lynx-dev automatic gunzip: how to stop?

[James Bence]

I am using lynx 2.7, and I am trying to use perl's CPAN.pm module to download
software.  The CPAN module is calling 'lynx -source URL' to acquire indexes
of the latest software available, and URL is a gzip'ped file.  After pulling
down the file, CPAN.pm rejects it because lynx has already uncompressed it.
The module wants to do the uncompressing.  The module is extensive, and not
easily changed.

Is there a .lynxrc option to prevent lynx from uncompressing gzip'ped files?

I have searched the online docs, lynx-dev archives, etc., and haven't found
anything.  The CHANGES2-6 file in the source says that lynx is looking at
the Content-Encoding header to decide if it should invoke gunzip.  I don't
believe that an entry in .mailcap will help (please correct me!)

thanks,
James