Meet Tarrare, The Man Who Never Stopped Eating

Humanity has something of an obsession with big eaters. Whether it’s hot-dog eating contests or massive internet mukbangs, watching someone shovel down an insane amount of food can be as entertaining as it is gross. But have you ever heard of a man who ate corks, cats, and even people?

It may just sound like a dark, urban legend, but this guy was real. There are hundreds of reports and stories surrounding this guy, each of which sounds stranger than the last. From his disgusting diet to his work as a spy; get your napkins ready, as we tuck into the story of Tarrare, the man who ate everything.

Tarrare Ate Everything

Back around 1772, records show Tarrare was born to peasant parents in the French countryside near Lyon. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best time to be growing up in France. In the 18th century, France’s population exploded, increasing by roughly 50% compared to the previous hundred years. But while the amount of people increased, a series of poor harvests meant the food supply did not. A mix of mass hunger and anger resulted in a political uprising, and the French Revolution, starting in 1789, eventually led to the abolishment of the monarchy in favor of a new French Republic.

But while the impoverished conditions of late 18th century France would’ve been tough for all French peasants of the time, for Tarrare it was a full-blown catastrophe. Even as a teenager, this guy already had a reputation of being able to eat his way through anything! It’s said that even at this young age, he could eat a quarter of a cow’s worth of beef in a single day.

For reference, a standard cow produces around 440lbs of meat, which means he was capable of munching down a whopping 110 pounds of beef – which was the same amount he supposedly weighed! Considering that an average serving of beef is around 3 ounces, or about 0.19 pounds, that would mean Tarrare was able to eat a portion-size fit for 586 people!

Obviously, this may have been something of an exaggeration, but you get the idea; the kid could eat! Coming from a poor family, Tarrare’s parents unsurprisingly struggled to keep up with their son’s appetite. Eventually they kicked him out, forcing the teen to find a way to manage his appetite on his own. And that’s exactly what he did.

Initially, he took to begging and stealing around the streets of Lyon, until he crossed paths with a travelling charlatan, who quickly recognized that Tarrare could provide him with one heck of a pay day. The charlatan needed someone to entertain and distract a crowd. And, as that was happening, the charlatan would slip through the gathering, subtly stealing whatever he could from people’s pockets. So, how would Tarrare put on a show?

He would challenge onlookers to give him anything to eat. He’d start by scoffing down corks and stones. Then he’d move on to apples, not one or two, but a whole basketful, swallowing them whole, one by one, with each apparently going straight down his throat. But what really drew the crowds were the animals that Tarrare would gleefully devour. He wouldn't just eat prime cuts, he'd swallow live animals. The audience would gasp as he picked up snakes, eels, and even puppies and heartlessly swallowed them down.

Tarrare loved his newfound career, but not because of the thieving friends he made, or the rush from shocking the crowd. No, he loved it because he could eat unfathomable amounts of food. Yes, he considered all this stuff food, even the rocks, with his favored dish of all being snake meat! But apparently, no matter how many serpents this guy ate, nothing could ever fill his stomach.

In 1788, aged 16, Tarrare took his astonishing act to the bright lights of Paris, where he continued to shock crowds by chowing down on anything and everything he set his eyes on. Things were looking up, as he was getting a constant supply of "food", if you can call it that, all while becoming one of Paris’ most notorious street performers. That was until, during one of his acts, Tarrare choked! To be more specific, he suffered from a severe intestinal obstruction.

He was carried by the crowd to the nearby Hôtel-Dieu hospital, where he was given powerful laxatives to shift the obstruction. Fortunately, he made a full recovery. In fact, the enigmatic entertainer even offered to demonstrate his good health by eating the surgeon’s pocket watch. The surgeon agreed, but only under the condition that he could cut Tarrare back open to retrieve it. Wisely, Tarrare declined.

People gathered to watch Tarrare eat, but that wasn’t the only thing that drew large crowds. They also gathered to marvel at the showman’s odd appearance. He had unusually soft, wispy hair that appeared to be falling out despite his young age. Lower down on his face was an abnormally wide mouth, which held dark stained teeth behind thin lips.

