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Mary Toft: Birther of Rabbits?
47 Plays1 month ago
This week's episode unravels the bizarre tale of Mary Toft, the woman who claimed to have given birth to rabbits in 1726. This episode delves into the frenzy that captivated 18th-century Britain, drawing the attention of King George I and the media. Grace explores the societal and medical implications of this historical hoax, examining its impact on the professions involved and the lessons it holds for us today. Tune in for a fascinating journey into a story where truth was indeed stranger than fiction.
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Transcript
Introduction to Media Frenzy and Mary Toft
00:00:00
Speaker
I think what Mary Toff's story teaches us is that the frenzy in which the media can get to the wildness that it can get to, and also the importance of digging and researching your facts and getting your story straight.
00:00:16
Speaker
But more importantly, it shows us the importance of not sticking rabbits up your vagina.
00:00:36
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Harlots and Hearses. It's me, your host, Grace Artis. Just going to be real with you these last few weeks, given everything that has been going on in America,
00:00:52
Speaker
It has been rough with the rise of, you know, right wing political parties. It's been rough. It's been rough. So I'm getting this episode out there to try and like lighten the mood, kind of bring back kind of in showing that Even in the 1700s, you couldn't believe what was being written in the post and being written was what was said. And then A, just trying to bring life and a laugh and maybe just some humor back into the world. I know I needed to do this to get my mind just off the topic. So if this brings you joy, if this, you know, gets you out of your head for whatever hour it does, I'm glad this can be your escape for the little whatever time it can
The Unbelievable Claims of Mary Toft
00:01:36
Speaker
be. Without further ado, let's get into this week's story. So this week's story is actually we are going back all the way to 1726 the story centers all around
00:01:49
Speaker
story centers all around Mary Toft. And what makes Mary Toft so important and stand out and what stood out to me when I first heard this story back when I was in grad school and doing research for a totally different topic is she got known first her whole claim to fame is that she was said to have given birth to so 17 rabbits and at the time it went as far as it even gained the attention of King George the first like this was kind of the first tabloid not the first tabloid making story but this story was like their version of like the Octomom and like TMZ tabloid kind of version for and the 1720s Britain
00:02:40
Speaker
at the time so we're gonna like dive into who she was what this story is did she actually give birth to rabbits and how did it end up and kind of like what the legacy that this story left behind so let's dive them Mary Toft herself, she was born on the 21st of February 1703 to a John and Jane 18-year-old Joshua Toft, and he worker.
00:03:08
Speaker
And
00:03:13
Speaker
job joshua to and he was a cloth worker and At the time, it was still, this was kind of unheard of for them both being so young. The average mayor age of marriage in this period was about 24.
00:03:30
Speaker
four <unk> so they were fairly young for when they did get married.
Background and Personal Life of Mary Toft
00:03:34
Speaker
Mary herself was the second eldest of five children and she was the oldest girl.
00:03:42
Speaker
So it may have been the reason why she left home as early as she did. josh her husband was one of 12 children so they did come from rather large families now what we know of mary herself is we know that she could not read or write but as far as her health was concerned and all of this comes from not her own account so This was all coming from what others have said about her. And this account specifically is coming from Dr. Andre. So this is one of the main doctors who overlooked her and this rabbit birthing case. Now, Dr. Andre described Mary to be healthy, of a strong constitution,
00:04:28
Speaker
of a small size and once again this is coming from Dr. Andre very stupid and of a sullen temper now going forward with the whole tale of what led to the birthing of the rabbit now prior to the rabbits being birthed We do know that Josh and Mary had their first child and she was born March of 1723. However, it's stated that Anne did not live very long and died later in July of that same year. So she only lived to be about roughly five months old.
00:05:08
Speaker
They had their second child, James, 12 months later on July 1724. At roughly the time of the hoax, Mary had given birth to two kids with only one surviving. This all would take place roughly between the months of like September through November. So the first incident of this story would take place, if you will, on late August of 1726 when Mary was roughly about five weeks or so pregnant.
