Falling Down

History can be fun and curious, but also deadly. These two stories should demonstrate why.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio 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.

(00:36):
Destruction has a way of leaving a trail through history,
not just in the stories we continue to tell, but
also in the physical evidence we can uncover if we
dig deep enough. For example, deep deep below the streets
of modern London, there's something called the Buddhica Destruction Layer.
This small layer of red in the earth is a
physical reminder of Queen Boudica's spectacularly deadly revolt against the

(00:59):
wrong An Empire. The city as old as London have
plenty of layers. They're usually all that remains of the
land's extensive past, from old Roman roads to long lost
defeated kings buried under parking lots. They've slowly been built
up and become the London we know today. Unfortunately, many
of those layers, most in fact, were created by fire.

(01:21):
Fires were a common part of life, especially in a
world before hydrants and organized fire departments. Instead, residents had
to organize rapidly to take water from the nearest source,
usually a well or a river, and form a bucket
brigade to try and put the blaze out as quickly
as possible. Sometimes they even succeeded before too much damage
was done. London, like most old cities, was no stranger

(01:43):
to fires. Budica and her revenge was just one of
the first recorded examples. In the year sixty CE, she
and other tribe leaders banded together and burned cities like
Londinium to the ground, creating her destruction layer of red,
brown oxidized ash. London has been built and rebuilt several
times over the centuries, often flourishing in between those destructive fires.

(02:06):
But not even a century after Boudica's revenge, Londinium was
destroyed again. No one knows what caused the Hadriatic fire,
or really even when it happened. Experts estimate sometime after
Emperor Hadrian's visit in the early one twenties. London managed
to stay intact for a few more centuries, although admittedly
Saint Paul's Cathedral seems to have had terrible luck, burning

(02:29):
down nine times before the next fire. In eleven thirty five,
the Pentecost fire broke out near London Bridge, reportedly in
the Sheriff's home, and then spread out from there. One
chronicler said Saint Paul's burned to the ground again, but
another disagrees. Given the building's history, I wouldn't be shocked
if it had. Though. The Great Pentecost Fire destroyed London Bridge,

(02:50):
made of wood, of course, as well as the homes,
ships and other properties within two miles of the Thames.
Despite the devastation of the blaze, though this wasn't London's
deadly fire. That dubious honor happened years down the line.
Like so many fires, the causes unknown. We can speculate
about the unattended ovens, dropped pipes, or careless trash fires

(03:12):
until the cows come home, but no one knows how
this great blaze began. Some people, though, suspect the weather.
You see, it was July tenth, and England, like many
other places in the North Atlantic, was going through a
bit of a warm spell. The roller coaster of climate
change means that we might be able to imagine what
it was like a hot day in July. Maybe it
was sunny and bright or rainy and muggie, although given

(03:34):
what happened next, I'm inclined to think it was very,
very dry. Someone would have taken up the call to
warn the neighbors that a fire had broken out from there.
The news would have spread like well fire pun intended
people would have scrambled for buckets, basins and washtubs to
fill them and stand in line while the others evacuated children, animals,
and valuables. The fire started south of the River Thames

(03:56):
in Suffolk, so maybe they used river water, but they
probably used whatever they could get their hands on. Still,
it was no use. Between July tenth and July twelfth,
they fought and fled from the fire as it burned
through Suffolx Cathedral known as Our Lady of the Cannons
or Saint mary Ovary, then most of Borough High Streets,
a major street that connected the south bank of the
Thames to London, and then it spread to London Bridge.

(04:20):
Now the wind had picked up, carrying blazing cinders across
the river to the Hugh guessed it. Wooden houses and
their straw roofs near the northern end of the Bridge.
From there, the fire jumped to the city of London itself.
As people fled the inferno from Suffolk, they came crashing
into people running from the fire that had broken out
on the northern side. They were trapped in the middle
of two terrible fires, and the wooden shops and houses

(04:43):
on the bridge became ticking time bombs. It was only
a matter of time before those went up as well.
Some people jumped into the river trying to save themselves,
but either drowned or were crushed by boats trying to
rescue those who were stranded. Some of the rescuers themselves
were pulled in and crushed desperate people trying to haul
themselves on board. It was a terrible sight. The idea

