WEBVTT - The Impostress Rabbit 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:06.359 You're listening to Hoax, a production of iHeart Podcasts. Folks, 0:00:06.640 --> 0:00:07.640 it's a hug. 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:22.200 No, I haven't seen me when us see. 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:22.479 The Welcome to Hoax, a podcast about the lies we 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:23.560 wish were true. 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:25.160 And truths that sound like lies. 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:27.080 I'm the ghost of Danish Schwartz. 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:30.120 And I'm the evil twin of Lizzie Logan. Welcome to the. 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.800 Show, Lizzie. Before we start on this episode, I want 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:39.560 to ask what your tolerance is for body horror? But 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.480 do get grossed out easily? Do have Do you watch House? 0:00:42.560 --> 0:00:43.320 Did you watch The Pit? 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:48.600 I liked the Pit quite a bit. Okay, rhyme intentional. 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:56.560 I can close my eyes during body horror stuff. I 0:00:56.560 --> 0:01:01.440 guess since this is audio medium, I can clue my ears. 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:04.360 Well, I'm not going to show you any photos, okay, 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:06.679 because this story takes place in the seventeen hundreds. 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:12.120 Okay, Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of gore or 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:17.560 body horror, but I understand that bodies decay and we 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:18.679 have blood inside of us. 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:23.320 Bodies are a horror, yes, and one just sort of overall. 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:25.759 Note before we start this episode, if you're someone who's 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:31.560 very sensitive to issues of fertility or miscarriage. This might 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:34.160 not be the episode for you because it involves pregnancy 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.880 and pregnancy loss and sort of pregnancy trauma. Okay, we're 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:40.520 going to start in a town called Godalming, which is 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:44.800 a very small market town fifty miles southwest of London. 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:48.080 We're in the seventeen hundreds, so this town is a 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:51.080 very very poor town and it's basically just like a 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.680 stagecoach stop and route to London. So the people who 0:01:54.760 --> 0:02:00.520 are living there are living there very boring lives, but 0:02:00.560 --> 0:02:05.960 they're seeing people in like glamorous London stage coaches come by. Okay, 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:08.799 so it's a it's not a great place to live 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.200 from what it sounds like. Our heroin for this episode 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.120 is a woman named Mary Toft. She lives with her 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:18.240 husband and their three young children. She got married when 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:22.360 she was seventeen to Joshua Toft, who was eighteen. He's 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:26.079 a clothier, which means he makes cloth, but work is 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:29.480 very hard to come by. She works in a hop field. 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:32.640 Okay. Hops is like a type of grain that you 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:33.560 make beer out of. 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:36.480 Yeah, okay, but she's like harvesting that for that, you know, 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:38.040 works in a field with a lot of other women 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:41.200 at this point in the story when we're starting, she's 0:02:41.240 --> 0:02:44.960 twenty four years old. She has two living children and 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:49.240 one that has died, although details on which children are 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:52.079 living at what point in the story is a little tricky. Okay, 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:55.960 So by this point we believe she's had three pregnancies 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.320 and she's pregnant with her fourth child. Okay, and still 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:01.880 walk in two hours a day to get to the 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:06.000 hop field, working grueling hours and then walking two hours back. 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:08.680 Rough This is not a good life. 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:09.160 I don't think. 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:10.640 It doesn't sound like a fun life. 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:12.600 No, she's she's going through it. 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:17.040 So imagine like being pregnant, having two children at home 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:21.440 at least two, possibly three, a husband who is likely 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:24.239 out of work, and just like living this miserable existence 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:29.160 watching people in their fancy London carriages. In August of 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:34.320 seventeen twenty six, Mary has a miscarriage. Unfortunately, very sad, 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:37.760 very sad, a thing that happens to this day that 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:40.680 people don't talk about. So what's strange is that she 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:44.840 has this miscarriage in August, and in September, a month later, 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:49.640 she starts having the symptoms of labor. Oh, which is 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:52.480 not a thing that should be happening. Now, she's attended 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:55.120 by her mother in law, Ann Toft, and a neighbor. 