Welcome to Erin Mankie's Cabinet of Curiosity's, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm

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 Curiosity's.

Time me gentlemen, time me.

It's a catchphrase 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 Assurgeon Robert Liston coined for himself before performing

every operation.

Born in 1794, Liston was known primarily for his speed in the operating room, and if

you're wondering why Assurgeon 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 a rival 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 the knife, let's just say that his

quickest amputation of all time was 28 seconds, which gives rise to the other thing he was

...