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Falling Down · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of
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  Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
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  Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just
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  Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: Destruction has a way of leaving a trail through history,
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  Speaker 1: not just in the stories we continue to tell, but
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  Speaker 1: also in the physical evidence we can uncover if we
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  Speaker 1: dig deep enough. For example, deep deep below the streets
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  Speaker 1: of modern London, there's something called the Buddhica Destruction Layer.
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  Speaker 1: This small layer of red in the earth is a
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  Speaker 1: physical reminder of Queen Boudica's spectacularly deadly revolt against the
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  Speaker 1: wrong An Empire. The city as old as London have
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  Speaker 1: plenty of layers. They're usually all that remains of the
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  Speaker 1: land's extensive past, from old Roman roads to long lost
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  Speaker 1: defeated kings buried under parking lots. They've slowly been built
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  Speaker 1: up and become the London we know today. Unfortunately, many
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  Speaker 1: of those layers, most in fact, were created by fire.
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  Speaker 1: Fires were a common part of life, especially in a
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  Speaker 1: world before hydrants and organized fire departments. Instead, residents had
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  Speaker 1: to organize rapidly to take water from the nearest source,
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  Speaker 1: usually a well or a river, and form a bucket
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  Speaker 1: brigade to try and put the blaze out as quickly
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  Speaker 1: as possible. Sometimes they even succeeded before too much damage
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  Speaker 1: was done. London, like most old cities, was no stranger
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  Speaker 1: to fires. Budica and her revenge was just one of
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  Speaker 1: the first recorded examples. In the year sixty CE, she
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  Speaker 1: and other tribe leaders banded together and burned cities like
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  Speaker 1: Londinium to the ground, creating her destruction layer of red,
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  Speaker 1: brown oxidized ash. London has been built and rebuilt several
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  Speaker 1: times over the centuries, often flourishing in between those destructive fires.
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  Speaker 1: But not even a century after Boudica's revenge, Londinium was
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  Speaker 1: destroyed again. No one knows what caused the Hadriatic fire,
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  Speaker 1: or really even when it happened. Experts estimate sometime after
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  Speaker 1: Emperor Hadrian's visit in the early one twenties. London managed
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  Speaker 1: to stay intact for a few more centuries, although admittedly
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  Speaker 1: Saint Paul's Cathedral seems to have had terrible luck, burning
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  Speaker 1: down nine times before the next fire. In eleven thirty five,
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  Speaker 1: the Pentecost fire broke out near London Bridge, reportedly in
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  Speaker 1: the Sheriff's home, and then spread out from there. One
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  Speaker 1: chronicler said Saint Paul's burned to the ground again, but
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  Speaker 1: another disagrees. Given the building's history, I wouldn't be shocked
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  Speaker 1: if it had. Though. The Great Pentecost Fire destroyed London Bridge,
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  Speaker 1: made of wood, of course, as well as the homes,
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  Speaker 1: ships and other properties within two miles of the Thames.
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  Speaker 1: Despite the devastation of the blaze, though this wasn't London's
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  Speaker 1: deadly fire. That dubious honor happened years down the line.
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  Speaker 1: Like so many fires, the causes unknown. We can speculate
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  Speaker 1: about the unattended ovens, dropped pipes, or careless trash fires
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  Speaker 1: until the cows come home, but no one knows how
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  Speaker 1: this great blaze began. Some people, though, suspect the weather.
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  Speaker 1: You see, it was July tenth, and England, like many
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  Speaker 1: other places in the North Atlantic, was going through a
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  Speaker 1: bit of a warm spell. The roller coaster of climate
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  Speaker 1: change means that we might be able to imagine what
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  Speaker 1: it was like a hot day in July. Maybe it
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  Speaker 1: was sunny and bright or rainy and muggie, although given
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  Speaker 1: what happened next, I'm inclined to think it was very,
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  Speaker 1: very dry. Someone would have taken up the call to
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  Speaker 1: warn the neighbors that a fire had broken out from there.