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.640 Antoft is not like registered as a midwife in like 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.360 the parish registries, but she has, you know, has had 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:05.480 many kids I think sort of helps people out. Is 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:07.960 sort of a maternal figure. So it's not like Mary's 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:10.320 being treated by doctors yet, but she's being treated by 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:12.440 like the local women who can help her out. But 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:14.800 they do not know what is happening. Yeah, and so 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.520 they call what is known as a male midwife from 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:20.800 the nearby town of gil Guildford, which is like the 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:24.560 nearest not big town, but bigger town. And this doctor 0:04:24.920 --> 0:04:28.400 or male midwife comes named John Howard, and he comes 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:31.480 to examine Mary Toft, and he sees that she has 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:36.000 given birth not to a human baby, but to strange 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:40.720 animal parts. Oh oh dear, which is not a thing 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:45.279 that happens. Nope, usually nope. And so John Howard reports. 0:04:44.839 --> 0:04:50.000 That usually not happens I've ever ever, not at all, 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:53.359 not at all. I would say like zero percent of 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:53.760 the lies. 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:58.599 Yeah, But John Howard is astonished and is taking note 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:01.360 of this thing that is happening, and over the next 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:04.800 few weeks he records that Mary Toft gives let's say 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:07.920 birth for lack of a better word, to a pig's bladder, 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:11.720 a cat's paw, the backbone of an eel, and then 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:15.760 multiple dead baby rabbits. And it's the rabbits that are 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:16.800 the most notable. 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:20.919 Listener, you can't see me, but I'm making a face 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:22.080 like that's gross. 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.920 It's gross. I wanted to warn you before this episode. 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:26.320 It's it's pretty gross. 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:30.520 That's pretty gross. And I'm not grossed out by miscarriage 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.599 or birth. I'm grossed out by dead baby rabbits coming 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:36.320 out of a human lady's. 0:05:36.080 --> 0:05:39.440 Vagina, dead baby coming out of human ladies vagina. 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:42.960 That's gross. I'm gonna I think I'm okay to say that. 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:44.720 I don't think that makes me a bad feminist. I 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:45.640 think that's a little gross. 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:48.320 It's gross. It's not a thing that should biologically happen. 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.040 People are confused, but they have an explanation, and aren't 0:05:52.080 --> 0:05:53.000 they She's a witch. 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:54.120 Well. 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.040 Mary says that back in the spring when she was pregnant, 0:05:57.120 --> 0:05:59.479 she was out weeding in the field and saw a 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:02.960 rabbit and she was hungry and craving rabbit meat, which 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:05.040 would have been really expensive and she wouldn't have been 0:06:05.040 --> 0:06:07.279 able to afford it, And she chased the rabbit but 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:10.800 couldn't catch it, and then kept having super strong pregnancy 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:13.400 craving for rabbit meat, like to make into a stew 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:15.600 or pie, which is kind of like the beginning of 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:19.760 Rapunzel when the mom really wants that one like the 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:23.279 cabbage or whatever. Yeah, from the witch's garden, but anyway, 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:28.000 she says. A later doctor wrote in an interview that 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.720 this set her a longing for rabbit. Being then as 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:35.200 she thought five weeks gone with child, the woman charged 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.000 with longing for the rabbit that she couldn't catch, but 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:40.520 she denied it. She then dreamt of rabbits and had 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.600 a constant and strong desire to eat rabbit, but being 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:47.520 very poor and indigent, could not procure any. So that 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.000 was the idea of what caused this. 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.680 So like the power of her mind turned her like 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:57.360 half miscarried baby into like. 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:02.560 Rabbit, multiple baby rabbits. Maternal impression is what the name 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:05.040 of this was, and it was a fairly common belief 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:09.159 at the time. People thought that pregnant women could influence 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:13.040 their unborn babies with their thoughts and their experiences. Have 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:16.400 you heard of like Joseph Merrick the Elephant Man. Yes, 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:21.200 this is later, but his explanation for why. 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:22.880 He was like his mom looked at an elephant. 