 1: the photographer would climb the tower, something few people were 107 00:06:14,720 --> 00:06:18,120 Speaker 1: allowed to do. The photographer's job was to capture images 108 00:06:18,400 --> 00:06:22,039 Speaker 1: of whatever he found there without getting cut, and that's 109 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:26,120 Speaker 1: what he did. Soon these photographs and even video footage 110 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:29,440 Speaker 1: made their way around the city. Done plastered the images 111 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:32,200 Speaker 1: around town. They were so shocking that they even ended 112 00:06:32,240 --> 00:06:35,040 Speaker 1: up on CNN, and by that point the whole world 113 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:38,240 Speaker 1: knew what Done had discovered. Dozens of dead bodies were 114 00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:41,039 Speaker 1: decaying atop the tower in the forest. The people of 115 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:44,480 Speaker 1: Mumbai were in an uproar. The city's governing body insisted 116 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:47,719 Speaker 1: that they had everything under control, but it was too late. 117 00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:51,120 Speaker 1: Everyone had seen the pictures. Now, I know that this 118 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:53,560 Speaker 1: might sound like an unsolved murder case, but it's a 119 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:56,200 Speaker 1: little more complicated than that, and it all circles back 120 00:06:56,240 --> 00:06:58,160 Speaker 1: to the question Done had set out to answer in 121 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:00,880 Speaker 1: the first place, and as it turned turned out, scientists 122 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:03,440 Speaker 1: from another part of the world with an entirely different 123 00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:07,080 Speaker 1: question would find that answer. In the late nineteen nineties, 124 00:07:07,120 --> 00:07:11,160 Speaker 1: a Kenyan biologist named Munir Vuani traveled to a tiger 125 00:07:11,240 --> 00:07:14,400 Speaker 1: reserve in India. But Munir wasn't there to study tigers. 126 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:17,720 Speaker 1: His specialty was in birds. He worked for the Peregrine Fund, 127 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:21,440 Speaker 1: an organization that protects birds of prey. When he arrived, 128 00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:24,600 Speaker 1: Munir walked through the reserve to a large ficus tree. 129 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:28,520 Speaker 1: Under the tree, over a dozen vultures lay dead. Munir 130 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:31,600 Speaker 1: took a closer look. He was puzzled. The birds showed 131 00:07:31,640 --> 00:07:34,280 Speaker 1: no signs of harm. They weren't even that old. The 132 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:38,600 Speaker 1: biologists couldn't understand why young, healthy birds would suddenly drop dead. 133 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:41,400 Speaker 1: And it wasn't just these birds that Munir was concerned about. 134 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:44,800 Speaker 1: By this point, the vulture population in India had declined 135 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:48,880 Speaker 1: by about ninety five percent, and this was a big issue. 136 00:07:49,040 --> 00:07:51,880 Speaker 1: You see, vultures are known for eating dead things. For 137 00:07:51,960 --> 00:07:55,880 Speaker 1: that reason, they sometimes give people the hebgbis. But vultures 138 00:07:55,920 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 1: eating habits are actually great for the health of the 139 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:03,200 Speaker 1: environment and even for humans. Disease and bacteria thrive inside 140 00:08:03,240 --> 00:08:07,000 Speaker 1: dead bodies, but vulture's stomach acid is highly acidic, so 141 00:08:07,040 --> 00:08:11,240 Speaker 1: they killed deadly bacteria, including rabies and anthrax before it 142 00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:13,840 Speaker 1: spreads to the living. I'm sure you can imagine the 143 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:16,800 Speaker 1: level of harmful decay a country is left with when 144 00:08:16,880 --> 00:08:21,119 Speaker 1: ninety five percent of vultures just disappear. Suffice to say, 145 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:25,240 Speaker 1: Munir had quite the undertaking. He and his colleagues dissected 146 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:27,400 Speaker 1: some of the dead vultures and discovered that a white, 147 00:08:27,560 --> 00:08:31,440 Speaker 1: chalky paste covered their insides. It was uric acid, the 148 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:34,840 Speaker 1: very same acid that allows vultures to digest deadly things. 