258 DISGUST. Chap. XI. 



contraction of the muscles which draw downwards the 

 corners of the month. 8 



It is remarkable how readily and instantly retching 

 or actual vomiting is induced in some persons by the 

 mere idea of having partaken of any unusual food, as 

 of an animal which is not commonly eaten; although 

 there is nothing in such food to cause the stomach to 

 reject it. When vomiting results, as a reflex action, 

 from some real cause — as from too rich food, or tainted 

 meat, or from an emetic — it does not ensue immediately, 

 but generally after a considerable interval of time. 

 Therefore, to account for retching or vomiting being so 

 quickly and easily excited by a mere idea, the suspicion 

 arises that our progenitors must formerly have had the 

 power (like that possessed by ruminants and some other 

 animals) of voluntarily rejecting food which disagreed 

 with them, or which they thought would disagree with 

 them; and now, though this power has been lost, as far 

 as the will is concerned, it is called into involuntary 

 action, through the force of a formerly well-established 

 habit, whenever the mind revolts at the idea of having 

 partaken of any kind of food, or at anything disgusting. 

 This suspicion receives support from the fact, of which 

 I am assured by Mr. Sutton, that the monkeys in the 

 Zoological Gardens often vomit whilst in perfect health, 

 which looks as if the act were voluntary. We can see 

 that as man is able to communicate by language to his 

 children and others, the knowledge of the kinds of food 

 to be avoided, he would have little occasion to use the 

 faculty of voluntary rejection; so that this power would 

 tend to be lost through disuse. 



8 Duchenne believes that in the eversion of the lower lip, 

 the corners are drawn downwards by the dcprcssores anguli 

 oris. Henle (Handbnch d. Anat. des Menschen, 1858, B. i. s. 

 151) concludes that this is effected by the musculus quadra- 

 tus mcnti. 



