Racheson’s own research work lead into many differing areas of theoretical bio-chemiology, the most famous of which – ‘Helial Areas According To Their Atomic Particles’ - earned him a place in the history books as the foremost thinker in his field. However, as most schoolchildren are aware, his most reknown work lay not in this area of endeavour at all but in the study of the human physiology. Titled ‘Treatise Of The Inter-Rectal Introduction of  The Animate and Inanimate’, his study comprised ten years of research into the nature of objects inserted into the human rectum, the levels of endurance required, their size and their effect on the subject. Purportedly occurring to him whilst contemplating his bathing soap, Racheson’s research was nothing if not fastidious. Starting with a number of smaller objects such as coins, marbles, teeth, lockets and other small trinkets he documented everything he self-inserted into his back passage with the customary precision that the great reputation of his earlier works demanded.

Once his initial research was complete in three years he moved onto larger objects such as cutlery, cooking utensils, joints of meat, drinking faucets, chemical experimental apparatus, bottles, table legs, pieces of soft furnishings and reputedly all dissected parts of a small filleted dog. By 1882 his experimentations had rendered his gait as being ‘uneasy and quite painful at the joints’ and had also cost him the luxury of normal digestion. Fortunately he managed to enlist the support of his beloved wife Mary to complete the tasks. Surrendering to his gentle ministrations she built up her resistance to these insertions within an accelerated period of only eight months. ‘So delighted was I with her progress that I immediately succumbed to her wishes and progressed far beyond any experimental accomplishments that I had so far essayed upon my own frame’, he wrote in 1884. Mary’s prodigious ability to accept objects in this manner not only earned her a place in the admiring circle of Racheson’s followers but also an element of wonder from the broader scientific community. Racheson eventually gave paid lectures on the subject, followed with ample demonstration of Mary’s abilities. Wrote one correspondent, ‘Mrs Racheson’s sturdy frame no doubt assist in the acceptance of these wonderous (sic) objects but her strength and stamina are beyond reckon. When bending fore to take an insertion her face is only slightly contorted and the only occasional sound she makes is one that could be associated with the carnal pleasures. The witness we had of her taking a full length of a halyard rig was one that made formal men of the sciences applaud with spontaneity and which made other pallid with envy at [Racheson’s] ability to surpass them in the field.’ (Horsburgh, 1887)

Racheson retired from the lecture circuit in 1889 and for many months neither published nor lectured on any subject. However, he returned to the scientific fore in 1891 with the news that his wife had finally managed to ‘accept from the rear the greater proportions of our four year old son and had managed to stand and walk with him within her as though returned to the womb’. This claim was greeted with some derision, but Racheson explained the ‘if proof was necessary then it could be supplied again’. It is alleged that four invited contemporaries (Ford being one of them) were invited to Racheson’s home where the demonstration was given as promised, with Mary Racheson internally accepting her young son and walking some distance with him in her. It is suggested that almost the entire infant was engulfed by her, with the exception of his hands which were still visible.

Racheson died in 1903 from complications arising from pneumonia. Mary Racheson survived him by four years, finally succumbing to internal injuries following a horse-riding accident. The fate of his son is unknown.