The Bizarre Events in Godalming
00:05:45
Speaker
Now, Mary and another woman were said to be working in a field. And Mary said that while they were working in the field, she saw a rabbit spring up and her and the other woman would try to catch it and were unsuccessful in doing so.
00:06:03
Speaker
And so this made her apparently start craving rabbits. And that night she said she dreamed of rabbits and for the next three weeks she had a constant desire to eat them.
00:06:15
Speaker
But because they were considered a delicacy at the time, she could not afford to do so. And then come 17 weeks after this episode in the field, she developed a And this is trigger warning for anyone who has lost a child. So 17 weeks after this episode, she developed a colicky abdomen pain and experiencing um vaginal bleeding.
00:06:43
Speaker
And she passed something like a lump of flesh surgery. she miscarried she says the flooding and this is kind of what they called at this period essentially what they labeled a miscarriage so she said the miscarriage continued for about a week after the first one took place and that she had pains all the day and that they were with her whenever she was working and she was in so much pain and then she did say however that there were still symptoms of the pregnancy persisted and since she did have two prior pregnancies
00:07:15
Speaker
She did state that they didn't feel like normal pregnancies to her. And on the 27th of September, she was taken very ill for the night. And this is when she asked her husband to send for his mother as she was considered a midwife. Although this will be a major topic of discussion come later because in any of the town records, in any of the town statements and documents, Anne Troft, who is her mother-in-law, she's never listed as any sort of midwife in any of the records.
00:07:49
Speaker
However, historians do like to theorize that maybe she's, even though she's not per se listed like legally on the record that Antroft herself did have 12 children. So that did give her some sort of air of authority to helping give birth.
00:08:07
Speaker
And then she could have also, off the record, also helped poor women give birth in town, an act of a midwife and that sort. that pregnancy um she said that she delivered what she took to be the likes and guts of a pig and this were taken by her husband to a mr john howard who was kind of like the acting like surgeon and physician of the town that they lived in and then a few weeks a few days later he also continued to deliver some further parts of a pig that came out of her
00:08:43
Speaker
that she says she claimed to give birth to. And throughout all of this, Mary and marrying her confessions states that she was constantly in pain. So when she says the next day, talking about Howard, he came to see me sending a bottle of stuff to take presently, which I did throw into me more pain than I had
Royal Attention and Medical Investigations
00:09:02
Speaker
before.
00:09:02
Speaker
Before he came, my mother delivered me of the trunk of the body and some other pieces you cannot tell the names of, and pain all night." it was during these fars first weeks in November that reports began to reach London of peculiar happenings going on in Godolming.
00:09:19
Speaker
And this is a town outside of the outskirts of Surrey. And that it appears that one of the local inhabitants was being delivered of rabbits at the rate of almost one day. So this was talking about like Elizabeth. So when there are tales going on in the papers that Elizabeth was delivering these rabbits.
00:09:39
Speaker
And the rumors were confirmed by letters from John Howard, who was in charge of the case, and he was writing to persons of the town and describing them. So it was said that one rabbit had been seen to leap in her abdomen for 18 hours before it died. And the moment it was delivered, another comer struggling for birth.
00:10:02
Speaker
And then the motion produced by the struggling was so violent that it was sufficient to move the bedclothes and lasted for over 30 hours. So insinuating that like the labors that went on with these birthing of the rabbits lasted anywhere from one lasted from 18 hours to another like laboring period lasted another from over 30 hours.
00:10:25
Speaker
And that with her pains, the bones of the rabbits itself were heard to snap and break with the violent convulsions and the movements of her uterus. So Howard himself was describing that the pains and labors that Mary was feeling were so violent enough that he was hearing the bones of the rabbits itself snapping. John Howard was, he said he was so busy engaged in delivering of these rabbits that all his other work was neglected.
