Sir,

I have not yet had an opportunity of reading your recent work: “The Expression of the emotions in man and animals,” but in a review of it in the Times of 13^th. inst.¹ I notice this extract: “Therefore the suspicion arises that our progenitors must formerly have had the power of voluntarily rejecting food which disagreed with them.”² Your use of the word “suscipion,” with the reviewer’s ⁠⟨⁠in⁠⟩⁠sinuation about “the use of the imagination ⁠⟨⁠in scien⁠⟩⁠ce,”³ lead me to infer you hav⁠⟨⁠e⁠⟩⁠ not given, and may not have, any instances of this power, and I have therefore much pleasure in giving you the following case:—

One of my Father’s male servants, a strong, healthy Scotch lad of about 18 years of age, possessed this power in an extraordinary degree. I never saw him “throw up” (our lowland Scotch phrase for vomit, and the action in question) food because it disagreed with him, but I have seen him do it many times for our amusement. I have given him many a pocketful of fruit on the condition that he would “throw up” a portion of it. It was always done with apparent ease, and he assured us it caused him no pain or uneasiness—his only objection being that of parting with the food. On one occasion he was with us in a search for wild raspberries; and, while I was telling the other boys of this singular powe⁠⟨⁠r of his⁠⟩⁠ he joined us. We were standing on a bridge, and I remember distinctly that the very moment I asked him to do it before my companions, he bent down toward the ledge and performed it. It was done instantaneously; and I believe he could do it at any moment after eating. This youth, therefore, assuredly possessed the power of voluntarily rejecting food.

You have this on the authority of | Yours very truly | James Dickson, | Manager of the Northern Whig Newspaper, Belfast.