Cold Open

It’s early on January 8th, 1800, in a village in Aveyron, a district of southern France.

In a tiny workshop, a middle-aged man leans over the hearth to light a fire. He’s a cloth dyer by trade, and he has a long day’s work ahead of him. But first he wants to make himself a little more comfortable. It’s a cold morning and even inside the workshop it’s barely above freezing.

As the fire takes, he smiles with pleasure, flexing his fingers in its heat.

Behind him, the workshop door creaks open. A gust of cold air scatters the flames in the hearth. The dyer scowls, thinking it’s just the wind and he turns to kick the door shut. But then he cries out.

Crawling through the door, and into the workshop is a small boy. At first glance, he looks to be around nine or ten years old, but he’s so thin it’s hard to tell. A mass of dark, matted hair covers his head. His nails are long, like claws. And his naked body is caked in dirt.

The child stares up at the cloth dyer. The two of them saying nothing as they wearily eye each other. But then the cloth dyer catches the boy's eyes dart to the workbench, where an apple gleams in the firelight there.

The man picks up the fruit and offers it to the boy. But again, he just stares. So, the dyer holds out the apple, urging the boy to take it. But still the boy doesn’t speak, and doesn’t move. Eventually, the dyer puts the apple on the ground—and rolls it across the workshop floor.

Now the boy moves. He snatches up the apple and takes a large bite, then another, and another. He eats the entire thing, seeds, stem and core. But he never takes his eyes off the man. The cloth dyer stares right back at him. This child is like nothing he’s ever seen before. He’s not really a boy at all. He’s more like an animal.

The discovery of the feral child in the south of France will shock the entire country. After the boy is taken into safe keeping, there will be much debate about his future. Many experts of the time will consider him subhuman and incapable of learning. But one physician won’t give up on the wildling. His efforts won’t just ensure that the boy is properly cared for. His work will also deepen science’s understanding of language and human development, an impact that will continue long after the so-called Wolf Boy of Aveyron emerged from the wild on January 8th, 1800.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is January 8th, 1800: The Wolf Boy of Aveyron.

Act One

It’s January 9th, 1800, in Aveyron, France, one day after the discovery of a feral child.

Constans Saint Esteve, a local government official, enters the house of an old widow and is ushered into her parlor.

This widow usually leads a quiet life. But yesterday, she was asked to take care of the child who was found in the local cloth dyer’s workshop. Ever since, her house has been busy with people coming to look at the boy. But unlike the others, Constans isn’t just here to stare.

In the parlor, Constans sees the boy sitting on his haunches by the fire. He’s still naked and covered in the filth of the forest. The widow apologizes, saying that she’s tried to wash and clothe him, but the boy won’t let her.

Constans crouches down near the fire too and the boy shuffles back warily as Constans tries to inspect him. The boy’s thick, long hair and claw-like fingernails suggest that he’s been living alone for years. Then, Constans stands up and declares to the baffled widow that this child must be the “Wolf Boy” of local legend.

Three years ago and, around 50 miles from Aveyron, locals first spotted a naked child in the forest. He evaded all attempts to capture him, and the peasants began calling him “Wolf Boy”. But a few months ago, he vanished. People began to think he was dead—until yesterday, when he appeared at the cloth dyer’s workshop.

And now that the boy has been rescued from the wild, it’s Constans’s job as the local government commissioner to decide what to do with him next. First, Constans enquires whether there are any families with missing children in the area. Two fathers who have lost their sons are asked to meet the boy—but both say the child isn’t theirs. So, with no one coming forward to claim the boy, Constans decides to send him to the local orphanage. It’s a good choice because the director there also happens to be an amateur biologist.

At the orphanage Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre, undertakes the first medical examination of the child. The Wolf Boy has not gone through puberty yet, but he has his adult teeth, so Pierre concludes that he must be around ten years old. The boy also doesn’t speak and doesn’t seem to understand anything that is said to him. Pierre takes this as proof that he must have been abandoned in the forest since he was very small, perhaps as young as three or four years old.

Growing up with that level of hardship and isolation, it’s little surprise that the boy struggles in the orphanage. He refuses to sleep in a bed, and he tears off any clothes that are put on him. He only seems happy when he’s outside, and it’s not long before he tries to run away. He doesn’t make it far before he is apprehended, but the attempted escape makes Pierre realize that he can’t care for the boy properly at his orphanage. He needs to find a permanent home for the child that can better cater to his complex needs.

So, in July 1800, six months after his discovery, the boy is put on a coach to the French capital, Paris. Although the boy can hear perfectly well, it's the city’s School for the Deaf that takes him in. Principal Roch-Ambroise Sicard is a renowned scientist and teacher, and it is hoped that he will be able to succeed in instructing the boy where others have failed.

But Roch-Ambroise is not really interested in teaching the Wolf Boy to speak for the child’s own sake. He’s more interested in using the boy as a kind of scientific experiment, one to investigate the differences between humans and animals, and between civilized society and the wild natural world.

But Roch-Ambroise is left disappointed by his new student. The boy proves totally unresponsive to instruction, and Roch-Ambroise eventually grows so frustrated, he gives up on the child. He shows little interest in the boy from that moment on and just lets him roam the hallways of the school unsupervised. The child is now less a scientific experiment and more a curiosity for school visitors to gawk at. And if anyone questions the boy’s treatment, Roch-Ambroise haughtily declares that he has proved himself little more than an animal, and is incapable of learning.

