Feeling Blue

a superstition that's persisted for centuries. Whatever the curious trait may be, it unites the family and represents their shared history. The same could be said for the Fugate family of Kentucky, only their cork was much more than curious. It was completely inexplicable. The story begins with Martin Fugate, a French orphan who emigrated to eastern Kentucky in eighteen twenty. Martin claimed a land grant in a remote area known as

the Troublesome Creek. It got its name because the hunting trail that ran alongside the creek was overtaken by large trees, vines, and rocks, making it nearly impassable or troublesome. Very few people lived there, but it was what Martin could afford, so he built a life in the rough environment. Soon he met Elizabeth Smith, an American woman with red hair and porcelain skin. They got married and had seven children, and this is where the few gates odd Cork became apparent.

Three of Martin and Elizabeth's children looked perfectly normal. They had pale skin, just like their mother. But the other four, well, they were not white, and they weren't any other recognizable human shade either. They were blue, and I don't mean slightly blue tinted, I mean bright, cartoonish, and impossibly indigo. The few other locals who lived near Troublesome Creek said that they were an I quote, bluer than Lake Louise.

According to local legend, Martin himself was also blue. And while we have to take two hundred year old stories with a grain of salt, it would certainly make sense if the family patriarch was indigo colored. His children's hue was slightly less shocking. Still, the obvious question was what on earth was going on with the so called Blue Fugates. Well, Seeing as this was the mid eighteen hundreds, medical science

wasn't exactly equipped to find the answer. People in Troublesome Creek and the surrounding communities thought that the family had some kind of curse. Very few people were willing to marry into the family. Often few Gates married their cousins or their aunts. This led to even more Blue babies being born. Still, despite their social isolation and restricted genepool, they seemed to be relatively healthy. By the nineteen hundreds, there were dozens of Blue Fugates and they were living

well into old age. Whatever curse they had, it wasn't shortening their lifespan. But nevertheless, the family continued to be the subject of judgment and gossip. In nineteen sixty, nearly one hundred and fifty years after Martin Fugate moved to Troublesome Creek, rumors about the Kentucky's Blue Family reached a

man named Madison Coween. Luckily, though medicine had advanced in that last century and a half, Madison was a young doctor at the University of Kentucky, and specifically, he was a hematologist or a doctor who specializes in studying blood. When Madison heard about the blue Fugates, he wondered if their oddskin color could be the result of a blood disorder. So he went to Troublesome Creek and he met with a few of the members of the family himself. He

took blood samples, and then he ran some tests. What Madison found was both groundbreaking and surprisingly simple. The blue Fugates had a disorder called met haemoglobinemia. You see the Fugates' skin turn into go because their blood lacked an enzyme called diaphrays. The enzyme helps process hemoglobin, which is a protein that contains iron. When hemoglobin isn't processed correctly, a person's blood oxygen level can drop dramatically. So the few

Gates had an abnormally low blood oxygen level. It wasn't enough to cause any noticeable health problems, but it was enough to turn their skin bright blue. Luckily, doctor Madison Coeen found an existing treatment within the medical literature. He injected the feu gates with a chemical ironically known as methylene blue. It counteracts the enzyme deficiency and helps the body process hemoglobin. Within seconds of the injection, the fugates

indigo hue faded to white. Madison gave the family a pill version of the methylene blue, which they could take daily to maintain their quote unquote normal skin. The story of troublesome creeks isolated indigo family is a curious one. Indeed, luckily the fugates medical mystery was salt, and these days they don't feel nearly so blue. Historically, emperors are not the kindest or most compassionate people. That was certainly true

of Caligula. In the four years that he ruled over ancient Rome from thirty seven to forty one CE, Caligula gained a reputation as a psychotic and bloodthirsty ruler. If you don't believe me, here's a tale to prove it. According to a Roman historian, in the year forty CE, King Ptolemy of Mauritania came to Rome for a visit with the imperial court. Shortly after meeting, Caligula had the

man executed. Why simple King Ptolemy had worn a purple cloak. Now, obviously, having a man assassinated for his wardrobe choices was not the most reasonable action, but Caligula was never known for his logical thinking, and in ancient times the color purple was truly to die for. That was a color pun by the way, So let me into some history to help you understand it. You see, the specific shade of

King Ptolemy's cloak was called Tyrian purple. It was a lush, jewel like hue that glittered in the sun and deepened with age. Tyrian purple dye was so rare and so prized that it costs more than three times its weight in gold. It was also completely disgusting to make. Authentic Tyrian purple dye came from only one place, the mucus secreting glands of a few species of sea snails. The dye that kings and emperors coveted was literally derived from

snail slime, and the process went something like this. Sea snails would be harvested from the coast and quickly transported to a nearby facility. They were then killed and their mucous glands were collected. To give you an idea of the scale here, making a single gram of dye required mucus from over eight thousand snails, so manufacturers had their work cut out for them. Once the mucus was collected, though it was treated in a number of ways, including aging,

exposure to sunlight, and adding acid and heat. Eventually the slime was transformed into a glittering purple powder. Now, I guess this wouldn't be that gross if you can ignore the fact that hundreds of thousands of snails had to die to create a handful of purple powder. But the real clincher was the smell. One ancient Egyptian text noted that men who worked in Tyrian purple dyeing factories had

hands that smelled like rotten fish. The tel mood actually gave a woman the right to divorce her husband if he took work in one of these snail dye factories. The stench alone was enough to break.

what the color represented. It told everyone that they could afford to buy a dye that cost more than gold, which brings us back to Caligula, the murderous Roman emperor. When he saw Ptolemy wearing a Tyrian purple cloak, he interpreted it as a sign of aggression, as if the king were trying to signal his own superiority, hence the reason that Caliguila had the man assassinated. Luckily, today, purple

is no longer a color worth killing over. An eighteen fifty six and eighteen year old British chemist named William Henry Perkin accidentally discovered a way to create synthetic dye. It was the first of its kind, and it was just slightly lighter than Tyrian purple. He called it mauve. Suddenly, the shade that had been reserved for royalty became widely available. Even so, traditional dye methods still do exist. One factory in Wojaca, Mexico, produces authentic Tyrian dye to this day.

Just like in ancient times. It'll run you thousands of dollars for a single gram and it'll probably stink up your entire house. But there has been at least one improvement in dye production. Over the last two thousand years, the Wahaca Factory has discovered a way to extract mucus from c snails without killing them. Now they can probably say no snails were harmed in the making of this color. I hope you've enjoyed today's 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 Mankey 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 about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.