A post on the Danny Dutch blog shares the story of Charles Domery, an 18th century Polish soldier who ate just about anything.
According to legend, the 6′ 3″ soldier’s strangely large appetite appeared insatiable. He reportedly ate raw meat, whole melons including the rind, raw cow udder, and raw grass. Despite receiving double rations in the French Revolutionary Army, he allegedly devoured 174 raw cats (dead or alive) in a single year, leaving only the skin and bones. While serving aboard a French sailing vessel, he attempted to eat the severed leg of a fellow sailor injured in battle.
While a prisoner of war, he ate rats and candles, and his fellow prisoners’ medications. During an experiment, he was fed raw meat and candles, but showed no ill effects, maintaining a regular pulse and skin temperature. The cause of his appetite and ability to eat literal garbage is unknown, as is his eventual fate.
Was Domery human, magical, or alien? Was the cause of his condition natural, demonic, or something else? Fans of the comic characters in the Legion of Super-Heroes might find Domery an antecedent of the hero Matter-Eater Lad, who could also eat anything, including metals, rocks, and energy. What else might Domery have eaten during his lifetime? What if the French had aimed his voracious appetite at the enemy? What happens next?
