Ballymahon
3 January 1873
⟨M⟩y dear [Willie],1
We have a man at present in the Workhouse named Patrick Walsh an Idiot, who has the extraordinary power of apparently chewing his cud—2 I have seen him ⟨m⟩yself on more than one occasion regurgitating food from the stomac⟨h⟩ into the mouth about fif⟨teen⟩ minutes after it was take⟨n⟩ and repeat the process of deglutition & throwing ba⟨ck⟩ the food five or six times in the space of ten minutes.
The stomach of man in the natural state is a simple pouch, but in peculiar cases I con⟨jecture⟩ there is a second pouch caused probably by some ⟨ir⟩regularity in the distribution ⟨o⟩f the circular & longitudinal muscular fibres of the stomach— If the unfortunate man should die I would make an application for permission to make a post mortem examination ⟨fo⟩r in no other way could a satisfactory explanation of this wonderful case be given—
with kindest regards to all | Believe me to remain | Very Sincerely yrs. | F. W. Smartt
Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8721,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on