1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,279 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:17,360 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. We are 4 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:23,800 Speaker 1: going to talk about a weird old medical text today. 5 00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:28,760 Speaker 1: In sixteen thirty nine, Edward May, doctor of Philosophy and 6 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:32,320 Speaker 1: physic and Professor elect of them in the College of 7 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:37,480 Speaker 1: the Academy of Noblemen called the Museum Minerva, physician also 8 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:41,760 Speaker 1: extraordinary unto her most Sacred Majesty, Queen of Great Brittany, 9 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:47,080 Speaker 1: et cetera, published a forty page treatise. This treatise was 10 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:51,320 Speaker 1: called A most Certain and True Relation of a Strange 11 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:55,880 Speaker 1: Monster or Serpent found in the left ventricle of the 12 00:00:55,960 --> 00:01:01,360 Speaker 1: heart of John Pennant, Gentleman of the of twenty one years. 13 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:06,680 Speaker 1: If anything about the idea of a strange serpent or 14 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:11,319 Speaker 1: monster in the heart of a human being sounds just 15 00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:15,240 Speaker 1: really unpleasant and awful to you, so we're gonna be 16 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:18,760 Speaker 1: talking about this whole time today. I hate when my 17 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:25,480 Speaker 1: ventrical monster acts up. As Tracy just said, Edward May 18 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:28,919 Speaker 1: was physician to the Queen, and that queen was Henrietta Maria, 19 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:33,360 Speaker 1: Queen consort of Charles the First. The Museum Minerva, where 20 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:36,360 Speaker 1: May was one of six professors, was an academy for 21 00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:40,240 Speaker 1: young men from the nobility and gentry. It was established 22 00:01:40,240 --> 00:01:43,640 Speaker 1: by Sir Francis Kinniston in sixty five and it was 23 00:01:43,680 --> 00:01:47,440 Speaker 1: funded by Charles the First. This academy did not last 24 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:52,600 Speaker 1: very long, though many of England's existing educational institutions, including 25 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:56,240 Speaker 1: its universities and the Ends of Court, where people studied law, 26 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:00,040 Speaker 1: objected to the very existence of the Museum Mineral of 27 00:02:00,840 --> 00:02:04,200 Speaker 1: it was probably already closed by the time May's treatise 28 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:06,880 Speaker 1: was published. Yeah, I don't have a lot of details 29 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:10,799 Speaker 1: about the specifics of their objections. I don't know if 30 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaker 1: it went beyond just cantankerousness and that's not how we 31 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:17,560 Speaker 1: have been doing things for hundreds of years, but they 32 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:21,320 Speaker 1: didn't like it. It is possible that there is more 33 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:27,240 Speaker 1: information on Edward May in libraries and archives in the UK, 34 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:30,240 Speaker 1: but at this point what we mostly know here is 35 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:34,440 Speaker 1: that Edward and May were both really common names. There 36 00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:38,280 Speaker 1: were multiple people named Edward May in Britain in the 37 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:42,680 Speaker 1: early mid seventeenth century, so Edward May, doctor of philosophy 38 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:46,600 Speaker 1: and physic possibly could have also been the Edward May 39 00:02:46,760 --> 00:02:51,200 Speaker 1: gentleman who published Epigrams Divine and Moral in sixteen thirty three. 40 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:55,840 Speaker 1: He almost certainly was not the Edward May who was 41 00:02:55,919 --> 00:02:59,399 Speaker 1: working as an actor during this period, but he might 42 00:02:59,520 --> 00:03:03,280 Speaker 1: have been the person who published commentary Verse under the 43 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:08,080 Speaker 1: abbreviated name ed May. There were also various people around 44 00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:11,560 Speaker 1: the same time who were publishing treatises under the initials 45 00:03:11,639 --> 00:03:17,600 Speaker 1: E M, including medical treatises. So did E M stand 46 00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:21,040 Speaker 1: for Edward May? And was it this Edward May? If so, 47 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:26,320 Speaker 1: who even knows mysteries abound? The Edward May who wrote 48 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 1: this treatise does seem to have been regarded as knowledgeable 49 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 1: and competent. One of its dedications is to the King's 50 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:37,600 Speaker 1: chief physician, Theodore de Mayerne, and in that dedication May 51 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:42,760 Speaker 1: notes that Mayerne consulted him unquote, matters concerning occult philosophy 52 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:46,880 Speaker 1: and most sacred medicines, and at this point a cult 53 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:52,000 Speaker 1: had multiple meetings, including secret, mysterious, and relating to things 54 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:57,800 Speaker 1: like magic and alchemy. Occult philosophy usually had more magical connotations, 55 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:00,080 Speaker 1: and at this point there was a lot of re 56 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:05,400 Speaker 1: lap among medicine, science, magic, and religion. May also wound 57 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:08,640 Speaker 1: up involved in the autopsy of the late John Pennant 58 00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:11,400 Speaker 1: because he was already known to the family, they had 59 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:15,400 Speaker 1: asked for his help. Specifically, May had treated John's mother, 60 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:19,320 Speaker 1: Dorothy at various points for an ailment that he described 61 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:23,599 Speaker 1: as the stone. This was probably gall stones, bladder stones, 62 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:28,360 Speaker 1: or kidney stones. This autopsy was conducted on October seventh, 63 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:33,760 Speaker 1: sixty seven. That day, May was approached by Lady Elizabeth Harris, 64 00:04:33,839 --> 00:04:37,360 Speaker 1: wife of Sir Francis Harris, who was John pennance aunt, 65 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:40,200 Speaker 1: and told him that John had died the evening before. 