When he was full of food, eyewitness testimony’s state his belly hardened and popped out like a huge balloon. On the other hand, when he hadn’t eaten for a few hours, the skin around his abdomen would sag so loosely that he could wrap it around his waist like a belt.

But a saggy stomach wasn’t the only symptom of Tarrare’s hunger. When he went without food for even a short while, he’d be constantly exhausted and distracted, focusing what little energy he had on finding his next meal. And, when he finally sourced a sizeable snack, he’d fall asleep almost immediately after.

Reportedly, his body was always hot to the touch, and he sweated profusely. As a result, he was said to emit an odor so pungent, that people couldn’t stand to be within 20 paces of him. So, even 18th century French peasants thought this guy stank!

But it wasn’t just Tarrare’s body odor that made him smell. Unsurprisingly, due to his disgusting diet, Tarrare also had extreme bouts of flatulence. In fact, it’s believed that his wicked wind is actually where the nickname Tarrare came from. "Bom-bom Tarrare" was an old French expression used to describe a powerful explosion (you can figure out the rest).

But the most shocking thing about him wasn’t his looks or smell, it was his size! As we’ve heard, this guy was apparently capable of eating a meal fit for nearly 600 people every day. You’d think this would slide him to the heavier end of the scales. But no. Aged 17, he apparently weighed just 100 pounds, which is more than 50 pounds less than the average 18th century American man. Surely this kid can’t have been real? Yet, despite his curious condition, Tarrare’s body would soon be taken to its limit.

Tarrare Swallowed A Cat

In 1792, when he was 20 years old, the War of the First Coalition broke out. This was a war between several European powers, like Britain, Prussia and the Dutch Republic, who were all fighting against the recently formed French Republic. The established European monarchies felt threatened and wanted to quash The French Republic in its infancy.

It’s not clear whether Tarrare was forced to sign up to the French army, or if he looked to join the war effort in search of extra rations; either way, this man was not cut out for the life of a soldier. According to written records, he was always hungry. So hungry that he carried out tasks for other soldiers in return for a share of their rations. And, when he wasn’t doing that, he’d scavenge for scraps in garbage heaps and gutters.

Still, nothing would solve his incessant hunger, and the constant exhaustion that came with it. Not long after he joined the army, Tarrare was admitted to Soultz-Haut-Rhin hospital, close to where he was based in eastern France, where his curious condition intrigued the resident doctors. And it was here the endless eater first met Doctor Pierre-François Percy, one of France’s finest surgeons.

Under the watchful eye of Dr Percy, Tarrare continued to struggle with starvation, even when he had his rations quadrupled! With the plus-sized portions failing to satisfy him, Tarrare soon turned to scavenging for food again. But this time, instead of finding scraps in garbage heaps, he decided to raid the hospital for something, anything, to eat.

Tarrare was so desperate that he’d sneak into the chemist’s office and devour all of the poultices used to help soothe skin irritations, which were soft, moist mush usually made with bran, herbs and flour! Unsurprisingly, this frenzied eating left Dr. Percy scratching his head. But rather than expel his patient for raiding the hospital’s supplies, Dr. Percy decided to use him as a medical test subject.

His first experiment involved giving Tarrare a meal fit for 15 people. In all, it consisted of two large meat pies, plates of grease and salt, as well as 4 gallons of milk! I’m getting the meat sweats just thinking about that! Of course, Tarrare devoured it all without breaking a sweat, before immediately falling asleep. On another grizzlier occasion, Percy provided Tarrare with a live cat. Predictably, he wolfed it down, swallowing everything other than the bones.

How the World’s Hungriest Man Became a Spy

Dr. Percy was fascinated and provided a variety of animals for him to consume, including eels, which he’d slurp down and swallow without chewing! Horrified as you’d hope Dr. Percy was, he was far too fascinated by the behavior of his patient and continued to feed him. And yet, no matter how much he did, Tarrare barely put on a pound of weight!

