March 17, 1885: Merrick's Physician Hazards a Diagnosis

1885: Dr. Frederick Treves describes the profound disfigurement of his patient, Joseph Merrick, to the Pathological Society of London.

Merrick, known to the world as the "elephant man," confounded the medical science of the day. Treves offered a preliminary diagnosis of elephantiasis (now also known as Lymphatic filariasis), a disease more closely associated with the tropics than Victorian England.

He also suggested that Merrick might be suffering from a type of neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that, among other things, causes tumors and other abnormalities to grow spontaneously anywhere on the body. It was a new condition at the time, having been described only a few years earlier by German pathologist Friedrich von Recklingshausen.

In the event, both diagnoses were probably wrong.

Merrick's affliction was most likely Proteus syndrome, after the Greek god who could change his appearance at will, although it wasn't officially identified until 1970. It is characterized by abnormal growth of the bones and tissues, resulting in extreme deformities, especially of the head and limbs.

Proteus syndrome remains incurable, although its symptoms can be mitigated somewhat using a battery of caregivers, including, among others, an orthopedic surgeon, a geneticist, a dermatologist and a psychologist. The affliction is also exceedingly rare. Fewer than 100 cases have ever been recorded, while the other two conditions are relatively common.

The cruel irony for Merrick was that he was no monster, but a cultured, intelligent and sensitive man well aware of his condition. Nevertheless, the only work he could find was as a sideshow freak, which is where he acquired his nickname. It was only his chance encounter with the sympathetic Treves in a Liverpool railway station that provided him with some relative comfort in his final years.

Following his death at the age of 27, Merrick's skeleton was put on display at the Royal London Hospital. It is no longer available for public viewing.

(Source: Various)