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Everybody knows what happened on this day in 1944. Or if you don't, shame on you. So I'll leave that to the big news media.
On this day in 1822, Alexis St Martin was accidentally shot in the stomach. St. Martin was a n employee of the American Fur Company on Mackinac Island in Michigan. He was the victim of a shotgun blast of buck shot that injured his ribs and stomach.
He was treat by Dr. William Beaumont, an Army surgeon stationed at Fort Mackinac, who expected St. Martin to die. He didn't, but Beaumont explains in a later paper that the shot blew off fragments of St. Martin's muscles and broke a few of his ribs. After bleeding him and giving him a cathartic, Beaumont marked St. Martin's progress. For the next 17 days, all food he ate re-emerged from his new hole. Finally after 17 days, the food began to stay in St. Martin's stomach and his bowels began to return to their natural functions.
When the wound healed itself, the edge of the hole in the stomach had attached itself to the edge of the hole in the skin, creating a permanent gastric fistula. There was very little scientific understanding of digestion at the time and Beaumont recognized the opportunity he had in St. Martin – he could literally watch the processes of digestion by dangling food on a string into St. Martin's stomach, then every few hours pulling it out to observe to what extent it had been digested. Beaumont also extracted a sample of gastric acid from St. Martin's stomach for analysis. He continued to experiment on St. Martin off and on until 1833, performing an estimated 200 experiments in 10 years.
Alexis St. Martin allowed the experiments to be conducted, not as an act to repay Beaumont for keeping him alive, but rather because Beaumont had the illiterate St. Martin sign a contract to work as a servant. Some of the experiments were painful to St. Martin, for example when Beaumont had placed sacks of food in the stomach, Beaumont noted: "the boy complained of some pain and uneasiness at the breast." Other symptoms St. Martin felt during experiments were a sense of weight and distress at the epigastric fossa and slight vertigo and dimness of vision
In September of 1825, Alexis St. Martin finally had enough of this and ran away from Dr. Beaumont, moving to Canada. Beaumont had him captured for breach of contract and returned to continue to exhibit him and perform his research. Beaumont also used samples of stomach acid taken out of St. Martin to "digest" bits of food in cups. This led to the important discovery that the stomach acid, and not solely the mashing, pounding and squeezing of the stomach, digests the food into nutrients the stomach can use; in other words, digestion was primarily a chemical process and not a mechanical one.
Beaumont published the account of his experiments in 1838 as Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, and the Physiology of Digestion. Beaumont drew 51 conclusions about digestion based on his observations of Alexis St. Martin and his related research. Many of Beaumont's ideas were revolutionary for their time. He determined that vegetables were digested more slowly than meat, that milk coagulated early in the digestive process, and that digestion is aided by a churning motion within the stomach. Beaumont's research into gastric juices was cutting edge. His work confirmed William Prout's theory that gastric juices contained hydrochloric acid, and he discovered further that gastric juice was excreted by the stomach lining.
As an army doctor, Beaumont was posted to the Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri in 1834. He became Professor of Surgery in the Medical Department of Saint Louis University in 1837 and resigned from the army in 1839. St. Martin and Beaumont had finally parted ways, but Beaumont repeatedly tried repeatedly to get St. Martin to move to St. Louis. Washiington University library has a letter from St. Martin to Beaumont, written on June 26, 1834 from Berthier, Canada, in which St. Martin refuses to return due to his wife's objections.
Beaumont died in 1853 as a result of slipping on ice covered steps. He has become known as the father of gastric physiology, and copies of his papers are held at both Washington University and at the National Library of Medicine.
Alexis St. Martin died at Saint-Thomas, Quebec in 1880. His family delayed his burial until the body began to decompose in order to prevent his "resurrection" by medical men, some of whom wished to perform an autopsy.
In the way of posthumous recognition, the William Beaumont Army Medical Center has an Alexis St. Martin Dining Facility.
On this day in 1822, Alexis St Martin was accidentally shot in the stomach. St. Martin was a n employee of the American Fur Company on Mackinac Island in Michigan. He was the victim of a shotgun blast of buck shot that injured his ribs and stomach.
He was treat by Dr. William Beaumont, an Army surgeon stationed at Fort Mackinac, who expected St. Martin to die. He didn't, but Beaumont explains in a later paper that the shot blew off fragments of St. Martin's muscles and broke a few of his ribs. After bleeding him and giving him a cathartic, Beaumont marked St. Martin's progress. For the next 17 days, all food he ate re-emerged from his new hole. Finally after 17 days, the food began to stay in St. Martin's stomach and his bowels began to return to their natural functions.
When the wound healed itself, the edge of the hole in the stomach had attached itself to the edge of the hole in the skin, creating a permanent gastric fistula. There was very little scientific understanding of digestion at the time and Beaumont recognized the opportunity he had in St. Martin – he could literally watch the processes of digestion by dangling food on a string into St. Martin's stomach, then every few hours pulling it out to observe to what extent it had been digested. Beaumont also extracted a sample of gastric acid from St. Martin's stomach for analysis. He continued to experiment on St. Martin off and on until 1833, performing an estimated 200 experiments in 10 years.
Alexis St. Martin allowed the experiments to be conducted, not as an act to repay Beaumont for keeping him alive, but rather because Beaumont had the illiterate St. Martin sign a contract to work as a servant. Some of the experiments were painful to St. Martin, for example when Beaumont had placed sacks of food in the stomach, Beaumont noted: "the boy complained of some pain and uneasiness at the breast." Other symptoms St. Martin felt during experiments were a sense of weight and distress at the epigastric fossa and slight vertigo and dimness of vision
In September of 1825, Alexis St. Martin finally had enough of this and ran away from Dr. Beaumont, moving to Canada. Beaumont had him captured for breach of contract and returned to continue to exhibit him and perform his research. Beaumont also used samples of stomach acid taken out of St. Martin to "digest" bits of food in cups. This led to the important discovery that the stomach acid, and not solely the mashing, pounding and squeezing of the stomach, digests the food into nutrients the stomach can use; in other words, digestion was primarily a chemical process and not a mechanical one.
Beaumont published the account of his experiments in 1838 as Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, and the Physiology of Digestion. Beaumont drew 51 conclusions about digestion based on his observations of Alexis St. Martin and his related research. Many of Beaumont's ideas were revolutionary for their time. He determined that vegetables were digested more slowly than meat, that milk coagulated early in the digestive process, and that digestion is aided by a churning motion within the stomach. Beaumont's research into gastric juices was cutting edge. His work confirmed William Prout's theory that gastric juices contained hydrochloric acid, and he discovered further that gastric juice was excreted by the stomach lining.
As an army doctor, Beaumont was posted to the Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri in 1834. He became Professor of Surgery in the Medical Department of Saint Louis University in 1837 and resigned from the army in 1839. St. Martin and Beaumont had finally parted ways, but Beaumont repeatedly tried repeatedly to get St. Martin to move to St. Louis. Washiington University library has a letter from St. Martin to Beaumont, written on June 26, 1834 from Berthier, Canada, in which St. Martin refuses to return due to his wife's objections.
Beaumont died in 1853 as a result of slipping on ice covered steps. He has become known as the father of gastric physiology, and copies of his papers are held at both Washington University and at the National Library of Medicine.
Alexis St. Martin died at Saint-Thomas, Quebec in 1880. His family delayed his burial until the body began to decompose in order to prevent his "resurrection" by medical men, some of whom wished to perform an autopsy.
In the way of posthumous recognition, the William Beaumont Army Medical Center has an Alexis St. Martin Dining Facility.
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