00:10:55
Speaker
And because of this, that after delivering nine rabbits, he had to move Mary to Guilford, which was closer to his place of work. So in order show that no one would doubt the truth of this matter, John Howard invited anyone who wished to come to Guilford to like witness this phenomenon himself. And the offer was actually accepted by Mr. St. Andre, who was the man I mentioned earlier. He described Mary and what her constitution.
00:11:26
Speaker
And Andre himself was actually a surgeon to the royal household of King George I at the time. So Andre and his posse, they arrived in Guildford at 2.30pm and they immediately sent for John Howard, who came and told them that, you know, Mary at that time was in labor with the 15th rabbit.
00:11:48
Speaker
So at that point, the nurse came in and to tell them that the woman was having pain. So they all proceeded to John's house where she was being lodged. Upon entering, they found Mary dressed in her stays, sitting upon the bedside with several women attending to her.
00:12:06
Speaker
So St. Andre immediately examined her, but delivery did not appear immediate and he decided to wait for the onset of fresh pains. These came a few minutes later.
00:12:17
Speaker
Wishtime T delivered sir the trunk of a rabbit about, he described it, a four months gestation. And the rabbit was stripped of its skin, but it contained the heart, the lungs, and the diaphragm of the rabbit. After Mary delivered this part of the rabbit. He described Mary as seeming very cheerful and she walked herself to the fire where Andre examined her further and found some irregularities in the course of her right fallopian tubes.
00:12:49
Speaker
This is just what amazes me. He said there were some irregularities in the course of her right fallopian tubes and this is where he deduced that the rabbits had developed from. that the rabbits had developed in her right one because there were irregularities there. And only from there did they enter the uterus during her pains some hours before the delivery. Then two hours later, while the men were away, her pains returned violently.
00:13:17
Speaker
And this is when nurse is said to deliver the lower part of the male rabbit, which they said fit perfectly with the trunk part they fit earlier. then they left and they came back later that evening shortly after mary's pains returned and it was described that mary's pains were so violent that four or five people could hardly contain her to a chair so after this saint andre examined her and he found that her her vagina was completely empty several minutes later the pains re-commerce and he delivered the skin of a rabbit
00:13:53
Speaker
that was rolled into a ball and this skin was free of any moisture or blood. And then 10 minutes later with fresh veins, he then delivered the hi with the fur on, but part of the ear was torn off.
00:14:08
Speaker
And again, he said there was no blood or liquor on it. At this point, Mary was given a sedative and she was examined at 10 PM and her abdomen was soft except for some lumps that were previously noted.
00:14:21
Speaker
and all the rabbits were examined and kept in separate pots. When they were the men were examining the rabbit that was kept, they noticed that the first animal did not appear to be a perfect rabbit, but rather three feet being the paws of a cat.
00:14:39
Speaker
and the stomach and intestines together with the shape of a thorax that also resembled a cat, not a rabbit. And essentially from all of these facts, St. Andre was convinced that the rabbits that they had taken out from Mary were without a doubt, like,
00:14:58
Speaker
fetuses that were developed within mary and he said that mary herself gave birth to them and one of the theories that i want to point out that they were giving kind of like why this could happen kind of goes back to like mary's original story had to go kind of with a proposed belief at this time that was given by a physician whose name was John Mulberry, who was actually one of the physicians who was also seeing and overseeing Mary.
