Hearing the phrase "elephant-man", many will immediately remember the film telling about Joseph Merrick, suffering from a terrifying disease. Not everyone knows that such a person is not a fictional character, but a real person. Who was he, what is the story of his life?
A family
Joseph Carey Merrick was born in the English city of Leicester in 1862. Looking ahead, I must say that his life was too short - only 27 years old, since he died in 1890.
Merrick’s family was the most ordinary, parents came from the lower classes: father worked as a coachman and mother worked as a servant. They married in 1861, and soon their firstborn was born - Joseph Carey Merrick. In 1866 and 1867, two more children appeared in the family, but the youngest son of the four Merrick died of scarlet fever as a child, and her daughter Marion suffered from epilepsy, which led to her premature death at the age of 24 years. In 1873, Joseph’s mother herself died from pneumonia and bronchi. Father soon married again, but the stepson did not love the stepson because of his ugliness and began to survive from home.
Appearance
At first, nothing in the boy’s appearance did not portend trouble, but at the age of five, the first symptoms of the disease began to appear. The skin in some places became flabby, and in others - rough, rough. Her color began to change, she really began to resemble the surface of the skin of an elephant. In addition to all this, Joseph Merrick injured his hip in childhood when he fell, and this unpleasantness provoked a limp from which he suffered until the end of his days.
His illness progressed constantly, and shortly after his death, Merrick's head looked like this: in the frontal part there was a huge bone growth, and on the right and behind the skin hung in rough folds, almost covering the right eye. It was like a huge tumor. In general, the head was 92 cm in diameter. The surface of the skin in its texture resembled inflorescences of cauliflower. There was almost no hair. The tumor on the right side of the head pulled both nose and lips, they were terribly deformed. Because of this, Joseph's speech was slurred.
From the back, rough skin also hung in huge folds. The right hand was several times larger than the left: only the wrist was 30 cm in circumference, and the thumb was 12 cm. Merrick himself wrote that it resembled the trunk of an elephant in shape. He could work only with his left hand, since the right one became inoperative over time. There were also growths and folds of skin on the legs.
Recently, anatomists made a computer reconstruction of his appearance. That's what Joseph Merrick would have looked like if he had been born healthy.
Why was Merrick called the elephant man?
At the end of the 19th century, many prejudices were still alive, in particular, people believed that some emotional stress of a woman during pregnancy could affect the appearance of the baby. And since Joseph Merrick’s mother, being in a position, was frightened by the enraged elephant, his ugliness was attributed to this very reason. Unfortunately, then they did not know anything about genetic diseases, therefore both doctors and Merrick himself believed in this version.
But what did this unfortunate person really suffer from?
Diagnosis
Modern physicians have identified several genetic ailments that have mutilated the appearance of Joseph Merrick. Firstly, it is type I neurofibromatosis (or Recklinghausen’s disease). It is characterized by tumor-shaped sack-drooping formations and the presence of large pigment spots. Symptoms of neurofibromatosis also include asymmetry of the limbs and parts of the face, as was observed in Merrick. In simple words, this is a common pathology for the development of the skin, bones and nervous system. Unfortunately, medicine now has almost no means to combat this disease, but Joseph Merrick was born an “elephant man” in our time, he could at least have been removed all the growths and sacciform skin formations by surgery.
The second disease is Proteus syndrome. It is described as a very rare genetic abnormality characterized by excessively fast and abnormal bone growth, as well as skin integument. This disease is also incurable, but doctors today are still able to extend the life of patients with such a diagnosis.
Job seeking
How did poor Merrick manage to earn his bread, because then there were no disability benefits? Due to bullying and ridicule, Joseph left school at the age of 13. His father made him a street vendor, but all the passers-by shied away from his appearance. Therefore, Merrick went to the tobacco factory, but soon had to leave this occupation, because the deformation of his right hand did not allow him to fully perform his work. Both father and stepmother were constantly humiliated and often beat Joseph, so he left home at the age of 17.