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:26.400 His mom was startled by an elephant, which again is 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:28.520 like a we think is like a silly story. And 0:07:28.680 --> 0:07:30.720 I don't even know if he actually believed it, but 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.920 that was sort of the circus explanation. And in the 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:39.240 eighteenth century work on Midwiffery by this doctor John Mawbrey, 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:44.239 he advised women to avoid quote playing with dogs, squirrels, apes, 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:47.080 and etc. As this could lead to the birth of 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:48.680 vile creatures. 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:51.120 Well, you know, you gotta be careful. 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:53.080 What I kind of find interesting is this is the 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:57.400 seventeen hundred, so the scientific Enlightenment is happening. But I 0:07:57.400 --> 0:07:59.960 think it's kind of important to remember that despite the 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:02.240 fact the way that we're sort of taught history in 0:08:02.320 --> 0:08:05.280 schools where it's like, ah, this year the Scientific Enlightenment, Ah, 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:09.520 this year the the you know, uh Renaissance, Like these 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.280 things don't happen all at once. People don't just like 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:14.800 make a declaration and then everyone's mind is changed. 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:20.280 Yeah, and like people still are like feeding babies honey 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:24.520 and giving them botulism. Like, so like I would not 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:27.080 be surprised if like the next TikTok trend was like 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:32.360 my baby has like really wide set eyes because I 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:35.080 watched you know, too many Nature documentary. 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.840 Yeah I was pregnant, but yeah, it's this. Also, I 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:40.760 think it also reinforces this idea that like the pregnant 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:45.120 woman is like has magical like mysterious powers. Yes, which 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:49.160 is I really hated when I was pregnant that sort 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:52.439 of like you got it, mama, go girl, like you're 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:55.760 a goddess, because I think it's condescending. Yes, I think 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:59.080 it's very like women are over here and can be mysterious. 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:02.240 Men will be in charge of politics and economics and 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:06.960 literature and like actual tangible but you're a goddess like you. 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.200 So that's why I sort of have like my it 0:09:09.240 --> 0:09:10.199 makes my teeth hirt a. 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:13.400 Little, yeah, and like fanuous like palm fronds and like 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.679 feed you grapes and like don't take your mind seriously 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:19.360 but like focus on your belly. 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:22.440 Yeah you go, girl, Mama, you're so mysterious. You're a 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:25.440 moon goddess. While over here, like men are doing like 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:28.400 art and commerce and politics. Sure, but all that's to say, 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:32.720 is the idea that she is having these dead rabbit 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:38.240 babies is not, like, on its face absurd. Okay, there 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:43.520 is a culturally understood explanation, but it's still amazing because 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:45.680 this is not something that happens every day. And over 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:49.480 the next few weeks, Howard the male midwife keeps delivering 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.880 these dead rabbits, and he writes to doctors and scientists 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.760 in London, and he's kept the eleven rabbits that he's 0:09:55.800 --> 0:10:00.960 delivered pickled in jars on a shelf. Is she okay 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:01.520 in what way? 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:06.400 Like if there's dead rabbits? I mean, is she like dying? 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.720 She's like hamborhage, like is she like up at about? 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:12.480 No? She seems fine And the leader a doctor will 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.439 be like, she's in pretty good humor. Okay, but yeah, 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:17.920 so the word gets out. 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:18.280 Uh. 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:23.360 October tenth, seventeen twenty six, there's the first newspaper notice. 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:25.800 Do you want to read this newspaper notice? 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.080 From Guildford comes a strange but well attested piece of 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:34.600 news that a poored woman who lives at Gondolman near 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:38.199 that town, who has a husband and two children now 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.360 living with her, was about a month past delivered by 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:45.079 mister John Howard, an eminent surgeon and man midwife living 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:47.440 at Guildford, of a creature resembling a rabbit. 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:51.200 The news is out. It's a pretty like level headed 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:54.760 news article, I would say, for a pretty unbelievable. 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:57.440 Thing, free amble with like the punchline right at the end. 0:10:57.679 --> 0:11:03.120 Yeah right, oh yeah, doctor place creature resembling a rabbit born. 