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  Speaker 1: The news would have spread like well fire pun intended
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  Speaker 1: people would have scrambled for buckets, basins and washtubs to
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  Speaker 1: fill them and stand in line while the others evacuated children, animals,
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  Speaker 1: and valuables. The fire started south of the River Thames
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  Speaker 1: in Suffolk, so maybe they used river water, but they
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  Speaker 1: probably used whatever they could get their hands on. Still,
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  Speaker 1: it was no use. Between July tenth and July twelfth,
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  Speaker 1: they fought and fled from the fire as it burned
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  Speaker 1: through Suffolx Cathedral known as Our Lady of the Cannons
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  Speaker 1: or Saint mary Ovary, then most of Borough High Streets,
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  Speaker 1: a major street that connected the south bank of the
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  Speaker 1: Thames to London, and then it spread to London Bridge.
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  Speaker 1: Now the wind had picked up, carrying blazing cinders across
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  Speaker 1: the river to the Hugh guessed it. Wooden houses and
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  Speaker 1: their straw roofs near the northern end of the Bridge.
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  Speaker 1: From there, the fire jumped to the city of London itself.
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  Speaker 1: As people fled the inferno from Suffolk, they came crashing
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  Speaker 1: into people running from the fire that had broken out
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  Speaker 1: on the northern side. They were trapped in the middle
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  Speaker 1: of two terrible fires, and the wooden shops and houses
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  Speaker 1: on the bridge became ticking time bombs. It was only
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  Speaker 1: a matter of time before those went up as well.
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  Speaker 1: Some people jumped into the river trying to save themselves,
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  Speaker 1: but either drowned or were crushed by boats trying to
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  Speaker 1: rescue those who were stranded. Some of the rescuers themselves
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  Speaker 1: were pulled in and crushed desperate people trying to haul
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  Speaker 1: themselves on board. It was a terrible sight. The idea
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  Speaker 1: of putting wooden buildings on London Bridge had been the
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  Speaker 1: idea of King John of Magna Carta and Robin Hood fame,
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  Speaker 1: although at this point in time the bridge itself was
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  Speaker 1: built of stone. Many of the survivors must have been
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  Speaker 1: wondering if they should have listened to the mayor when
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  Speaker 1: he strongly recommended using stone over wood as a building material.
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  Speaker 1: As you can tell by now, and the mention of
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  Speaker 1: King John of the Magna Carta. This fire was not
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  Speaker 1: the Great Fire of sixteen sixty six that everyone talks
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  Speaker 1: about today. All told, an initial estimate put the death
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  Speaker 1: toll for the Great Fire of twelve twelve at three
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  Speaker 1: thousand people. Many historians disagree, as the population of London
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  Speaker 1: was just fifty thousand people at the time, and that
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  Speaker 1: number of dead would have been devastating. The city, though
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  Speaker 1: was soon rebuilt. As for London Bridge, it may not
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  Speaker 1: have fallen down this time, but it's luck would eventually
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  Speaker 1: run out. After all, how could we sing the song
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  Speaker 1: if it didn't. Going to the eye doctor isn't the
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  Speaker 1: most fun experience, although it sure beats sitting in a
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  Speaker 1: dentist chair. At some point during your exam, the optometrist
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  Speaker 1: might squeeze a few drops of liquid into your eyes
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  Speaker 1: in order to dilate them. This allows the doctor to
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  Speaker 1: see your optic nerve and diagnose potential underlying conditions, such
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  Speaker 1: as cataracts or macular degeneration. Today's eye drops may be uncomfortable,
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  Speaker 1: but they're a lot better than the ones made hundreds
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  Speaker 1: of years ago, because if you go back far enough,
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  Speaker 1: you might find that the people were putting very similar
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  Speaker 1: drops into their eyes to look more attractive, but at
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  Speaker 1: great cost. They were derived from a plant called belladonna
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  Speaker 1: or literally translated beautiful woman. Its full scientific name as
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  Speaker 1: Atropa belladonna or atropine, but most people know it by
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  Speaker 1: its more common money her deadly nightshade. The genus Atropa
