From Roger Moorhouse, a historian and author, whose interest in the story of Peter the Wild Boy is the result of a misspent childhood

http://www.historytoday.com/roger-moorhouse/peter-wild-boy

"In the summer of 1725 a peculiar youth was found in the forest of Hertswold near Hameln in northern Germany. Aged about 12, he walked on all fours and fed on grass and leaves. ‘A naked, brownish, blackhaired creature’, he would run up trees when approached and could utter no intelligible sound. The latest in a long line of feral children – in turn celebrated, shunned and cursed through the ages – ‘The Wild Boy of Hameln’ would be the first to achieve real fame."