00:15:32
Speaker
was ah phenomenon called suturkin which is a proponent of maternal impression which was kind of a belief that at conception and pregnancy could be influenced by what the mother dreamt or saw and so this kind of goes back to when mary was working in the field and she saw the rabbit and then became obsessed with the rabbit and that's where she dreamt of and that's all she wanted and craved so this is kind of going to with that kind of theory and impression that was going on that the reason that mary is giving birth to rabbits is because she saw one in the field it scared her and then she wanted and craved it so now mary is then giving birth
00:16:17
Speaker
two rabbits fun stuff so this is kind of still like i said it's all ongoing then come sunday the 20th november another surgeon to his majesty's german household cyriasis allers i'm just gonna call him allers he also went to guilford to see personally this phenomenon because this case at this time like at this point was gaining a lot of attention and the king was getting obsessed with this and he wanted to know all he could about this so allers made it to guilford he sent for mr howard and and he was followed shortly by mary's nurse saying that mary once again was in labor they went to see her and allers examined and delivered from her another rabbit of about three months gestation What made it really interesting and stand out about this case is that Allers had prior to this no knowledge of midwifery and so all of this was kind of achieved with very much difficulty. So it kind of was like achieved in like a tag team way with like Allers and Mr. Howard.
00:17:30
Speaker
And so like, essentially like, Allers was working, like, was at Mary's lower end and he was receiving like step by step instruction from John Howard on how to deliver this like rabbit baby and how to like bring it forth from Mary into the world.
00:17:48
Speaker
Because prior to this, it said that Allers had no previous experience with like midwifery and delivering children.
Doubts and Confessions: The Unraveling of the Hoax
00:17:58
Speaker
So it was a very difficult and awkward presence.
00:18:02
Speaker
But after this, in the presence of witnesses, Ahlersen announced that he had extracted the rabbit himself and he was fully convinced and satisfied that it came out of the uterus. And this is like a very key point that him and St. Andre will make later on that it came out of the uterus and not out of the vagina. Those are ah very, very key points. When asked, he rejected the possibility that it could have been forced or thrust into the uterine cavity.
00:18:32
Speaker
He examined Mary's breast and found that they did contain milk. And he gave her one guinea expressing great satisfaction and promised he would be procure her a pension from his majesty and requested that he be allowed to examine her again.
00:18:47
Speaker
But after hearing this, John Howard was like, hey, Mary's gone through a lot of pain. We need to give her time to rest, which you can hear that and you can take it in two parts.
00:18:58
Speaker
You can either hear it and be like, wow, he's a very caring doctor. He cares about Mary's needs. Or you can hear that and you can be like, huh i wonder why he doesn't want another person to examine mary in close contacts again which is like kind of like a hint hint nudge nudge that john howard may be involved with this whole hoax flash forward it's now wednesday the 23rd so saint andre returned to guilford with a mr dantony to with the goal of bringing mary to london
00:19:33
Speaker
to see if there was any further prospects of more rabbits. Because their ultimate goal was to bring her to to London to get her before the king so she could give birth to rabbits before the king.
00:19:44
Speaker
They get there, they get to Mithra Howard's residence where, you know, Mary's been staying. And Howard tells them that, you know, two more rabbits have been delivered since they'd last seen her.
00:19:55
Speaker
Howard said, you know, he hoped that was all over as there was no longer any more motion in her uterus. St. Andre visited her several more times that day, during which she complained of constant pains in and the right side of her abdomen, and she described it as it was a very coarse brown paper was tearing from within her. And that evening, she passed a piece of membrane that was rolled up like parchment, which was then stretched out, measuring about six inches in diameter.
00:20:25
Speaker
and the following morning she passed a similar piece of membrane. It was said that she was in still and much pain with a regular pulse and a white tongue and she had blood and mucus in her urine. At this point, St. Andre and D'Antony left her in Guildford while they went back to London. So four days after this, John Howard sent an express message to St. Andre informing him that, you know, there was another rabbit leaping in Mary Troughed.
00:20:54
Speaker
So this time, King George, he's not playing around. He's kind of tired of just hearing there's a rabbit, there's a rabbit. So he wants another person to be there.
00:21:05
Speaker
And so this time, King George, he notifies Sir Richard Manningham to go to Guildford to check this out. And the reason he picked... Manningham is that Manningham was a well-known and respected OB obstetrician at this time. So Manningham gets there.
00:21:27
Speaker
John Howard was not at home, so they proceeded to the house where Mary Toft was lodged. Mary was laying in the bed and Sir Richard took her history and then he examined her. He says that from doing the first examination, he was able to get a little bit of milky fluid from her breast.
