Joseph Merrick, 'The Elephant Man'
Born in England in 1862 with severe physical deformities caused by a rare condition, now thought to be Proteus syndrome, Merrick’s appearance led to a life of exploitation in freak shows, where he was exhibited as a curiosity.
After years of neglect and exploitation by others, Merrick found himself alone, sick and without help in London in 1886. Unable to make himself understood, his only identifying possession was Dr. Frederick Treves's card, a man whom Merrick had met two years earlier. Merrick was helped by a policeman into an empty waiting room where he huddled in a corner, exhausted. The policeman made contact with Dr. Treves, who went to the train station and, on recognising Merrick, took him in a hansom cab to the London Hospital. Merrick was admitted for bronchitis, washed, fed and then put to bed in a small isolation room in the hospital's attic.
After caring for Merrick at the hospital for five months the chairman of the hospital committee, Carr Gomm, contacted other institutions and hospitals more suited to caring for chronic cases, but none would accept Merrick. Gomm wrote a letter to The Times, printed on 4 December 1886, outlining Merrick's case and asking readers for suggestions. The public response—in letters and donations—was significant, and the situation was even covered by the British Medical Journal. With the financial backing of the many donors, Gomm was able to make a convincing case to the committee for keeping Merrick in the hospital. It was decided that he would be allowed to stay there for the remainder of his life. He was moved from the attic to the basement, where he could occupy two rooms adjacent to a small courtyard. The rooms were adapted and furnished to suit Merrick, with a specially constructed bed and—at Treves's instruction—no mirrors.
Merrick settled into his new life at the London Hospital. Treves visited him daily and spent a couple of hours with him every Sunday. Now that Merrick had found someone who understood his speech, he was delighted to carry on long conversations with the doctor. Treves and Merrick built a friendly relationship, although Merrick never completely confided in him. He told Treves that he was an only child, and Treves had the impression that his mother, whose picture Merrick always carried with him, had abandoned him as a baby. Merrick was also reluctant to talk about his exhibition days, although he expressed gratitude towards his former managers. It did not take Treves long to realise that, contrary to his initial impressions, Merrick was not intellectually impaired.
Despite his challenging circumstances, Merrick was intelligent, gentle, and well-read, enjoying poetry and making models. His story garnered widespread attention, highlighting both the cruelty he endured and the compassion he later received.
Merrick's condition gradually deteriorated during his four years at the London Hospital. He required a great deal of care from the nursing staff and spent much of his time in bed, or sitting in his quarters, with diminishing energy. His facial deformities continued to grow and his head became more enlarged. He died on 11 April 1890, while sleeping, at the age of 27. At around 3:00 p.m. Treves's house surgeon visited Merrick and found him lying dead across the bed. His body was formally identified by his uncle, Charles Merrick. An inquest was held on 27 April by Wynne Edwin Baxter, who had gained notoriety conducting inquests for the Whitechapel murders of 1888.
Merrick did not receive a burial; instead, almost all sections of his body were preserved for study, both skeleton and soft tissue. Treves dissected the body and took plaster casts of Merrick's head and limbs. He took skin samples and mounted the skeleton; the skin samples were later lost during the Second World War, but the skeleton is included in the pathology collection of the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, which merged with the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1995 to form the School of Medicine and Dentistry at London's Queen Mary University. Merrick's mounted skeleton is not on public display.
Joseph Merrick was originally thought to be suffering from elephantiasis. In 1971, Ashley Montagu suggested in the book The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity that Merrick suffered from neurofibromatosis type I, a genetic disorder also known as von Recklinghausen’s disease. NF1 is still strongly associated with Joseph Merrick in the mind of the public; however, it was postulated in 1986 that Merrick actually suffered from Proteus syndrome, a condition which had only been identified in 1979.
His remains are kept in a glass case in a private room at the university, and can be viewed by medical students and professionals by appointment "[to] allow medical students to view and understand the physical deformities resulting from Joseph Merrick's condition." Although the university intends to keep his skeleton at its medical school, some contend that, as Merrick was a devout Christian, he should be given a Christian burial in his home city of Leicester.
In May 2019, it was discovered that Merrick's soft tissue had beens buried in the City of London Cemetery.
Note: While Joseph Merrick is better known as John Merrick, it is not his birth name. Sir Fredrick Treves recalled the name as such in his memoirs. It is unclear if Treves recalled details incorrectly or if Joseph Merrick went by John.
Image 1: Merrick photographed in 1888.
Image 2: Joseph Merrick (1862-1890) in 1889.