Mary Toft was an English woman from the early 18th century who became famous for her involvement in a bizarre medical hoax. In 1726, she claimed to have given birth to several dead rabbits, attracting the attention of prominent medical practitioners of the time. The case attracted considerable public and scientific interest until it was finally exposed as a hoax. Mary Toft confessed that she had manually inserted the rabbits into her body to fake the births, a revelation that caused a scandal and damaged the reputations of several doctors who had supported her claims.
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