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Joseph Carey Merrick (5 August 1862 – 11 April 1890), sometimes named incorrectly as John Merrick, was an Englishman with severe deformities who was exhibited as a human curiosity named the Elephant Man. He became well known in London society after he went to live at the London Hospital. Merrick was born in Leicester, and began to develop abnormally during the first few years of his life. His skin appeared thick and lumpy, he developed enlarged lips, and a bony lump grew on his forehead. One of his arms and both of his feet became enlarged and at some point during his childhood he fell and damaged his hip, resulting in permanent lameness. When he was 11, his mother died, and his father soon remarried. Merrick left school at the age of 13 and had difficulty finding employment. Rejected by his father and stepmother, he left home. In late 1879, Merrick, aged 17, entered the Leicester Union Workhouse. In 1884, after four years in the workhouse, Merrick contacted a showman named Sam Torr and proposed that Torr should exhibit him. Torr agreed and arranged for a group of men to manage Merrick, whom they named the Elephant Man. After touring the East Midlands, Merrick travelled to London to be exhibited in a penny gaff shop on Whitechapel Road which was rented by showman Tom Norman. Norman's shop, directly across the street from the London Hospital, was visited by a surgeon named Frederick Treves, who invited Merrick to be examined and photographed. Soon after Merrick's visits to the hospital, Tom Norman's shop was closed by the police, and Merrick's managers sent him to tour in Europe. In Belgium, Merrick was robbed by his road manager and abandoned in Brussels. He eventually made his way back to London; unable to communicate, he was found by the police to have Dr. Treves's card on him. Treves came and took Merrick back to the London Hospital. Although his condition was incurable, Merrick was allowed to stay at the hospital for the remainder of his life. Treves visited him daily, and the pair developed quite a close friendship. Merrick also received visits from the wealthy ladies and gentlemen of London society, including Alexandra, Princess of Wales. Aged 27, Merrick died on 11 April 1890. The official cause of death was asphyxia, although Treves, who dissected the body, said that Merrick had died of a dislocated neck. He believed that Merrick—who had to sleep sitting up because of the weight of his head—had been attempting to sleep lying down, to "be like other people". The exact cause of Merrick's deformities is unclear. The dominant theory throughout much of the 20th century was that Merrick suffered from neurofibromatosis type I. In 1986, a new theory emerged that he had Proteus syndrome. In 2001, it was proposed that Merrick had suffered from a combination of neurofibromatosis type I and Proteus syndrome. DNA tests conducted on his hair and bones have proven inconclusive. In 1979, Bernard Pomerance's play about Merrick called ''The Elephant Man'' debuted, and David Lynch's film, also called ''The Elephant Man'', was released the following year. In late 2014 and early 2015, Bradley Cooper starred in a Broadway revival of ''The Elephant Man'', directed by Scott Ellis. ==Early life and family== Joseph Carey Merrick was born 5 August 1862 at 50 Lee Street in Leicester to Joseph Rockley Merrick and his wife Mary Jane (née Potterton).〔 Joseph Rockley Merrick (c. 1838 – 1897) was the son of London-born weaver Barnabas Merrick (c. 1791 – 1856) who moved to Leicester during the 1820s or 1830s, and his third wife Sarah Rockley.〔 Mary Jane Potterton (c. 1837 – 1873) had been born at Evington, Leicestershire, her father being William Potterton, who was described as an agricultural labourer in the 1851 census of Thurmaston, Leicestershire.〔The National Archives: HO107/2087, f.666, p.12〕 She is said to have had some form of physical disability and as a young woman worked as a domestic servant in Leicester before marrying Joseph Rockley Merrick, then a brougham driver, in 1861. The following year, Joseph Carey Merrick was born, apparently healthy, and had no outward symptoms of any disorder for the first few years of his life. Named after his father, he was given the middle name Carey by his mother, a Baptist, after the preacher William Carey.〔 The Merricks had three more children, John Thomas (born 21 April 1864, died of smallpox 24 July of the same year), William Arthur (born January 1866) who died of scarlet fever on 21 December 1870 aged four and Marion Eliza (born 28 September 1867), who was born with physical disabilities and died of myelitis and "seizures" in 1891.〔〔〔 When writing of Joseph in his book ''The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity'', Ashley Montagu states that " Merrick was born on 21 April 1864".〔 Montagu believed Treves's statement in his book ''The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences'' that Merrick's first name was John, not Joseph, and confused him with his younger brother. A pamphlet titled "The Autobiography of Joseph Carey Merrick", produced c. 1884 to accompany his exhibition, states that he started to display symptoms at approximately five years of age, with "thick lumpy skin ... like that of an elephant, and almost the same colour".〔 According to a 1930 article in the ''Illustrated Leicester Chronicle'', he began to develop swellings on his lips at the age of 21 months, followed by a bony lump on his forehead and a loosening and roughening of the skin.〔 As he grew, a noticeable difference between the size of his left and right arms appeared and both his feet became significantly enlarged.〔 The Merrick family explained his symptoms as the result of Mary's being knocked over and frightened by a fairground elephant while she was pregnant with Joseph.〔 The concept of maternal impression—that the emotional experiences of pregnant women could have lasting physical effect on their unborn children—was still common in 19th century Britain.〔 Merrick held this belief about the cause of his affliction for his entire life.〔 In addition to his deformities, at some point during his childhood, Merrick suffered a fall and damaged his left hip. This injury became infected and left him permanently lame.〔 Although affected by his physical deformities, Merrick attended school and enjoyed a close relationship with his mother.〔 She was a Sunday school teacher, and his father worked as an engine driver at a cotton factory, as well as running a haberdashery business.〔 On 19 May 1873, less than three years after the death of her youngest son William, Mary Jane Merrick died from bronchopneumonia.〔 Joseph Rockley Merrick moved with his two children to live with Mrs. Emma Wood Antill, a widow with children of her own. They married on 3 December 1874.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joseph Merrick」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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