Following this incident, Tarrare was desperate to avoid further military service, and returned to the hospital, telling Percy that he would attempt any possible cure for his appetite.
[19] Percy treated him with
laudanum without success; further treatments with
wine vinegar and
tobacco pills were likewise unsuccessful.
[17][19] Following these failures, Percy fed Tarrare large quantities of soft-
boiled eggs, but this also failed to suppress his appetite.
[20] Efforts to keep him on any kind of controlled diet failed; he would sneak out of the hospital to scavenge for
offal outside butchers' shops and to fight stray dogs for carrion in gutters, alleys and rubbish heaps.
[2][17][20] He was also caught several times within the hospital drinking from patients undergoing
bloodletting, and attempting to eat the bodies in the hospital mortuary.
[2][17][20] Other doctors believed that Tarrare was mentally ill and pressed for him to be transferred to a
lunatic asylum, but Percy was keen to continue his experiments and Tarrare remained in the military hospital.
[20]
After some time, a 14-month-old child disappeared from the hospital, and Tarrare was immediately suspected. Percy was unable or unwilling to defend him, and the hospital staff chased Tarrare from the hospital, to which he never returned.
[17][20]