"Circus freaks"
Tired of the vagabond way of life, in 1884 he went on to perform in the Tom Norman show. It was the only way to make money on a piece of bread for people like Merrick. In this show, various injuries were demonstrated. The troupe treated him well, especially since there he met people with a similar fate.
Work included weekly performances. An inquisitive audience constantly came to stare at human deformities, in particular, and at the "elephant man". His role was to demonstrate his own body to the terrifying exclamations of the crowd. It was humiliating, but there was no other way to feed themselves. Joseph Merrick even managed to save a good amount - 50 pounds. At that time he would live comfortably for about 2 years with this money.
But soon freak shows were banned throughout England, and Tom Norman was forced to sell Joseph Merrick to a circus owner from Austria. But he turned out to be a dishonest man and took all the accumulated money from Merrick. Without a penny in his pocket, Joseph returned to his homeland. He had nowhere to go.
Meet Dr. Threewes
Right at one of the London Underground stations, Joseph had an attack of bronchial asthma. Passers-by called a doctor whose business card accidentally lay in Merrick’s pocket. It was a physiotherapist, a member of the London Pathological Society by the name of Trives, whom Joseph met while performing in a circus. He, of course, arrived and provided the necessary assistance. He and Joseph later became buddies.
In his memoirs, Dr. Frederick Trives recalls that, when he first saw the “elephant man” on stage, he thought that he was probably demented and, fortunately, did not realize the horror of his situation. But that was not so. Joseph was very smart. Moreover, behind the disgusting shell, Trivese was able to consider a kind and sensitive person.
Since Joseph Merrick was already in need of care at that time, Trivese got a hang of it, and he was assigned to the Royal London Hospital. There he was allocated a separate room where he could live. Nursing staff, initially cautious about the strange patient, quickly fell in love with Joseph for his meek and humble disposition.
Trives supported Joseph as best he could until the end of his days. He took him in a carriage with closed windows to the nature, where he loved to spend time. Merrick became interested in collecting herbariums. He also began to frequent theater performances. He had a new circle of acquaintances, most of them were high-ranking persons.
The fact is that the “elephant man” has become a part of an elite society, because all of London has learned about it thanks to the press. They wrote about him, and many wanted to take a personal look and talk with such a disfigured person. Even Princess of Wales Alexandra herself often visited Merrick in the hospital. Of course, all this diversified his meager existence.
Inner world
Usually people whose life is similar to the fate of the “elephant man” become angry with God, people and everything around them. Merrick Joseph, whose biography did not leave him a single reason for optimism, was, surprisingly, not. Although he was the subject of cruel ridicule all his life, he did not hate either people or God. In addition, he retained his own dignity. A close friend of Trives was amazed at how kind, sympathetic, and even slightly romantic a man was Merrick.
Joseph was a creative person. He expressed his emotional experiences in poetry and prose. A brochure with his autobiography was also published. Although Merrick could only work with his left hand, he liked to design small models of cathedrals while in the Royal Hospital.
Death
Here is his brief biography. Joseph Merrick died young: at the time of his death, he was not even 28 years old. This happened in 1890 at the Royal London Hospital.
In the last years of his life, Joseph could not sleep on a pillow, but only sitting, because he was prevented by tumors and growths on his head. But once he wanted to fall asleep lying down, like all normal people. This experiment ended in failure: Joseph died of asphyxiation because his head bent over his fragile neck. His death was as tragic as his whole life.
Joseph Merrick ("elephant man"): quotes, aphorisms
The most popular poem is that Merrick himself wrote. Then he speaks about the painful:
Yes, I know that I look more than strange
But blaming me for this, you blame God.
If I could recreate myself, I would not disappoint you.
If I walked from pole to pole, If the ocean were scooped up in a handful, Then I would have appreciated my soul
And the mind of a normal person.
Another of Joseph’s famous sayings: “Never … no, never … nothing disappears. Wind blows, raindrops, white clouds, heartbeats … Nothing will die.” Having experienced the severity of human estrangement, Merrick summed it up with one sentence: "People are afraid of what they cannot understand."