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:07.160 So King George the First decides that he's going to 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:11.200 send his court to anatomist, Nathaniel Saint Andre, to go investigate, 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.160 and he also sends along the Prince of Wales's secretary, 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:18.080 this guy Samuel Malino, who is a secretary but also 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:22.839 a scientist who measures these things called stellar parallaxes, which 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:26.640 are important and I do not understand them, but like, 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:30.239 good on him. That's like an important scientific discovery unrelated 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:30.439 to this. 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:33.880 So science is happening in this kingdom in some way. 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.120 Yeah, this guy Samuel Malino is doing a great job 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:39.720 somewhere else in unrelated matters. 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:42.320 Unrelated to whether or not women can give birth to 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:43.480 dead rabbits. 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:51.280 Yeah, but the important figure here, the real star of 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:54.720 the show is Nathaniel Saint Andre. Okay, and what you 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:57.120 need to know about him is even at the time, 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:01.600 he was a pretty controversial figure because my favorite sort 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:03.640 of description of him came from an article in the 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:07.520 Paris Review that described him as quote an opportunistic dilettante 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:12.160 with a taste for ornately embroidered shirts, which is just 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.560 like a great way to put someone down. He was 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:19.280 born in Switzerland, traveled Europe as a servant, and he 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:22.120 worked as a language teacher, a dancer, and a fencer, 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.520 like a fencing teacher, and he's sort of like a 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:27.240 charmer seducer type. 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:35.160 I am getting like a real Derek Blasberg vibe. 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:39.120 Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. So when I say that this guy, 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:43.240 you know, traveled as a servant, language teacher, dancing tutor, 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:47.480 fencing tutor, you might not be thinking a surgeon or 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:48.359 court anatomist. 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.679 No, I'm more thinking he is of the like the 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:55.559 softer arts, Like he is of the he is of 0:12:55.600 --> 0:13:00.800 the social graces and the the finer things. 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.160 Yeah, And basically what happened is he's injured by a 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:07.720 fencing student, He's treated by a surgeon, and realized that 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:10.160 that guy was making a lot of money, so he 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:12.520 decided to pivot because he didn't think it seemed too hard, 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:16.400 and at the time it wasn't like there were med 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:20.000 school boards to deal with. Okay, So he just does 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:24.160 a perfunctory internship apprenticeship in London, sets up a practice, 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.040 and just charms his way all the way to the 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.800 King Great. And I think the context is important that 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:31.920 the king at the time is George the first. Who's 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:35.199 the first Hanover King. I'm going to put my noble 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.319 blood hat on just for a second. But did you 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:42.560 see the favorite Yes, so Queen Anne, the one that 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:47.400 Olivia Coleman is great Protestant. Okay, dies with no children, Yes, 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.199 very important in England that she had a lot of miscarriages. 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:53.640 She had a lot of miscarriages and in that movie 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:56.559 a lot of rabbits. But that is not historically actor. 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.680 That was just the director having some fun. Okay, she's 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:03.760 brought dies with no babies. They very important in England 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:05.800 at the time, and I'm brushing over a lot of 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.960 important stuff. They're the king and Queen can only be Protestant, 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:13.960 no more Catholics. So her nearest Protestant relative is a 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:19.240 German cousin. Who's the handovers. So that's George the first 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.680 comes over to England. He was not born in England. 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:25.560 He does not speak English very well at all. So 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:28.640 he's sort of this foreign German king that's coming over 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.840 to be King of England kind of on a technicality, okay. 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.840 And so this Saint Andre guy kind of represents everything 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:40.840 that English people hate about George the first because he's foreign. 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:45.040 He's like German speaking, and it's like charisma and fluff 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:47.360 over substance and science. 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:48.160 Yeah. 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:50.720 So it's like people are not thrilled with the king 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:53.880 right now, gotcha? And people are not thrilled that they 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:57.120 think he's kind of stupid and easily seduced by these 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:02.240 like charmers. Not popular, no, But Saint Andre arrives to Guildford, 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:06.040 sees Mary while she's in labor with her allegedly fifteenth rabbit. 