Despite the countless tests and experiments on his strange subject, Dr. Percy couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him or find a cure. Instead, alongside fellow surgeon Dr. Courville, he came up with an idea that would actually utilize Tarrare’s appetite in the army. If it worked, it would transform Tarrare from a huge burden into an invaluable asset! How, exactly? Maybe he could frighten enemy troops with the threat of being swallowed whole? Not quite, although the plan did involve the Frenchman’s massive maw.

Both men proposed to French military commander Eugène de Beauharnais that Tarrare serve as a military courier. He’d swallow a small wooden box, containing an important note. The idea was that Tarrare would swallow the box, transporting the note into enemy lines, without having anything on his person. Once safely on the other side, he’d expel the box, with the note inside being safe and secure.

So, Tarrare was called on by de Beauharnais to demonstrate his box-swallowing abilities before a gathering of commanders from the French army. Tarrare being Tarrare successfully swallowed the wooden box without any problem in front of the amazed men. His reward? A wheelbarrow containing 30 pounds of bull lung and liver, which he gobbled down in front of the men, further proving just how bizarre and real his talent was.

Following the successful demonstration, de Beauharnais employed Tarrare as a spy of the Army of the Rhine! His first mission was to covertly deliver a message to an imprisoned colonel on the other side of the Prussian border. But while de Beauharnais knew that Tarrare’s extraordinary eating made him a valuable asset, he still didn’t trust his compatriot with a document of real importance. Instead, Tarrare was tricked into thinking he was carrying a top-secret file, when in reality the message simply asked the imprisoned colonel to confirm if the message had been received successfully.

So, as night fell, Tarrare, disguised as a Prussian peasant, crossed into enemy lines, with a secret in his stomach. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for the plan to unravel. Whether it was his unbearable stench, wickedly wide mouth, or deplorable habit of eating any garbage he could get his hands on, the Frenchman didn’t exactly blend in. And to make matters worse, Tarrare couldn’t speak a word of German, Prussia’s common language. So, not exactly the James Bond of the 18th century.

Before long, he was pulled aside by Prussian soldiers just outside the town of Landau. After a strip search, they found nothing on him, but they weren’t convinced. However, even after violently interrogating poor Tarrare, he still refused to confess what he was doing in Prussia, and the soldiers refused to let him off lightly.

Rather than letting Tarrare return to France, they brought him before the Prussian commander General Zoegli, a man with a fearsome reputation. Zoegli ordered him to be transferred to prison, where they’d be able to make sure Tarrare confessed. Brave as he was, after just 24 hours in captivity, Tarrare finally confessed to concealing the box inside himself.

Zoegli wasn’t expecting that, and so ordered the only thing he could think of; He had Tarrare chained to a toilet and waited for the wooden box to come out the other end. Eventually, Tarrare did pass the message, revealing what Zoegli believed were documents that would push Prussia to victory in the war. But that excitement soon turned to fury, when he realized that this was simply a dummy message.

Despite his insistence that he knew nothing of the dummy message, Zoegli took his fury out on the unfortunate Frenchman, ordering him to the gallows with a noose around his neck. The time had come; Tarrare was told to make his peace with God, and then, nothing! Turns out that Zoegli decided to spare the Frenchman’s life. Maybe it was part of an evil prank? Or perhaps he suddenly felt sorry for him? Either way, we’ll never know. The only thing we do know is that it affected Tarrare, badly.

Tarrare Ate Babies

Following the incident, Tarrare was severely shaken up. Desperate to avoid any further military missions, he returned to the hospital, where he pleaded with Dr. Percy to find a cure for his gluttony. Eager to help his patient out, Percy tried to put him on a course of laudanum, an alcoholic tincture of opium, but this failed to have any impact.

Next, he fed his patient sour wine and tobacco pills, but still Tarrare’s appetite didn’t shrink. Then, in a final desperate attempt to cure Tarrare, Percy fed him with large amounts of soft-boiled eggs. So, medicine, wine, and eggs? Thankfully, modern medical standards have improved since then! And in fairness to Dr Percy, soft-boiled eggs are known to be a powerful appetite suppressant because of their high protein content. Still, no matter how many eggs Tarrare was fed, he still hungered for more.