66 00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:43,960 Speaker 1: John had been sick for about three years and the 67 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:47,719 Speaker 1: family didn't know what had caused this illness. May noted 68 00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:50,880 Speaker 1: that Pennant had refused to button his doublet in the mornings, 69 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:54,120 Speaker 1: leaving it open no matter the weather, until after he 70 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:58,040 Speaker 1: had washed his hands and face. May brought in surgeon 71 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:01,839 Speaker 1: John Hayden to actually can ducked the autopsy, which he 72 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:06,120 Speaker 1: called a dissection, and so Hayden was doing this autopsy 73 00:05:06,240 --> 00:05:12,200 Speaker 1: under May's direction. Lady Elizabeth Harris, John's mother, Dorothy, Richard Barry, 74 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:15,880 Speaker 1: and a man named George Gentleman and Gentleman's wife were 75 00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:18,920 Speaker 1: all there for the autopsy. As well. Their names are 76 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:21,880 Speaker 1: all listed in the treatise as having seen what was 77 00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:26,040 Speaker 1: taken out of John's heart. In the treatise, May describe 78 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:29,320 Speaker 1: the autopsy as focusing on two regions of the body, 79 00:05:29,839 --> 00:05:34,039 Speaker 1: the natural region and the vital region. In the natural 80 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:38,800 Speaker 1: region were included the organs of digestion and excretion. There 81 00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:41,599 Speaker 1: they quote found the bladder of the young man full 82 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:44,919 Speaker 1: of purulent and ulcerous matter, the upper parts of it 83 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:49,320 Speaker 1: broken and all of it rotten. The right kidney quite consumed, 84 00:05:49,600 --> 00:05:53,440 Speaker 1: the left tumified, as big as any two kidneys, and 85 00:05:53,560 --> 00:05:57,480 Speaker 1: full of seni as matter, all the inward and carnos 86 00:05:57,560 --> 00:06:02,960 Speaker 1: parts eaten away, and nothing remaining but exterior skins. Penance 87 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:08,159 Speaker 1: spleen and liver both seemed mostly unaffected, although May described 88 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:12,280 Speaker 1: the liver as having grown into the costal membranes. That's 89 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:15,960 Speaker 1: something that May attributed to penance profession as a writer. 90 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:20,000 Speaker 1: May found no sign of stone or gravel in any 91 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:22,520 Speaker 1: of these organs, and that is something that penance mother 92 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:25,000 Speaker 1: had been wondering about. She was like, I have stoned 93 00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:29,640 Speaker 1: did stone also kill my son? Then they moved to 94 00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:33,679 Speaker 1: the vital region, home to the heart and lungs, penance 95 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:38,040 Speaker 1: lungs looked okay, but his heart was quote more globose 96 00:06:38,200 --> 00:06:42,320 Speaker 1: and dilated than long. The right ventricle of an ash color, 97 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:46,480 Speaker 1: shriveled and wrinkled, like a leather purse without money, and 98 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:51,120 Speaker 1: not anything at all in it. The pericardium and nervous membrane, 99 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:54,760 Speaker 1: which containeth that illustrious liquor of the lungs in which 100 00:06:54,800 --> 00:06:59,159 Speaker 1: the heart doth bathe itself, was quite dried also. But 101 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:04,160 Speaker 1: the strange part, of course, involved penance left ventricle. Quote. 102 00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:06,960 Speaker 1: The left ventricle of the heart, being felt by the 103 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:10,560 Speaker 1: surgeon's hand, appeared to him to be as hard as stone, 104 00:07:10,960 --> 00:07:13,920 Speaker 1: and much greater than the right, which upon the first 105 00:07:13,960 --> 00:07:17,560 Speaker 1: site gave us some cause of wonder, seeing as you know, 106 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:22,040 Speaker 1: the right ventricle is much greater than the left. This 107 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:24,880 Speaker 1: is a little confusing because it sounds like he's saying 108 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:27,640 Speaker 1: that in a typical heart, the right ventricle is larger 109 00:07:27,680 --> 00:07:30,440 Speaker 1: than the left. That is not usually the case. The 110 00:07:30,600 --> 00:07:34,320 Speaker 1: ventricles themselves are about the same size, but the left 111 00:07:34,400 --> 00:07:38,840 Speaker 1: ventricle has much thicker walls. The right ventricle pumps blood 112 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:41,800 Speaker 1: to the lungs, while the left ventricle pumps blood out 113 00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:46,440 Speaker 1: to the entire body, Thus those thicker walls. May correctly 114 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:49,800 Speaker 1: describes the left ventricle as having thicker walls later on, 115 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 1: so this description is kind of a huh moment, although 116 00:07:53,840 --> 00:07:57,760 Speaker 1: he attributed those thick walls to the quote conservation of 117 00:07:57,920 --> 00:08:02,119 Speaker 1: vital spirits, not the action of the heart. May asked 118 00:08:02,160 --> 00:08:05,200 Speaker 1: Hayden to make an incision in the left ventricle. So 119 00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:09,600 Speaker 1: he did, quote upon which issued out a very great 120 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:14,000 Speaker 1: quantity of blood, and to speak, the whole verity. All 121 00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:17,040 Speaker 1: the blood that was in his body left and was 122 00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:21,320 Speaker 1: gathered in the left ventricle and contained in it. Once 123 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:24,240 Speaker 1: the blood had all drained out of the ventricle, May 124 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:27,600 Speaker 1: was ready to move on, but Hayden didn't want to. 125 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:31,360 Speaker 1: He insisted that the left ventricle was unusually large and 126 00:08:31,560 --> 00:08:35,600 Speaker 1: hard and needed a closer look. This is when May 127 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:38,920 Speaker 1: noted that the left ventricle was supposed to have thicker walls. 128 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:42,640 Speaker 1: After some back and forth, May finally gave in and 129 00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:46,480 Speaker 1: instructed Hayden to enlarge the incision that he had made 130 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:51,160 Speaker 1: in the ventricle. That is when they found the monster. Quote. 131 00:08:51,480 --> 00:08:56,079 Speaker 1: We presently perceived a carnas substance, as it seems to us, 132 00:08:56,280 --> 00:09:00,560 Speaker 1: wreathed together in folds like a worm or serpent, the 133 00:09:00,679 --> 00:09:04,720 Speaker 1: self same form expressed in the iconography at which we 134 00:09:04,880 --> 00:09:08,640 Speaker 1: both much wondered, And I entreated him to separate it 135 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:11,800 Speaker 1: from the heart, which he did, and we carried it 136 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:14,800 Speaker 1: from the body to the window, and there laid it out. 137 00:09:15,320 --> 00:09:17,120 Speaker 1: I went down a little rabbit hole trying to figure 138 00:09:17,120 --> 00:09:20,600 Speaker 1: out exactly what iconography he was talking about here, And 139 00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:23,920 Speaker 1: like the most well known books that were called by 140 00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:26,600 Speaker 1: that name, like, didn't really have an illustration that to 141 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:28,839 Speaker 1: me syncd up with what he was talking about. So 142 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:32,360 Speaker 1: if you're wondering, I don't know either. So May went 143 00:09:32,440 --> 00:09:36,160 Speaker 1: on to describe their discovery this way quote. The body 144 00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:39,040 Speaker 1: was white, of the very color of the whitest skin 145 00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:42,600 Speaker 1: of man's body. But the skin was bright and shining, 146 00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:46,079 Speaker 1: as if it had been varnished. Over the head all 147 00:09:46,160 --> 00:09:48,920 Speaker 1: bloody and so like the head of a serpent, that 148 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:52,280 Speaker 1: the lady Harris then shivered to see it, and since 149 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:55,920 Speaker 1: hath often spoken it that she was inwardly troubled at it, 150 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:58,840 Speaker 1: because