00:21:47
Speaker
And then when he was examining her abdomen, it was soft but not enlarged. And that like Saint Andre, he did notice that the right side appeared fuller and harder than the left and it was tender.
00:22:00
Speaker
And then he examined her internally then he found that her cervix was rather elongated and the uterus appeared enlarged by something within its cavity and that the right fallopian tube was palpable.
00:22:17
Speaker
But he felt no movements and he asked the women present how long it was since the rabbit leaped. using their own expression at this time and if they thought that the rabbit was now dead.
00:22:29
Speaker
Everyone in the room said it had not leaped since 1 a.m. and then he left returning at 5 p.m. and then upon his return he examined her and asked Mr. Howard if he thought the rabbit was dead.
00:22:40
Speaker
Howard was unable to say for certain But he had, Howard did say, as a means to kind of like try to re-engage. He said, you know, I think if we apply heat that has worked before in the past to kind of get things stirring up again. So hot cloths were brought in and applied to the abdomen.
00:23:01
Speaker
And it said immediately after this, leaping began. Apparently, it was said resembling the leaping of something in the area in which he had felt the hardness prior. And like the other times that Mary was in pain, the motion took various forms, jerking and pulsating so strongly at times that the whole bed shook despite the fact that several people were sitting at it and manningham does say it's quite different than anything has seen he has seen before so the men have left sir mr howard behind and they went back to the other end and that they were staying at and then an hour later howard comes back and then then raft and paper
00:23:44
Speaker
It's a little piece of membrane that he says he just delivered from Mary. Manningham is like, why did you do that? You weren't supposed to do that. We kind of, the whole reason I'm here is so that I could be the one to do that. Why didn't you send for me?
00:24:01
Speaker
And Howard was like, hey, it's okay. Like, she's gonna have more. Don't take it personally. When, and what makes it interesting, and Manningham notes on this, is that when he actually went to examine the membrane itself, he's like, this actually looks like a piece of bladder.
00:24:21
Speaker
Like, a piece of pig's bladder that someone had just put up there. Howard, however, said, no, that's, you couldn't be further from the case. That's actually not what it is at all. And Howard actually is like, it's part of the placenta. It's not, it's not the, it's not a bladder. It's part of the placenta. And we actually, it's similar to others that she's delivered.
00:24:41
Speaker
But Manningham was still like very much not convinced about that. Then come about 8 PM, another message came from Mary saying that she was in pain. Then they immediately went to her and they found her sitting in a chair by the fireside. She said her pain's house decided by then. And then when she was examined by Manningham, he said he found something like the piece of a skin, like a bladder, still in her vagina. Then he examined her again to see if this was coming from the uterus. So he did an eternal exam with his fingers.
00:25:13
Speaker
On removing and examining the object that he found, to his great surprise, he said, just like the other bit, it appeared to be bit piece of hog's bladder. And he informed the others of this and adding to his opinion that the membrane had not come from the uterus, that instead what he theorized that it was essentially a piece of hog's bladder was shoved inside her vagina and then that is where they were keeping all of the bits and pieces of rabbit that she was then delivering upon hearing this mary toff began to cry anaheim asked her why she was crying and she didn't answer and then the other woman who were present at this
00:25:55
Speaker
told him it was because she supposed he thought she was calling her a cheat. So the other woman were like, well, she's crying because she thinks you're calling her a fake. So Manningham, upon hearing of this, he's like, well, can you give me a hog's bladder?
00:26:11
Speaker
which at the time it was kind of a common thing to have in a house for storage and use of that. So they brought him a hog's bladder and he compared the two and they looked almost identical.
00:26:23
Speaker
Essentially he said that he would not be satisfied unless he could actually remove from the uterine cavity some material identical from what was taken to the from the vagina. So he's like, I need to get in there and do so a lot more work.
