430 BEAUMONT teen. Something in this work greatly displeased Voltaire, and when La Beaumelle returned to France he was arrested at his instigation, and confined for six months in the Bastile. Re- stored to liberty, he wrote a very witty pam- phlet in answer to an attack directed against him by Voltaire during his captivity, in the sup- plement to the Siecle de Louis XIV., and then devoted himself to the composition of his Me- moires pour senir A PhMoire de Madame de Maintenon, which was published in 1756, and received with marked favor. He was arrested a second time, and confined again for more than a year in the state prison, where he made a translation of Tacitus. Some time afterward his warfare with Voltaire was renewed, and La Beaumelle displayed such tact, energy, and wit, that he sometimes got the better of his powerful rival. At last, in 1770, he obtained permission to return to Paris, where he received an appointment as assistant in the royal library, and afterward a pension. At the time of his death he was engaged on an edition of Voltaire's works, with notes, of which only one volume, the ffenriade, was finished. Voltaire caused it to be suppressed, but there is an edition by Freron, with changes (1775). His son, VICTOR LAURENT SUZANNE MO!SE (born in 1772, died in Rio Janeiro in 1831), served as colonel of engineers in the army of Dom Pedro, and published an interesting pamphlet on the Bra- zilian empire, besides several tracts on the war with Spain. BEAUMONT, a town of France, in the depart- ment of Ardennes, on the left bank of the river Meuse, 10 m. S. E. of Sedan ; pop. 1,306. It is celebrated for the battle fought in its neigh- borhood Aug. 30, 1870, between the French forces under Marshal MacMahon and the Ger- man army under the crown prince of Saxony ; the object of the German commander being to prevent the junction of the marshal's troops with those of Marshal Bazaine, then shut up in Metz. The battle opened with the surprise and rout of the French fifth corps, in front of Beaumont. Two other corps were soon en- gaged. After a severe struggle the Prussians took the town, and drove their opponents across the Meuse, entirely defeating them. By this victory the great end was gained of ena- bling the Prussian crown prince to reenforce with his command the corps under the prince of Saxony ; a combination so strong as to compel the immediate surrender of the French at Sedan. BEAUMONT, Elie de. See ELIE DE BEAUMONT. BEAUMONT, Sir George Howland, an English patron of art, born at his family seat in Leices- tershire, Nov. 6, 1753, died Feb. 7, 1827. He was educated at Eton, and subsequently de- voted himself with enthusiasm to the study of painting and to the collection of works of art. He was among the first to discover and en- courage the genius of Wilkie, some of whose finest works were painted for him. He was instrumental in establishing the British national gallery, and, as an inducement to parliament to BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER purchase the celebrated Angerstein collection for that purpose, presented 16. of his best pic- tures to the collection. BEAUMONT, Sir John, an English poet, born in 1582, died in 1628. He was the elder brother of Francis Beaumont, the dramatist, and published first a poem on Bosworth Field, and then a small volume of poems, remarkable for their high moral tone. lie also wrote a poem called "The Crown of Thorns," in 8 books, which is lost. Winstanley, in his " Honor of Parnassus," describes Sir John Beaumont as one of "the great souls of numbers." BEAUMONT, William, a surgeon in the U. 8. army, born at Lebanon, Conn., in 1796, died in St. Louis, April 25, 1853. He is principally noted for his discoveries regarding the laws of digestion resulting from his experiments upon the body of Alexis St. Martin. In 1822 Beau- mont was stationed at Michilimackinac, Mich- igan. On June 6 St. Martin, a young man 18 years of age, in the service of the American fur company, was accidentally shot, receiving the whole charge of a musket in his left side, from a distance of about one yard, which carried with it portions of his clothing, fractured two ribs, lacerated the lungs, and entered the stom- ach. Dr. Beaumont restored him in a year to good health, with his former strength and spirits, though the aperture in his body was never closed. In 1825 Dr. Beaumont com- menced a series of experiments upon the stomach of St. Martin, studying its operations, secretions, the action of the gastric juices, &c. ; these experiments he renewed at various in- tervals until his death, his patient during so many years presenting the remarkable spec- tacle of a man enjoying good health, appetite, and spirits, with an aperture opening into his stomach through which the whole action of the organ might be observed. The result of his experiments was published by Dr. Beau- mont in 1833. He was thus the first who ac- tually obtained the gastric juice in the human subject, and demonstrated beyond a doubt its chemical properties and digestive powers. Previous to his time R6aumur in 1752, Stevens in 1777, and Spallanzani in 1787 had given evidence to show that digestion must be ac- complished in the stomach by means of a sol- vent fluid, and some experimenters had even detected certain of the ingredients of this fluid. But Dr. Beaumont first obtained the gastric juice in considerable quantity, and showed that it had the power, outside the body, at proper temperatures, of liquefying and dissolv- ing various articles of food. St. Martin is still living (1872) in Oakdale, Mass. BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER, two English dramatists and poets, whose names are in- separably connected by the fact that they produced their w T orks jointly, and, without indicating the parts written by each, publish- ed them under their united names. FRANCIS BEAUMONT, born at Gracedieu, Leicestershire, about 1585, died in 1615. He was the son of a
