In 1726, a woman from Surrey convinced England's leading physicians she was giving birth to rabbits. Royal surgeons examined her and declared it genuine. The hoax collapsed when she was threatened with internal surgery.
In September 1726, Mary Toft — a 25-year-old woman from Godalming in Surrey — began claiming to give birth to animal parts: pieces of rabbit, cat, and eel. Her local doctor, John Howard, examined her and was convinced. He began reporting the deliveries to London's medical establishment.
The story escalated rapidly. King George I sent his personal surgeon, Nathaniel St. André, to investigate. St. André examined Toft, witnessed apparent 'deliveries' of rabbit parts, and returned to London to declare the phenomenon genuine. He published a pamphlet about it.
What followed was a parade of eminent physicians — surgeons, anatomists, royal physicians — traveling to Guildford to examine Toft. Several declared themselves believers. The case became a national sensation and was debated seriously in medical journals.
The hoax collapsed in November 1726 when a porter at the house where Toft was staying was caught trying to sneak a rabbit in. Under pressure, Toft confessed: she had inserted animal parts into her body herself, assisted by accomplices. The 'deliveries' were staged.
The fallout was severe — for the doctors, not for Toft. She was imprisoned briefly but released without formal charge. The physicians who had endorsed the hoax were savagely satirized by William Hogarth and other artists. Nathaniel St. André, the royal surgeon who had vouched for it publicly, never recovered his reputation.
The episode became a landmark in the history of medicine — a case study in how badly trained physicians, wishful thinking, and competitive pressure to make remarkable claims could override basic critical judgment. It accelerated calls for more rigorous medical standards and skeptical examination.