520 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 
rantable,’’ for the man himself had acquired the bias of 
looking upon this phenomenon as an integral part of his 
physiological make-up, and seemed to be rather surprised 
when I called his attention to the striking analogy existing 
between himself and the quadrupeds that ‘* chew their eud.”’ 
On repeated cross-questioning, I ascertained that the case had 
never before been placed on record. 
The family history fails to record the existence of another 
merycole, or of any pronounced neuropathic tendency, but a 
weak stomach appears to have been a family heir-loom, for 
both parents, one aunt and a brother had been or are pos- 
sessors of such a stomach. The patient is a man of that wiry 
type, the delicacy of appearance of which, is belied by a re- 
markable amount of physical endurance and nerve power. 
His height is 5' 5”; his weight is with slight temporary varia- 
tions about 120 lbs., pointing to a constant state of nutrition. 
He never used tobacco in any form, and does not indulge in 
alcoholic beverages, except in an occasional glass of watered 
white wine. He cannot remember of having ever passed 
through any sickness of a serious nature, and at present does 
not reveal symptoms of any disorder of the nervous system, 
except an atony or muscular insufficiency of his stomach, and 
particularly that of its cardiac sphincter, a condition usually 
classified with the disturbances of function or neuroses. 
My patient’s recollections of the dawn of his ruminating 
life carries him back to the fields and woods of his native 
Scotland, where he, a Jad of twelve, indulged in the ingestion 
of unmeasured quantities of bramble berries. To this indulg- 
ence, he ascribes the establishment of the ruminating habit, 
acknowledging at the same time, to have been always a fast 
eater, which by inference fastens upon him the vice of insuf- 
ficient mastication. During twenty-five years, his food had 
come up to a greater or less extent after every meal, to be 
subjected to further mastication, and then to be swallowed 
again. This procedure is often repeatedly gone through 
with from afew to about one hundred minutes after the 
meal. The grosser portions of the food are selected with 
remarkable precision: meat and _ seed-fruits seem 0 
be particularly prone to be returned, vegetables and 
