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Heart of the Matter · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grim & Mild.
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  Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable. And if history
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  Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. In 1842, an assistant
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  Speaker 2: gravedigger at St. Clement's Church in London was shoveling dirt
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  Speaker 2: to make a new grave. As he dug along the
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  Speaker 2: edges of the hole he created to make sure it
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  Speaker 2: was long and wide enough, the ground gave way. He
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  Speaker 2: found himself tumbling over as a mound of dirt landed
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  Speaker 2: on top of him. But that wasn't the worst part.
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  Speaker 2: His eyes went wide when he saw what was in
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  Speaker 2: the dirt. A corpse had fallen out of its grave,
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  Speaker 2: and its arms were now wrapped around him. This was
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  Speaker 2: just one chapter in a deepening problem in London. They
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  Speaker 2: had run out of space for graves. Not only were
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  Speaker 2: gravediggers accidentally disturbing pre-existing graves, they were sometimes ordered to
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  Speaker 2: do it deliberately. As one gravedigger later testified to a
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  Speaker 2: House of Commons committee, he and his co-workers were ordered
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  Speaker 2: to start digging up graves, chop up the bodies, and
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  Speaker 2: burn the coffins. They would then smush the chopped up
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  Speaker 2: body parts together and rebury them, hoping that this would
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  Speaker 2: take up less space. Clearly, something had to be done.
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  Speaker 1: It was decided that a new cemetery would be constructed
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  Speaker 1: far outside of the city, to the southwest in a
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  Speaker 1: place called Brookwood. But this was an era when most
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  Speaker 1: people still got around by horse and buggy, and that
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't be sufficient to transport the thousands of dead people
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  Speaker 1: and their living loved ones for funerals. And so, the
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  Speaker 1: London Necropolis Railway was born. A company was formed to
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  Speaker 1: oversee the construction of operation of a railway for the
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  Speaker 1: dead bodies and their family members, all to be transported
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  Speaker 1: by rail across the city and outside to Brookwood Cemetery,
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  Speaker 1: the largest in England. Not surprising, the divisions over religion
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  Speaker 1: and class that plagued Britain at the time became an
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  Speaker 1: issue when developing the railway. Various citizens and religious leaders
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  Speaker 1: complained to a committee in the House of Commons. Some
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  Speaker 1: felt that the hustle and bustle of a railroad was
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  Speaker 1: far too undignified for the burial of the dead. They
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  Speaker 1: deserved peace and quiet. Others were freaking out over the
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  Speaker 1: idea that the bodies of the rich might be sorted
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  Speaker 1: next to the bodies of the poor, or that those
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  Speaker 1: who lived virtuous lives might be stored on the train
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  Speaker 1: next to sinners, or even, God forbid, that dead Christians
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  Speaker 1: were might be piled up next to non-Christians. Now, the
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  Speaker 1: House of Commons couldn't do anything over concerns about the
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  Speaker 1: perceived dignity of railroads. They were still a fairly new invention,
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  Speaker 1: and they thought that people would eventually get used to them.
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  Speaker 1: But the company could address the concerns over class and religion.
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  Speaker 1: They soon developed six different ticket categories for the dead. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: even the dead needed a ticket for this train. Bodies
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  Speaker 1: were segregated by first, second, and third class— as well
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  Speaker 1: as by Anglicans, those belonging to the Christian church that
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  Speaker 1: had been started in England, and non-Anglicans. Realistically, this just
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  Speaker 1: meant that the bodies were kept in separate cars. It's
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  Speaker 1: not like the first-class car was somehow more luxurious for
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  Speaker 1: all the bodies that were stored there, though. Mourners traveled
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  Speaker 1: in passenger cars, joining their deceased loved ones on a
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  Speaker 1: trip to the cemetery. Once the train arrived, it pulled
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  Speaker 1: into either an Anglican or a non-Anglican station. These were
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  Speaker 1: newly constructed and even included licensed bars where mourners could
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  Speaker 1: drown their sorrows. And for those who are curious, first-class
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  Speaker 1: passengers got to pick exactly where their loved ones would
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  Speaker 1: be reburied, and of course, they were offered more picturesque spots.
