GASTRIC JUICE. 223 



clear; and this operation may be repeated three or four 

 times a week without interfering with the quality of the juice 

 or injuring the health of the animal. 1 



Although instances of gastric fistula in the human subject 

 had been reported before the case of St. Martin and have been 

 observed since that time, the remarkably healthy condition 

 of the subject and the extended experiments of so competent 

 and conscientious an observer as Dr. Beaumont have ren- 

 dered this case memorable in the history of physiology. It is 

 undoubtedly the fact that this is the only instance on record in 

 which pure, normal gastric juice has been obtained from the 

 human subject ; and it served a most important purpose as 

 the standard for comparison of subsequent experiments on the 

 inferior animals. The details of this case, condensed from 

 the monograph of Beaumont, are briefly the following : 



Alexis St. Martin, a Canadian voyageur in the service of 

 the American Fur Company, eighteen years of age, of good 

 constitution and perfectly healthy, was wounded in the left 

 side by the accidental discharge of a gun loaded with duck- 

 shot. The wound was received on the 6th of June, 1822 ; 

 and the muzzle of the gun was not more than a yard distant 

 from the body. The contents of the gun entered posteriorly, 

 carrying away integument and muscles from a space the size 

 of the hand, with the anterior half of the sixth rib, fractur- 

 ing the fifth rib, lacerating the lower portion of the left lobe 

 of the lungs and the diaphragm, and perforating the stom- 

 ach. The patient was seen by Dr. Beaumont twenty-five or 



1 Bernard recommends to make the fistula on the left side at the outer bor- 

 der of the rectus muscle. He introduces the canula forcibly through an opening 

 into the stomach made a? small as possible, and relics upon the contraction of the 

 walls of the stomach around the tube to prevent the passage of matters into the 

 peritoneal cavity. (Lemons de Physiologic Experirnentale, Paris, 1856, p. 385.) 

 Unless this part of the operation be performed with grsat care and exactness, it 

 is safer to employ the ligature. In collecting the juice, he simply fixes a bag of 

 rubber to the, canula after feeding the animal ; but the fluid is obtained more 

 satisfactorily by making the animal stand over a strong vessel, as a mortar. On 

 several occasions we have had dogs so trained as to stand on the table for the 

 proper time without requiring any attention. 