the head was so truly like the head of 151 00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:03,840 Speaker 1: a snake. This serpent was bifurcated. It split into two 152 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:08,000 Speaker 1: parts that May described as flesh colored thighs, and then 153 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:11,640 Speaker 1: those ended in branching filaments that he couldn't identify. He 154 00:10:11,720 --> 00:10:16,960 Speaker 1: called them quote, fibers, strings, nerves, or whatsoever else they were. 155 00:10:17,720 --> 00:10:20,720 Speaker 1: The people who had gathered for this autopsy discussed what 156 00:10:20,800 --> 00:10:24,200 Speaker 1: this thing could be, as May kept examining it Quote, 157 00:10:24,240 --> 00:10:27,640 Speaker 1: and thereupon I searched all parts of it to find 158 00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:31,600 Speaker 1: whether it were a pituitous and bloody collection or the like, 159 00:10:32,240 --> 00:10:36,440 Speaker 1: or a true organical body and conception. I first searched 160 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:39,360 Speaker 1: the head and found it of a thick substance, bloody 161 00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:43,480 Speaker 1: and glandulous about the neck, somewhat broken, as I conceived, 162 00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:46,640 Speaker 1: by a sudden or violent separation of it from the heart, 163 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:50,000 Speaker 1: which yet seemed to me to come from it easily enough. 164 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:53,760 Speaker 1: They used a bodkin to probe between the parts that 165 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:57,760 Speaker 1: May described his legs. Bodkin is like a thick, blunt needle, 166 00:10:57,840 --> 00:11:00,360 Speaker 1: and around this time it was used to describe both 167 00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:03,400 Speaker 1: hairpins and tools that were meant to make holes in 168 00:11:03,480 --> 00:11:07,920 Speaker 1: cloth or leather. Prodding it with this bodkin, May found 169 00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:10,000 Speaker 1: that parts of it were solid and parts of it 170 00:11:10,040 --> 00:11:13,880 Speaker 1: were hollow. The other spectators prodded this thing with the 171 00:11:13,920 --> 00:11:17,320 Speaker 1: bodkin as well, quote and as not crediting me. Some 172 00:11:17,440 --> 00:11:20,839 Speaker 1: of them took the bodkin after me, made trial themselves, 173 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:24,800 Speaker 1: and remained satisfied that there was a gut, vain or artery, 174 00:11:24,920 --> 00:11:28,559 Speaker 1: or some such analogical thing that was to serve that 175 00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:33,439 Speaker 1: monster for uses natural. At this point May had to leave, 176 00:11:33,559 --> 00:11:36,360 Speaker 1: and he left the body in the care of the surgeon. 177 00:11:37,240 --> 00:11:40,120 Speaker 1: Hayden wanted to preserve what they had removed from John 178 00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:43,360 Speaker 1: Pennant's heart, but his mother would not allow it, saying, quote, 179 00:11:43,640 --> 00:11:47,360 Speaker 1: as it came with him, so it shall go with him. 180 00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:50,520 Speaker 1: She remained in the room to watch while Hayden sewed 181 00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:54,720 Speaker 1: her son's body back up. Yeah. Props to Pennant's mother 182 00:11:54,840 --> 00:11:57,080 Speaker 1: for staying in the room to make sure they did 183 00:11:57,080 --> 00:12:01,520 Speaker 1: not take this thing without her consent. When May learned 184 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:04,199 Speaker 1: that Hayden had not been able to keep the serpent, 185 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:07,240 Speaker 1: he wrote down everything he could recall about the autopsy, 186 00:12:07,320 --> 00:12:09,960 Speaker 1: and he drew diagrams of the heart and what they'd 187 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:12,720 Speaker 1: found in it in as much detail as he could remember. 188 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:16,079 Speaker 1: All of this later went into the treatise, which he 189 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:20,480 Speaker 1: published about two years later. Uh you know when explaining 190 00:12:20,600 --> 00:12:23,680 Speaker 1: this two year delay, he apparently just did not get 191 00:12:23,679 --> 00:12:26,640 Speaker 1: around to doing it. He had also wanted to publish 192 00:12:26,679 --> 00:12:30,120 Speaker 1: this treatise alongside other treatises he was working on, but 193 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:34,640 Speaker 1: he had not finished those yet either. Theodore de Mayerne 194 00:12:34,679 --> 00:12:37,000 Speaker 1: asked him to go ahead and get this report into print, 195 00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:39,720 Speaker 1: so he did, and we're going to talk more about 196 00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:41,840 Speaker 1: all of this after we first paused for a little 197 00:12:41,840 --> 00:12:54,640 Speaker 1: sponsor break. Edward May called what they had pulled out 198 00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:59,319 Speaker 1: of John Pennant's heart a quote strange and monstrous embryon, 199 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:02,439 Speaker 1: And the word monster has come up a few times 200 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:06,120 Speaker 1: during this episode and in his descriptions elsewhere in the treatise. 201 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:10,040 Speaker 1: In the seventeenth century, people used the word monster in 202 00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:12,240 Speaker 1: the sense that we might use it today to mean 203 00:13:12,400 --> 00:13:16,880 Speaker 1: a scary or ferocious creature, although most of the things 204 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:20,120 Speaker 1: that we would call a monster today are way too 205 00:13:20,120 --> 00:13:23,400 Speaker 1: big to fit inside the ventricle of a heart. Monsters 206 00:13:23,400 --> 00:13:27,000 Speaker 1: are not usually tiny. They could be, but not usually. 207 00:13:27,800 --> 00:13:31,000 Speaker 1: In the late medieval and early modern period, though the 208 00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:35,280 Speaker 1: word monster had some other meetings as well, a monster 209 00:13:35,480 --> 00:13:39,720 Speaker 1: could also be something that was considered amazing or extraordinary. 210 00:13:39,800 --> 00:13:43,199 Speaker 1: In addition to that, medical texts used the word monster 211 00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:46,800 Speaker 1: to describe plants that were misshapen or we're growing in 212 00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:50,160 Speaker 1: a bizarre way, as well as people or other animals 213 00:13:50,160 --> 00:13:53,679 Speaker 1: that had some kind of congenital disability or limb difference, 214 00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:58,000 Speaker 1: or other trait that made them seem particularly unusual, like 215 00:13:58,520 --> 00:14:01,440 Speaker 1: a calf born with extra legs might be described as 216 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:05,240 Speaker 1: a monster, or a stillborn baby who had physically developed 217 00:14:05,280 --> 00:14:09,120 Speaker 1: in a way that was incompatible with life. Conjoined twins 218 00:14:09,160 --> 00:14:13,319 Speaker 1: were described as monsters as well. Past podcast subject and 219 00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:17,920 Speaker 1: was Parrey included a chapter titled on Monsters and Marvels 220 00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:21,880 Speaker 1: in his fifty complete Works, in which he listed out 221 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:25,960 Speaker 1: a series of possible causes for these so called monsters. 222 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:30,240 Speaker 1: Those causes included the wrath of God, the glory of God, 223 00:14:30,760 --> 00:14:35,560 Speaker 1: too much and too little sperm, the size of the womb, heredity, 224 00:14:35,640 --> 00:14:41,280 Speaker 1: accident quote, the artifice of wicked beggars, and demons and devils. 