The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Beaumont, William

BEAUMONT, William, a surgeon in the U. S. 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 Beaumont was stationed at Michilimackinac, Michigan. 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 stomach. 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 commenced 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 intervals until his death, his patient during so many years presenting the remarkable spectacle 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. Beaumont in 1833. He was thus the first who actually obtained the gastric juice in the human subject, and demonstrated beyond a doubt its chemical properties and digestive powers. Previous to his time Réaumur in 1752, Stevens in 1777, and Spallanzani in 1787 had given evidence to show that digestion must be accomplished in the stomach by means of a solvent 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 dissolving various articles of food. St. Martin is still living (1872) in Oakdale, Mass.