THE MAN WHO ATE EVERYTHING
The story of Tarrare should come with a health warning – it’s not for the weakstomached! Born in France around 1772, Tarrare was a skinny boy who was governed by such an uncontrollable appetite that he had to eat all the time - and he’d eat anything. He became a street performer in Paris, where he’d entertain the crowds by eating corks, stones – and, revoltingly, even live animals.
He joined the army but the military rationing made him weak and ill, and he was hospitalised. Fascinated, the doctors devised a series of medical experiments to test his
eating capacity, including feeding him a meal intended for 15 people, as well as live snakes, lizards and eels – which he swallowed whole!
He became a spy, carrying messages across enemy lines inside his stomach, having swallowed them whole in boxes. But he was captured and tortured, and returned to France determined to be cured of his affliction. Unfortunately, the attempt by doctors to put him on a controlled diet didn’t work – he was kicked out of hospital when corpses in the morgue went missing! He died four years later of tuberculosis.
To this day, doctors don’t know what exactly afflicted Tarrare. Although he was of normal build, he was said to have such loose skin round his stomach that he could wrap it round his waist. He was also hot to the touch, smelt so badly that nobody could get close, and had constant diarrhoea. There have been no similar cases to Tarrare – so who knows, if science hasn’t got an answer, maybe there’s
a paranormal one instead…?