Tarrare
Tarrare was a showman who was renowned for his insatiable appetite including eating cats, dogs, and snakes sometimes raw.
He is also said to have eaten many inedible items.
At the time, he was alleged to have committed cannibalism of a 14-month-old baby and was caught in the act of canni...
He was described to have fetid diarrhea and very bad body smell during his life, so it is possible that he had a chronic bowel infection or inflammation and a lot of that pus inside him for a long time.
I cannot imagine how he would not have had a bowel infection, probably cholera. If the autopsy was done hours after death on a chilled cadaver, I would agree that this infection was the sole cause of the smell and rot. However, we have no guarantee that is the case, and this rot was maybe just general decomposition.
He could have that rot long before autopsy - he was smelling during his whole life. It was said he had tuberculosis; gastrointestinal tuberculosis could make all that mess in his abdomen; I mean it's possible.
I imagine his smell reported when he was alive came from poor hygiene in conjunction with diarrhoea and sweat. That being said, I completely agree with you; I cannot imagine how he would avoid having liver and bowel disease. I can't find the original source for the TB diagnosis, unfortunately.
Another note, is it not possible or even probable that the enlarged stomach and esophagus were the cause of his overeating and perhaps even bad smell? I seem to lean towards this as I can't think of many mechanisms that would account for it, except for a serious neuropsychological disorder.
@hisairnessag3, the wide esophagus and grossly enlarged stomach they found at autopsy were very likely the result of overeating combined with the laxity of the connective tissue in the gut wall. I'm assuming this from the fact that he had lax skin, all of which can occur in certain genetic disorders. Anyway, large stomach allows eating a lot of food at once but does not explain constant hunger without weight gain - this was very likely due to diarrhea.
@hisairnessag3, this is what the stories are saying and I can't prove the actual amounts. It is possible that most of the food he was eating went straight through him due to an underlying condition (infection?) that was causing chronic diarrhea - so he needed to constantly eat to absorb at least something. Does it make sense? The other scenario would be also possible: the overeating triggered diarrhea - with the same effect. It's like you are pouring water into a bottle with the broken bottom.
Assuming that, we'd have to point to a genetic abnormality as far as nutrient absorption and the digestive tract no? Even if he had the worst case of diarrhea constantly, he would still be absorbing some nutrients if nothing else was at play. As diarrhea will dehydrate significantly but still allows for the body to extract some macro and micronutrients from what was eaten. And I don't think the nutrients lost would come anywhere close to being the primary cause of the overeating without something else at play.
@hisairnessag3, obviously he absorbed something, because he survived quite some time with this condition. Yes, I checked the link and I know the consequences of diarrhea. Tarrare may or may have not had a genetic cause for malabsorption. A nasty infection alone can cause severe malabsorption. What sounds genetic about him is his lax connective tissue, which might or might not be related with the absorption.
@Jan understood, and I am not trying to be unduly difficult, just quite interested in the case. That being said, are you aware of any genetic disorders that would account for the severe malabsorption(and perhaps the other symptoms and effects),
@hisairnessag3, the genetic or genetically predisposed conditions that come to my mind: 1) lack of a specific digestive enzyme: lactose intolerance, hereditary fructose intolerance (HFI), sucrase deficiency, 2) genetic conditions in which diarrhea occurs due to damaged intestinal lining: celiac disease. This alone does not explain constant hunger, excessive sweating, bad body odor and lax skin he had, though.
@Jan Thanks for that, I am just going to give a day or so to see if anyone has anything interesting they want to add. Will most likely select one and give the bounty to other of your and James answer.
@hisairnessag3, let's discuss in Biosphere instead.
@hisairnessag3 @Jan In reference to https://biology.stackexchange.com/a/87770/3553
The long drawn out discussion in the comments shows why people want to close the question on an opinion basis. Discussing opinions and speculations here is much better than in the answer. Here's my opinion on the matter.
I think Tarrare had some metabolic disorder. We cannot say what caused that for sure, but why not the most common; hyperthyroidism. I think as a result, and as a man in poverty, he ate very poorly which put a constant strain on his digestive tract and exacerbated any issue with his adsorpti…
@James Hyperthyroidism often (not always) includes goitre, anxiety, irritability, fast heart rate and tremor, but it was not said he had these symptoms. He was described as "apathetic," which is contrary to anxiety, which is the main reason I'm not sure about this. Hyperthyroidism could explain or hunger and sweating, but, to me, the summary of symptoms do not fit.
Hyperthyroidism can manifest in many ways. I prefer that he had this one condition manifesting in a peculiar way alongside malnutrition and infection rather than a combination of rare genetic conditions.
Your idea of Ehlers-Danlos fits so nicely with the accounts of his skin sagging though.
In the hyperthyroid case, one would have to describe that as skin sagging caused by overeating and not enough nutrition to recover. This presumes the doctors were over-egging how sagging his skin was perhaps?
@James, I agree that his symptoms do not require any genetic disorder. I personally am inclined to think intestinal parasites with a purulent infection as a complication - this could explain his sweating. It is known that some people who lose a lot of weight quickly are left with redundant stomach skin. Tarrare had this appearing and disappearing abdominal distension on a daily basis, which could explain sagging.
Perhaps their is a rather obscure genetic condition or at the very least an area of the genome where negative mutation would cause the observed symptoms and abnormalities. Probability wise, it seem more likely that there is one genetic condition that begot the initial conditions while his poor lifestyle and eating habits account for the rest. On Ehlers-Danlos(which I am somewhat familiar), I do know there are a variety of subtypes. Are there any that fit some of the other observations as well?
@hisairnessag3, in most subtypes of Ehlers_Danlos syndrome, there is some joint hypermobility and other symptoms are not really related to gastrointestinal tract. There's another genetic disorder - cutis laxa with sagging skin that could be associated with easily distended gut.
@Jan If he had Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, the effects would be noticeable, especially if he enjoyed doing his freaky party tricks. It often comes with double jointedness and other extreme flexibility. I just can't help but shake the feeling that if Tarrare had that, he would have shown off about it and it would have been written down.
@James This is a good point. Ehlers-Danlos also has a tendency to weaken arteries and the rigidity of associated tissues. I find it hard to believe given what we know of his life that he would have survived all that time without a major rupture in his vessels or some other life-threatening consequence of Ehlers-Danlos especially considering medical knowledge of the time.
@James very interesting. For my curiosity, what genes(not necessarily a disorder) could be at play if it is not Ehlers-Danlos or another well known abnormality?
Discussion on answer by James: What w…
Discussion on answer by James: What w…