00:26:36
Speaker
And then Dr. Howard and St. Andre were like, hey, have a little bit of patience, you know, we'll be satisfied. But like, Manningham like still insisted that the membrane resembled a piece of hog's bladder, which the two men did agree with, that the membrane that was delivered from Mary did look very similar to a hog's bladder. St. Audrey was coming with this and he's like, hey, I wouldn't believe it either, but like I delivered a rabbit from Mary.
00:27:03
Speaker
And because like I would have thought the whole affair was fraudulent too, but like I literally delivered a rabbit from her. And then Mary had like several more pains that night, but nothing further was delivered.
00:27:16
Speaker
And so the the men kind of like left this s night and they went back to their inn. And that the more Manningham thought about it as he went back to the end, the more he was just very much convinced that the membrane that he had removed, so that that hog's bladder, had never even been in the uterus but was essentially a hog's bladder.
00:27:36
Speaker
that had been skillfully conveyed into the vagina and it stated a heated argument because St. Andre was saying that there was nothing more surprising and that to St. Andre was still convinced that she was giving birth to rabbits and Howard was agreeing with him but Manningham was still convinced he's like guys I just don't I just don't think this is true but the other members of the party convinced him to just be like hey look Even if you don't agree, we get it, you don't agree, just withhold on making any public announcements until the whole labor process is complete or until we have further evidence that it's all fraudulent.
00:28:17
Speaker
So just hold off on making a premature announcement until we can actually get down to the root of things. and manningham did agree to that and so he returned to london now mary is deemed in well enough health to be taken to london on the 29th of november she was brought to one of the men's bag neo which has many different definitions.
00:28:41
Speaker
I'm going to go with the definition of it's a bathhouse. It could also be a brothel, but I'm going with the definition of a bathhouse just given this period and the men involved and that these are men of science and medicine.
00:28:56
Speaker
So Manningham sat with her all that night observing her movements. The following day, he noticed that the movements were weaker and she was able to sleep well that night. He also informed a new doctor on the scene, Dr. James Douglas, at what transpired at Guilford.
00:29:12
Speaker
And he showed them the membrane asking his opinion and in letting Douglas know that like, I think deception is going on here. I think this is a hoax. On that Thursday of December, it said that Mary's pains returned and that manningham like examined her and found that her vagina was empty but her pains were just like labor pains and that dr dick douglas who also examined her said that these pains were those of labor manningham re-examined her during a pain and he said and he observed that the cervix appeared to be softening and that it began to dilate and that she became flushed and developed tachycardia the abdominal movements returned and persisted although without
00:29:55
Speaker
Didn't really affect her appetite at all as she dined on beef, rabbit, and some red herring. Apparently she slept well that night, but the movements continued the next day. and the next day in the evening is when she had violent convulsions with clenching of her fists, rolling of her eyes, and tumultuous movement. and she was making whining noises became comatose at times and her pulse was very palpable and the fits lasted in nearly two hours and this apparently went on and off and on and off now come sunday december 4 manningham and douglas again examined her and they found a swelling continuous in the uter within the uterus and they really it did look like something was there the pains returned and
00:30:38
Speaker
with two other doctors they repeated the examination and they all agreed that something would soon come out that's kind of all that they were saying is like something's gonna come out we don't know what but something is and so it now kind of seemed like there may be some truth in mary's story but come that evening everything would take a very drastic turn because the porter at the but the bagnado he made a statement to one of the justices of the peace concerning a rabbit that he had smuggled in to marry and following this she was arrested and she was cross-questioned by the justice of the peace and she had denied porter's statement
00:31:18
Speaker
But her sister, who was one of the ones who was a nurse to her, under oath admitted obtaining the rabbit in secret. But she said that the rabbit wasn't for birthing purposes and said that the rabbit was just to eat.
