We all know what it’s like to get a case of the munchies, but it’s safe to say few people in history have ever been as hungry as the mysterious Tarrare. Born near Lyon, France, in the 18th century, his voracious appetite and grotesque physiology were both entertaining and truly horrific.
He grew up a normal child, but puberty brought with it an insatiable hunger that would earn him a place in history. Each day, his appetite seemed to increase and by 17, he was eating a quarter of a cow a day. But, bizarrely, no matter how he ate, he didn’t put on weight. Even so, his body emitted an overpoweringly fetid odor (beyond the regular fetid odor of your average teenage boy) “to such a degree that he could not be endured within the distance of 20 paces”.
All too soon, Tarrere’s family booted him out – their rancid son was literally eating them out of house and home. He promptly became a sideshow attraction, dazzling crowds by swallowing corks, stones, and live animals. He was noted for his star routine in which he’d devour a live cat in mere minutes, fur and bones included. Uh, yeah, I’ll pass on that night at the circus, thanks.
After a brief stint in the army (during which his enlarged stomach was used to smuggle coded messages through enemy territory), doctors became curious about just what the heck was going on with this guy.
The Tarrare tale from 18th-century France tells of a man cursed with insatiable hunger. He could eat his weight in meat daily, swallowed live animals whole, and was rumored to have consumed human flesh before vanishing into history—a real-life horror wrapped in mystery.… pic.twitter.com/6N1pN0vxl6
— Historium Unearthia (@HistoriumU) April 30, 2025
And so, in 1792, Dr. Pierre-François Percy at Versailles’ military hospital began studying Tarrare’s many medical anomalies. He noted that his abdomen tightened like a drum after eating and then rapidly shrank. That veins madly pulsated beneath his slimy, translucent skin. His constant sweating, “visible” stink, and frequent explosive diarrhea (“fetid beyond all conception”). Percy peered into his gaping mouth, noting brown jagged teeth and a tongue scarred from acidic saliva. Percy fed Tarrare whatever was to hand, live snakes, puppies – he once consumed 30 pounds of raw offal in hours.
It was all fun and games for Percy and the hospital staff, who amused themselves by feeding whatever they could think of to their stinking, voracious, and sweaty patient. There were some “oopsies”, like when the scamp was caught drinking patients’ blood, or that one time he tried to break into the morgue to eat the bodies. Oh, Tarrare, get back to your room, here’s a puppy to chew on…
Uh, has anyone seen my kid?
Then a 14-month-old toddler went missing. All eyes instantly flicked to Tarrare, who may or may not have then let out a suspiciously toddler-smelling burp. Look, buddy, we can tolerate drinking blood and eating corpses, but eating a toddler is crossing the line! Dr Percy threw up his hands and refused to defend him, so the angry staff chased Tarrare out of the hospital.
He promptly disappeared for four years. Then Dr Percy got a letter saying Tarrare had requested his presence. He found Tarrare weak and suffering from constant diarrhea. Tarrare explained he’d swallowed a fork that had lodged in his gut and was now killing him. Dr Percy instead recognized the symptoms of advanced tuberculosis, and Tarrare died soon afterward.
His body almost instantly began to collapse into a soupy, rancid mess – but an autopsy was conducted. The results were as disgusting as anything else in this story: his body was entirely filled with a gooey yellow pus, his enormous stomach was like a leather sack, and his throat was so wide doctors could crank open his mouth, look down the neck hole, and see into his stomach.
Contemporary doctors diagnosed Tarrare as suffering from a unique case of polyphagia (extreme, insatiable hunger) and cachexia (severe wasting despite massive intake). Modern doctors suspect he may have suffered a brain injury or tumor that prevented him from ever feeling full. Regardless of the cause of his appetite, there’s never been anyone quite like Tarrare since, and frankly, thank god for that.