225 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:46,080 Speaker 1: These other definitions of the word monster are obsolete as 226 00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:50,920 Speaker 1: at this point, but that last sense persisted for centuries 227 00:14:51,160 --> 00:14:54,600 Speaker 1: well in the development of teratology, or the study of 228 00:14:54,640 --> 00:14:59,720 Speaker 1: congenital malformations as a medical field. The Oxford English Dictionary, 229 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:03,280 Speaker 1: how an example of the word monster being used in 230 00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:06,440 Speaker 1: a medical journal to describe a baby that was born 231 00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:12,400 Speaker 1: without a heart or a brain, in which is horrifyingly recent. Yes, 232 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:15,680 Speaker 1: that was the year I got married. Uh May's use 233 00:15:15,720 --> 00:15:18,440 Speaker 1: of the word monster here may have drawn from all 234 00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:21,040 Speaker 1: of these meanings, and he wrote this treatise during a 235 00:15:21,080 --> 00:15:24,840 Speaker 1: period in which people were really fascinated with that last 236 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:28,320 Speaker 1: sense of the word monster. In particular, this was a 237 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:30,840 Speaker 1: trend that had started to develop in the late fifteenth 238 00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:33,800 Speaker 1: century and was sort of a precursor to freak shows. 239 00:15:34,440 --> 00:15:38,040 Speaker 1: People in Europe became enamored with things like illustrated medical 240 00:15:38,080 --> 00:15:42,960 Speaker 1: texts and preserved specimens showing these kinds of traits. Some 241 00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:47,280 Speaker 1: of this fixation was just rooted in morbid curiosity, but 242 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:51,680 Speaker 1: it was also connected to layers of religious thought, fears 243 00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:55,800 Speaker 1: about illness and disability and the many many risks that 244 00:15:55,920 --> 00:15:59,960 Speaker 1: surrounded pregnancy and birth, as well as just a general 245 00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:04,400 Speaker 1: lack of understanding of fetal development. Baby is born with 246 00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:07,760 Speaker 1: These kinds of developmental issues could be seen as portents 247 00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:12,440 Speaker 1: or omens, and sometimes books on this subject included illustrations 248 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:17,240 Speaker 1: of real children and animals, as well as illustrations of 249 00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:20,400 Speaker 1: things that were clearly mythical or imaginary, like there would 250 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:25,880 Speaker 1: be a baby whose limb development sort of resembled a 251 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:30,840 Speaker 1: mermaid alongside like actual mermaids. Something else that we haven't 252 00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:33,960 Speaker 1: gotten into yet is that Edward May wrote this treatise 253 00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:37,960 Speaker 1: as European medical science was developing a more thorough understanding 254 00:16:38,080 --> 00:16:42,160 Speaker 1: of blood circulation. In our recent episode on hypertension, we 255 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:46,560 Speaker 1: talked about William Harvey's descriptions of blood circulation through the body, 256 00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:50,360 Speaker 1: including circulating through the lungs and out to the body 257 00:16:50,400 --> 00:16:53,960 Speaker 1: in a closed loop. Harvey also described the heart as 258 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:57,760 Speaker 1: a pump, pushing blood with each beat. Harvey's on the 259 00:16:57,760 --> 00:17:00,560 Speaker 1: Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, which detailed 260 00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:04,919 Speaker 1: all of this, was published in Latin in six so 261 00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:08,800 Speaker 1: Harvey was building on the work of earlier physicians. He 262 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:12,800 Speaker 1: wasn't the first person to ever suggest that blood followed 263 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:16,040 Speaker 1: different paths through the lungs and out to the rest 264 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:19,720 Speaker 1: of the body, but this was still a major revision 265 00:17:19,760 --> 00:17:23,720 Speaker 1: to European understanding of circulation and of the heart, and 266 00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:28,560 Speaker 1: it was really controversial and Harvey's critics included Edward May 267 00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:32,880 Speaker 1: May's discussion of John Pennant's left ventricle being full of 268 00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:37,200 Speaker 1: blood includes a footnote in which he goes on at length, 269 00:17:37,680 --> 00:17:42,440 Speaker 1: although without naming Harvey specifically about these ideas. This footnote 270 00:17:42,520 --> 00:17:46,080 Speaker 1: set in part quote Here those men may be handsomely 271 00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:49,320 Speaker 1: questioned who say that the pulse is nothing else but 272 00:17:49,400 --> 00:17:51,879 Speaker 1: the impulse of the blood into the arteries or the 273 00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:55,600 Speaker 1: sisterly of the heart. What has become of the pulse 274 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:59,600 Speaker 1: in this man, all the while that the whole blood 275 00:17:59,600 --> 00:18:03,879 Speaker 1: betwok itself into the heart. Here was either a living 276 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:07,720 Speaker 1: man without pulse, or pulse without the sistily of the heart. 277 00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:11,240 Speaker 1: For what could the arteries receive when nothing was to 278 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:14,920 Speaker 1: be received? Or how could there be pulse when there 279 00:18:15,000 --> 00:18:19,200 Speaker 1: was no impulse into the arteries. The pulse, then, doubtless, 280 00:18:19,320 --> 00:18:23,119 Speaker 1: is from another cause. And this is a far other 281 00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:27,959 Speaker 1: matter than most men conceive. So May seems to have 282 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:31,000 Speaker 1: thought that this discovery of a serpent in a man's 283 00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:34,480 Speaker 1: heart in a ventricle that was filled with blood proved 284 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:37,800 Speaker 1: his assertion that Harvey was wrong. Hey it did not. 285 00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:42,240 Speaker 1: May was also totally off base about Penance left ventricle 286 00:18:42,359 --> 00:18:45,560 Speaker 1: containing all the blood in his body. That would be 287 00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:47,800 Speaker 1: more than a gallon of blood, which is far too 288 00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:50,879 Speaker 1: much to fit inside a chamber of the human heart. 289 00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:55,640 Speaker 1: In a pamphlet called The Rise of Physiology in England, 290 00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:58,760 Speaker 1: the Harvey and Oration delivered before the Royal College of 291 00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:05,400 Speaker 1: Physicians are or eight. Physician William Selby Church relegated Edward 292 00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:09,560 Speaker 1: May to his own footnote, describing people who disparaged Harvey's 293 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:12,880 Speaker 1: work in this way as quote too ignorant and too 294 00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:17,160 Speaker 1: bigoted to appreciate him. At the same time, even though 295 00:19:17,200 --> 00:19:21,360 Speaker 1: he was being very cantankerous about the latest developments and 296 00:19:21,359 --> 00:19:25,400 Speaker 1: and British medical thought. May thought whatever had affected John 297 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:28,800 Speaker 1: Pennant's heart might have been affecting other people's hearts as well, 298 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:31,639 Speaker 1: so it was important to figure out exactly what it 299 00:19:31,760 --> 00:19:33,960 Speaker 1: was and what it meant, and how this might be 300 00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:38,000 Speaker 1: treated or prevented. Quote. It is most requisite that something 301 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:41,160 Speaker 1: be said of this or any such like matters generated 302 