Could You Survive Victorian Surgery?

After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

History Hit

Myths, Folklore, Mystery, History, Ghosts, Society & Culture, Murder, Ufos, True Crime, Paranormal, Supernatural, Serial Killers

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

You're laid out on the surgeon's table. Wide awake. He stands over you knife in hand and behind him, in the stands, is a noisy crowd all joking, smoking and scoffing oysters, waiting for the show to start. Welcome to Victorian surgery! Could you survive?

Joining Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney this week is Sara Yorath, from the Old Operating Theatre museum in London.

Edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long.

You can now watch After Dark on Youtube: www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhit

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, we're your host's Anthony Delaney and Maddie Pelling.
0:03.7	And if you would like After Dark myths, misdeeds and the paranormal, ad free and get early access, sign up to History Hit.
0:11.1	With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries with top history presenters and enjoy a new release every week.
0:20.7	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe. top history presenters and enjoy a new release every week.
0:24.8	Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:27.1	Hello and welcome to After Dark, I'm Maddie.
0:28.1	And I'm Anthony.
0:31.0	And today we're taking you back to the messy,
0:35.0	gory and dangerous world of Victorian surgery.
0:39.6	This, be warned, is not one if you are a little bit squeamish folks.
0:44.5	So do bear that in mind going forward. First of all, Anthony is going to set the scene for us.
0:59.0	It's 1840 in a graveyard on the edge of London and not long past midnight. A gloomy mist settled between the crooked headstones of this hallowed burial site. Nearby, gas lamps are dim.
1:02.0	The silence is heavy, but beneath the still surface, the ground is about to stir.
1:09.0	Two figures slip through a broken gate.
1:12.6	Coats slick with rain, boots muffled in the sudden earth.
1:17.6	They carry no lantern, only the tools of their trade.
1:20.6	Spades, a crowbar, rope with hooks, and a sack large enough to hold a man,
1:26.6	or rather what was once a man.
1:29.3	They know their target, a fresh burial site, barely a day old.
1:35.3	Therein lies the body of a young man, just 17, claimed by consumption.
1:40.3	His family had no money for a watchman to stand guard over his remains that night,
1:45.4	and no mortseve cages the freshly shoveled earth.
	...

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