Reuben Isaac Doodeward was born in 1877 in New Zealand, the eldest child of Abraham and Betsy. For as long as Reuben could remember, the family had coveted a sealed glass jar filled with spirits and a fetus. In the late 1860s, in a deplorable act that was acceptable at the time, a ‘Doctor Donahoe’ took possession of a patient’s stillborn double-headed female fetus and preserved it. When the doctor died, his estate sold it at auction and Abraham snapped it up for about £40.
Abraham had been displaying such curiosities in his tobacconist and barber shop in Dunedin, as they helped to attract customers. A live infant sea leopard, captured by the crew of the was tolerated as it flapped its flippers and performed tricks in front of customers, but the sight of the sealed jar and its contents was distasteful to many, and Abraham was prosecuted for failing to apply for an exhibitor’s licence. Abraham made
