Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full
Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. We've all been there, those days when we
Speaker 1: wake up too early and barely function on a few
Speaker 1: hours of sleep. We pump ourselves full of coffee, but
Speaker 1: it's never enough, and so we shamble through the workday
Speaker 1: like zombies. It's unknown whether French neurologist Jules Qatard was
Speaker 1: a morning person or not, but he certainly understood what
Speaker 1: it was like to feel like the walking dead. He
Speaker 1: observed it firsthand. Qatard, born in France It's in eighteen forty,
Speaker 1: started his medical career at the Pier Sulpetriar University Hospital,
Speaker 1: where he interned later on as a full fledged doctor.
Speaker 1: He took a strong interest in those who suffered from
Speaker 1: cerebral vascular accidents otherwise known as strokes. He wanted to
Speaker 1: know more about the effects on the brain, so he
Speaker 1: would often perform autopsies on those who had died because
Speaker 1: of them. But in eighteen eighty two, a woman walked
Speaker 1: into his office with something new, something different, something strange.
Speaker 1: She was only ever known as Mademoiselle X, and on
Speaker 1: that day she rattled off a list of symptoms for
Speaker 1: doctor Quitard. She claimed, as hard as it is to
Speaker 1: believe to have nobody, an odd admission that probably sounded
Speaker 1: like a joke at first, but she was completely serious.
Speaker 1: According to Mademoiselle X, she had no nerves, stomach, chest,
Speaker 1: or bowels, not even a brain. She was literally nothing
Speaker 1: but skin and bones. Now, clearly doctor Coutard could see
Speaker 1: that something about the woman was not right, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't the symptoms she listed off. She was all there physically,
Speaker 1: All the body parts that she claimed to be lacking
Speaker 1: were still intact. Her mental faculties, however, had taken a
Speaker 1: nose dive. Mademoiselle X went on claiming to have no
Speaker 1: soul and that without any internal organs to process her food,
Speaker 1: she had stopped eating. There was no God, no devil,
Speaker 1: and believed that she was immortal. She was convinced that
Speaker 1: she could not die, at least not by natural means.
Speaker 1: In order to kill her, she said she would need
Speaker 1: to be set on fire. Qatard, fascinated by the patient's claims,
Speaker 1: turned to his medical texts for help. He found that
Speaker 1: another woman about a hundred years earlier had been examined
Speaker 1: by a Swiss scientist named Charles Bonnet, who had recorded
Speaker 1: symptoms almost exactly like these endured by Mademoiselle X. This
Speaker 1: other woman had been cooking at home when she suddenly
Speaker 1: lost feeling in one half of her body. She had
Speaker 1: become partially paralyzed. Eventually, the paralysis subsided a bit, and
Speaker 1: the woman was able to explain to her daughter's the situation.
Speaker 1: She was now dead and had to be dressed in
Speaker 1: a shroud and put into a coffin. The daughters did
Speaker 1: as they were told and laid her to rest until
Speaker 1: she fell asleep. Once the ruse was over, they took
Speaker 1: off the shroud and put her back in her own bed.
Speaker 1: Clearly their mother was sick. There had actually been a
Speaker 1: number of cases over the years where people believe that
Speaker 1: they were dead, and Cotard believed that it was a
Speaker 1: previously undiagnosed form of depression that he called hypochondria, called delirium.
Speaker 1: Those who suffered from it were often sad, shut down, mentally,
Speaker 1: didn't feel pain, believed they had no internal organs, and
Speaker 1: thought that they would actually live forever unless forcibly killed. Today, however,
Speaker 1: the syndrome has a new name, derived from the man
Speaker 1: who discovered it. It's called Qatard's delusion, and it's believed
Speaker 1: to be caused by neural misfirings in the part of
Speaker 1: the brain that recognizes and reacts two faces. It's similar
Speaker 1: to capgrad delusion, which makes people think that their loved
Speaker 1: ones have been replaced with impostors. Cotard's delusion occurs in
Speaker 1: patients who don't recognize their own faces and insist that
Speaker 1: the people they are or were don't exist anymore. It's
Speaker 1: a rare condition, affecting about two people worldwide, and is
Speaker 1: typically treated with a variety of medications like antidepressants and
Speaker 1: anti psychotics. However, pills don't always work, and electro convulsion
Speaker 1: or shock therapy is sometimes needed. As for Mademoiselle X,
Speaker 1: there were no pills for her to swallow, nor was
Speaker 1: she subjected to any kind of therapy. She eventually passed away,
Speaker 1: but not from fire. Sadly, she started to death. Doctor
Speaker 1: Jules Quatard went into medicine to understand the human brain.