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  Speaker 1: They could also erect unique gravestones if they wanted to.
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  Speaker 1: Second-class had more limited gravesite options, and third-class was really
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  Speaker 1: just for those who couldn't afford a proper funeral, so
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  Speaker 1: they were placed in predetermined areas. Anyone who was offended
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  Speaker 1: by the use of a railroad for transporting bodies soon
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  Speaker 1: got over it. It was clearly better than having a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of chopped-up bodies mixed together in the cemeteries of London.
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  Speaker 1: The Necropolis Railway operated every week for decades. However, it
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  Speaker 1: would eventually meet a dramatic end. In April of 1941,
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  Speaker 1: Nazi planes flew over London, dropping explosive ordnance on the
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  Speaker 1: terrified citizens below. This was the tail end of the
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  Speaker 1: infamous air raids. Toward the end of this campaign, bombs
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  Speaker 1: actually hit the Necropolis railway station in London. The station
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  Speaker 1: was obliterated, as was the beginning of the track. There's
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  Speaker 1: still an old black-and-white photo showing a train dangling off
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  Speaker 1: of what was left of it. And it was decided
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  Speaker 1: that it wasn't worth rebuilding it. As cars became more popular,
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  Speaker 1: bodies were transported to the cemetery in hearses, which were
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  Speaker 1: more private and, yes, also quieter. The Necropolis Railway was
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  Speaker 1: now a curious footnote in history, a final trip for
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  Speaker 1: people who were headed to their final destination. Werner was
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  Speaker 1: born in Berlin in 1904, and his father died just
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  Speaker 1: 12 years later in World War I. This perhaps instilled
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  Speaker 1: in young Werner the realization that life is short and
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  Speaker 1: one needs to be brave if they're going to make
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  Speaker 1: the most of it. He would spend the rest of
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  Speaker 1: his life pushing himself to the limit, including developing an
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  Speaker 1: innovative medical procedure that would make even the least squeamish
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  Speaker 1: person twist in their seat. Werner had an uncle who
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  Speaker 1: was a doctor, and that man took him under his wing.
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  Speaker 1: Once Werner was old enough, he helped to enroll him
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  Speaker 1: in medical school. He graduated and was soon working at
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  Speaker 1: a nearby hospital. And honestly, it was much like it
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  Speaker 1: is today, where the hours could sometimes become inhumanly long
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  Speaker 1: depending on the needs of the patients. Of the many
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  Speaker 1: things that Werner learned at this time, one thing stuck
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  Speaker 1: out at him. There weren't a lot of good ways
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  Speaker 1: to diagnose the heart. If a patient was suffering from
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  Speaker 1: heart disease, all doctors could really do was listen to
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  Speaker 1: the heart, tap on it, or use an early version
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  Speaker 1: of an EKG, and these were all limited in diagnosing
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  Speaker 1: exactly what kind of shape the heart was in and
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  Speaker 1: what atria or ventricles might be in trouble. It occurred
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  Speaker 1: to Werner that a better treatment would be to pass
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  Speaker 1: a catheter, a small tube, into the heart so that
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  Speaker 1: medicines or x-ray materials could be injected. Werner began testing
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  Speaker 1: his theories on cadavers. He made a small incision into
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  Speaker 1: the vein at the crook of the elbow, similar to
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  Speaker 1: where drawing blood But he was putting something in, not
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  Speaker 1: taking it out. He slid the catheter along the vein,
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  Speaker 1: following it all the way up the arm, through the chest,
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  Speaker 1: and to the heart. The vein could support the tube,
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  Speaker 1: and his method worked. Now it was time to test
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  Speaker 1: it on the living. But when he took his findings
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  Speaker 1: to the hospital director, the man refused to let him
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  Speaker 1: try this on living patients. It was too dangerous, he
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  Speaker 1: told Werner. So Werner was encouraged to experiment on animals instead.
