Mary Toft (1701–1763) was an English woman from Godalming, Surrey, who
in 1726 became the subject of considerable controversy when she hoaxed
doctors into believing that she had given birth to rabbits. Toft became
pregnant in 1726, but later miscarried. Apparently fascinated by a
rabbit she had seen while working, she claimed to have given birth to
parts of animals. Local surgeon John Howard was called to investigate,
and upon delivering several animal parts he notified other prominent
physicians. The matter came to the attention of Nathaniel St. André,
surgeon to the Royal Household of King George I of Great Britain.
St. André investigated and concluded that Toft was telling the truth.
The king also sent surgeon Cyriacus Ahlers to see Toft, but Ahlers
remained sceptical. By now quite famous, Toft was brought to London and
was studied at length. Under intense scrutiny, and producing no more
rabbits, she eventually confessed to the hoax and was subsequently
imprisoned. The public mockery which followed created panic within the
medical profession. Several prominent surgeons' careers were ruined,
and many satirical works were produced, each scathingly critical of the
affair. The pictorial satirist and social critic William Hogarth was
notably critical of the gullibility of the medical profession. Toft was
eventually released without charge and returned to her home.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Toft>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1854:
Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to Turkey to
help treat wounded British soldiers fighting in the Crimean War.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale>
1858:
French composer Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld,
featuring the can-can, was first performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes
Parisiens in Paris.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orpheus_in_the_Underworld>
1867:
The first of the Medicine Lodge Treaties was signed between the United
States and several Native American tribes in the Great Plains,
requiring them to relocate to areas in present-day western Oklahoma.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_Lodge_Treaty>
1944:
World War II: German forces surrendered to Americans troops, ending the
Battle of Aachen.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aachen>
1983:
At the seventeenth General Conference on Weights and Measures, the
length of a metre was redefined as the distance light travels in vacuum
in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/metre>
1987:
Sri Lankan Civil War: Indian Army soldiers, belonging to the Indian
Peace Keeping Force, entered the Jaffna Teaching Hospital in Jaffna,
Sri Lanka, and began killing about 68–70 patients, nurses, doctors and
other staff members.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffna_hospital_massacre>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
dumbfound (v):
To confuse and bewilder; to leave speechless
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dumbfound>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
You must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you
know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in
balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard's power of Changing and Summoning can
shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power. It is most
perilous. It must follow knowledge, and serve need. To light a candle
is to cast a shadow.
--Ursula K. Le Guin
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin>
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