How far would someone go to escape poverty? In 1726, Mary Toft, a destitute servant and mother of three who had recently suffered a miscarriage, concocted an outrageous scheme that would captivate England and eventually reach King George I himself. Her claim? She was giving birth to rabbits.
Drawing on the period's belief in "maternal impression" – the notion that a pregnant woman's experiences could physically shape her unborn child – Mary convinced local surgeon John Howard that after chasing and dreaming about rabbits, she began delivering animal parts from her body. What began as a desperate grab for attention transformed into a national sensation when Howard alerted England's medical establishment about this apparent miracle.
The rabbit births became London's hottest attraction. The King's own surgeon Nathaniel St. André rushed to validate Mary's case, publishing a detailed pamphlet about her extraordinary deliveries. But skepticism grew when physician Cyriacus Ahlers examined the rabbit remains and found hay, straw and corn in their digestive tracts – substances that couldn't possibly exist in a human womb. The hoax finally collapsed when a porter was caught smuggling a fresh rabbit to Mary's quarters.
Mary's confession revealed her elaborate deception – inserting dead animal parts into her body and dramatically "delivering" them while screaming in fake labor. While she spent only four months in prison before returning to her village, the physicians who validated her claims weren't so lucky. St. André in particular became London's laughingstock, his medical career left in ruins. Yet Mary lived quietly until 1763, even having another child years later.
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Mary Toft Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Toft#:~:text=the%20image,be%20seen%20on%20the%20floor

Mary Toft and Her Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbits

By Niki Russell

https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/mary-toft-and-her-extraordinary-delivery-of-rabbits/

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