Science: A Peculiar History

At a socialist commune in East Anglia, Samuel Rowbotham takes advantage of the fenland landscape to develop an outlandish cosmological theory. The first in a miniseries on the Victorian Flat Earthers.Music: The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), Op. 26 by Felix Mendelssohn, played by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, from musopen.org

Two flat earthers inspired by Samuel Rowbotham enter into a bizarre wager with an eminent naturalist. The second episode in a miniseries on the Victorian flat-earthers.
Music: The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), Op. 26 by Felix Mendelssohn, played by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, from musopen.org

Arguments over the result of the wager between John Hampden and Alfred Russel Wallace descend into a campaign of lawsuits and hate mail. The 3rd episode of a miniseries on the Victorian Flat-Earthers.
Music: The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), Op. 26 by Felix Mendelssohn, played by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, from musopen.org

A woman from Godalming seemingly exhibits a surprising physiological anomaly, prompting investigations from several of Georgian Britain's leading physicians.
 
This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work
 
Music: The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), Op. 26 by Felix Mendelssohn, played by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, from musopen.org

A crowd gathers in a boarding-house in the West End of London, waiting for Mary Toft to produce another rabbit. The second episode in a 4-part miniseries on Mary Toft.
 
This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work
 
Music: The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), Op. 26 by Felix Mendelssohn, played by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, from musopen.org

After the Mary Toft Rabbit Hoax is exposed, the doctors involved become the subject of relentless mockery from the media. Features me singing. Twice.
 
This episode includes quite a lot of quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.
 
Music: The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), Op. 26 by Felix Mendelssohn, played by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, from musopen.org

More on the media coverage of the Mary Toft Incident, as well as John Maubray, known as "the sooterkin doctor", and the strange Dutch creatures that gave him his nickname. We also find out what happened to Mary Toft and the Doctors afterwards.Contains quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work

The Greek historian Herodotus describes how the Egyptian Pharaoh Psamtik I conducted a strange and cruel investigation into the origins of language.The first in a four-part miniseries on allegations of language deprivation experiments

The Holy Roman Emperor and amateur ornithologist Frederick II was alleged by the chronicler Salimbene di Adam to have conducted (among other sadistic experiments), a linguistic experiment similar to that of Psamtik. A look at that rumour in the context of medieval ideas about the origin of language.The second episode in a 4-part miniseries about rumours of kings conducting language deprivation experiments.

In 1493, on the uninhabited island of Inchkeith, in the Firth of Forth, King James IV of Scotland conducted a linguistic experiment like that conducted by Psamtik and Frederick II (at least, so the 16th-century historian Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie says).