The Insatiable Monster: Why 18th Century Doctors Feared Tarrare, The Man Who Could Not Stop Eating
We often joke about being “starving” after skipping lunch. But in 18th-century France, there lived a man who redefined the word hunger. A man whose appetite was so terrifying, so bottomless, that he became a living nightmare for everyone around him.
His name was Tarrare.
He wasn’t just a glutton. He was a medical anomaly. He ate corks, stones, live animals, and garbage. But his story isn’t just a circus act; it is a tragedy that ends in one of the most gruesome accusations in history: the eating of a 14-month-old toddler.
This is not a creepypasta. This is a historically documented medical case that still haunts doctors today.
The Boy with the Bottomless Pit
Born near Lyon around 1772, Tarrare was a problem from day one. By the time he was a teenager, he could eat a quarter of a cow in a single day (literally). Despite this massive intake, he didn’t look fat. In fact, he was described as impossibly thin, with skin so loose it could be wrapped around his waist when his stomach was empty.
But when he ate? That was the horror show. Witnesses described his stomach inflating like a “huge balloon.” His body temperature would skyrocket, causing him to sweat profusely, and a foul odor—described as “rotten meat”—would emanate from his body, making it impossible to stand near him.
His parents, unable to afford feeding a human black hole, kicked him out. He roamed the streets of Paris, turning his curse into a career. He became a street performer, swallowing baskets of apples, stones, and live animals for coins.
The Worst Spy in History
When the War of the First Coalition broke out, Tarrare joined the French Revolutionary Army. Naturally, military rations were not enough. He fell ill from exhaustion (starvation) and was sent to a military hospital.
The doctors were fascinated. They ran experiments. They gave him a live cat. Tarrare tore it apart with his teeth, drank its blood, and ate it whole, leaving only the bones. He did the same with snakes, lizards, and puppies.
General Alexandre de Beauharnais saw an opportunity. “If this man can swallow anything,” the General thought, “he can swallow secret messages.”
Tarrare was turned into a spy. He swallowed a wooden box containing a secret note, crossed enemy lines into Prussia, and was supposed to pass the box (via his stool) to a French colonel. It failed miserably. Tarrare couldn’t speak German. He was caught almost instantly because he was found frantically searching for food in garbage dumps. After being beaten and almost executed, he was sent back to France, traumatized.
The Golden Fork & The Missing Child
Back at the hospital, Tarrare begged the doctors to cure him. He was desperate. They tried everything: laudanum, tobacco pills, wine vinegar, and soft-boiled eggs. Nothing worked. His hunger only grew darker.
Patients began to complain. Tarrare was caught drinking blood from patients undergoing bloodletting procedures. He was found in the morgue, attempting to eat heavy corpses. The doctors were disgusted, but the head physician, Dr. Percy, kept him for research.
Until the day the baby disappeared.
A 14-month-old toddler went missing from the hospital ward. No one saw the kidnapper. But everyone looked at Tarrare. The implication was too horrific to confirm, but also too obvious to ignore. Dr. Percy, who had defended him for years, finally had enough. Tarrare was chased out of the hospital by an angry mob, vanishing into the streets.
The Autopsy: What Was Inside Him?
Four years later, Tarrare resurfaced in a hospital in Versailles. He was dying of tuberculosis. When he passed away in 1798, the surgeons were terrified to perform the autopsy because the smell of his body was unbearable even in death.
But curiosity won. They cut him open. What they found defied logic:
- Gullet: His esophagus was abnormally wide, allowing food to drop directly into his stomach without chewing.
- Liver and Gallbladder: They were abnormally large, filling most of his torso.
- Stomach: It was covered in ulcers and filled most of his abdominal cavity.
Doctors today believe Tarrare likely suffered from extreme Polyphagia caused by a damaged amygdala or hypothalamus, combined with hyperthyroidism. But no modern diagnosis can fully explain the severity of his case. This case is just as strange as the Dyatlov Pass Incident or the Universe 25 experiment.
Tarrare remains history’s most disturbing reminder that sometimes, the monsters aren’t under the bed. Sometimes, they are just… hungry. You might also find the story of Operation Acoustic Kitty interesting.