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  Speaker 1: comes from Greek mythology. It was named for one of
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  Speaker 1: the three fates, Atropos, who would put the thread of
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  Speaker 1: life that had been measured and drawn by her other
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  Speaker 1: two sisters. And there was a reason for this name,
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  Speaker 1: given to the plant by Swedish botanist Carlinaeus in the
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  Speaker 1: seventeen hundreds, because those who consumed it would find their
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  Speaker 1: own threads cut short. Records of its use go back
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  Speaker 1: as far as the fourth century BC, although Cleopatra was
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  Speaker 1: known to drop extracts of other night shades into her
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  Speaker 1: eyes in order to dilate her pupils. But why it's
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  Speaker 1: not like optometrist was a profession in ancient Egypt because
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  Speaker 1: belladonna extract helped make women more beautiful in their minds,
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  Speaker 1: at least that's how it was marketed. History is riddled
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  Speaker 1: with instances of poisons being used in cosmetics. Ancient Egyptians
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  Speaker 1: and Greeks darkened their eyelashes with antimony, a toxic chemical
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  Speaker 1: element full of sulfur, lead, copper, and silver. Thallium acetate
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  Speaker 1: was used in the late nineteenth century as a cure
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  Speaker 1: for scalp ringworm, but it didn't actually kill the ringworm.
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  Speaker 1: It just caused the user to lose their hair so
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  Speaker 1: the ring worm would be easier to treat. Afterward, it
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  Speaker 1: was marketed as a body hair removal cream, which poisoned
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  Speaker 1: women who applied it to their skin, and of course,
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  Speaker 1: arsenic was incorporated into everything from makeup to edible wafers
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  Speaker 1: as recently as the eighteen nineties. Belladonna drops did back
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  Speaker 1: then what they do now. They dilate pupils. The resulting
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  Speaker 1: effect is a glassy look in the woman's eye, making
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  Speaker 1: them appear lustrous and hopefully desirable. They were quite popular
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  Speaker 1: in the Renaissance era Italy, as a woman's eyes were
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  Speaker 1: believed to be the most beautiful part of her body.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, the sixteenth century painting Woman with a Mirror
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  Speaker 1: by the artist Titian was believed to depict a woman
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  Speaker 1: with big, dark eyes dilated by belladonna, though in order
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  Speaker 1: to achieve such an effect, the plant extract used did
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  Speaker 1: do something harsh to the eyes. For one, they paralyzed
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  Speaker 1: the nerve endings, which worked well for pain relief and
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  Speaker 1: stopping bad coughs in asthmetics, But if someone dropped too
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  Speaker 1: much into their eyes or worse, ingested a significant amount
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  Speaker 1: of it, other symptoms would start to appear. Dry mouth,
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  Speaker 1: an increase in body temperature, excitement, and an inability to
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  Speaker 1: swallow were just some of the side effects that doctors
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  Speaker 1: saw as a result of atropine poisoning. Long term use
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  Speaker 1: of belladonna drops had also been known to cause blindness.
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  Speaker 1: Poisoners have seen belladonna or Deadly nightshade as a tool
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  Speaker 1: in their arsenal as well. In nineteen ninety four, an
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  Speaker 1: Edinburgh biologist named Paul Agater was convicted of attempted murder
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  Speaker 1: after dosing his wife's tonic water along with a dozen
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  Speaker 1: other bottles in a local supermarket with the toxic chemical.
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  Speaker 1: The good news is that today optometrists use an alternative
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  Speaker 1: to belladonna when dilating their patient's pupils, especially where children
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  Speaker 1: are concerned, but the plant is still incorporated into a
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  Speaker 1: variety of medicinal products, including eyedrops. Just a much more
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  Speaker 1: reasonable level than before, because a doctor doesn't care if
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  Speaker 1: your eyes are sultry or seductive. They just want to
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  Speaker 1: see if you can see. I hope you've enjoyed today's
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  Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free
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  Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by
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  Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by
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  Speaker 1: me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I
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  Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Loore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.