A Short Narrative of an Extraordinary Delivery of Rabbets, Perform'd by Mr. John Howard Surgeon at Guilford

A peculiar slice of early‑18th‑century medical lore invites listeners into a world where curiosity and credulity collide. The narrator, a diligent chronicler, pieces together a series of letters from the reputable surgeon John Howard, who claims to have assisted a woman in giving birth to a succession of rabbits. The correspondence, filled with precise dates and vivid detail, sets the stage for a baffling phenomenon that has never before been recorded in natural history.

Guided by an eager royal secretary, the narrator travels to Guilford to witness the event firsthand. There, amidst a modest household and a circle of attentive women, the surgeon performs the first extraordinary delivery—a fully formed rabbit, complete with heart and lungs, examined and floated in water to test its buoyancy. The account balances clinical observation with a sense of wonder, offering a window into the blend of science, superstition, and spectacle that defined the era’s approach to the inexplicable.