Life at the edge of death is a curious thing. These two incredibly individuals made that abundantly clear.
Welcomed Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Time Me, gentlemen, Time Me. It's a catch phrase you might expect to have been uttered by a runner, or perhaps a NASCAR driver, maybe even a chef of sorts, but a surgeon, not so much yet. That was the phrase Scott, a surgeon Robert Liston, coined for himself before performing every operation. Born in Liston was known primarily for his speed in the operating room. And if you're wondering why a surgeon would want to be known for his speed, considered that this was a time before anesthetics, with nothing to stop the pain, the importance of speed suddenly makes a lot more sense. Liston had a proper training as a surgeon, having studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. It wasn't long after that he earned himself the nickname the Fastest Knife on the West End, a nickname that might sound apt for arrival of Jack the Ripper, yet bestowed upon a man of science and medicine instead. And if you're wondering just how quick he was with a knife, let's just say that his quickest amputation of all time was twenty eight seconds, which gives rise to the other thing. He was also known for his showmanship. I know, speed and showmanship, the two things all surgeons surely must have. After all, who doesn't want an audience while they're having their leg cut off? Having amassed quite the reputation, any time Liston arrived on the scene, he was not alone. Crowds gathered to hear those words uttered before he began. Time me gentlemen, and they would watch as the silver blade sawed through flesh and bone at uncanny speeds, breath held eyes wide, clutching their loved ones like they were watching an edge of your seat thriller, And in a way they were, because anything could happen, and oftentimes anything did. As you might have guessed, speed with a knife led to many an unfortunate mishap with Liston and his patients. Take for instance, one amputation where he successfully removed the leg of his patient but cut something else off with it. Two things, actually two testicles. In another instance, he mistook a lump on a boy's neck for a skin tag, resolved to remove it on the spot, then discovered it was an aneurysm of his carotid artery. The boy tragically died. But there was one operation that became notorious for another reason. It began like any other time me, gentlemen, time me. The patient prepared to have his leg cut off, lying there on the operating table, and as Liston prepared to break his speed amputation record yet again, he took off the patient's leg, but he took something else as well, fingers, not the patients, but those of his assistant, who had until recently been holding the patient's leg, And as Liston lifted the knife, he clipped the coat tails of an onlooker, who promptly collapsed from shock. Both the patients and the assistant would later die when their wounds became infected, and the onlooker who collapsed would be pronounced dead on site as well. According to the autopsy, the man died of fright. For those keeping track, that accounts for three deaths in one operation, which is a three mortality rate, making it the only surgery in the history of surgeries to earn such a notorious mark. With a blemish like that on their record, one tends to forget that despite sawing things off that weren't supposed to go, Liston still retained his mutation as one of the best around, and when anesthesia finally was introduced to the surgical world, it was Liston who was the first to operate using it. Even in the midst of his speed surgeon days, Liston only lost one out of every ten patients he operated on, and if that number sounds high, considered that the average for other surgeons of the time was one out of every four. No matter how many did die under his knife, Liston was, according to the math, a resoundingly successful surgeon. Hands down, legs down, fingers down. Well, you get the idea. When a loved one passes away, it affects us deeply. The loss of a spouse, a relative, or a friend can cause immeasurable feelings of grief and despair. We long to hear their voice in our ears, or the touch of their hand on ours. It's been speculated that someone can even die of a condition called stress induced cardiomyopathy sometimes referred to as broken heart syndrome. Tragedy begets tragedy, it seems, and Queen Victoria knew all about that. In eighteen thirty nine, Victoria began a courtship with Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel, otherwise known as her first cousin Albert. She didn't want to get married at first, but since conventions at the time dictated that she lived with her mother until she tied the knot, Victoria decided to pursue her nuptials more aggressively. Albert visited with her a few times before she finally popped the question on October fifteenth, eighteen thirty nine. Four months later, they were wed. In fact, the modern tradition of wearing a white wedding gown is often attributed to Victoria, who chose to wear white instead of address of a different color, as was the norm. However, despite their marriage being one of convenience, she did come to truly love Albert. She even wrote about him in her diary right after the wedding, referring to him as her dearest, dearest dear Albert and it being the happiest day of her life. They lived in wedded Bliss for twenty years and had nine children together. All seemed well until Albert's untimely passing in December of eighteen sixty one. He was only forty two. Because of death was believed at the time to be typhoid fever, but modern medical experts speculate that Crohn's disease or cancer were the possible culprits. Victoria's loss kicked off what seemed like an endless parade of death in the Queen's life. She mourned her late husband for the rest of her days, wearing only black and retreating into seclusion. She almost never appeared in public again, and her subjects started referring to her as the widow of Windsor. Unfortunately, her isolation caused severe harm to the monarchy in the realm of public opinion. She also had to contend with the deaths of three of her children and her Scottish lover, John Brown. Given her familiarity with loss, it was no wonder that Victoria made secret plans for when she finally shuffled off her own mortal coil, and those plans were extensive. First, she wanted her whole funeral to be a white party, from her burial dress to the horses pulling her coffin to her funeral crape. She even insisted on being buried in her white wedding veil. On her hands. She requested two wedding rings, one being the ring given to her by Albert and the other representing John Brown. It was actually Brown's mother's wedding ring, unbeknownst to Victoria's family. But those weren't the only pieces of jewelry to be included upon her death. No, she wore rings on all her fingers, plus multiple bracelets and necklaces. The inside of her coffin was to be equally decked out. A layer of charcoal was placed on the bottom to absorb any odors and moisture later caused by her corpse, and draped over the top of that charcoal was one of her late husband's dressing gowns. But Victoria didn't stop there. A sprig of Scottish heather was placed to top her body and symbolize the memory of John Brown, and one of Albert's cloaks, originally made by her late daughter, Princess Alice, was also included. Given all the items tucked into the coffin You might think there wasn't any room inside for Victoria herself, but she took that into consideration too. Her casket had been specially designed to dwarf her meager five foot frame. Even once she was placed inside, there was still plenty of room for more belongings. Those assisting with the final arrangements managed to sneak in a few extra knickknacks to help fill the space, And finally, she requested a small piece of Alberts himself to be buried with her, well, sort of, you see. After his death, Queen Victoria had a plaster cast made of his hand, which she slept with each night. The plaster hand was situated next to her in the coffin, so the two could be together even in death. In her other hand, she held a photograph of John Brown and a lock of his hair. She loved both men deeply and couldn't bear to be buried without them. She loved all her family, she just didn't trust them to execute her final wishes. She entrusted her secret list of request to her longtime physician, Sir James Reid. Ever since, the Reed family has maintained possession of Victoria's instructions all twelve personally dictated pages of them. Of course, the royal family has tried to take them back over the years, but to no avail. Even in death, she was an iconoclast, no wonder she was quoted as saying, the important thing is not what they think of me, but what I think of them. Words to live by, for sure, and maybe to die by as well. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,