00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:44,320 Speaker 1: in man's heart, both for the manner of their generation 303 00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:47,639 Speaker 1: and the way of their cure, and by what means 304 00:19:47,680 --> 00:19:51,080 Speaker 1: such rare and incredible causes of death may be found 305 00:19:51,119 --> 00:19:55,040 Speaker 1: out in time and taken away. So while the first 306 00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:59,680 Speaker 1: three sections of May's treatise covered up preface, including dedications 307 00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:03,040 Speaker 1: to Diador Den Mayern and to Edward Earl of Dorset 308 00:20:03,080 --> 00:20:06,800 Speaker 1: who was the Queen's Lord Chamberlain, and details on John 309 00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:10,840 Speaker 1: Pennant's case in the autopsy itself. The remaining seven sections 310 00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:14,000 Speaker 1: put this autopsy into context, and he draws a lot 311 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:17,520 Speaker 1: of conclusions about what this might mean for medicine. First, 312 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:22,240 Speaker 1: he quoted both Hippocrates and even Sina Hippocrates as saying 313 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:25,520 Speaker 1: that quote the heart laborers of no disease, and even 314 00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:29,040 Speaker 1: Sina that quote the heart is far remote from dangers. 315 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:33,040 Speaker 1: From there, May noted that many physicians, since those two 316 00:20:33,040 --> 00:20:36,919 Speaker 1: great figures from ancient medicine, had documented all kinds of 317 00:20:36,960 --> 00:20:41,040 Speaker 1: diseases and dangers that could affect the heart, including syncope, 318 00:20:41,080 --> 00:20:46,840 Speaker 1: cardiac passion, tremors, palpitations, etcetera. And now he had found 319 00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:49,199 Speaker 1: what he thought was a worm or serpent in the 320 00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:53,040 Speaker 1: left ventricle. Because Pennant had been ill for three years, 321 00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:57,040 Speaker 1: including complaints of palpitations, May thought that the serpent had 322 00:20:57,040 --> 00:21:00,720 Speaker 1: been growing in his heart that whole time. Next, May 323 00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:04,120 Speaker 1: speculated on how that serpent might have gotten in their quote. 324 00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:08,000 Speaker 1: But this then begets a greater question, how this monster 325 00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:10,960 Speaker 1: or such as this should be begotten or bread in 326 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:14,440 Speaker 1: the heart. So defended as hath been said more than 327 00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:17,919 Speaker 1: all the body, and in the most defended part of 328 00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:21,480 Speaker 1: the heart, the left ventricle three times thicker of flesh 329 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:25,000 Speaker 1: and substance than the right, and also of what matter, 330 00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:28,680 Speaker 1: seeing that cell is possessed and replenished with the best, 331 00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:33,080 Speaker 1: purest and most illustrious liquor in the body, the blood arterial, 332 00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:37,119 Speaker 1: and the vital spirits. And he offered some ideas that 333 00:21:37,240 --> 00:21:40,320 Speaker 1: there were passages that could allow very small worms to 334 00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:43,320 Speaker 1: enter the heart, or that it had come from quote 335 00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:47,880 Speaker 1: ill distributions and transmissions, or that worms had been living 336 00:21:47,880 --> 00:21:51,240 Speaker 1: in the pair cardium. He also referenced a work called 337 00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:54,080 Speaker 1: Heaven Stripes Book of the Plague, which included the story 338 00:21:54,119 --> 00:21:56,840 Speaker 1: of a prince who had a white worm cleaving to 339 00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:00,680 Speaker 1: his heart with a sharp nose like a horn. May 340 00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:03,720 Speaker 1: also mentioned heartworm and horses, which have been described in 341 00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:09,359 Speaker 1: Stow's Chronicle at an um In, but May ultimately concluded 342 00:22:09,440 --> 00:22:12,760 Speaker 1: that the cause of the serpent and John Pennance's heart 343 00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:16,040 Speaker 1: was more metaphysical. We will get to that after a 344 00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:29,879 Speaker 1: sponsor break. In the end, Edward May blamed John pennance 345 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:34,600 Speaker 1: temperament for the appearance of a serpent in his heart. Quote. 346 00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:36,560 Speaker 1: But that which I have to say is this, that 347 00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:42,800 Speaker 1: these strange and extraordinary generations are caused from the temperament individual. 348 00:22:43,160 --> 00:22:46,359 Speaker 1: For you well know that there is a double temperament, 349 00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:50,400 Speaker 1: the one specifical the other individual. The one is fixed 350 00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:54,199 Speaker 1: them and unalterable, and the other is temperamentum fluxum and 351 00:22:54,320 --> 00:22:59,679 Speaker 1: accidental shore clears to absolutely. He also drew in a 352 00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:03,280 Speaker 1: little bit of astrology. Quote. We also see every day 353 00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:06,480 Speaker 1: that such men are more hot and vivacious who are 354 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:09,880 Speaker 1: born either in the stars of Leo or the sun oriental. 355 00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:13,359 Speaker 1: They also to be of more succulent habit who are 356 00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:16,879 Speaker 1: born within the second quadrate of the moon, and such 357 00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:19,320 Speaker 1: to be least vital who are born in the silence 358 00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:24,359 Speaker 1: of the moon. Herbs also gathered moon decreasing have less force, 359 00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:28,280 Speaker 1: and the very soil often doth either so augment or 360 00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:32,360 Speaker 1: dwarf plants and herbs, and give them such strange conditions 361 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:36,000 Speaker 1: that they are found degenerate and scarcely the same herbs. 362 00:23:36,680 --> 00:23:40,160 Speaker 1: He toss in a bit of humoral medicine as well. Quote, 363 00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:44,680 Speaker 1: and from this diatheses and ill dispositions may many a 364 00:23:44,840 --> 00:23:50,040 Speaker 1: strange sickness in after ages spring as time diet and 365 00:23:50,119 --> 00:23:54,240 Speaker 1: other accidents do alter or intend the heat, cold, or 366 00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:58,760 Speaker 1: acrimony of the humor and blood, or some other quality. 367 00:23:58,920 --> 00:24:01,600 Speaker 1: And he made reference to the doctrine of signatures. That's 368 00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:03,760 Speaker 1: the idea that plants can be used to make a 369 00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:06,560 Speaker 1: medicine to treat a particular part of the body that 370 00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:10,320 Speaker 1: looked like that part of the body. He connected this 371 00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:14,479 Speaker 1: to Muslim philosopher al Kindi's work on optics, quoting him 372 00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:17,639 Speaker 1: in Latin as saying, quote, the elementary world is an 373 00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:21,080 Speaker 1: example of the world, so that everything contained in it 374 00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:25,840 Speaker 1: contains its species. It is evidence that everything in this world, 375 00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:29,399 Speaker 1: whether it be a substance or an accident, produces rays 376 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:32,480 Speaker 1: in its own way, in the likeness of the stars. 