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supplied by the phenomena observed in individuals bearing gastric 
fistula. Amongst these observations, there is one renowned above all, 
and cited everywhere, I mean the case of the Canadian, Alexis St. 
Martin, related by Dr. Beaumont. That celebrated patient received 
one day a shot wound in the pit of the stomach. Fortunately for the 
man and for science, the wound did not prove fatal, but the result was 
an opening which never closed and established a permanent communi- 
cation between the outside and the stomach. Dr. Beaumont, during 
several years, studied the functions of digestion on this robust Canadian. 
Pie would make him swallow all kinds of food, watching their exit on a 
level with the artificial opening and could then calculate the time taken 
by alimentary substances to undergo a complete digestion in the 
stomach. He made us know the results of his experiments in a rather 
curious table of which I will give you a brief abstract. He observed 
that the following foods were completely digested at the end of the 
periods mentioned : 
Rice i hour. Fried oysters 3 hrs. 15 m. 
Boiled milk 2 hours. Roast beef 3 hours. 
Roast turkey 2> hours. Beefsteak 3 " 
Boiled turkey 2 hrs. 44 m. Boiled beef. . . y/ z " 
Boiled goose 2]/ 2 hours. Roast mutton 3 hrs. 15 m. 
Suckling pig 2.)/, " Roast veal 4 hours. 
Fresh lamb 2^ " Boded fowl 4 " 
Fresh eggs, boiled hard 3^ " Roast duck 4 " 
Fresh eggs, boiled soft 3 " Roast pork 5 hrs. 15 m. 
Fresh eggs, raw 2 " Sausage ' 3 hrs. 20 m. 
Fresh eggs, fried y/ 2 " Bread 3 hrs. 30 m. 
Salt codfish 2 " Boiled potatoes 3 hrs. 30 m. 
Salmon trout \y z " Fried potatoes 2 hrs. 30 m. 
Oysters, raw 2 hrs. 55 m. Boiled cabbage 4 hours. 
Oyster soup y/ z hours. 
The experiments of Dr. Beaumont on his Canadian were made as 
well by Ch. Richet on a man named Marcellin upon whom Surgeon 
Verneuil performed a gastric fistula. I do not wish to enter into the 
details of this case which I mention only on account of a curious fact 
that happened with that man, Marcellin, a fact showing how hard it is, 
sometimes, to resist the impulse of a passion even in spite of the greatest 
obstacles to its gratification. 
