|
William Beaumont
By Theressa Lemay
In 1822, William Beaumont was an army surgeon on Mackinac Island. He was
the surgeon called to tend to Alexis St. Martin who was a Canadian trapper
that had been shot. St. Martin was standing outside a trading post with
some men when a drunk started to brag about his shotgun. It is unknown
exactly how it happened but the shotgun was discharged directly into St.
Martin’s stomach. St. Martin fell to the ground screaming while his shirt
was on fire. The blood that was pouring out of his stomach eventually
put out the fire. A hole was made in St. Martin’s stomach and when observed,
Beaumont could see chewed food inside.
Dr. Beaumont took one look at St. Martin and thought he would definitely
be dead within the hour. To Dr. Beaumont’s surprise St. Martin survived.
When St. Martin was well enough to begin eating solid food, Beaumont had
to plug the hole in his stomach with lint or the food would escape. After
some time, St. Martin’s opening
began to heal and close up, except for the hole in the stomach. A flap
of the stomach liner that could be lifted covered the hole and one could
still see inside the stomach. He would have this hole for the rest of
his life.
When the fort commander wanted to send St. Martin home, Beaumont took
him into his home so he could continue his observations. At this point
Dr. Beaumont became very self-centered. No one had yet discovered the
exact process of digestion. If he discovered this he would gain plenty
of fame.
Beaumont had become the first person to observe human digestion as it
occurs in the stomach. Beaumont connected food to a string and inserted
it into the hole in the stomach to determine the time it took to digest
various foods. He also removed gastric juices from St. Martin’s stomach
to study. He observed the rate of digestion in the vial of gastric juice
and compared it to the digestion that occurred in St. Martin’s stomach.
The digestion in the stomach was five times faster than the digestion
in the vial. The experiments showed that gastric juice had solvent properties
and required heat to digest food.
Dr. Beaumont observed that dry weather increased the stomach temperature
and humid weather lowered it. He also found that exercise helped the production
and release of gastric juices. St. Martin complained that these tests
were very painful but Beaumont did not care. St. Martin eventually got
very sick and Beaumont had to quit the experiment because he realized
that the results were not accurate due to the sickness. He realized that
being angry could hinder one’s digestion. Beaumont continued the experiment
seven days later when St. Martin was well.
Beaumont became famous due to his findings on digestion. He wrote a book
on his findings, "Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juices and
the Physiology of Digestion". He treated St. Martin like an object that
he showed off. Beaumont took St. Martin to New York to boast to various
medical professionals. St. Martin ran away and it took Beaumont four years
to find him. He was able to bribe St. Martin to return with him and continue
the experiment. St. Martin ran away again two years later. Beaumont got
St. Martin enrolled in the army where he was under Beaumont’s control.
If St. Martin tried to run away again he would be imprisoned.
St. Martin won out in the end. He was able to spend the last fifteen years
of his life in peace. Beaumont died fifteen years before him.
QUESTIONS:
How do you feel about the way St. Martin was treated by Beaumont?
What types of laws are in place today to prevent this type of treatment
on humans or animals?
How can scientists’ pursuit for fame have negative results?
REFERENCES
Crawford, Ian. 1983. Patterns in biology. McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
Epstein, Sam & Epstein, Beryl. 1978. Dr. Beaumont and the man with
the hole in his stomach. Longman Canada Ltd., Toronto.
Horsman, Reginald. 1996. Frontier doctor: William Beaumont. America’s
first great medical scientist. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.
http://www.james.com/beaumont/dr_life.htm
|