377 00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:35,320 Speaker 1: Otherwise it would not have the full form of a 378 00:24:35,400 --> 00:24:39,920 Speaker 1: starry world. May concluded that these rays allowed a penance 379 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:42,840 Speaker 1: body to give outward evidence of the serpent that was 380 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:46,880 Speaker 1: troubling his heart in the manner of the doctrine of signatures, 381 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:50,200 Speaker 1: because over the last few years his eye had become 382 00:24:50,320 --> 00:24:54,000 Speaker 1: increasingly like that of a serpent. Something may have noticed 383 00:24:54,040 --> 00:24:57,040 Speaker 1: and commented on more than once. One of the big 384 00:24:57,080 --> 00:24:59,440 Speaker 1: examples that comes up a lot of the doctrine of signatures. 385 00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:01,560 Speaker 1: Is the idea that a walnut looks like a brain, 386 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:06,160 Speaker 1: so you can make brain medicine out of walnuts. Sure 387 00:25:07,119 --> 00:25:11,320 Speaker 1: very popular in medical and herbology texts. I feel like 388 00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:14,440 Speaker 1: there's a geometry angle to this, where you're doing proofs 389 00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:17,920 Speaker 1: of things that look like Yeah, I find it really 390 00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:20,439 Speaker 1: interesting that he can find he combined this idea with 391 00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:25,879 Speaker 1: optics and made it into like a unified claris discipline theory. 392 00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:31,199 Speaker 1: There So, May concluded his treatise with a note that 393 00:25:31,320 --> 00:25:35,640 Speaker 1: medical science could make many more new and important discoveries 394 00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:39,280 Speaker 1: if more people's bodies could be dissected after their deaths. 395 00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:42,679 Speaker 1: I'd say this was a fair point, But then he 396 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:47,160 Speaker 1: went on to blame grieving families for not providing those opportunities, 397 00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:50,199 Speaker 1: saying that that would be more possible quote if it 398 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:53,560 Speaker 1: were not for a babyish or a kind of cockney 399 00:25:53,720 --> 00:25:57,520 Speaker 1: disposition in our common people who think that their children 400 00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:01,080 Speaker 1: or friends murdered after they are dead, if a surgeon 401 00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:05,159 Speaker 1: should but pierce any part of their skins with a knife. 402 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:09,280 Speaker 1: I mean there are lots of cultures who have thought that, Yeah, 403 00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:18,159 Speaker 1: it's it. Yeah. He seems particularly uh, not compassionate in 404 00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:21,560 Speaker 1: this moment. Of being like, we could learn so much 405 00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:25,200 Speaker 1: more if people's grieving families were not you know, big 406 00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:28,479 Speaker 1: silly babies about everything right. I think he was still 407 00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:31,439 Speaker 1: feeling salty about not getting to keep the servant. The 408 00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:35,560 Speaker 1: servants maze treatis stayed in print until at least the 409 00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:38,880 Speaker 1: eighteen twenties as part of an anthology called a Collection 410 00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:43,040 Speaker 1: of Scarce and Valuable Tracts, and other people commented on 411 00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:45,960 Speaker 1: it during those centuries where it was in print. In 412 00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:50,760 Speaker 1: sixteen fifty two, Scottish writer Alexander Ross published Arcana Microcosmi, 413 00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:54,960 Speaker 1: or the hid Secrets of Man's Body Discovered in Anatomical 414 00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:58,760 Speaker 1: Duel between Aristotle and Galen, with a refutation of Thomas 415 00:26:58,760 --> 00:27:04,080 Speaker 1: Brown's vulgar error from Bacon's Natural History and Hervey's book Degeneration. 416 00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:07,879 Speaker 1: Shan Ross wrote, quote, nor is it incredible what is 417 00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:11,240 Speaker 1: recorded by diverse of worms found in the heart, which 418 00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:15,600 Speaker 1: caused consumptions and strange distempers in our bodies, which often 419 00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:19,240 Speaker 1: deceived physicians. For the heart is no more privileged from 420 00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:22,639 Speaker 1: worms than other members, save only that its substance is 421 00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:25,920 Speaker 1: hard and solid, and by reason of its spirits and heat, 422 00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:29,359 Speaker 1: it is not so much subject to putrefaction as parts 423 00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:33,239 Speaker 1: more soft and loose, and consequently not so infested with 424 00:27:33,320 --> 00:27:37,159 Speaker 1: worms and impostumes as other members are. Yet it is 425 00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:40,560 Speaker 1: not altogether exempted, for I have read of one whose 426 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:43,399 Speaker 1: heart being opened, there was found in it a white 427 00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:46,639 Speaker 1: worm with a sharp beak, which, being placed on a table, 428 00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:50,240 Speaker 1: and a circle of the juice of garlic made about it, died, 429 00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:53,720 Speaker 1: being overcome with that strong smell, by which it is 430 00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:56,760 Speaker 1: plain that the use of garlic is wholesome and needful, 431 00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:59,720 Speaker 1: for such as are subject to worms as being their 432 00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:03,159 Speaker 1: just drawyer. So they didn't say anything about surrounding the 433 00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:06,040 Speaker 1: worm with garlic, but this has been cited as a 434 00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:10,399 Speaker 1: reference to his treatise about John Pennett. Ross's work also 435 00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:13,919 Speaker 1: includes various other accounts of worms being found in the 436 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:18,120 Speaker 1: brain and in the digestive system, and in general knowledge 437 00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:22,359 Speaker 1: of parasites like tape worm and roundworm that goes back 438 00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:24,880 Speaker 1: to the ancient world. This was not new knowledge at 439 00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:30,000 Speaker 1: this point. Puritan clergyman Cotton Mother also referenced May's tract 440 00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:34,800 Speaker 1: in his Magnalia Christie Americana, and it's possible that Mather's 441 00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:38,800 Speaker 1: work went on to inspire Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story Egotism 442 00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:42,600 Speaker 1: or the Bosom Serpent, which he published in eighteen forty three. 