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:09.960 He by this is from his account. He watches as 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:13.200 her stomach is pulsing and quivering like there is like 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:16.720 a living animal inside her, and then he sees the 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:21.560 sorry like dead animal pieces that are expelled and the 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:25.560 animal pieces are in pieces. Because his theory is that 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:28.120 it's the forces of the uterus. 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:31.760 It's it's not good, it's no, that's sad, and I 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:33.880 want to know what's actually happening to this poor woman. 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:39.720 Yeah, and you asked how she's doing. He describes her 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.920 as having a sullen temper, but says that except for 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:46.400 when she was in labor pains, she quote laughed very 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:51.560 heartily with us, So okay, she's doing okay, okay. Saint 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.760 Andre takes some of the pickled rabbits back to the King, 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:57.960 and the King is this is amazing. He arranges for 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:00.720 Mary to be brought to London and give a pension 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:02.840 for her trouble, which I guess is just the thing 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:05.120 that happens if a medical anomally is happening to you. 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:09.200 Yeah, you know what I was thinking about recently is 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:13.160 how you you mentioned like the elephant man. We think 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:16.080 about how like oh, there used to be like freak shows. Yeah, 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:18.640 and like people pay to see the freak and like, 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:22.760 isn't it good that we've grown past that as a society, 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:25.640 And like, no, we haven't. We just have TLC. 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:28.080 We have TLC and we have people doing it to 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:30.920 themselves on TikTok truly. 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.120 And like, yes, of course Mary Toff would have a 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:37.800 pension now it would be called like a sponsorship on Instagram, 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:38.360 she would be. 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:41.280 Like story time, here's how we keep birth rabbits. Yeah, 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.840 but the context I think also is like medical mysteries 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:47.240 and marvels were like a common attraction. 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:51.320 People are bored human interest, Like, yes, I would be interested, 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.640 Like if this were happening, I would be like, what's 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:54.440 up with this, lady? 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:56.400 I mean A tidbit that I kind of think is 0:16:56.400 --> 0:16:59.440 interesting is in seventeen seventy seven, the year that Paris 0:16:59.480 --> 0:17:03.960 gets its very first newspaper, London already has three hundred 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:04.880 daily newspapers. 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:06.639 I was about to say that seems really late for 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:07.840 Paris to get his first news. 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:12.680 They're too busy smoking, reading a book. Paris get together poetry. 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:15.680 But London is very much like a city of gossip 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.359 and tabloid journalism. People are going to coffee houses to 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:21.679 read the news, and this sort of thing is getting 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:26.000 attention and apparently a pension from the king. People even 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:27.720 at the time, and this, I feel like is a 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:29.800 theme for hoax or It's like rather than people just 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:32.840 being done back then, people even at the time are skeptical. 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:33.639 Yeah. 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:37.159 Mary is examined by a doctor named Richard Manningham, who 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.639 sees her having something like a seizure or fit. He 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:43.840 sees belly movement happening, something that lasts a little while 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:47.679 he does not quite know what it is. But people 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:51.040 also are skeptical because they examine the rabbits that Mary 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:54.119 delivers and sees that they have corn and hay and 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.480 grass in their stomach, So it's like these rabbits aren't 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:02.280 originating from inside of her. And also Saint Andre tests 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:05.359 the rabbit's lungs and determined that it had breathed air 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:07.720 like it had already. I don't know what happens to 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:09.800 lung tissue when it breathes air, but like I think 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:14.639 I think tests an floats which indicates something. So there's like, 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.760 how were these rabbits aren't being born inside her? Yeah, 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:23.440 they take Mary to a bathhouse in London. I don't 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:25.960 know why, not a hospital, but they take her to 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.400 a place called mister Lacy's Bagnio in lester Fields, which 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:29.800 is like. 0:18:29.880 --> 0:18:31.920 It is a just try to get her to chill out, maybe, 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:33.240 but I also. 