In 1976, a local village chief found a human child frolicking with three wolf cubs in a forest in the Sultanpur district near Lucknow, India. According to later reports by the Press Trust of India domestic news agency, the boy’s nails had grown into claw. Estimated to be about 8 years old, he had thick body hair with tangled, matter hair on his head.

Because the boy resembled a bear, the chief called him Bhaloo. Although the name was subsequently changed to Bhaskar, many people simply called him "wolf boy" because they believed that he had been reared by a wolf.

The chief had hoped to civilise the wolf boy but his efforts were unsuccessful. Eventually Bhaskar entered Prem Nivas, a home for the destitute and poor operated by the Nmissionaries for Charity in Lucknow. He remained there until he died in 1985.

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It’s generally believed that when people lose the ability to see or hear, their other sense become somehow more accurate. But in several documented cases, the lost sense has actually been shown to relocate.

Three months after a 14-year-old became quite ill, she completely lost her sight. Even though her eyes were non-functional, however, the girl claimed she could see. Her mystified parents took her to see a doctor who conducted a series of tests to see if she was telling the truth.

The neurologist placed blindfolds over the girl’s eyes and then placed objects in front of her. Amazingly, she could in fact see them, identifying colours and even reading a letter. A bright light shone into her ear lobe, however, caused her to wince in pain. And when the doctor poked his finger at the tip of the girl’s nose, she angrily exclaimed, "Are you trying to blind me?"

Evidently, the girl’s sense of vision had relocated to the tip of her nose as well as her ear lobe. But more than her sight had been transposed. Apparently, she could also smell through her chin.

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At first, it might have seemed like an entertaining gift, but A.W. Underwood grew tired of his ability to set objects aflame by simply breathing on them. it was, after all, a talent he had to guard carefully. And despite months of test, and the eventual celebrity status he achieved, not a single expert could explain what caused the bizarre phenomenon.

According to L.C. Woodman, the first physician to examine the fire-starter, when Underwood held items such as a cotton handkerchief or dry leaves against his mouth, they would burst into flames in a matter of seconds. The doctor rinsed out the man’s mouth with various solutions, and made him wear rubber gloves. No matter how rigorous the examination, nobody could find any trace of trickery.

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In 1970, French anthropologist Jean-Claude Armen discovered a wild child living among a herd of gazelles in the Spanish Sahara. The dark-haired, approximately 10-year-old boy galloped in gigantic bounds with the best of the species, and he seemed perfectly adapted to his environment, living among the gazelles as if he were one of them. although the boy was never captured, Armen was convinced that he could not have been retarded, believing he could not survive so successfully if he were.

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Nathan Coker was born in 1814, a slave. His owner’s mistreatment prompted the discover of his unusual gift. One afternoon, when the cook was out of the kitchen, Nathan reached into a vat of boiling water, pulled out a cooking dumpling and popped it into his mouth. He then realised that he did not feel any pain, not on his hand or his mouth. He soon found that he could touch and eat any food, no matter how hot. He’d drink the fat off the top of boiling water and would even drink down scalding coffee. He claimed, in fact, that it was cold liquids and food that gave him the greatest discomfort. After he was free, Nathan went to work as a blacksmith where his unique ability came in quite handy. As Nathan told it, ‘I often take my iron out of the forge with my hand when red hot, but it doesn’t burn.’

As word of Nathan’s gift spread, he was invited to give a demonstration before prominent Easton, Maryland citizens including two newspaper editors and two physicians. The feat was even reported in the pages of the New York Herald in 1871. According to eye-witnesses, Coker placed an iron shovel, heated until it was white hot, on the soles of his bare feet. After the shovel was re-heated, he ran his tongue over it. lead pellets were also melted into liquid and poured into Coker’s hand and the blacksmith then poured the substance into his mouth. As the astonished audience watched, Nathan rolled the molten lead around his teeth and gums until it had solidified.

After each feat, the physicians examined Nathan, but found no indication that his flesh had been affected.

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The Reverend J.A.L Singh had heard many tales about the man-beasts said to live among the wolves. And the wolves, the people said, made their den in a defunct termite mound. After Singh himself saw one of the creatures, he decided to investigate further, returning to the site with a hired crew to dig into the mound. It was not long before several wolves escaped their threatened den. One of them attacked the crew who shot and killed it. with the wolves gone, however, the crew made a shocking discovery. Deep within the mound, they found 2 human children, one about 2 years old, the other approximately eight. The two little girls were curled up with two wolf cubs as if they were all siblings.

Singh took the girls, who he named Kamala and Amala back to the orphanage he administered. The feral children walked on their hands and feet, as if they were four-legged animals. They howled and would only eat meat. And civilised life was fatal for them: Amala, the younger child, died less than a year after being rescued. Nine years later, Kamal, having learned to walk upright and able to speak a few simple phrases, was also dead.

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