Dr. Percy’s next plan was to simply enforce a strict diet on his patient. As surprising as it may sound, no one had tried this before on Tarrare. Everyone assumed Tarrare was obsessive about food and was apparently unable to control his impulses when he got hungry. If you’ve ever gone on a diet, you know how hard it can be to ignore hunger pangs or break out of a snacking habit. Tarrare, for some unknown reason, simply didn’t have the will to ignore those drives.

That being said, Dr. Percy did initially manage to limit how much he consumed. But when he did, Tarrare would simply find another food source. To start with, he’d sneak out of the hospital, scavenging for offal outside of butcher’s shops, and was apparently once found fighting stray dogs for carrion in trash heaps. Sickening as that sounds, Tarrare’s meals soon took a much darker turn.

One evening, Tarrare, after a long day of being deprived of food, skulked through the building’s corridors, looking for something, anything, he could eat. Then, all of a sudden, he stumbled across a fellow patient in another room, who was bloodletting. This is the bygone medical practice of drawing blood from a patient, in the hope it’d cure an illness or disease.

After seeing the patient had no real food in the room, Tarrare’s attention turned to the bowl used to collect the blood, I don’t need to spell it out for you, but you can imagine what happened next. However, his exploits didn’t finish there. On multiple occasions, he was found to have secretly snuck down to the hospital morgue. Here, Tarrare would apparently feast, before horrified doctors discovered him and shooed him away.

After multiple incidents were reported, the doctors pressed Dr Percy to remove Tarrare from the hospital completely, suggesting he be transferred to an asylum on the grounds that he was clearly mentally disturbed.

But Dr. Percy had grown attached to his personal test subject, and flatly refused. Instead, he insisted that Tarrare’s ailment was physical, rather than mental, and that his patient would remain at the hospital for treatment. For a while after, things seemed to settle down. But then something so terrible happened that even Percy couldn’t defend Tarrare any further.

One morning, Dr Percy came out of his office to find doctors were scurrying around the hospital in a frenzy; a patient had gone missing. You may think that’s pretty normal. After all, Tarrare himself went "missing" from the hospital from time to time when he got hungry. However, this patient couldn’t have just walked out of the hospital, because they were a 14-month-old toddler!

There were no witnesses, nor was there any evidence, but the finger of blame was quickly pointed at Tarrare. Considering the depths of depravity he’d indulged in during his time at the hospital, devouring a young child didn’t seem farfetched. Though he quickly denied it, an angry mob chased Tarrare out of the hospital, to which he never returned.

Years passed, and no one heard of or saw Tarrare. Most assumed he was destitute, left to scour the streets for any food he could get his hands on. Others believed his bizarre eating habits might have finally caught up with him, and this time there were no kind medical professionals around to help him.

Then, in 1798, four years after Tarrare was accused of devouring a toddler, Dr. Percy received a letter. It was from an M. Tessier, the surgeon of Versailles hospital, located around 10 miles west of Paris. Tessier wrote that a patient of his wished to see him. It was Tarrare, now completely bedridden and on the brink of death. What had happened? Tarrare claimed he’d eaten a golden fork 2 years prior, but that he’d never seen it pass, so that must be the culprit.

However, it didn’t take long for Dr. Percy to discover that his former test subject was ill, not due to a swallowed fork, but because of advanced tuberculosis! This is a dangerous infectious disease that attacks the victim’s lungs, and during the 18th century, it rapidly spread through the unsanitary conditions of the streets and slums of France. Unfortunately for Tarrare, things soon got worse. One month after Percy’s diagnosis, he began rapidly deteriorating. It all became too much for Tarrare’s body, and he passed away, aged only 26.

An Autopsy Of The Insatiable Appetite Of Tarrare

You may think that’s where the story ends but Tarrare, even after death, continued to shock scientists. Despite passing at a young age, his reputation preceded him, and surgeons of the hospital were unwilling to dissect him. But Tessier, after hearing rumors of Tarrare’s destructive diet, wanted to see first-hand what was really going on inside.

