The Washington times., 1901-11-03
MANY ILLUMINATING MEN.
Numerous Cases of Persons Who
Possessed Strange Power.

Instances Wherein Human Beings
Chewed the Cud Like Oxcn-Au-
thenfic Cases Citcd-Death Caused
Through Loss of the Strange Habit
/ The report of a man in New Jersey,
| who is able to chew the cud after the
manner of a COW, has awakened good
| deal of interest in scientific circles. Re
search shows, however, that this pc
culiar faculty is by no means as rare
| as one would be inclined to believe, and
| authentic accounts of Eliminating men
| are frequently met with.
Il remember" says Mrs. Piozzi,' in
| her Tour in Italy" "Dr. johnson once
| said that nobody had ever seen very
| strange thing. but 1 had not then seen
Avvocato b, la Wyerhere, at MI
| Ian, and man respected in his profes-
I sion, who actually chews the cud like
| an OK. He is apparently much like any
| other tall, stout man, but has many ex-
| traordinary properties, being eminent
for strength, and possessing a set of
| ribs worthy the attention of anatomists.
| His body, upon the slightest touch, even
| through ali his clothes, throws out cleo
| tric sparks; he can reject his meals
! from his stomach at pleasure, and did
absolutely, in the course of two hours,
go through, to oblige me. the whole OPP
GRAFTON of eating, masticating, swallow
ing, and returning by the mouth large
piece of bread and a peach. With all
this conviction nothing more was want
ing; but 1 obtained, besides, the con-
f,.,,, of
willing likewise to bear testimony of
this strange accidental variety. What
hear of his character is that he is a
low-spirited, nervous man, and l sup
pose his Illuminating moments are
spent in lamenting the peculiarities of
his frame
Fabricius alb Aquapendente records
two cases of ruminating men which
came under his observation. One was
monk, who rejoiced in another bovine
characteristic, his forehead being
adorned with pair Of horns. The
other ruminant lacked such an appen-
dage himself, but his father was
adorned with one horn; he was a
Paduan nobleman, and Fabricius had
the satisfaction of dissecting him, and
proving the falseness of Bartholin's
theory, that human ruminants pos
sessed double stomachs. Lynceus tells
US Of Anthony Recchi, who was obliged
to retire from the dinner table to rumi-
nate undisturbed, and who declared
that the second process of mastication
was sweeter than honey" His son in
herited the same faculty, but with him
- H.
able to defer it's exercise until a con-
venient opportunity. Sennert knew
man similarly qualified, and accounted
for it by attributing it to the fact of his
having been fed on milk warm from the
COW in consequence of the death of his
mother at his birth. Blumenbach says
he knew two men who ruminated their
vegetable food, and found great enjoy
ment in the feat. while one Of them had
the power of doing so or not as he felt
inclined.
In the English philosophical Trans
actions" for 1881, there is to be found
an account by the experienced and
learned Frederick Stare, NJ. d." of a
ruminating man living at Bristol, de-
scribed as person of poor parents, but
of tolerable sense and reason, who had
followed the practice from his earliest
years, and always found temporary
deprivation of the faculty the sure pre-
cursor of illness. He used TO commence
ruminating about quarter of an hour
after meal, and the process usually
occupied him far an hour and a half,
and was attended with greater gratifi-
cation than the first mastication, after
which food always lay heavy in the
lower part Of the throat
The following notice, under date of
October l, 1867, is found in the Annual
Register" I'VE have the following eX-
traordinary account from Winbourne
in Dorsetshire. a few days ago died
here Roger Gill, shoemaker. and one
of our singing men, aged about sixty
seven, remarkable for chewing his meat
or cud twice over. as an OK, sheep, or
COW. He seldom made any breakfast in
his latter days; ne generally dined
about u or o'clock, eat pretty heartily
and quickly, without much chewing or
mastication. lie never drank with his
dinner, but afterward about a pint of
such malt liquor as he could get; but
no sort Of spirituous liquor in any
shape, except a little punch, but never
cared for that. He usually began MS
second chewing about quarter or half
an hour, sometimes later, after dinner;
when every morsel came up successive
ly sweeeter and sweeter to the taste.
The chewing continued usually about
an hour or more and sometimes would
leave him a little while. in which case
he would be sick at stomach troubled
with the heartburn, and foul breath.
Smoking tobacco would sometimes stop
his chewing, but was never attended
with any i'll consequences. But on the
10th of June last the faculty entirely
left him, and the poor man remained in
great torture till the time of his DEATH
Similar cases have been recorded by
Messrs Torbes, Percy, Lawrent, Cul-
lerier. Richie and COPELAND. The latter
published full account of case of
ruminat ton in an English periodical
and afterward observes in his Medical
Dictionary:" Since the publication of
that case, two others, one of them in a
medical man, have been treated by me,
and l have reason to believe that in
stances of partial or occasional rumina-
ton are not so rare in the human sub
ject as is generally supposed"
OLD-TrME PROTECTION.