Meet Tarrare, A French Showman Who Could Finish A Whole Cow In 24 Hours.

Tarrare is an 18th-century French showman, who has an unhealthy appetite and could eat nonstop and still be hungry. He could finish a whole cow in 24 hours.

He left his family as a teenager to join a circus, as they could not cope with his insatiable appetite. He started eating for entertainment, he would swallow corks, stones, live animals, and a whole basketful of apples. He then took this act to Paris where he worked as a street performer.

During the European War of the first coalition, Tarare joined the French Revolutionary Army. As the standard military food could not satisfy him, he would eat any available food from gutters and refuse heaps, despite his unusual diet, he was underweight.

He also went through a series of medical experiments in search of solutions to his unusual appetite, in the process of the experiments, he ate a meal intended for 15 people in a single sitting, ate live cats, snakes, lizards, and puppies, several dead bodies, swallowed eels whole without chewing and was also accused of eating a live baby.

As earlier stated despite Tarrare unhealthy eating habits, he barely weighed 100 pounds.  He was described as a very thin person having unusually soft hair and an abnormally wide mouth. 

He sweats heavily, has constant body odour, and has chronic diarrhoea, despite his large intake of food, he did not appear either to vomit excessively or to gain weight.

According to a report, “When he ate, he would blow up like a balloon, especially in his stomach region. But shortly after, he would step into the bathroom and release nearly everything, leaving behind a mess that the surgeons described as “fetid beyond all conception.”

Tarrare later died of tuberculosis, doctors and surgeons did an autopsy and discovered that Tarrare’s oesophagus was so large, they could look directly into his stomach when they open his mouth.