German feral child Peter the Wild Boy had Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, expert opines

The condition that affected Peter the Wild Boy, a feral child found abandoned in a German forest and kept as a pet at the courts of George I and II, has been identified more than 200 years after his death.

Peter's charming smile, seen in his portrait painted in the 1720s by William Kent on the king's grand staircase at Kensington Palace, was the vital clue.
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"Certainly this was enough to explain why he was abandoned by his family, and once captured in the forest like a wild animal, why he was thrown into the local house of correction with the vagrants and thieves," said [historian Lucy] Worsley.

"He was actually quite lucky that King George I heard about him, and summoned him to court, even though there he was treated like a performing dog rather than a damaged little boy."
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Although he was treated kindly by his guardian, the Scottish doctor John Arbuthnot – by his side in the painting – he never learned to speak more than his name, and he wore a brass collar like a slave or a dog so he could be restored to his "owners" if he wandered off.
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As choking black smoke and soaring flames engulfed the workhouse on the outskirts of Norwich, an astonishing sight greeted those who had come to rescue its terrified inmates.

Among the poor souls who had escaped the inferno was a strange half-human figure silhouetted against the burning building.
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Before long, he was coaxed by the locals to come timidly towards them, and they were able to take care of him. As they puzzled over his identity in the days to come, they found that he could speak — but he could say only two things: strangled versions of the names Peter and King George.
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