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Rat Race · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
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  Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
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  Speaker 1: there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Despite their intelligence and friendly nature,
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  Speaker 1: rats are often hated by the public. Their role in
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  Speaker 1: spreading the plague has been greatly exaggerated. It was the
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  Speaker 1: fleas on the rats that actually carried the disease, and
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  Speaker 1: they've been considered a nuisance for probably a lot longer
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  Speaker 1: vermin to be exterminated with prejudice. But did you know
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  Speaker 1: that rats can detect gunpowder residue. That's how they're used
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  Speaker 1: in the Netherlands because they're cheaper and easier to train
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  Speaker 1: than dogs. Even more amazing, the Gambian pouched rat of
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  Speaker 1: Africa has been trained to detect landines and tuberculosis, all
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  Speaker 1: thanks to their incredible sense of smell. Regardless of their
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  Speaker 1: occupations or contributions to society, rats are still animals. They
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  Speaker 1: have basic needs like all of us, like food and shelter.
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  Speaker 1: In the wild, they scavenge for food wherever they can
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  Speaker 1: find it, often going to places where they aren't welcome
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  Speaker 1: in search of their next meal. But in fifteen hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of France. Their disregard for farmers crops gave the people
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  Speaker 1: of Auton so much trouble the town went to unbelievable
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  Speaker 1: lengths to remove them. All manner of exterminations were exacted
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  Speaker 1: on the rat population at the time, but no matter
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  Speaker 1: what they did, they always kept coming back. They destroyed
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  Speaker 1: plants and infested homes and businesses. It was an epidemic.
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  Speaker 1: Even the Catholic Church got involved and decried them as
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  Speaker 1: creatures of the devil. The Pope attempted to exercise them,
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  Speaker 1: while a bishop officially excommunicated them out of the country,
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  Speaker 1: but it didn't stick. The rats kept coming and the
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  Speaker 1: crops continued to get eaten, so the town turned to
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  Speaker 1: more medieval methods. Rats were subjected to all kinds of
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  Speaker 1: torture and abuse simply for existing within the borders of
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  Speaker 1: the city. But there was one method that people hadn't tried.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't require burning or stretching them out on a rack,
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  Speaker 1: or even drowning them. Instead, the town served the rats
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  Speaker 1: with a summons to appear before the court their crime
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  Speaker 1: destroying the local barley crops. Of course, the trial was
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  Speaker 1: to be conducted within the cathedral, but for a proper
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  Speaker 1: trial there needed to be two sides. The town would
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  Speaker 1: be the plaintiffs, tired of fighting an unwinnable problem, while
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  Speaker 1: the rats were the defendants, and any defendant, no matter
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  Speaker 1: their crime, deserved proper representation. The town turned to a
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  Speaker 1: local pro bono lawyer named Bartolomy the Cassineus to argue
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  Speaker 1: on behalf of the rats. Yes, the rats were given
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  Speaker 1: their own lawyer, and a particularly clever one too. Cassin
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  Speaker 1: News had studied under the finest legal ds of the
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  Speaker 1: day and perform work from major figures. At the time.
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  Speaker 1: He had already served the Duchy of Milan and Pope
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  Speaker 1: Julius the Second, and now he had been tasked with
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  Speaker 1: representing the unrepresentable, a group of feral, disliked rodents, causing
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  Speaker 1: havoc for farmers all over the town. Unsurprisingly, on the
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  Speaker 1: day they were supposed to appear, the rats didn't show up.
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  Speaker 1: Cassa News argued that the original summons couldn't be honored
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  Speaker 1: because rats were not pack animals, they were solitary creatures,
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  Speaker 1: and each rodent would need to be served individually. The
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  Speaker 1: court actually complied and reissued one new summons per rat.
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  Speaker 1: It didn't help, though, and they failed to appear on
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  Speaker 1: the second scheduled day. Cassin News pointed out that the
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  Speaker 1: roads leading to the courthouse were hazardous for rats, given
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  Speaker 1: the presence of larger creatures like cats and dogs along
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  Speaker 1: the route. Once again, the lawyer had made a valid
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  Speaker 1: argument before the court. According to the law, if a
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  Speaker 1: defendant could not travel to court with a guarantee of safety,
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  Speaker 1: they were not obligated to attend the hearing and the
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  Speaker 1: summons could be ignored. No one knows what the final
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  Speaker 1: outcome of the trial was, but it's probably safe to
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  Speaker 1: say that all charges against the rats were dropped. Bartolemey
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  Speaker 1: Ducassa News had won his case and inadvertently became the
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  Speaker 1: first ever legal defender of animals. Twins are special, identical
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  Speaker 1: or fraternal. Their biology is unique, and they can be
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  Speaker 1: emotionally closer to each other than any other kind of sibling.
