Product Description

This can justifiably be called history's most fascinating medical mystery, a dark, true-life Alice in Wonderland tale with a streak of horror. Why should we care today about a poor, eighteenth-century girl who gave birth to monstrosities? Mary Toft's story bears uncanny parallels with our own time and contains perennial themes: science and superstition separated by the flimsiest of curtains, justice and morality, crime and punishment, and the greed and basic fears at the core of human nature. Prepare yourself for a shattering odyssey as acclaimed polymath Clifford Pickover takes you to the ultimate frontier of medical speculation. With numerous illustrations, this is an engrossing and thoroughly unique introduction to eighteenth-century science and its metaphor for today's scientific superstitions and politics. For Mary, conspiracies are everywhere, the line between good and evil lost, and the consequences exceed her most unthinkable, private desires.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1249296 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This is the engrossing story of Mary Toft, a young 18th-century Englishwoman who sought to make some money by inserting parts of rabbits into her vagina and pretending to expel them from her uterus. The case was celebrated at the time--popular poems appeared about it, bestsellers were written about it, the king of England ordered an investigation, her contemporaries considered her, as the title puts it, a medical mystery--and she became something of a freak-sensation. Pickover (Time: A Traveller's Guide, etc.), carefully explores how 18th-century physicians were able to believe in such a medical marvel--even though they were scientifically in a position to have known better--and then finds in this history a cautionary tale appropriate for our own times. We are, he argues, living in an age in which there is widespread credulity about a great many things, and we need to be vigilant against pseudoscientific hoaxes.Pickover's breezy, colloquial writing style is better suited to popular lecture than print, and his text contains an excess of digressions that, although entertaining, do little to advance the story. Still, though flawed, this is a thought-provoking and original book. Illustrations. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Mary Toft, a young wife in Godalming, England, supposedly began giving birth to rabbits in 1726. Once that became known, doctors were called in and investigations began. Toft went through labor pains and produced a number of rabbit pieces, some of which had skin on them. London surgeon Nathanael St. Andre came to Godalming and sold himself on Toft's veracity. Unfortunately, his ego proved much stronger than his ability to carry out a closely watched study. The nobility and even King George I became interested. Pickover describes Toft's cleverness and the investigations of other physicians who rightly concluded she had perpetrated a hoax quite well, and he proceeds from Toft and her misplaced rabbits to other human-animal relationships in a variety of cultures, explaining how they get started and develop. However unusual, the Toft case is a favorite story in medical history. Pickover retells it well, so those who enjoy offbeat stories and have strong stomachs will chuckle over its mixture of human creativity and gullibility. William Beatty
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Toronto Globe & Mail, June 24, 2000
"In a breezy, conversational style, Pickover discusses...this tale of sex, money, ambition, jealousy and scandal."

Customer Reviews

Strange biological realities
I'm an avid Pickover fan, and I found this book to be a very interesting diversion from his usual hard science writing. As the book reports, Mary Toft was a young woman who lived in the 17th century. She had a peculiar passion and appeared to give birth to something inhuman. From that moment onward, she was plunged into a world she never dreamed existed -- a dark, medical subculture flourishing in the King's court. Mary careened out of control, a pawn in the hands of the powerful while she forced her contemporaries to question their most basic beliefs.

This book describes many medical oddities, modern day hoaxes, and sexual superstitions. Mary Toft was the Monica Lewinsky of the 1700s. Both women elicited a barrage of media coverage, jokes, and national shame. Monica's story cast a bad light on American politics; Mary's affair placed the eighteenth-century London physicians in a bad light.

Other topics discussed in the book: multiple personality disorder, child abuse, hypnosis, repressed memories, Torquemada, sexuality in the Bible, fringe science, psychic surgery, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Fox sisters, spiritualism, Piltdown man, Joanna Southcott, Joanna, virgin birth, alligators in sewers, gerbils, LSD, sooterkins, cadaver art, UFOs, garadiavolo, Cottingley Fairies, Cardiff giant, Feejee mermaid, cryptozoology, witchcraft, vomiting frogs, obsessive compulsive disorder, rectal objects, dinosaur fossils, the state of medicine in the 1700s, the effect of the mind on how we perceive reality...

well researched, poorly written
My first exposure to this author. Well researched, but I think it could have used some more colorful writing. I know it is more of a historical document, but I reallt think Mr. Pickover could of had a lot more fun with it. Plus, there are many, many medical mysteries that aren't even touched. I wish he would have more compare and contrasting. Easy read.

Wow, what a topic!
I bought this book the other day, and I have to say I never saw anything like it. The best part was that the story is true. There really was Mary Toft who seemed to give birth to rabbits. One warning: there are some strange "side stories" here that you might need a strong stomach to read. But when you finish the book, you will have learned a lot about history and medicine and science. Well written. Fast pace. Nice figures.