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:34.800 Think it's like a place that like she could be 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:39.240 examined within sort of not public, but she's being examined 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:43.680 by as many as ten doctors at a time. Which feels, 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:46.520 when you think about it, very invasive and is probably 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:50.520 very unpleasant for her. Okay, she doesn't give birth to 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:54.679 any more rabbits. Okay, but based on this sort of 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.879 fit and seizure that that doctor has, I don't I 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:00.679 don't know. I'm not going to diagnose some and posthumously, 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.520 but it seems like she's probably suffering from a bad infection. 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:05.680 Oh interesting. 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:10.000 At the beginning of December, Saint Andre publishes his accounts 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.000 of these events and it becomes a London obsession. He 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:17.199 writes this public publication called a Short Narrative of an 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:22.560 Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbits. But three days later it all 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:27.560 falls apart, okay, because a porter at the bathhouse reports 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:31.000 that either Mary or depending on the accounts, married sister 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:35.640 in law Margaret Toft, attempt to attempted to bribe him 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:41.560 into smuggling pieces of rabbit into the bath house, manning him. 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:45.240 The doctor basically confronts Mary and says if she doesn't 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:48.920 tell the truth, they'll need to do exploratory surgery on her, 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.320 which is a pretty bad threat. 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:55.879 Also, like without her consent, I mean, can't she just 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:59.840 be like no, you cannot do explore her surgery on me, like, I. 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:03.640 Think, I think he's bluffing. Yeah, I deeply hope he's bluffing. 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:08.080 The bluff works. She immediately breaks down and confesses that 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:13.680 it was a hoax the way she confesses. December seventh, again, 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:16.800 just a few days after Saint Andre published his big 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:19.920 account of this amazing thing happening, she publishes her own 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:24.120 apology and confession. She blames her husband, her mother in law, 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:27.320 and strangely, the wife of a local organ grinder for 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:29.919 giving her this idea and sort of pushing her into it. 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:33.879 To me, it seems like an insane hoax, but I 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:36.000 guess it was working, and it was like going to 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:37.639 give her a pension from the king, and it was 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.119 giving her a lot of attention. But the way she 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:43.680 frames it is she was scared and impressionable and trying 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:46.399 to make some extra money for her family. And the 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:50.199 idea was that because she had had these pregnancies in 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:54.280 this miscarriage, her cervix was open, yeah, and they were 0:20:54.320 --> 0:20:59.960 putting dead animal pieces inside of her manually to be delivered. 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:00.680 Oh boy. 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:03.920 One like modern day researcher points out that it's amazing 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:06.680 that she didn't die of a bacterial infection. 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:07.720 Yeah. 0:21:07.760 --> 0:21:11.399 And also something horrific that I just want to acknowledge 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:14.080 is that Saint Andre and his account will talk about 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:17.800 how these animal pieces, some of them had their nails 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:23.200 still intact. Yeah, so this is like an incredible it's 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:24.360 a it's a hoax. 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:26.919 And I'm putting you're even supposed to leave a tampon 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.439 in for very long. You're supposed to be really careful 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:30.359 with what you put up there. 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:33.600 Yeah, So this is like this woman is sort of 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:37.640 being tortured by this scam that her husband, mother in law, 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:40.000 sister in law, and I guess like a local organ 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:44.160 grinder is putting her up to. It is. Yeah, it's gross, 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:47.560 and but it worked in terms of the hoax temporarily. 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:52.480 I wonder if she just had like crazy post miscarriage 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:56.159 depression and was just like needed like attention and like 0:21:56.760 --> 0:21:58.800 a break from the fields and. 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:02.119 Like, yeah, you know, also, her life is miserable. Yeah, 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:06.120 her life is boring, sad and miserable. If her one 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:08.600 of her children hadn't died by this point, one of 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:11.719