proteus syndrome

"Due to horrible physical deformities, he spent much of his life as a fair-ground freak. He was hounded, persecuted, and starving, until his fortune changed and he was rescued, housed, and fed by the distinguished surgeon, Frederick Treves. The subject of several books, a Broadway hit, and a film, Joseph Merrick has become part of popular mythology. Here, in this fully revised edition containing much fresh information, are the true and unromanticized facts of his life"--Amazon.com.

Traces the history of Joseph Merrick, called the Elephant Man because of a deformity, from his birth in central England to his death in a London hospital in 1890.