Science: A Peculiar History

With the ACLU planning to challenge the Butler Act in court, the Dayton businessman George Rappleyea sees an opportunity to put his town in the spotlight. 

In the summer 1925, the run-down Appalachian town of Dayton, Tennessee, played host to one of the most famous trials in history, pitting the former Secretary of State and 3-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan against the notorious criminal defence lawyer Clarence Darrow over the question of whether a local schoolteacher would have to pay a fine.  But how did they get to this point? This episode focuses on the rise of anti-evolution sentiment in the Early-20th-Century USA, that led to the passage of the Butler Act in Tennessee, banning public schools from teaching that humans evolved from apes.

Where did Akbar the Great get the idea for the experiment from? Given that he didn't have access to Herodotus, this episode looks at precedents in Ancient Indian and Medieval Islamic thought, before moving on to how questions of language acquisition and the origin of language developed since Akbar's time, bringing in a 'Wild Boy' from the South of France, several people claiming to have had languages revealed to them by God, and something called the 'Yo-He-Ho Theory'. CW: This episode includes descriptions of real instances of severe child abuse

The Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great's conquests led to him ruling most of the Indian Subcontinent - and he became obsessed with learning everything he could about the various religions practiced in his Empire. But amid his religious enquiry, he's said to have conducted another, more sinister investigation, into the mechanisms of language acquisition.

James IV's language deprivation experiment supposedly had the result that the children in question spoke Hebrew. In an effort to explain why someone at the time might have found this plausible, this episode looks at several colourful Renaissance figures who studied the Hebrew language, and their ideas, some more sensible than others. 

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).

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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