Mary Toft (1701-1763) an English woman
In 1725 made weird history in Godalming, Surrey
When she gave birth to eighteen rabbits.
To lend royal credence to the bunny births,
Nathaniel St. Andre, Surgeon to the Royal
Household of King George 1st, validated
The miraculous birth of the rabbits.
He wrote a pamphlet entitled
A Short Narrative Of an Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbets Perform’d by Mr. John Howard Surgeon at Guilford published in London in 1727.
Thereafter Mary Toft became the talk of the times.
News of the amazing births spread everywhere.
Another royal surgeon, Cyriacus Ahlers
Doubted the bizarre bunny birth claims.
Sent Toth to London for closer scrutiny
Examined by doctors, exposed as a hoax.
You don’t want to know the gruesome details
About how the woman who gave birth to rabbits
Faked the elaborate hoax in this outlandish tale.
Bob Boyd