149 00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:37,079 Speaker 1: The build up of the acid meant that the vulture's 150 00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:41,480 Speaker 1: kidneys had shut down, but why. By the early two thousands, 151 00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:44,839 Speaker 1: Manir and his team formed a hypothesis whatever was causing 152 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:48,160 Speaker 1: the vulture's kidney failure had come from something they were eating, 153 00:08:48,559 --> 00:08:51,160 Speaker 1: and at some point the researchers asked cattle farmers what 154 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:53,720 Speaker 1: their cows ate, and that's how they found the answer. 155 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:58,160 Speaker 1: It was a painkiller called Diclopenic. India had approved it 156 00:08:58,200 --> 00:09:01,000 Speaker 1: for use in cattle farming in you guessed it's the 157 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:04,480 Speaker 1: nineteen nineties, and this brings us back to dun Barriya's 158 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:09,319 Speaker 1: initial investigation. Dunn observes Zoroastrianism, a small religion that was 159 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:12,240 Speaker 1: formed over three thousand years ago, and the tower where 160 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:14,160 Speaker 1: she went to prey at the beginning of our story 161 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:17,160 Speaker 1: is a big part of this religion. It's known as 162 00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:19,800 Speaker 1: the Tower of Silence. There are many like it, but 163 00:09:19,880 --> 00:09:22,760 Speaker 1: this one has been there since sixteen seventy three, and 164 00:09:22,880 --> 00:09:26,880 Speaker 1: Zoroastrians practiced something known as sky burials, which involve bringing 165 00:09:26,880 --> 00:09:28,960 Speaker 1: the bodies of the departed to the top of the 166 00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:33,120 Speaker 1: towers for vultures defeat on. They believe that bodily decay 167 00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:35,880 Speaker 1: is caused by a demon, so by eating the bodies 168 00:09:35,880 --> 00:09:39,440 Speaker 1: before the decaying process can begin, the vultures help people 169 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:43,880 Speaker 1: gain entry into heaven. After her mother died, Dunn had 170 00:09:43,880 --> 00:09:46,080 Speaker 1: a gut feeling that her body was still on top 171 00:09:46,120 --> 00:09:48,800 Speaker 1: of the Tower Decayne on that day in two thousand 172 00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:51,120 Speaker 1: and six, when she journeyed to the tower, she spoke 173 00:09:51,160 --> 00:09:53,720 Speaker 1: with the men who were responsible for carrying the bodies 174 00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:56,719 Speaker 1: up the tower and eventually disposing of the bones. These 175 00:09:56,760 --> 00:09:59,040 Speaker 1: were the only people who were allowed to venture to 176 00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:01,960 Speaker 1: the top. My reaction to Dunn's question about her mother 177 00:10:02,080 --> 00:10:05,440 Speaker 1: all but confirmed her suspicions when the photographer she hired 178 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:09,480 Speaker 1: return with proof. The rest was history. In two thousand 179 00:10:09,480 --> 00:10:13,280 Speaker 1: and six, following munir Varani's discovery, India banned the use 180 00:10:13,320 --> 00:10:16,600 Speaker 1: of diclofenic and cattle. While the country works to recover 181 00:10:16,679 --> 00:10:19,600 Speaker 1: its vulture population, it's also trying to find new ways 182 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:22,400 Speaker 1: to manage sky burials. We don't know what will happen 183 00:10:22,400 --> 00:10:24,720 Speaker 1: in the future, but this story is a reminder to 184 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:26,840 Speaker 1: not take for granted the parts of our world that 185 00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:32,120 Speaker 1: connect us to our history and maybe even to our afterlives. 186 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:38,880 Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet 187 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:42,840 Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn 188 00:10:42,880 --> 00:10:47,240 Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. 189 00:10:47,480 --> 00:10:51,040 Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership 190 00:10:51,080 --> 00:10:54,400 Speaker 1: with How Stuff Works. I make another award winning show 191 00:10:54,480 --> 00:10:58,280 Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television 192 00:10:58,320 --> 00:11:00,520 Speaker 1: show and You can learn all about it over at 193 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:05,480 Speaker 1: theworldoflore dot com, and until next time, stay curious. 194 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:09,360 Speaker 2: H