“L’Homme a la Tete de Cire.”

Evening Star, Issue 7188, 16 April 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

“ L’Homme a la Tete de Cire.”

There is to be seen at Landrecies, in the Department of the North (says, the ‘Lancet), an invalid artillery soldier who was wounded in the late Franco-German war, when he was horribly mutilated by the bursting of a Prussian shell. The man’s face was literally blown off, including both eyes, there being left behind some scanty remnants of the osseous and muscular systems. The skull, which was well covered with hair, was left intact,'so that the man had a most hideous appearance. This disfigurement-baa been completely concealed by a mask, which was made for him under the direction of the principal medical officer of Val de Grace; in Paris, whither he had been transferred from the field ambulance. The mask was constructed by a. surgeon dentist named f)elalain. It includes a false palate and a complete set of false teeth, and is so perfect that the functions of respiration and mastication, which were necessarily imperfectly performed, are almost completely restored to their normal condition, and the voice, which was rather husky, has resumed its natural tone. The man speaks distinctly; the sense of sipell, which . had entirely disappeared, has returned, and he -even can play the flute. He wears twos false eyes, simply to fill up the cavities of the orbits, for the parts representing the eyelids in the mask are closed, In fact the mask is so well adapted to what remains pf the real face as to be considered one of the finest specimens pf the prothetic art that could he devised. The man himself, whose name is Mbreau, and who is in perfect health, is looked upon as a living curiosity, and travellers go a good d ea l °ut of their way to see him. H{s face, or rather his mask, is of course without any expression, but his special senses, particularly that of touch, are extremely developed, and he goes by the sobriquet “ L'homme 4 latite cfc, are.” Hp wears the military Cross of Honor, and delights to talk about what he. had gone through during the war. To add to his meagre pension he .sells a small pamphlet containing a fyll description of his wounds, and of the apparatus that has. been so skilfully devised as to render him at least presentable to his fellow beings. ;