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  Speaker 1: But to Werner, this was a waste of time. An
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  Speaker 1: animal couldn't tell you how it felt to have a
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  Speaker 1: tube travel through your arm and into your heart. He
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  Speaker 1: needed that human feedback. And so he made a decision
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  Speaker 1: that almost no one else would. He decided to try
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  Speaker 1: it on himself. The experiment happened during his lunch break, which,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but that's not usually the
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  Speaker 1: time that I would set aside for self-experimentation. Finding a
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  Speaker 1: quiet surgery room, he anesthetized the area around his elbow...
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  Speaker 1: and made an incision into a vein. He then inserted
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  Speaker 1: a catheter and slowly began pushing it up his arm,
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  Speaker 1: further through the vein. Now, he claims that it wasn't
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  Speaker 1: painful at all. He kept pushing the catheter until it
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  Speaker 1: reached his clavicle, and at that point, he says he
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  Speaker 1: felt a warm sensation in this area, but still no pain.
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  Speaker 1: The only symptom he experienced at that point was that
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  Speaker 1: it gave him a bit of a cough. He kept pushing,
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  Speaker 1: which meant that the catheter now bent downward toward his heart,
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  Speaker 1: and as he continued to push and push... he was
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  Speaker 1: finally able to feel the tube fully inserted. Based on
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  Speaker 1: the distance that he had measured on his torso, he
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  Speaker 1: was pretty sure that he had reached his heart. Now,
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  Speaker 1: most of us would want to immediately remove the catheter,
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  Speaker 1: but Warner actually got up and began to move across
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  Speaker 1: the hospital. He made his way up a staircase, still
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  Speaker 1: not feeling any negative effects, and arrived in the x-ray unit.
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  Speaker 1: He had x-rays taken of his chest, and sure enough,
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  Speaker 1: they showed that the catheter had successfully arrived at his
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  Speaker 1: right atrium. Now, this was in 1929, and at first,
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  Speaker 1: no one took him seriously, saying that the experiment better
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  Speaker 1: resembled something done at a circus. By 1932, the Nazi
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  Speaker 1: Party had become increasingly powerful in Germany. Werner joined not
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  Speaker 1: only the party, but also the Brownshirts and the Nazi
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  Speaker 1: Doctors League, all before Hitler took power. His wartime letters
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  Speaker 1: suggest that this was more than just an empty membership,
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  Speaker 1: although he later distanced himself from the regime. According to
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  Speaker 1: a biography written by his daughter, he refused an offer
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  Speaker 1: of human research subjects from one of Himmler's physicians and
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  Speaker 1: continued treating Jewish patients despite hospital restrictions. During World War II,
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  Speaker 1: he served as a medic and was eventually captured and
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  Speaker 1: held prisoner in a U.S. camp. After the war, he
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  Speaker 1: wasn't allowed to work as a physician at first, given
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  Speaker 1: his party membership, but that eventually changed. And then throughout
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  Speaker 1: the late 1940s, and early 50s, other physicians developed his
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  Speaker 1: technique further, to where he was eventually awarded the Nobel
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  Speaker 1: Prize in 1956. Werner Forsman went on to a long
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  Speaker 1: career in medicine, eventually passing away in 1979. Curiously, or
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  Speaker 1: perhaps appropriately, Werner actually died of a heart attack. The
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  Speaker 1: procedure he pioneered helped countless hearts to beat longer. But
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  Speaker 1: no one's heart beats forever.
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  Speaker 2: I hope you.
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  Speaker 1: Enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This
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  Speaker 1: show was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership with
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  Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim & Mild team,
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  Speaker 1: and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show
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  Speaker 1: and the people who make it over at grimandmild.com slash curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online, as well
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: as e-book and audiobook. And if you're looking for an
• 10:59
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• 11:03
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• 11:07
  Speaker 1: more and sign up over at patreon.com slash grimandmild. And
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  Speaker 1: until next time... Stay curious.