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  Speaker 1: Twins have been known to invent their own languages, a
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  Speaker 1: phenomenon known as cryptophagia. They sometimes develop ways of walking
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  Speaker 1: and sync with each other too. They're different people, but
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  Speaker 1: often seem like they're living the same life. Twins Lazarus
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  Speaker 1: and Johannes Baptista Colorado were like that lived in Italy
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  Speaker 1: in the early sixteen hundreds and toward Europe, demonstrating their
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  Speaker 1: unique talents. However, they weren't identical twins or even fraternal. No,
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  Speaker 1: they were something entirely different. The pair were described by
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Bartolinus, a Danish anatomist, as being vastly different in size.
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  Speaker 1: Lazarus was twenty eight years old and a full grown man.
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  Speaker 1: His younger brother, Johannes, however, was much smaller. His features
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  Speaker 1: were underdeveloped, with many of them having not developed at all.
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  Speaker 1: Both of his hands only had three fingers, and his
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  Speaker 1: left foot hung down. His right foot seemed to have
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  Speaker 1: disappeared entirely. On top of that, the younger man's underdeveloped
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  Speaker 1: lungs made breathing difficult. He almost never opened his eyes,
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  Speaker 1: which was hard to do given the abnormally large size
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  Speaker 1: and shape of his head. But despite all of that,
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  Speaker 1: he was pretty attached to his brother. I'm not saying
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  Speaker 1: that they were close. I mean that Johannes was physically
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  Speaker 1: attached to Lazarus. To spectators, it appeared as though he
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  Speaker 1: was growing from his brother's chest. Though he lived and breathed,
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  Speaker 1: he couldn't eat, he gained nourishment from the food inside
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  Speaker 1: his older brother's stomach. The Colorado twins were parasitic twins,
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  Speaker 1: also known as asymmetrical or unequal conjoined twins. It happens
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  Speaker 1: when a fertilized egg doesn't fully split and one embryo
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  Speaker 1: completely develops while the other does not. They may have
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  Speaker 1: been among the first known cases of parasitic twins, but
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  Speaker 1: they certainly weren't the last. During the eighteen hundreds, a
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  Speaker 1: sideshow performer by the name of Laalu made his living
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  Speaker 1: exhibiting his twin. His sibling had developed with both hands
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  Speaker 1: and feet, even though he was sticking out of La
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  Speaker 1: Lou's chest. Decades later, a woman named Betty Lou Williams
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  Speaker 1: also made a career out of showing off her parasitic twin,
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  Speaker 1: which had been born with both legs but only one
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  Speaker 1: full arm. Betty Lou was the youngest of twelve children
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  Speaker 1: and became a sideshow performer when she was still a toddler.
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  Speaker 1: Her years of success allowed her to buy an enormous
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  Speaker 1: ranch for her family and then send her eleven other
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  Speaker 1: brothers and sisters to college. Doctors told her that her
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  Speaker 1: siblings head had developed inside her own abdomen, which could
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  Speaker 1: have pushed all her other organs out of place or
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  Speaker 1: severely impeded her own growth. But they weren't concerned. They
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  Speaker 1: told Betty lu she had a long, healthy life ahead
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  Speaker 1: of her, with just a few extra appendages along for
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  Speaker 1: the journey. Eventually, the child star grew into a young woman,
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  Speaker 1: and she gained the admiration of several local suitors. One
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  Speaker 1: man in particular captured her attention, and it wasn't long
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  Speaker 1: before the two got engaged. However, when they should have
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  Speaker 1: been planning for a wedding, he was planning for something else.
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  Speaker 1: Soon enough, it became clear that her fiance had stolen
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  Speaker 1: more than her heart. He'd taken most of her money too.
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  Speaker 1: Betty lu couldn't believe that her true love would do
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  Speaker 1: something like that. She was hurt and she was furious.
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  Speaker 1: But worse than that, the anger and panic he caused
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  Speaker 1: her had developed into an asthma attack so strong that
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  Speaker 1: Betty Lou couldn't handle it. She died of asphyxiation in
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  Speaker 1: her New Jersey home a short while later. She was
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  Speaker 1: only twenty three years old. I hope you've enjoyed today's
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.