"In 1726, a rumor spread through England about a peasant woman from the outskirts of Guildford, who was giving birth to rabbits. . . . The rumor soon made its way to the Prince of Wales, who, fascinated, promptly dispatched the court anatomist, Nathaniel St. Andre, to investigate. St. Andre, an ambitious self-promoter with no real medical training, arrived to find Mary in labor, about to give birth to her fifteenth rabbit. 