This judgment from such an esteemed scientist means that the boy seems destined to spend the rest of his life excluded from civilization. But one man will break the consensus. Determined to rescue the boy from a life of miserable confinement, a young physician will take the so-called Wolf Child of Aveyron into his own home. And there, he won’t treat the child as a science experiment or a freak show. He won’t ask the boy to prove that he’s a human being. Instead, this doctor will treat him like he already is one.

Act Two

It’s August 1800 in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, eight months after the discovery of the so-called Wolf Boy of Aveyron.

26-year-old Jean Itard strolls along a gravel path lined with flowerbeds and neat lawns. A few years ago, this was part of a royal palace. Now, the French monarchy has been overthrown, and the garden has been opened up to the people of Paris.

Strolling through the garden, Jean spots a familiar figure dressed in a simple nightshirt. It’s the Wolf Boy of Aveyron. Every day, staff from the nearby School for the Deaf bring him here for exercise and fresh air. Jean is excited to see him and moves a little closer. He’s a newly qualified physician and has just been appointed as the school’s doctor, so he’s eager to meet its most famous resident.

Jean stands a short distance away and watches the boy play on the grass. Although the staff with him occasionally shout instructions, the boy seems to pay them no attention. Frustrated, eventually, one of the staff roughly grabs the boy who responds by baring his teeth and snarling. It’s behavior that matches what most Parisians are saying about the boy—that he’s little more than an animal.

Over the past several decades, French philosophers have developed new theories about the nature of humanity. Thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Rene Descartes has suggested that humans do not have some form of divine gift that separates them from animals. But instead, humans have language and empathy, and that's what makes them exceptional. The Wolf Boy, though, seems to show neither of those qualities.

But as the staff member from the School for the Deaf, wrestles with the boy in order to control him, Jean notices something - a thick line of scar tissue running around his throat.

This scar makes Jean wonder, if there are physical reasons why the child can’t speak. And if that’s the case, the boy might not be a lost cause. He just needs to find an alternative way to communicate.

So back at the school, Jean offers to take charge of the boy’s education. Principal Roch-Ambroise Sicard is only too happy to let Jean take the problematic child off his hands. So, over the next few weeks, Jean splits his time between his regular duties and compiling a special training program for his most unusual student.

Jean suspects that the boy acts like an animal greatly because he’s treated like an animal. So, Jean decides to treat him like a small child instead. He takes him into his own home and gives the boy a name: Victor. He arranges for Victor to be cared for by a nurse named Madame Guérin. She essentially becomes his foster mother, feeding, washing, and clothing the reluctant boy with great patience. Over time, she wins Victor’s trust and gently begins encouraging him to complete these simple tasks for himself.

Meanwhile, Jean tries to teach Victor the basics of speech and language. And after six months, Jean proudly reports that Victor has made some progress, reading and understanding two basic phrases. But he still can’t say them.

Despite Jean’s best efforts, Victor cannot overcome his struggles with speech. The best he can manage are a few guttural sounds, but nothing that consistently matches an identifiable word. Jean begins to suspect that the wound on Victor’s neck has permanently damaged his larynx so he can’t form intelligible sounds.

But speech is only one of the defining characteristics of humanity identified by philosophers. The other is an understanding of emotions. And here, Victor makes clearer progress.

When Madame Guérin bursts into tears after the death of her husband, it’s not Jean who moves to comfort her first. It’s Victor, surprising everyone in the house by giving Madame Guérin a hug.

But despite his improvement, Victor will still be considered subhuman by most Parisians, and he’ll never be accepted by mainstream society. Instead, he’ll remain in the care of Madame Guérin for the rest of his life. By the time of his death from pneumonia in 1828, the once-famous Wolf Child of Aveyron will have almost been forgotten. But his impact on the man who treated him, and the medical advances he inspired, will continue to change the lives of others for decades to come.

Act Three

It’s 1825 in Paris, France, 25 years after Victor was discovered in Aveyron.

Now 51 years old, Jean Itard shows a well-dressed noblewoman into his office. The Marquise de Dampierre takes a seat, nervously straightening the folds in her dress. Then gently, Jean begins asking her questions. But as she answers, the Marquise blurts out several shocking swear words. She clamps her hand over her mouth, her eyes welling up with tears. Haltingly, she explains that she can’t help it. These awful words just come out of her, and she begs Jean for help.

Following his treatment of Victor, Jean gained a reputation as one of France’s top experts in language development. It means that Jean’s medical practice has become a successful business. Today’s patient is the prominent noblewoman. But Jean is at a loss. He can’t understand what may be causing the Marquise’s outbursts. This is one case where he can’t help his patient, but Jean makes sure he writes down his observations carefully and adds them to his large catalog of medical records.

Decades later, these meticulous notes will help others finally find an answer to the mystery of the Marquise’s illness. In the 1880s, a young physician named Georges Gilles de la Tourette will rediscover Jean’s notes on the Marquise. They’ll help Georges understand the disorder he’s studying, one that will eventually be named after him: Tourette’s syndrome.

Jean’s careful work will continue to help patients long after his death. But it is one of his earliest cases that will remain his most famous. And in the 20th century, scholars will raise questions about Victor’s story. They’ll doubt any child as young as four could survive in the woods alone. And instead, they’ll suspect that Victor suffered from a developmental disorder and was likely physically abused before being abandoned. But by helping to transform the science of language development, the impact Victor had was the same, however he came to the cloth dyer's workshop that morning, after years alone in the wild on January 8th, 1800.

Outro

Next on History Daily. January 9th, 2007. Steve Jobs stuns the technology world when he unveils Apple’s newest product: the iPhone.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Edited by Dorian Merina.

Managing producer, Emily Burke. Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.