(05:05):
of putting wooden buildings on London Bridge had been the
idea of King John of Magna Carta and Robin Hood fame,
although at this point in time the bridge itself was
built of stone. Many of the survivors must have been
wondering if they should have listened to the mayor when
he strongly recommended using stone over wood as a building material.
As you can tell by now, and the mention of

(05:27):
King John of the Magna Carta. This fire was not
the Great Fire of sixteen sixty six that everyone talks
about today. All told, an initial estimate put the death
toll for the Great Fire of twelve twelve at three
thousand people. Many historians disagree, as the population of London
was just fifty thousand people at the time, and that
number of dead would have been devastating. The city, though

(05:50):
was soon rebuilt. As for London Bridge, it may not
have fallen down this time, but it's luck would eventually
run out. After all, how could we sing the song
if it didn't. Going to the eye doctor isn't the

(06:15):
most fun experience, although it sure beats sitting in a
dentist chair. At some point during your exam, the optometrist
might squeeze a few drops of liquid into your eyes
in order to dilate them. This allows the doctor to
see your optic nerve and diagnose potential underlying conditions, such
as cataracts or macular degeneration. Today's eye drops may be uncomfortable,

(06:35):
but they're a lot better than the ones made hundreds
of years ago, because if you go back far enough,
you might find that the people were putting very similar
drops into their eyes to look more attractive, but at
great cost. They were derived from a plant called belladonna
or literally translated beautiful woman. Its full scientific name as
Atropa belladonna or atropine, but most people know it by

(06:58):
its more common money her deadly nightshade. The genus Atropa
comes from Greek mythology. It was named for one of
the three fates, Atropos, who would put the thread of
life that had been measured and drawn by her other
two sisters. And there was a reason for this name,
given to the plant by Swedish botanist Carlinaeus in the
seventeen hundreds, because those who consumed it would find their

(07:22):
own threads cut short. Records of its use go back
as far as the fourth century BC, although Cleopatra was
known to drop extracts of other night shades into her
eyes in order to dilate her pupils. But why it's
not like optometrist was a profession in ancient Egypt because
belladonna extract helped make women more beautiful in their minds,

(07:43):
at least that's how it was marketed. History is riddled
with instances of poisons being used in cosmetics. Ancient Egyptians
and Greeks darkened their eyelashes with antimony, a toxic chemical
element full of sulfur, lead, copper, and silver. Thallium acetate
was used in the late nineteenth century as a cure
for scalp ringworm, but it didn't actually kill the ringworm.

(08:05):
It just caused the user to lose their hair so
the ring worm would be easier to treat. Afterward, it
was marketed as a body hair removal cream, which poisoned
women who applied it to their skin, and of course,
arsenic was incorporated into everything from makeup to edible wafers
as recently as the eighteen nineties. Belladonna drops did back

(08:25):
then what they do now. They dilate pupils. The resulting
effect is a glassy look in the woman's eye, making
them appear lustrous and hopefully desirable. They were quite popular
in the Renaissance era Italy, as a woman's eyes were
believed to be the most beautiful part of her body.
In fact, the sixteenth century painting Woman with a Mirror

(08:45):
by the artist Titian was believed to depict a woman
with big, dark eyes dilated by belladonna, though in order
to achieve such an effect, the plant extract used did
do something harsh to the eyes. For one, they paralyzed
the nerve endings, which worked well for pain relief and
stopping bad coughs in asthmetics, But if someone dropped too

(09:06):
much into their eyes or worse, ingested a significant amount
of it, other symptoms would start to appear. Dry mouth,
an increase in body temperature, excitement, and an inability to
swallow were just some of the side effects that doctors
saw as a result of atropine poisoning. Long term use
of belladonna drops had also been known to cause blindness.

(09:28):
Poisoners have seen belladonna or Deadly nightshade as a tool
in their arsenal as well. In nineteen ninety four, an
Edinburgh biologist named Paul Agater was convicted of attempted murder
after dosing his wife's tonic water along with a dozen
other bottles in a local supermarket with the toxic chemical.
The good news is that today optometrists use an alternative

(09:50):
to belladonna when dilating their patient's pupils, especially where children
are concerned, but the plant is still incorporated into a
variety of medicinal products, including eyedrops. Just a much more
reasonable level than before, because a doctor doesn't care if
your eyes are sultry or seductive. They just want to
see if you can see. I hope you've enjoyed today's

(10:16):
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 Manky 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

(10:38):
about it over at the World of Loore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious.