Tarrare: The man who could not stop eating

In the late 1700s, there was a man in France who was endlessly hungry and could not stop eating. He was not the fattest man in the world. Described as thin and of average height, that is where any typical aspects of the man known as “Tarrare” end. He was said to have a penetratingly ghastly smell, unusually soft hair, and darkly stained teeth. He had an abnormally wide mouth, ate his weight in food each day, and was permanently ravenous to the point where he ate live animals, corpses, and possibly a baby. In his short life, Tarrare left a lasting and curious legacy.

Tarrare’s Insatiable Appetite

His exact birth date and birth name are unknown, but it is known that Tarrare, as he was called, was born in Lyon, France, in 1772. Even as a child, his appetite was voracious, enough so that his parents kicked him out at 17 simply because they could no longer afford to feed him. His name came from a French saying, “bom-bom-tarrare,” used to describe violent explosions. Along with his hunger came a legendary propensity to fart and evacuate his bowels, increasing his legendary stink.

After leaving home, Tarrare joined up with a gang of pickpockets. His job was to put on an extreme gustatory performance where he’d eat entire bags of apples, coins, and even live chipmunks. While the crowd was engrossed in his “performance,” the rest of the gang would rifle through their pockets. Along with the act of eating anything and everything, he was becoming known for his large mouth, bloodshot eyes, constant sweating, and his smell.

At no point did his appetite diminish. Although he did prefer real and good food, he would constantly eat out of the garbage and take in anything that would fill his bottomless void. At some point, even the pickpockets couldn’t deal with it, and Tarrare picked a new path where he could be assured a meal; he joined the French Army.

French Army Spy

Around 1792, France was at war with Prussia, and Tarrare joined the army for the rations. After being caught eating bandages, he received the attention of respected military surgeon Dr. Pierre-François Percy. Percy was fascinated with this man who could be given ten men’s rations and a bucket of trash and still be hungry. So, he experimented by giving Tarrare larger live animals. There was a cat which he consumed whole, later regurgitating its fur. Then, there were live lizards, snakes, puppies, and an eel. After eating, the only effect on Tarrare would be that he’d pass out.

The military higher-ups decided they needed to use Tarrare’s “talent” more practically. So they enlisted him as a spy. His mission was to courier a document across enemy lines within a swallowed wooden box. His payment for the job was thirty pounds of raw bull offal, which he consumed immediately. Though unaware, this first mission was a test, and he was given a fake message to ferry across enemy lines. Tarrare spoke no German, and this, combined with his smell and general inability to blend in, he was quickly caught, beaten for a confession, and imprisoned. Reportedly, one Prussian general caught on to Tarrare’s mission and chained him to a chamber pot. Tarrare outsmarted the general by eating what he “produced.” After some additional torture, he was returned to the French.

Strangely, Prussia also had a soldier named Charles Domery, who had a similar story. Domery, too, was reported to have lusted after obscene quantities of food, including corpses. He eventually switched sides and fought for the French, who reported him eating all available cats and up to five pounds of grass per day.

The End of Tarrare

After being forced out of the military, Tarrare found himself in a hospital in an attempt to relieve himself of his unending hunger. Doctors tried cocaine, opiates, tobacco pills, and even a diet of soft-boiled eggs. None of this stopped him from drinking blood leftover from bloodletting procedures and corpses from the morgue. Eventually, a baby went missing from the hospital, and Tarrare, the only suspect, was chased away.

In 1798, Dr. Percy was contacted by a physician at Versailles Hospital. At age 26, Tarrare appeared to be on his deathbed, complaining that he had swallowed a golden fork that was now lodged inside him. Though Percy tried, the fork was never found. It turned out that Tarrare was suffering from end-stage tuberculosis and passed within a month.

Percy insisted on an autopsy, which revealed that Tarrare possessed a surprisingly wide esophagus that allowed one to see into his ulcer-lined stomach through his mouth. His body was also full of pus, and he had an abnormally large liver and gallbladder.

What caused Tarrare’s condition?

Though we can only guess the cause of Tarrare’s persistent hunger, theories include hyperthyroidism, which can cause sweating, fine hair, constant appetite, and a fast metabolism. There’s also pica, a condition that causes hunger for non-edible items. A damaged amygdala is also possible, as it has been shown to cause extreme overeating.

Even something as simple as a tapeworm has been suggested as a culprit. Another man developed inflammatory cells in his hypothalamus, a part of the brain that deals with hormones throughout the body, causing him to become endlessly hungry. Most likely, Tarrare suffered from a combination of conditions, the likes of which we may never witness again.

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