153 YEARS AGO JOSEPH THE ELEPHANT MAN WAS BORN. MORE PIX AFTER THE CUT

Beyond Belief Archive

Joseph Merrick was known as the Elephant Man

153 years ago, Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, was born.
From the age of 13, he was a society reject and these photographs show his actual skeleton,
together with post mortem casts of his head and limbs, giving a never before seen insight into his features.
As a young child, his skin became peculiarly thick and a bony lump grew on his forehead. One of his arms and both of his feet became enlarged. Unable to get work because of his physical deformities, he was forced to enter the world of human novelty exhibitions. 

He ended up in London where a showman, Tom Norman, exhibited Merrick.
Norman thought his appearance might be too horrific even for the freak show circuit so he set him up in an empty shop on Whitechapel Rd, where the crowds flocked to see The Elephant Man.
This name stuck from his childhood, when a growth looking like a trunk grew from the roof of his mouth. Although he had this removed, the story went that his deformation resulted from his pregnant mother being scared by a rampaging elephant.

Beyond Belief Archive

The full skeleton of Joseph Merrick

 

A doctor, Frederick Treves, from the nearby London Hospital went to see him, later writing that Merrick was "the most disgusting specimen of humanity that I had ever seen ... at no time had I met with such a degraded or perverted version of a human being as this lone figure displayed."
Eventually, he took pity on Merrick and moved him into the hospital. Finally, Joseph was safe, away from prying eyes and jeering crowds. Inside that poor, twisted body was the mind and soul of a poet, who became the darling of many in London high society, including Alexandra, Princess of Wales.
Sadly, Merrick died on 11 April 1890, aged only 27. When Treves performed the post mortem he found cause of death was a dislocated neck.  He believed that poor Merrick—who had to sleep sitting up because of the weight of his head—had been attempting to sleep lying down, to "be like other people".

Beyond Belief Archive

Part of the arm hasd been cast here in a replica

The exact cause of Merrick's deformities is unclear. At one time he was thought to suffer from neurofibromatosis type I.

Then, a new theory emerged that he had Proteus syndrome. In 2001, it was proposed that Merrick had suffered from a combination of neurofibromatosis type I and Proteus syndrome, although DNA tests on his hair and bones have proven inconclusive.
For many years, the skeleton was on display in the hospital’s museum, but eventually it was replaced by a replica.

The Express Uk