Speaker 1: What he found was one of the rarest and strangest
Speaker 1: symptoms ever recorded. The truly dead may not have been
Speaker 1: able to speak for themselves, but for Qatard, the undead
Speaker 1: certainly had a lot to say. William never set out
Speaker 1: to become a legend, yet that's exactly what he became
Speaker 1: later in life. Though many don't know his name today,
Speaker 1: they're familiar with the character he inspired, but we'll get
Speaker 1: to that later. William was born in New York City
Speaker 1: in eighteen nineties seven. To Janets and Felix, travel was
Speaker 1: practically built into their DNA, with Janet whisking a young
Speaker 1: William off to Mexico to witness an ongoing revolution when
Speaker 1: he was only six weeks old. Though he was born
Speaker 1: in New York, William spent many years growing up in Asia.
Speaker 1: He attended the Buddhist monastery of Nishi hang Ganji in
Speaker 1: Kyoto and graduated as a Doctor of Divinity. From there,
Speaker 1: he traveled to Paris and Germany for additional schooling at
Speaker 1: the Sorbonne and University of Berlin, respectively. William was practically
Speaker 1: a professional student, eventually getting his doctorates in philosophy from
Speaker 1: christ Church, Oxford in nineteen twenty two, which he paid
Speaker 1: for by teaching Chinese at the University of London. During
Speaker 1: his time there, the Buddhist Society of Great Britain and
Speaker 1: Ireland asked the school to send an academic mission to
Speaker 1: the capital of Tibet, Lassa. At the time, permission had
Speaker 1: to be granted to Westerners looking to visit, permission that
Speaker 1: was often denied. William and the mission were sent with
Speaker 1: several specific goals. First, to sit with His Holiness the
Speaker 1: Dali Lama and explain to him how Buddhism was being
Speaker 1: taught in the West. Second, William and his team were
Speaker 1: to get filmed footage of Tibet, specifically of the city's
Speaker 1: great Cathedral. Though the trip had been approved by the school,
Speaker 1: the Tibetan government had other ideas. Neither William nor the
Speaker 1: mission would be allowed into Lassa. He tried three different
Speaker 1: times to convince them to let him in, either alone
Speaker 1: or with one other colleague, but each time he was
Speaker 1: met with the resounding no. William, however, refused to take
Speaker 1: no for an answer. Rather than turn around and head home,
Speaker 1: he went deep undercover. According to a Time magazine article
Speaker 1: from ninety eight, it said that he stood naked while
Speaker 1: a companion covered his body with brown stain and squirted
Speaker 1: lemon juice into his blue eyes to darken them. William
Speaker 1: you see, disguised himself as a Tibetan cooley or low
Speaker 1: status worker, and paid a few locals to help him
Speaker 1: over the mountains to the forbidden city. He overcame a snowstorm, dysenterry, leeches,
Speaker 1: and mosquitoes, finally reached Lasa in February of n Once there,
Speaker 1: he alerted the Tibetan authorities of his arrival, and they
Speaker 1: agreed to furnish him with lodgings and keep his identity
Speaker 1: under wraps. Unfortunately, a mob of monks discovered who he
Speaker 1: was and began stoning his house. William snuck out, clad
Speaker 1: in his disguise and joined the throng of monks attacking
Speaker 1: his home. He lasted six weeks there before he was
Speaker 1: finally forced to leave. Back in London, it was clear
Speaker 1: that William had kicked off an international incident, with the
Speaker 1: school's India office in constant communication with William himself. After
Speaker 1: much back and forth, William resigned from teaching and took
Speaker 1: a job with the Chicago Times to become their Far
Speaker 1: East correspondent. He then went on served during World War
Speaker 1: Two as a naval officer and put his knowledge of
Speaker 1: the Japanese language to good use. But war was no
Speaker 1: place for an academic like William. Once the fighting had ended,
Speaker 1: he returned to his first love, teaching, and lectured all
Speaker 1: over the United States. He taught at Harvard, gave talks
Speaker 1: at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, and
Speaker 1: even spoke at various military colleges across the country. He
Speaker 1: finally settled down at Northwestern University, where he taught political
Speaker 1: science for the remainder of his life. Williams soon learned
Speaker 1: that even the most boring classes would fill up quickly
Speaker 1: if students wanted to learn from certain teachers. William had
Speaker 1: become something of a celebrity, you see, due to his
Speaker 1: questionable antics when he was younger. Students wanted to hear
Speaker 1: his stories and learned from the man who had snuck
Speaker 1: into places he wasn't meant to go all in the
Speaker 1: name of knowledge. They registered in droves, filling up his
Speaker 1: classes each and every semester. Had William been right in
Speaker 1: forcing his way into Tibet and most likely not, but
Speaker 1: that had been typical of Americans and Europeans for centuries.
Speaker 1: Williams actions did, however, go on to inspire his students
Speaker 1: and Hollywood as well. The story of a swashbuckling professor
Speaker 1: traveling to ancient cities and even taking on the Nazis
Speaker 1: sounds like just the kind of character to enthrall movie audiences,
Speaker 1: and he did when he debuted in nine Raiders of
Speaker 1: the Lost Dark. William Montgomery McGovern had been one of
Speaker 1: the key influences in the creation of everyone's favorite fictional archaeologist,
Speaker 1: Indiana Jones. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
Speaker 1: next time, stay curious. Yeah h