Science: A Peculiar History

Two flat earthers inspired by Samuel Rowbotham enter into a bizarre wager with an eminent naturalist. The second episode in a miniseries on the Victorian flat-earthers.

Music: The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), Op. 26 by Felix Mendelssohn, played by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, from musopen.org

Arguments over the result of the wager between John Hampden and Alfred Russel Wallace descend into a campaign of lawsuits and hate mail. The 3rd episode of a miniseries on the Victorian Flat-Earthers.

Music: The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), Op. 26 by Felix Mendelssohn, played by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, from musopen.org

A woman from Godalming seemingly exhibits a surprising physiological anomaly, prompting investigations from several of Georgian Britain's leading physicians.

This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work

Music: The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), Op. 26 by Felix Mendelssohn, played by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, from musopen.org

A crowd gathers in a boarding-house in the West End of London, waiting for Mary Toft to produce another rabbit. The second episode in a 4-part miniseries on Mary Toft.

This episode contains graphic anatomical detail, and quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work

Music: The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), Op. 26 by Felix Mendelssohn, played by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, from musopen.org

After the Mary Toft Rabbit Hoax is exposed, the doctors involved become the subject of relentless mockery from the media. Features me singing. Twice.

This episode includes quite a lot of quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work.

Music: The Hebrides (Fingal's Cave), Op. 26 by Felix Mendelssohn, played by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, from musopen.org

More on the media coverage of the Mary Toft Incident, as well as John Maubray, known as "the sooterkin doctor", and the strange Dutch creatures that gave him his nickname. We also find out what happened to Mary Toft and the Doctors afterwards. Contains quotes from primary sources that are not safe for work

The Greek historian Herodotus describes how the Egyptian Pharaoh Psamtik I conducted a strange and cruel investigation into the origins of language. The first in a four-part miniseries on allegations of language deprivation experiments

The Holy Roman Emperor and amateur ornithologist Frederick II was alleged by the chronicler Salimbene di Adam to have conducted (among other sadistic experiments), a linguistic experiment similar to that of Psamtik. A look at that rumour in the context of medieval ideas about the origin of language. The second episode in a 4-part miniseries about rumours of kings conducting language deprivation experiments.

In 1493, on the uninhabited island of Inchkeith, in the Firth of Forth, King James IV of Scotland conducted a linguistic experiment like that conducted by Psamtik and Frederick II (at least, so the 16th-century historian Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie says).

James IV's language deprivation experiment supposedly had the result that the children in question spoke Hebrew. In an effort to explain why someone at the time might have found this plausible, this episode looks at several colourful Renaissance figures who studied the Hebrew language, and their ideas, some more sensible than others. 

The Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great's conquests led to him ruling most of the Indian Subcontinent - and he became obsessed with learning everything he could about the various religions practiced in his Empire. But amid his religious enquiry, he's said to have conducted another, more sinister investigation, into the mechanisms of language acquisition.

With the ACLU planning to challenge the Butler Act in court, the Dayton businessman George Rappleyea sees an opportunity to put his town in the spotlight. 

John Thomas Scopes, a schoolteacher from Dayton, Tennessee, goes on trial, accused of illegally teaching his students the Theory of Evolution. With the eyes of the nation and even the world turned to Dayton, Tennessee, notorious defence attorney Clarence Darrow interrogates an expert witness on the question of the taxonomic classification of whales.

The Monkey Trial continues - featuring dramatic speeches from Bryan and Malone, a less dramatic speech from William Jennings Bryan Jr., and a poetry competition in a London newspaper.

Going into Day 7 of the Scopes Trial, the defence's expert witnesses have not been allowed to testify, leaving them with no evidence whatsoever. But Clarence Darrow has a plan to call a surprise witness - a "Bible Expert".

With the trial over, William Jennings Bryan takes his undelivered courtroom speech on a tour of Tennessee, Scopes weighs up his career options and incinerates unopened fan-mail, and the lawyers attempt to resolve their personal differences in time for the appeal.

Fundamentalists attempt to capitalise on the momentum from the Scopes Trial to pass "monkey laws" in more states. But as the 20th Century goes on, new legal precedents force them to develop new strategies in response.