443 00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:45,840 Speaker 1: As that name suggests, this story is about a man 444 00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:49,720 Speaker 1: with a snake living in his chest. Hawthorne was also 445 00:28:49,960 --> 00:28:53,240 Speaker 1: probably familiar with various news reports that were circulating in 446 00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:56,640 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century about people who believe they had snakes 447 00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:59,680 Speaker 1: growing in their bodies, most of them thinking they had 448 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:02,520 Speaker 1: swam allowed a small snake or snake egg while drinking 449 00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:05,240 Speaker 1: from a brook or other body of water, which had 450 00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:09,040 Speaker 1: then grown inside of them. There was also Puritan religious 451 00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:11,560 Speaker 1: writing that made allegorical use of a snake in a 452 00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:15,320 Speaker 1: person's chest as a representation of sin. So it's totally 453 00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:18,520 Speaker 1: possible that Hawthorne was inspired by something else, or that 454 00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:20,760 Speaker 1: he just made this up out of his own imagination. 455 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:25,400 Speaker 1: So what was this thing? And John Pennon's heart may 456 00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:29,240 Speaker 1: clearly thought it was an actual worm or serpent, and 457 00:29:29,360 --> 00:29:33,320 Speaker 1: earlier commentators generally agreed. Some of them concluded that it 458 00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:36,480 Speaker 1: was an example of a human infected with the kind 459 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:40,000 Speaker 1: of heartworm that was already known to infect other animals 460 00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:44,720 Speaker 1: like horses. Heartworms don't really have the kind of bifurcated 461 00:29:44,840 --> 00:29:49,440 Speaker 1: structure separating out into filaments that may described, but a 462 00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:53,320 Speaker 1: mass of entangled heartworms might kind of look like that. 463 00:29:53,840 --> 00:29:57,800 Speaker 1: Heartworms are spread by mosquitoes, and while they can infect people, 464 00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:01,520 Speaker 1: that is really rare, and it's incredibly unlikely that this 465 00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:03,960 Speaker 1: could have happened to someone living in England in the 466 00:30:04,040 --> 00:30:08,680 Speaker 1: seventeenth century. The first reports of animals contracting heartworm in 467 00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:13,080 Speaker 1: England didn't happen until ninety five, and it's still relatively 468 00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:15,920 Speaker 1: uncommon there because in most years the climate is just 469 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:18,760 Speaker 1: not hot enough for the parasite to breed in the 470 00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:22,600 Speaker 1: mosquitoes that carry them. That may be shifting though, due 471 00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:26,240 Speaker 1: to global warming. While it's possible that Pennant could have 472 00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:31,680 Speaker 1: traveled abroad and contracted heartworms somewhere else, still very unlikely. Yeah, 473 00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:34,000 Speaker 1: he would have had to go somewhere where there was 474 00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:37,400 Speaker 1: a lot of heartworm and then also contracted it there 475 00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:42,560 Speaker 1: when it doesn't usually infect humans. People who have examined 476 00:30:42,640 --> 00:30:46,880 Speaker 1: this question in one centuries have come to a more 477 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:52,520 Speaker 1: mundane conclusion than monsters or even rare infections of heartworm 478 00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:56,800 Speaker 1: and humans. All the various findings in John Pennant's autopsy 479 00:30:56,880 --> 00:30:59,280 Speaker 1: suggests that he did have some kind of a serious 480 00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:03,160 Speaker 1: infection other disease process going on that involved most of 481 00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:06,080 Speaker 1: his urinary tract. He might have had some kind of 482 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:08,800 Speaker 1: a heart disease as well, and if his left ventricle 483 00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:12,040 Speaker 1: really was a lot harder and bigger than his right, 484 00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:14,360 Speaker 1: which is a little unclear to me from the actual 485 00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:19,280 Speaker 1: text of the treatise, he might have had left ventricular hypertrophy, 486 00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:21,880 Speaker 1: which can be caused by things like uncontrolled high blood 487 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:26,720 Speaker 1: pressure and aortic valves stenosis and other issues. In terms 488 00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:31,600 Speaker 1: of the serpent specifically, D. A. Denham published a letter 489 00:31:31,760 --> 00:31:35,400 Speaker 1: in Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine in 490 00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:39,320 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, and then Ruth Richardson published a short 491 00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:42,680 Speaker 1: piece in The Lancet in two thousand and one, and 492 00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:47,680 Speaker 1: both of those conclude that this was just clotted plasma, 493 00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:50,840 Speaker 1: and that it may have been a clock that formed 494 00:31:50,880 --> 00:31:54,160 Speaker 1: after he died and had nothing to do with his 495 00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:57,400 Speaker 1: illness or cause of death. I will confess that was 496 00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:02,000 Speaker 1: kind of my first thought when I was first licking 497 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:04,440 Speaker 1: this over, that oh, this is just stuff that formed 498 00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:11,040 Speaker 1: in the shape of all of the little blood vessels 499 00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:14,480 Speaker 1: of his body and then congealed in some way because 500 00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:19,360 Speaker 1: we don't know how he died the night before, right, Yeah, 501 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:24,080 Speaker 1: I think he had been dead less than twenty four hours, 502 00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:27,080 Speaker 1: or maybe slightly more than twenty. It was like the 503 00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:29,880 Speaker 1: day before that he had died. And for the way 504 00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:33,880 Speaker 1: the way it's described in the treatise, Pennett had died 505 00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:36,120 Speaker 1: the night before, and he makes it sound like he 506 00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:39,360 Speaker 1: came to the house with a surgeon the day he 507 00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:44,800 Speaker 1: was informed of that writing happened, so not immediate, um. 508 00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:46,960 Speaker 1: But it wasn't like it's sat there for a long 509 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:51,400 Speaker 1: time congealing or hardening. Um. So As a side note, 510 00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:56,840 Speaker 1: Tracy stumbled over another kind of horrifying medical curiosity while 511 00:32:56,880 --> 00:32:59,560 Speaker 1: she was doing the research on this, and Harvey described 512 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:04,040 Speaker 1: that in his uh the Anatomical Exercises of Dr William Harvey, 513 00:33:04,160 --> 00:33:07,800 Speaker 1: Professor of Physic and Physician to the King's Majesty concerning 514 00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:10,160 Speaker 1: the Motion of the Heart and Blood, and that was 515 00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:15,080 Speaker 1: written in sixteen fifty three. Hugh Montgomery, son of Hugh Montgomery, 516 00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:18,320 Speaker 1: second Viscount Montgomery, had an injury on the left side 517 