I haven’t heard back from the Denver Channel with regard to the missing Aquadog story (see below), but in the meantime, a reader over at WorldWideRant brought to my attention the story of Mary Toft and the rabbit babies, lifted from the Museum of Hoaxes. Best read while enjoying a nice creme-filled Cadbury Egg:

In late 1726 the surgeon John Howard was called to the house of Mary Toft in Godalming, England. There, much to his astonishment, he helped her give birth to a rabbit, born dead. Over the course of the next few days, he helped her to deliver eight more dead rabbits.

John Howard excitedly wrote to other men of science around the country, urging them to help him investigate this bizarre pregnancy. Soon two prominent doctors had arrived: Nathanael St. Andre, surgeon-anatomist to King George I, and Sir Richard Manningham, a London obstetrician. Mary Toft explained to these men that she had recently miscarried, but that during the pregnancy she had intensely craved rabbit meat. After unsuccessfully attempting to chase down several rabbits, she had dreamt that there were rabbits in her lap. The next thing she knew, she was giving birth to rabbits.

In the presence of the doctors, Mary continued to give birth to a total of seventeen rabbits (sometimes mere lumps of flesh). The doctors were astounded and performed tests to verify the reality of the phenomenon. They placed a piece of the lung of one of the rabbits in water and noted that it floated. This meant that the rabbit must have breathed air before its death, which could not have happened inside a womb. They also noted that there were no umbilical cords or placenta produced along with the birth.

Despite the fact that the tests indicated that Mary had faked the births, St. Andre amazingly declared that the births were real. Apparently he felt that being the one to discover such a remarkable medical curiosity might boost his career, so he talked himself into believing Mary’s story. In December 1726 he published his findings.

Soon thereafter, Mary’s case began to come apart. On November 29 Mary was brought to London. By now her case had become a national sensation, and huge crowds surrounded the house where she was lodged. But when kept under constant supervision Mary stopped giving birth to rabbits, and then some men came forward who confessed to supplying Mary’s husband with rabbits. Then, when a famous London physician, Sir Richard Manningham, threatened that he would have to surgically examine Mary’s uterus in the name of science, Mary quickly confessed.

She explained that she had inserted the dead rabbits inside her womb, motivated by a desire for fame and the hope of receiving a pension from the King. She was briefly imprisoned for fraud, but was soon released without trial. The medical careers of John Howard and Nathanael St. Andre were both ruined.

Remarkably, Mary apparently did no permanent physical damage to herself. It is said that she gave birth to a normal human child less than a year after the incident with the rabbits.

Hmm. Nowadays you’d just try out for “American Idol” or stage your own abduction, I suppose. But stick a baker’s dozen worth of pike in your dog’s pudenda?

Color me unconvinced.

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