[Oswald2001]

Originally Posted by danielsan1971 ↗

Joseph Merrick was born in my home city - Leicester, UK.

Just curious.

Any symptoms yet?

[smnewstead]

Originally Posted by Anom Alley ↗

They're still not 100% sure what the poor guy's condition was. The most currently accepted theory is that Merrick had Proteus Syndrome, or Proteus with severe neurofibromatosis.

That's exactly right! I loathe seeing some people's "diagnoses" around here, stating them as though fact.

[smnewstead]

This was one of his most well-known quotes:

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.

Poor fellow. I watched a documentary (may have been one of the ones in the thread, not sure), and specialists reconstructed a type of mask, based on his skeleton and photographs. They had an actor don the get-up, and read his poem. His drool hung from his mouth that he could not properly use, and one could barely understand him. It was so powerful. I'm glad that one doctor was at least kind to him, letting him stay in the hospital like that. I would have loved to have been Merrick's friend.