The Wild Boy of Hameln


Home	Peter - The Wild Boy of Hameln Few stories of wild men have made so much noise in the world as that of "Peter the Wild Boy", who was found wandering about the countryside near Hameln, Germany, in 1724, and was supposed to be a specimen of a man in a state of nature. His case was written and talked about for years. In July 1724, Jurgen Meyer, a townsman of Hameln, met in his field with a naked, brownish, black haired boy, apparently about twelve years old, who uttered no sound Meyer enticed the boy, by showing him two apples, into the town, and by order of the mayor Severin Peter, placed the boy for safe keeping in a hospital,. Thus he was christened Peter by the children of Hameln on his first appearance in the town, and he went by the same name to his death. He behaved rather brutishly at first - seeking to escape out doors and windows, resting now and then on his knees and elbows, and rolling himself from side to side until he fell asleep. He did not like bread. And he eagerly peeled green sticks, and chewed the bark for juice, as he also did vegetables, grass, and bean shells. He soon learned to conduct himself more properly, and was allowed to go about the town. When anything was offered him to eat, he first smelled it, and then put it in his mouth, or laid it aside, shaking his head. In the same way he would smell people's hands, and then strike his chest if pleased, or otherwise shake his head. When he particularly liked anything, like beans, peas, mulberries, fruit, and particularly onions and nuts, he indicated his satisfaction by striking repeatedly on his chest. When shoes were first given to him, he could not walk in them, and appeared happy in throwing them off, and running about again bare foot. Covering his head was equally unpleasant to him. He enjoyed greatly throwing his hat or cap in the Weser River, and watching it sink down. But he soon became accustomed to clothing. His hearing and smell were acute. In October 1725 he was sent for by King George I to Hanover. From there he was transmitted to London in the beginning of the following year, under the care of the King's messenger. This was the foundation of his fame and fortune. It was just at this time, that the controversy about the existence of innate ideas was as its height. Peter seemed a very subject for answering the question. Count Zinzendorf wished that he should be entrusted to his charge, so that he might watch the development of Peter's innate ideas. But the king placed Peter at the disposal of the Princess of Wales, the later celebrated Queen Caroline, who confided the child to the care of Dr. Arbuthnot, still for the purpose of investigating his innate ideas. Swift immortalized Peter in his humorous production, It Cannot Rain But It Pours; or, London Strewed with Rarities". Linneaus gave him in a niche in his Systema Naturae, and classified him under the denomination of "Juvenis Hanoveranus". Buffon, De Paauw, and J.J. Rousseau extolled him as a true child of nature, the genuine unsophisticated man. Monboddo was still more enthusiastic, declaring his appearance to be a much more important occurrence than the discovery of the planet Uranus, or that if astronomers, to the catalog of stars already known had added 30,000 new ones. Amidst these expectations and honors, a few circumstances were either unknown or overlooked, that could be calculated to raise great doubts about his appropriateness for such high destinies, and to produce an unpleasant suspicion that he had not entirely escaped contaminating influence of civilized life. When he was first met with, a small fragment of the shirt hung about his neck; and the whiteness of his thighs, compared to his brown legs, proved that he must've worn breaches, but not stockings. His tongue was very large and little capable of motion; so that an army surgeon at common thought attempting to set it free by cutting the frenum; but did not perform the operation. Further, some boatmen, in descending the Weser River, had seen at different points on the banks of the river, a poor naked boy, and had given him something to eat. Lastly, it was ascertained that a widower at Luchtringen had had a dumb child, who, having been lost in the woods in 1723, returned home again. But, on his father's second marriage, was driven out again by his stepmother. Dr. Arbuthnot soon found out that no brilliant discoveries in psychology or anthropology could be expected from the case of this poor idiot. He was therefore placed with a farmer in Hertfordshire, where he continued to live, a rather vegetate, until 1785. Peter was of a middle size, somewhat robust in appearance, and strong, and had a respectable beard. He took the ordinary mixed diet, retaining his early fondness for onions. He liked warmth, and relished a glass of brandy. He always showed the most perfect indifference to the other sex. He could not be taught to speak. The plainest of the few articulate sounds he could utter were Peter, ki sko, and qui ca - the two latter being attempts at pronouncing King George and Queen Caroline. He had a taste for music, and would hum over various medlodies that he had often heard. When an instrumental performance took place, he would jump about in great delight until he was quite tired. He was deficient in one important privilege of our nature -- he was never seen to laugh. Home