E10/ EF7 The Elephant Man

The Elephant Man

Tis true my form is something odd,

But blaming me is blaming God.

Could I create myself anew,

I would not fail in pleasing you.

If I could reach from pole to pole,

Or grasp the ocean with a span,

I would be measured by the soul,

The mind's the standard of the man."

(A poem by Isaac Watts that Joseph Merrick would use to end his letters)

Joseph Carey Merrick (1862–1890) was known as The Elephant Man due to his physical deformities resulting from an unknown congenital disorder.  Merrick began to develop abnormally within the first few years of his life.  His skin appeared thick and lumpy, he developed an enlargement of his lips, and a bony lump grew on his forehead.  One of his arms and both feet became enlarged.  At some point he fell and damaged his hip, resulting in permanent lameness.

When he was 11, his mother died.  After leaving school at the age of 12, Merrick attempted to find employment but had limited success due to his appearance.  He was rejected by his father and stepmother and left home.

After four years in a workhouse, Merrick joined a London-based freak show under the stage title, The Elephant Man.  One customer, a surgeon named Frederick Treves, invited Merrick to London Hospital to be examined and photographed.  Eventually, it was decided that Merrick would be allowed to stay at the hospital for the remainder of his life.  Rooms were adapted for him in the basement of the hospital and he lived there for the next four years.  Treves visited him daily and they developed quite a close friendship.  Merrick also received visits from wealthy ladies and gentlemen of London society.

Merrick died on April 11, 1890, age 27.  The official cause of death was asphyxia, although Treves, who dissected the body, said that it was a dislocated neck.  He believed that Merrick—who had to sleep sitting up, due to the weight of his head—had been attempting to sleep lying down, to "be like other people".  Merrick's skeleton was preserved and remains in the London Hospital.

Adapted from Wikipedia.com