Rumination.

Rumination or merycism is a peculiar neurosis, in which the patient regurgitates and masticates, or "chews his cud" like ruminants. It occurs among hysterical patients, epileptics, and in the feeble-minded. While it rarely affects the patient's health, it is a disgusting habit, and where the patient is mentally capable of being reasoned with, he should be impressed with the disgust with which society views the habit. The treatment, therefore, will be chiefly mental.

The Eclectic Practice of Medicine, 1907, was written by Rolla L. Thomas, M. S., M. D.