00:31:33
Speaker
him upon hearing all this he said like hey i do think there's something in her uterine cavity please don't send her away let her stay and that night like just so we can be sure she's not a fraud and if she is a fraud like cool but we just can't send this send her there if she's in bad health so come tuesday so two days had passed And Sir Thomas, the justice of the peace, threatened her severely. And after this, apparently all her labor pains had vanished, or so the records state.
00:32:06
Speaker
And Sir Richard Manningfield also urged her to confess the truth, saying that he believed her to be an impostor and that she was made differently from other women, having some peculiar way of conveying pieces of rabbit into her uterus and deceiving everyone with her movements and pains. And then Manifield and I believe Sir Thomas as well, therefore, so try a very painful experiment on her and they had come prepared for this. So essentially threatening Mary of being like, if you don't confess, we're prepared to torture you to try to figure out how you're doing this. So on Wednesday the 7th, she would go on to make one of her first confessions.
00:32:45
Speaker
Mary would actually go on to end up making three confessions in total. all the confessions, Mary agreed to faking all of the births, saying that at no point did she actually give birth to rabbits, but which I think we all knew. What changes in the confessions is how and who told Mary to do this and who Mary points the blame on. In the first confession, Mary points the blame on a woman accomplice not named.
00:33:11
Speaker
So a woman she did not know, and she was like a grindstone woman, that was the description that was given, told Mary that if, hey, if you start doing this, if you can say and claim you give birth,
00:33:24
Speaker
to these rabbits, you'll essentially like never want a day in your life. And it was this woman who after Mary had had her miscarriages, it was this woman who would go and place the rabbit carcasses.
00:33:40
Speaker
into Mary. But then come the second and third confessions, that is where the story shifts to where it's no longer an unnamed woman.
00:33:51
Speaker
it is then my mother-in-law and the midwife who told me to do this. And not only that, it's actually also John Howard, the doctor, who also helped aid and abet with this as well.
00:34:06
Speaker
he was the one who whenever i had pains he knew about all of this and he was also helping along with this hoax and it was Anne the mother who was helping put rabbits up in me the woman continued to attain rabbits for her and she induced them when she had the opportunity so Mary at this point says like she never was the one who put them into her body it was always others who were putting them into her body for her and then the pains that she did feel were real pains because it was the pains of her literal body trying to expel these foreign objects from her the movements were part artificial part real and persisted even when she was suddenly asleep and then going back to her second confession which is december 8th that is when her story very much shifts into being like it was her mother-in-law who apparently right after
00:35:01
Speaker
because of her miscarriage and her body was so open and because of the flooding, that was her mother-in-law right after that, who was the one who was constantly putting the rabbits up there, having them leave.
00:35:14
Speaker
Dr. Howard would come. The mother-in-law would put them up there. They would leave and then Dr. Howard would come. So upon hearing all of this, after all of the testimony was heard, hum we're now in to the first week of January. John Howard and Mary Toft appeared before the bench. Howard was fined 800 pounds.
00:35:33
Speaker
So he returned to Surrey and continued his practice. However, Mary, on the other hand, they didn't really quite know what to do with her and what to charge her with.
00:35:45
Speaker
Like, they knew it was fraud and they knew it was a hoax, but technically she hadn't really broken... any wall so she was kept in bridewell for months and crowds reportedly mobbed bridehill hoping to catch a glimpse of her but she actually had grown quite ill during her time there and she did have her portrait drawn and people did kind of flood there to gawk at her and see her and catch a glimpse kind of like the paparazzi do with our hoax stories now today so
00:36:21
Speaker
Mary and her family, they made no profit during any of this besides probably the one guinea the doctor gave her. And they probably spent way more than one guinea on the rabbits that was chopped up and consumed by Mary during all of this. After, shortly after that Mary was released, she returned back to Surrey. And then we do know that in February of 1728, she did give birth to a daughter named Elizabeth.
00:36:48
Speaker
And it was listed in the parish register as her first child after pretended rabbit breeding. We do know that little is known after Top's later life.
