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Peter the Wild Boy's condition revealed 200 years after his death
Feral German child who was kept as a pet in George I's court
had Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, research into portrait suggests
the rest of this hugely interesting story, including the deciphering of the clues
leading to the opinion that Peter had Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome, at Guardian link above
Feral German child who was kept as a pet in George I's court
had Pitt-Hopkins syndrome, research into portrait suggests
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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the rest of this hugely interesting story, including the deciphering of the clues
leading to the opinion that Peter had Pitt-Hopkins Syndrome, at Guardian link above