Findings from the autopsy revealed that Tarrare possessed a freakishly wide esophagus. In fact, it was so large that spectators could peer down his open mouth into his stomach. Speaking of his stomach, it was huge, filling most of his abdomen. While his entire insides were found to be filled with ulcers and pus. But, for all their investigation, they ultimately came away with no idea of what had been wrong with him. It was devastating.

Charles Domery, The Glutton

As crazy as it sounds, Tarrare wasn’t the only big eater that drew attention in the late 18th century. Charles Domery, a Polish soldier, who served in the French army during the War of the First Coalition, was also infamous for his insane appetite. He’d eat ten times the usual rations of a soldier and was also infamous for dining on 174 cats in one year! The 18th century was not kind to kitties!

And Domery, like Tarrare, also apparently had a taste for human. While on a ship, he attempted to munch on part of a crew member which had been, let’s say, prematurely removed, by cannon fire, before being wrestled off it by his fellow soldiers.

With both men living during the same period when Europe was suffering from bad harvests and verged on famine, it’s likely that they suffered from malnutrition, driving Domery and Tarrare to consume colossal amounts. But the vast majority of people here were also malnourished during this time, and there aren’t accounts of them resorting to eating tons of rocks, corks, or cats! So, what was wrong with them?

Medical Mystery

One belief is that their conditions may’ve been caused by a damaged amygdala. The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure that lies in the temporal lobe of the brain. This is the hub for regulating appetite. And it’s been seen in animals that a damaged amygdala can induce excessive eating!

However, the animals only overate what most would consider food, not rocks and watches. Eating food substances with no nutritional value is a disorder known today as Pica, and it tends to affect those with cognitive impairments or brain injuries.

Recently, studies have shown people with Pica today almost always have a lesion in their temporal lobe, which is where that previously mentioned amygdala sits. The only problem is that all the subjects with Pica gained weight, which is something Tarrare famously didn’t do. So, what could’ve been behind this? Another theory is that he was plagued by a tapeworm infection.

If you had the fortune of not knowing what tapeworms are, these little suckers are parasitic worms that live and feed inside intestines, surviving off their host’s nutrients. In most cases, a tapeworm infection won’t cause any noticeable symptoms. However, a more severe infection can cause nutritional deficiencies and weight loss. Combined with a damaged temporal lobe, we could be onto something here.

On top of that, the most common way to pick up a tapeworm infection is from eating raw meat that’s also contaminated with tapeworms. Considering Tarrare’s famous inclination to eat live animals and carrion, you certainly wouldn’t put this ailment past him!

But that’s just one theory. Another more accepted theory is that Tarrare might have had a condition known as hyperthyroidism. This occurs when the butterfly-shaped thyroid gland found at the front of the neck becomes overactive, making and releasing too much thyroid hormone.

This speeds up the metabolic rate, meaning the body burns lots of energy, even during rest, which would explain why he was always hot to the touch. As a result, someone suffering from hyperthyroidism will constantly need to eat, to replenish lost energy, while the high metabolism rate means they fail to gain weight. That would also explain Tarrare’s constant tiredness!

If that wasn’t compelling enough, sufferers of this condition are also known to have thin hair, just like Tarrare had. Saying that, hyperthyroidism affects 1% of the U.S population, and as far as we know, we don’t have 3 million Americans eating rocks for dinner. So, even with this explanation, his Pica remains a mystery element.

So why was Tarrare’s case so severe? Well, it seems likely that the food fanatic would’ve been troubled by a range of factors. The lack of nutritional food, a supersized stomach, tapeworm infection, and a case of hyperthyroidism, and bingo, you’ve got yourself a man who will eat absolutely everything! The alternative explanation is that these tales have been hyped up for dramatic effect, even that medical journal article may have emphasized certain elements to make Tarrare seem more fascinating than he really was.

Fortunately, nowadays, with more advanced medical practices than wine and eggs, doctors are able to better treat patients with the strange symptoms Tarrare exhibited. We may never know for sure what rare combination of conditions led him to constantly eat, but we can say that they’ll likely never be a case quite like Tarrare ever again.

I hope you were amazed at the story of Tarrare, the man who could eat everything and never stopped eating! Thanks for reading!