Aftermath and Impact of the Hoax
00:37:00
Speaker
We know she briefly reappeared. when she was imprisoned for stolen goods and that she died in 1763 and that her obituary did run in the London newspapers alongside those of aristocrats.
00:37:14
Speaker
What really sets apart Mary's story though, aside from the hoax notion of it, what also made it stand out so much is the aftermath and the impact it did have on the medical profession as a whole. So A, the first part,
00:37:30
Speaker
It kind of really discredited the surgeon profession and the physician profession as a whole. William Hogarth, who I will probably do a whole episode on,
00:37:43
Speaker
he published so many satirical comics over this one of them i will show in the instagram post over this kind of just showing how the medical profession's gullibility and how mainly saint andre was as well as like john John Howard of either if he was gullible enough to believe this or the fact that he was willing to go along with this.
00:38:11
Speaker
And then so many pieces were written about this in the media. Songs were written about this. Tunes became written about this. It just it kind of like took its own little like spin and whirlwind. And what like also made this do as well is it also made this question come up with a topic of like men, midwives, men oversee that profession, then undermining that profession as well.
00:38:42
Speaker
which this is going to really bug me because I did do a whole paper over this topic. But having this profession, male midwives per se, having them be questioned and the extent at which they did and be then be ridiculed at the extent at which they did, then kind of...
00:38:58
Speaker
no i did okay because they were ridiculed in the sense that they were and then they were questioned at the way that they were then caused them to crack down so much more and try to reinstate their authority and so much more so of an extreme that the way that these men did so was then by it attacking and going after women healers and women midwives And then that's when you see a lowering of the cases of the profession of the women midwives because the men were being attacked.
00:39:30
Speaker
And so then men were kind of getting butt hurt about it. And so instead of just like raising men's standards, they then attacked women. Sounds about right. And then reminds me of how I heard about this case because it was dealing with.
00:39:43
Speaker
yeah so anyways moral of the story don't stick rabbits up your vagina and it doesn't work you can get very sick from it it's not a good it's a funny story it's very painful and also i think it's also important to shine a little light on mary and her whole story inside of things because very much so the whole talk of this and a lot of the records that we do get come from it come from the men they come from saint andre and his records they come from the accounts from the satirist accounts from william hogarth's accounts a ridiculing not only mary but then ridiculing the men therefore ridiculing mary but i also think it says a lot of and i think we also goes to question of asking deeper well why would mary even choose to do this and it could be that mary was just a con woman looking for a story maybe
00:40:37
Speaker
But then I also think it dives deeper of maybe Mary was just a woman who was pressured to do so by her family and other members.
Reflections on Media and Society
00:40:45
Speaker
Because during all throughout Mary's confessions, there is one thing that reads throughout, and that is the tremendous pain that Mary underwent throughout all of this.
00:40:55
Speaker
Now, whether it was faked pain that she was putting on for a show or not, throughout each and every confession, there was pain there. From the men examining her, from the men inserting themselves in her through examination, through the insertion itself of rabbits and foreign bodies into her, whether or not Mary had a say in that or not, it's pain, and it's painful.
00:41:18
Speaker
And it's still to this day because Mary was illiterate and she could not read and she really, because she was poor of lower costs, she really did not have a say in how her story was ever perceived.
00:41:30
Speaker
And then because her story rose in such a manner and the way that it did, even if anything was ever published after the fact, it never got as much as attention as the first stories did. So it got buried.
00:41:44
Speaker
And I think that's also something that's really important to note. I think what Mary Toff's story teaches us is that the frenzy in which the media can get to the wildness that it can get to, and also the importance of digging and researching your facts and getting your story straight.
00:42:04
Speaker
But more importantly, it shows us the importance of not sticking rabbits up your vagina or believing those who say they gave birth to rabbits. So with that, I'm going to end this episode.
00:42:15
Speaker
I hope you have, you guys have a good rest of your week and that's where I'm going to end it. I wish you guys all the best.