Joseph Merrick was sadly born in a time before modern medicine, born into a world where people with deformities were forced to either live life in the shadows or put themselves on display as a novelty, as freaks. Joseph chose the latter. He never received a proper diagnosis for his illness, that caused him to form growths and tumours all over his body, and still to this day scientists can't answer the question fro certain. What was it that the Elephant Man suffered with?