Joseph (or “John”) Merrick, 1862-1890, is the name of the Englishman who is known as “The Elephant Man.” Sir Frederick Treves, a London surgeon, came across him and took him in as his inpatient at the London Hospital in 1886 until Merrick’s death. You probably know that the poor man suffered from hideous deformities on one side of his body, apparently within the bones and in his soft tissue. He had a terrible life because of his condition - people treated him as though he were a monster, when he was really just a very sick man with a gentle nature.
But is there any consensus on what his illness actually was? What syndrome(s), condition(s) etc. did he have? I’m assuming it was some sort of congenital disease, perhaps genetic. I’ve never heard of anyone else with such a condition, though.
i don’t think anyone knows with absolute certainty. Suggested afflictions include Proteus Syndrome and neurofibromatosis According to the Wikipedia article DNA tests suggest he may have suffered from both conditions.
My understanding is that, although for years Merrick was thought to suffer from Neurofibromatosis, a disease of the nerves in which nodules form on the skin (when I attended a performance of Bernard Pomerance’s play The Elephant Man on Broadwayu, there was an ad in the Playbill for the National Neurofibromatosis Foundation), he is now held to be a victom of something called Proteus Syndrome. I know almost nothing more about these conditions, except that they’re apparently congenital. You don’t catch what he got.
What Merrick had was a pretty severe case of whatever. I’ve heard of other cases of Neurofibromatosis, but nothing as severe as this. (It’s also called von Recklinghaus’ disease).
There’s an excellent biography of Merrick out called The True and Tragic History of the Elephant Man which is much more thoroughly researched than the book The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity. This story hasppened a little over a century ago, after all, and there are plenty of records – we have Merrick’s admission records to the workhouses, for instance.
We learn from this book that the facts of the cases, as presented by the play, or the David Lynch film, or the bio in Paradoc Press’ Big Book of Freaks are misleading and incorrect. Merrick was born looking very normal, and his condition came on gradually. His problem was accelerated when his mother died and his father remarried, and his stepmother didn’t much care for their morphing child (he had brothers and sisters, and there are apparently collateral descendants, none of whom show any tendency to his condition). Merick took to peddling in the streets, but was forced to give that up. He entered workhouses on several occasions, but it wasn’y much better. He was apparently grateful for the opportunity to be exhibited, since it was something he felt he was suited for, and it did bring in money.
As for other cases, the authors of the first book suggest that someone Victor Hugo knew in his youth (and who inspired The Hunchback of Notre Dame) may have also been afflicted, and that this is why Quasimodo’s condition seems to echo Merrick’s.
When Frederick Treves was writing his memoirs, he seems to have relied mostly on memory, which could explain why he gave the name as John Merrick instead of Joseph Merrick (the latter is correct – his admission records use only that name, as does the obituary written by Carr Gomm (John Gielgud in the movie)).
Not too long ago there was a program on Discovery Channel (I think) describing recent tests conducted on his DNA. (Fiendishly difficult to find, but I think they got a little bit from a tooth, or something.)
They looked specifically for one gene found in a majority (but not all) of people with Proteus syndrome. Didn’t find any.
So, it’s still an unanswered question. If it was Proteus, it wasn’t the kind that shows up on genetic testing. If it was NF, it was unprecedented in the extent of bone involvement.
He could have had “Elephant Man’s Disease”, the first documented case of a different disease altogether, about which medicine will not be able to learn more until other cases are identified.
Ah, I didn’t know of the existence of this bio - I’ll be sure to have a read of it.
It always seemed to me that his origins were somewhat mysterious, but as you say, there would be written records of Merrick’s existence prior to his medical “treatment”. So he had middle-class origins, but his family abandoned him?
Re: the freakshow that he joined - I read somewhere (in a book about Victorian social conditions, sorry I can’t be more precise) that he was taken on a tour of European cities, and the show’s operator had promised to allow Merrick 50% of any takings, but once the tour finished and Merrick’s health deteriorated further, his employer ripped him off and refused to help him get back to England. Merrick had to stow away on a ship back to England, and was eventually discovered sleeping rough in Liverpool St. Station.
Here’s the book I referred to, by Michael Howell and Peter Ford:
If I recall correctly, it’s true that Merrick was taken to the continent and unfairly abandoned by his exhibitor, although I’m not sure if that’s the same guy who exhibited him in England. He didn’t stow away, and he was making an effort to get back to Treves, IIRC, whose business card he had. (Although I might be mixing this up a bit with some of the fictionalized stuff)
Merrick’s speech was reportedly difficult to understyand properly, which certainly hindered him even more. I suspect that Alan Moore captured the essence of conversation with him pretty well in his graphic novel From Hell (although the film doesn’t retain that aspect).
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A few years ago a lump started growing under the skin on the sole of my foot. After I became aware of it it grew much bigger within a couple of weeks. I went and saw my doctor. He recommended a needle biopsy and in the course of our talk he mentioned neurofibromatosis. At the time I only had internet access at work so left it until the next day to check it out. I Googled it and picked a link and as I watched with my workmates the screen slowly revealed a picture of Mr Merrick. I was horrified but my workmates were saying, “Great, you are going to turn into that!”
It turned out to be a Dupuytren’s nodule which I foolishly had surgically removed but that’s enough from me.
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Here are a couple of sites on Joseph Merrick:
http://www.jsitton.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/elephantman/familytree.htm
The name of the manager who exhibited him on the Continent is not entirely certain, although he is sometimes said to have been called Ferrari. This was not the guy who had exhibited him in England in the period immediately before then. That had been Samuel Roper. There had been other, earlier managers as well.