The Elephant Man

Joseph Carey Merrick (or John Merrick) was born in Leicester, at 50 Lee Street in 1862. He began growing disfiguring tumors before the age of two and his condition rapidly worsened as bulbous, cauliflower-like growths grew from his head and body, and his right hand and forearm became a useless club.
His parents were Mary Jane and Joseph Merrick. Joseph lived with his Mother, younger brother Arthur, and sister Marion. His appearance did not prevent him from attending the nearby Syston Street Board School from where he gained a short but valuable education. His mother was loving and compassionate. However, when she died in 1873, Joseph was left with an uncaring Father who did not really want him around. His father remarried, and his new stepmother left his father with a choice: “Joseph or me.”

Thrown out into the streets, Joseph was forced to work selling shoe-black on the streets, a chore that left him an open target to scores of children who taunted him for amusement. , Joseph Merrick was admitted to the Leicester Union Workhouse on December 29 1879. He may have been ugly, but he could write and speak eloquently and he could also read, a rarity amongst the poorer classes of the 19th century. Still, people looked at the outside rather than the inside.

In 1884, Joseph became a side-show-freak. He was desperate to take any job that would earn him a living. There, he was dubbed "the Elephant Man" because of a tusk-like growth on his face. One promoter dreamed up the story that Merrick's mother had been trampled by an elephant while pregnant, resulting in her son's hideous deformities.

The show led him to a shop front across from the Royal London Hospital, at 123 Whitechapel Road, London. There, he caught the eye of Dr. Frederick Treves, a surgeon at the hospital, who paid Joseph to stroll across the street to be studied by students.

Still, he continued as the “freak,” and was able to save a bit of money, only to be stolen from him by the curator of the show. Joseph managed to get enough money for a train trip back to London. Upon his arrival at Liverpool Street Station, he collapsed in exhaustion. Treves' business card was found among his meager possessions, and a call was made to the Hospital. Merrick was claimed by Treves, who offered him a home within the Royal London Hospital grounds, where he would live out the rest of his life. Treves and Merrick enjoyed a friendship; it was Treves that took it upon himself to start referring to Joseph as "John" in his memoirs.

In 1979, a much more rare disease was identified as causing overgrowth of bone and other tissue. This disorder, named Proteus Syndrome, has been recorded in fewer than 100 cases, ever. Proteus syndrome or "Elephant Man's Disease,” causes abnormal, unchecked growth of bones, skin, and other systems. Fewer than 100 cases of Proteus have been recorded. No condition has ever produced a degree of deformity equivalent to Merrick's.

Merrick's died on April 11, 1890 at the age of 27. Here is a quote direct from Treves’ diary: "He was found dead in his bed... He was lying on his back as if asleep, and had evidently died suddenly and without struggle. The method of his death was peculiar. So large and heavy was his head that he could not sleep lying down. The attitude he was compelled to assume when he slept was very strange. He sat up in bed with his back supported by pillows, his knees were drawn up, and his arms clasped round his legs, while his head rested on the points of his bent knees.

He often said to me that he wished he could lie down to sleep 'like other people'. I think on this last night he must, with some determination, have made the experiment. The pillow was soft, and the head, when placed on it, must have fallen backwards and caused a dislocation of the neck. Thus it came about that his death was due to the desire that had dominated his life - to be 'like other people.'”

The official Cause of Death was Asphyxia and Suffocation. A funeral was held in the Chapel of the Hospital. After the autopsy by Dr. Treves, it was decided that his skeleton should be set up in the Hospital Museum. He supervised the taking of plaster casts of the head and limbs and the preservation of skin samples. To the frustration of future researchers, the skin samples were lost during the Second World War. The jars containing them dried out in the absence of staff that had been evacuated. Merrick's assembled skeleton still resides within the walls of the hospital museum.

Bibliography
http://www.victorianweb.org/books/suicide/06b.html

http://www.leicesterandleicestershire.com/The_Elephant_Man.htm

http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/m/John%20Merrick%20(The%20Elephant%20Man)/john_carey_merrick.htm
http://www.phreeque.com/joseph_merrick.html