The Woman Who 'Gave Birth' to Rabbits
1726
In the autumn of 1726 the talk of England was a young woman from Godalming in Surrey who was apparently giving birth to rabbits. Surgeons rushed to see her, one of them sent by King George I himself, and some came away convinced. Mary Toft's 'rabbit births' became one of the most famous medical hoaxes in history.
A string of 'births'
Godalming Museum says Toft, a labourer's wife, had a miscarriage in August 1726 but still appeared pregnant, and in late September was 'delivered' of a monster. A Guildford surgeon, John Howard, was called, and by November she was producing what seemed to be a rabbit a day. Both the museum and the University of Glasgow Library's account describe how the news spread to London.
Doctors fooled
King George I sent Nathanael St André, his surgeon-anatomist. Godalming Museum says he witnessed a 'birth' himself and in December published A Short Narrative of an Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbets; Glasgow's account reproduces its title page. Others were suspicious. The museum says the German surgeon Cyriacus Ahlers reported to the king that it was a hoax, and that the physician and man-midwife Sir Richard Manningham also exposed it.
The porter talks
Toft was brought to London and lodged at a bathhouse in Leicester Fields. Glasgow's account says a porter there confessed that Toft's sister-in-law Margaret had asked him to get the smallest rabbit he could find; Wikipedia gives the porter's name as Thomas Howard. Under pressure, Mary confessed on 7 December 1726, Godalming Museum says. Wikipedia says she was briefly jailed as a 'vile cheat and impostor'.
Aftermath
The doctors who had believed her were ridiculed. Wikipedia and Glasgow both point to William Hogarth's satirical print Cunicularii, or the Wise Men of Godliman in Consultation (1726). Toft herself went home to Godalming and died in 1763; Wikipedia notes her death made the London papers. Why she did it is unclear; most accounts suggest her family hoped to profit.