The Insatiable Hunger of Tarrare: History’s Most Disturbing Medical Mystery

We all know the feeling of being "starving" after skipping lunch. But for one man in 18th-century France, hunger wasn't a feeling—it was a terrifying, lethal possession.

His name was Tarrare. He could eat a quarter of a cow in a single day. He swallowed live cats, stones, and garbage. Yet, he never gained weight.

At What Then Archives, we uncover history's strangest anomalies, but few stories are as visceral and disturbing as the case of the man with the bottomless stomach.

The Man Who Couldn't Be Full

Born in rural France around 1772, Tarrare was cast out by his parents as a teenager simply because they could not afford to feed him. His appetite was monstrous.

By the time he reached Paris, he was a street performer, stunning crowds by swallowing corks, apples by the basketful, and live animals. Despite this gluttony, medical records describe him as painfully thin. His skin hung so loosely that when his stomach was empty, he could wrap the folds of his flesh around his waist like a belt. But after a meal, his abdomen would balloon to grotesque proportions.

The Medical Experiments

During the French Revolutionary War, Tarrare’s condition caught the eye of military surgeons. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. Doctors examined him for years, confused, disturbed, and unable to explain what they saw.

They ran experiments to test the limits of his biology. In one instance, they fed him a meal intended for 15 laborers, which he devoured instantly. In another, they gave him a live cat. Tarrare tore the animal open with his teeth, drank its blood, and swallowed it whole, leaving only the bones.

The Chilling Accusation

The turning point—and the darkest chapter of this story—occurred when a 14-month-old toddler suddenly disappeared from the hospital ward.

"When a child later disappeared nearby, suspicion turned toward Tarrare. He was expelled, shunned, and quietly erased from public life."

There were no witnesses to the abduction, but everyone knew where to look. Suspected of eating the child, he was chased from the hospital and vanished from medical record for four years.

The Autopsy: What Was He?

When Tarrare finally resurfaced, he was dying of tuberculosis. After his death, surgeons performed an autopsy, hoping to find the cause of his hunger. The results were horrifying.

They found an abnormally wide esophagus that allowed him to see directly into his stomach when his mouth was open. His body was filled with pus, his liver and gallbladder were abnormally large, and his stomach was enormous, filling almost his entire abdominal cavity. Modern science suggests he likely suffered from extreme polyphagia caused by a damaged amygdala or hypothalamus, but he remains a medical anomaly.

Watch the Full Story

We’ve compiled the complete timeline of Tarrare’s tragic and terrifying life in our latest video above. Witness the visual breakdown of the medical reports and the full story of the man whose hunger knew no bounds.