00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:20,560 Speaker 1: of his chest that had left him with a hole 518 00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:23,600 Speaker 1: through which the heart could be palpated, which he protected 519 00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:26,680 Speaker 1: with a metal plate. The Court of Charles the First 520 00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:29,320 Speaker 1: became aware of this in sixteen forty, and it was 521 00:33:29,360 --> 00:33:33,960 Speaker 1: consequently investigated by William Harvey, who realized that it pulsed 522 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:37,480 Speaker 1: at the same rate as a pulse elsewhere in his body. 523 00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:40,160 Speaker 1: So this was known by Harvey by sixteen forty or 524 00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:44,520 Speaker 1: sixteen forty one, although not published until later. Yeah, this 525 00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:47,560 Speaker 1: is just such a weird There are lots of people 526 00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:49,840 Speaker 1: living in the world today who have like some kind 527 00:33:49,840 --> 00:33:52,760 Speaker 1: of whole or stoma in their body that serves some 528 00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:56,520 Speaker 1: kind of medical purpose or not. But the idea that 529 00:33:56,600 --> 00:34:00,760 Speaker 1: this person in the seventeenth century had managed to like 530 00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:04,280 Speaker 1: have this serious injury and recover from it, Like there's 531 00:34:04,280 --> 00:34:06,960 Speaker 1: a whole gross description of their being like an abscess 532 00:34:06,960 --> 00:34:10,200 Speaker 1: in all of this, but like with a place that 533 00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:13,520 Speaker 1: people could just palpate his heart through a membrane and 534 00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:15,239 Speaker 1: that he had to wear a metal plate to cover 535 00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:17,360 Speaker 1: it up, Like it's just a whole. That is a 536 00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:21,920 Speaker 1: different When I think of like just disease vectors, my 537 00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:28,759 Speaker 1: brain goes like, yeah, So anyway, I I could not 538 00:34:28,840 --> 00:34:32,000 Speaker 1: find a great place for that to actually fit inside 539 00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:36,320 Speaker 1: the body of the the story we were telling itself. 540 00:34:36,360 --> 00:34:38,600 Speaker 1: But I didn't want to just not talk about it 541 00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:43,680 Speaker 1: because that's such a secondary, weird medical story happening at 542 00:34:43,680 --> 00:34:46,120 Speaker 1: the exact same time that had like a little overlap, 543 00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:51,080 Speaker 1: but wasn't directly about this heart serpent. Anyway, we'll talk 544 00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:55,400 Speaker 1: about some more stuff uh on Friday in the behind scenes. 545 00:34:56,600 --> 00:35:00,279 Speaker 1: So okay, I have listener mail. It's from Elizabeth Um. 546 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:05,240 Speaker 1: Elizabeth wrote after our two parter on Eugene Jacques Bullard, 547 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:08,600 Speaker 1: and Elizabeth wrote, Dear Holly and Tracy, I'm a longtime 548 00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:10,680 Speaker 1: fan of the show, and I always loved getting the 549 00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:12,960 Speaker 1: two of you to teach me about yet another event 550 00:35:13,080 --> 00:35:15,680 Speaker 1: or historical figure that I definitely didn't learn about in 551 00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:18,719 Speaker 1: history class. Most of the time their stories I've never 552 00:35:18,760 --> 00:35:22,040 Speaker 1: even heard of before. But when you started the Eugene 553 00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:26,480 Speaker 1: Bullard episodes, my ears perked up immediately. While I certainly 554 00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:29,720 Speaker 1: didn't learn about him in history class, I was already 555 00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:32,680 Speaker 1: familiar with at least part of his story. I'm a 556 00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:35,040 Speaker 1: freelance editor, and one of the projects I had earlier 557 00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:37,759 Speaker 1: this year was a proof read on a graphic biography 558 00:35:37,840 --> 00:35:42,920 Speaker 1: about Eugene Bullard titled Now Let Me Fly by Ronald Wimberley. 559 00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:48,160 Speaker 1: Illustrations by Bram Revell McMillan is publishing it in January. 560 00:35:49,719 --> 00:35:52,120 Speaker 1: While the book mostly just covers his life through World 561 00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:54,640 Speaker 1: War One, it was fascinating to learn about this utterly 562 00:35:54,719 --> 00:35:57,880 Speaker 1: unsung hero. The Texas deeply moving, and the art is 563 00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:00,400 Speaker 1: striking and very beautiful. I thought your reader might like 564 00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:02,680 Speaker 1: to know that this is coming soon, and I will 565 00:36:02,719 --> 00:36:05,880 Speaker 1: include the warning. The text is frank about the racism 566 00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:08,640 Speaker 1: he faced, including showing the scene where the men come 567 00:36:08,680 --> 00:36:11,280 Speaker 1: to lynch his father, so it might need some parental 568 00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:15,000 Speaker 1: screening before being shared with really young readers. Thanks so 569 00:36:15,080 --> 00:36:17,120 Speaker 1: much for filling in the rest of the story for me. 570 00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:20,040 Speaker 1: The World War two stuff is fascinating, and of course 571 00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:22,640 Speaker 1: thanks for all your great work keeping all of us 572 00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:25,000 Speaker 1: educated and engaged. The show is one of my favorites. 573 00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:29,680 Speaker 1: Best wishes, Elizabeth. Thank you so much for this email. Elizabeth. 574 00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:36,320 Speaker 1: I did not stumble across this forthcoming book while doing research, 575 00:36:36,360 --> 00:36:40,080 Speaker 1: which honestly is kind of surprising because you know there's 576 00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:43,279 Speaker 1: advanced publicity and stuff already going on for it. Um 577 00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:46,520 Speaker 1: So again, that's titled Now Let Me Fly, and it's 578 00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:50,759 Speaker 1: due out in January three. I will absolutely take a 579 00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:54,520 Speaker 1: look at it once it's available, because I I really 580 00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:59,480 Speaker 1: like historical graphic novels, a lot of them that I 581 00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:02,520 Speaker 1: have encounter. It has been really, really good, So thank 582 00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:05,000 Speaker 1: you again for that note. If you would like to 583 00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:07,080 Speaker 1: send us an email or at history podcast that I 584 00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:09,720 Speaker 1: heart radio dot com and we're all over social media 585 00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:12,480 Speaker 1: and missed in History. That's where you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, 586 00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:16,160 Speaker 1: and Instagram. And you can subscribe to our show on 587 00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:18,239 Speaker 1: the iHeart radio app or wherever else you'd like to 588 00:37:18,239 --> 00:37:25,080 Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is 589 00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:28,239 Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from 590 00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:31,640 Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 591 00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:33,800 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.