214 
RUMINATION IN THE HUMAN SUBJECT. 
mouth for a second mastication. This act of rumination I have no 
doubt he continues until he has brought all the solid parts of his 
food into a semi-fluid state. He seems to enjoy the process of 
rumination more than his meal ; as, in the latter, it is hastily 
devoured, whilst in the former he seems to be quiet, calm, and 
pleased. Excitement or alarm, or any mistrust or attention to him, 
will make him suspend the act ; but as soon as such causes are 
absent, he again returns to rumination, chewing the food over again. 
Rumination is peculiar only to animals which are classed under 
the order ruminantia, herbivora, possessing a plurality of stomachs. 
In the ox, the food does not return again to the same receptacle 
from which it is regurgitated. Rumination therefore in man must 
differ in this respect, as it is highly improbable there is more than 
one stomach in man-ruminants, but the comparative repose and 
quiet in each is not dissimilar during the act. The reason, speaking 
physiologically, why this man-ruminant refuses animal food, may 
be from the change effected in the stomach during digestion, whereby 
something nauseous is eliminated, rendering the pellet returned to 
his mouth disagreeable to the taste, whilst a diet purely vegetable 
during the digestive process may generate a saccharine agent, and 
thus render its rumination more pleasing to him. Some cases are 
recorded in which the act of rumination in man is one of a painful 
effort, attended with spasmodic and other convulsive signs, effusion 
of tears, and the eyes bursting from their orbit. It is not the case 
with the one I have detailed. Many of the readers of The Lancet 
can now theorize on the subject of rumination in man. I have 
supplied the outlines of the case as near as I can. 
Comparative anatomists agree that all ruminant animals are 
quadrupeds, “ viviparous,’’ and have four stomachs ; but in the 
case of this poor idiot there is an exception to the general rule, 
which can only be determined by an examination after death. 
Diversity exists as to the relative quality of the food for rumination 
in man and the ox : the latter scarcely, if ever, returns farinaceous 
food or boiled bulbous roots, as by the first mastication and the 
action of the paunch they are reduced sufficiently to a pultaceous 
mass ; the comminuting process is only required the second time 
when staminaceous food forms their diet, whilst in man who ru- 
minates animal food is rejected, and bulbous food is chosen for re- 
mastication, as is clearly exemplified in this case. The contractile 
power of his stomach seems to be very great, as when teazed or 
irritated he will eject the fluid contents of his stomach to a con- 
siderable distance through his mouth. Tn so doing he must make 
the oesophagus a passive tube, as no resistance seems to be offered 
by it. In concluding this most interesting case, I can only say it 
