In 1726, an illiterate working-class British woman named Mary Toft became famous overnight by giving birth to rabbits. They were dead and often dismembered rabbits, and she also produced parts of other animals. The bizarre events were enshrined in pamphlets, science reports, satirical writing, and tons of gossip.
A local apothecary and obstetrician, John Howard, was the first person outside her immediate circle to examine Toft. He said he felt something ‘leaping’ in her womb. Under his supervision in Guildford, she went on to deliver a large number of dead rabbits, nine in a single day. Howard wrote excitedly about the case to England’s highest-ranking doctors and scientists, and King George I sent two men to investigate: Nathanael St André, Swiss surgeon-anatomist to the royal family, and Samuel Molyneux, secretary to the Prince of Wales. They arrived in Guildford at an opportune moment, just as Toft was about to give birth to a 15th rabbit. Howard had helpfully pickled the others and put them on display in his study. Whether he was entirely persuaded that Toft was gestating rabbits or whether he colluded with her in a deception is unclear. One London doctor thought they were in it together, but since that doctor was himself accused of collaborating with Toft he may simply have been trying to clear his own name. It’s possible that fewer people were genuinely taken in by Toft than were determined to see how far the ruse could be taken, and in particular how many of their opponents or competitors might be gulled.
Educated people were not fooled, and the hoax was revealed fairly soon, but the legend lived on. Toft was required to submit to examination bordering on sexual assault, and treated as if she were too stupid to have participated in her own hoax. The real question was "why," since neither she nor the physicians involved made money from the incident. Read an account of Mary Toft and her monstrous offspring and a look into the motivations behind them at the London Review of Books. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: Wellcome Images)
