20 Easter Eggs You Didn't Notice In American Horror Story
17. Invoking The Aschheim-Zondek Test
Along with all the references to old horror flicks, American Horror Story also has a habit of referring to contemporary events during its period era seasons. There are some moments of anachronism, like talking about The Grinch in a scene set a year before Dr Suess wrote it, but some of those are on purpose (more on that later). Then there's the season two episode The Coat Hanger. In the 1964 story, Sister Mary Eunice finds herself pregnant and reveals her condition with the slightly odd remark The bad news is, the rabbit died. That's not another symptom of her concussion, like her repealing the rape accusation against Dr Thredson. She's actually alluding to the Aschheim-Zondek test, an old pregnancy test that involved injecting a woman's urine into a mouse and observing the changes in the animal's reproductive organs during its autopsy. People thought the animal died depending on whether or not you were pregnant, hence Mary's comment. Free history lesson.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
