Series 2: The Rabbit Incident

Part 1

A woman from Godalming seemingly exhibits a surprising physiological anomaly, prompting investigations from several of Georgian Britain's leading physicians.

This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.

Part 1

A woman from Godalming seemingly exhibits a surprising physiological anomaly, prompting investigations from several of Georgian Britain's leading physicians.

This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.

Part 2

A crowd gathers in a boarding-house in the West End of London, waiting for Mary Toft to produce another rabbit. The second episode in a 4-part miniseries on Mary Toft.

This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.

Part 2

A crowd gathers in a boarding-house in the West End of London, waiting for Mary Toft to produce another rabbit. The second episode in a 4-part miniseries on Mary Toft.

This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.

Part 3

After the Mary Toft Rabbit Hoax is exposed, the doctors involved become the subject of relentless mockery from the media. Features me singing. Twice.

This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.

Part 3

After the Mary Toft Rabbit Hoax is exposed, the doctors involved become the subject of relentless mockery from the media. Features me singing. Twice.

This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.

Part 4

More on the media coverage of the Mary Toft Incident, as well as John Maubray, known as "the sooterkin doctor", and the strange Dutch creatures that gave him his nickname. We also find out what happened to Mary Toft and the Doctors afterwards.

This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.

Part 4

This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.

Images

The Doctors in Labour; or a New Whim-Wham from Guildford - a contemporary satirical broadside illustrating the Mary Toft affair in the form of a comic strip. The King's surgeon Nathaniel St André, the most prominent victim of the hoax, is clearly the principal subject of mockery, shown wearing a ludicrous spotty clown-suit.

An engraving by William Hogarth, titled Cunicularii, meaning something like 'the people who burrow like rabbits', and subtitled The Wise Men of Godliman in Consultation. It shows a sort of mock nativity scene in Lacey's Bagnio, where Mary Toft was exhibited until the hoax was exposed. Conveniently, the characters are labelled.

A: The Dancing Master or Praeternatural Anatomist - Nathaniel St. André, standing in the middle of the room, saying "a great birth"
B: An Occult Philosopher Searching into the Depths of Things - Richard Manningham, one of the Physicians who investigated the affair, performing to the crowd with his sleeves rolled up and his hand up Mary Toft's skirt, exclaiming "It pouts, it swells, it spreads, it comes!". Historian Dennis Todd thinks he's been conflated with the amateur astronomer Samuel Molyneux, a friend of the Prince of Wales who tagged along with St André when he went to Guildford, and this certainly would make his label here make more sense.
C: The Sooterkin Doctor Astonish'd - James Maubray, who in fact had minimal involvement in the Mary Toft affair, but who was nonetheless associated with it due to his writings about sooterkins - strange daemons that Dutch women apparently regularly gave birth to. He says, appropriately enough, "a sooterkin".
D: The Guildford Rabbet Man-Midwife - John Howard, the physician from Guildford who first brought the case to St André's attention. He stands at the door, surreptitiously receiving a delivery of a rabbit, saying "it's too big".
E: The Rabbet Getter - Joshua Toft, Mary's father-in-law, who had been procuring rabbits.
F: The Lady in the Straw - Mary Toft herself, lying back in a four-poster bed, with her arms flailing and James Douglas's hand in her skirt.
G: The Nurse or Rabbet Dresser - Mary Toft's sister-in-law, Margaret, another participant in the hoax.

William Hogarth's engraving Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism. A Medley, a collection of satirical representations of various episodes of the titular phenomena in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, all within what looks like a Nonconformist chapel, where the preacher in the pulpit shows the congregation puppets of a witch and a devil. Mary Toft is in the bottom left, with a litter of baby rabbits bounding out from her skirts.

A reproduction of portrait of Mary Toft done while she was in Bridewell Prison, showing her holding a rabbit.